Farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR) is promoted as a cost-effective technique to restore degraded arable drylands. Evidence comes mainly from the West-African Sahel, where it is a traditional practice, and it is now being promoted across the African continent. In this study, we evaluated the role of the farmer affecting natural regeneration under farmer managed natural regeneration in the highly degraded Dodoma region in Tanzania. We systematically assessed the linkages between species selection, perceived benefits and management practices as reported by 57 farmers in 13 villages involved in FMNR. On average, farmers list 2.8 species to be promoted on their farms as part of the practice of FMNR. In total, a list of 69 species was promoted by the practice, of which most (51) were only mentioned by one or two farmers, indicating that FMNR may contribute substantially to on-farm regional diversity. Most species selected were associated with a range of benefits and the diversity of benefits, not any single benefit, explained species selection under FMNR. Management of FMNR species goes beyond pruning, a practice promoted within FMNR, and is characterized by 10 different practices that are differentially applied to the selected species and individuals. We conclude that species selection and management under FMNR is driven by farmers autonomous decisions, making FMNR both diverse and complex and complicates predicting the extent to which FMNR may successfully contribute to achieving specific restoration outcomes. Monitoring farms over extended periods may increase outcome prediction capacity.

Habitat degradation caused by woody plant encroachment has been a common phenomenon in savanna ecosystems. An increasing woody plant cover in open grassland reduces grazing grounds and, consecutively, impacts mammalian herbivores, but structural changes and their associated impact have rarely been assessed and quantified. We analyzed the extent of woody plant encroachment via remote sensing and used transects and plots to assess encroaching woody plant species and their associated impacts on herbaceous plant and herbivore species in Maswa Game Reserve, Tanzania. We found that woody plant cover had increased by 0.5% to 2.6% per annum over the last thirty years, while in other parts of the park it has decreased by 0.5% to 1.5% per annum. Acacia drepanolobium was the dominant encroaching woody species, and the number of stems in heavily encroached sites was seven times and three times higher than in open grassland and at medium encroached sites, respectively. In encroached plots, grazer and mixed feeder species occurrence were reduced while the presence of browser species was slightly elevated. Furthermore, our finding shows that bare ground cover is positively correlated with an increase of woody plant cover. Additionally, the number of herbaceous species slightly increased with the increase of woody plant encroachment, while the herbaceous cover was negatively correlated with the increase of woody plant cover. We suggest that fire regimes should be taken up to suppress the ongoing encroachment processes while strongly encroached sites might need mechanical intervention to control dense vegetation. This emphasis is on fire, particularly prescribed fire as a management tool of vegetation in Savanna ecosystem. We conclude that, woody plant encroachment is driven by different factors such as fire, mega-herbivores and topology that may interactively trigger woody plant encroachment in Savanna ecosystem.

Land degradation and climate change are intertwined global challenges, their implications on human health is driven by unsustainable use of natural resources which results to loss of vital ecosystem services. Although exploitation of natural resources has benefited human-wellbeing, it has also resulted to catastrophic degradation of landscapes, acutely affecting populations living in the most fragile ecosystems. Landscape restoration is widely advocated to reverse degradation, however, implementation has outpaced research on impact, particularly with regards to human-health outcomes. This study documents perspectives of rural communities living in dryland and demonstrates a novel application of ecosystem services framework to conceptualise the pathways to health. The analysis of group discussions show how Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) can reverse decades of land degradation with cascading benefits on climate change resilience and multiple health outcomes linked to heat adaptation, sustained food and nutritional security, improved air and water quality, income diversification and gender equality.

Land degradation and climate change are intertwined global challenges, their implications on human health is driven by unsustainable use of natural resources which results to loss of vital ecosystem services. Although exploitation of natural resources has benefited human-wellbeing, it has also resulted to catastrophic degradation of landscapes, acutely affecting populations living in the most fragile ecosystems. Landscape restoration is widely advocated to reverse degradation, however, implementation has outpaced research on impact, particularly with regards to human-health outcomes. This study documents perspectives of rural communities living in dryland and demonstrates a novel application of ecosystem services framework to conceptualise the pathways to health. The analysis of group discussions show how Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) can reverse decades of land degradation with cascading benefits on climate change resilience and multiple health outcomes linked to heat adaptation, sustained food and nutritional security, improved air and water quality, income diversification and gender equality.

Land degradation and climate change are intertwined global challenges, their implications on human health is driven by unsustainable use of natural resources which results to loss of vital ecosystem services. Although exploitation of natural resources has benefited human-wellbeing, this has also resulted to catastrophic degradation of landscapes, acutely affecting populations living in the most fragile ecosystems. Landscape restoration is widely advocated to reverse degradation, however, implementation has outpaced research on impact, particularly with regards to human-health outcomes. This study documents perspectives of rural communities living in East African drylands and applies ecosystem services framework to demonstrates the impact of natural regeneration. The group discussions show how Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) can reverse decades of land degradation with cascading benefits in climate change adaptation, physical and mental health outcomes linked to sustained food and nutritional security, improved air and water quality, income diversification and gender equality.