The urgency

Break the vicious circle

Climate change, land degradation and overexploitation are causing temperatures to rise, land to dry up and fertile soils to erode. This causes serious problems such as extreme droughts and famine.

Loss of rain and soil

In the areas we work, the land is degraded and vegetation cover is poor. Rainfall is often concentrated in a few rainfall events with heavy downpour. This combination causes most of the water to flow away as surface runoff, causing erosion, soil fertility loss and flooding downstream.

Flooding and droughts

Most of the water is flowing away unutilized towards the ocean. The land remains bare and droughts can occur just weeks after the rains.

Climate change

Once vegetation is lost, it no longer helps to create clouds nor can it cool the atmosphere. This results in even less rain and more eroded land. We want to break this vicious circle.

Interventions

The most suitable techniques

There are many different rain water harvesting, soil conservation and re-greening techniques. We select a combination of the most suitable interventions for our project areas.

Selecting interventions

The interventions are selected in close collaboration with our local partners, based on physical conditions (land use, climate, soil conditions, slope) and social conditions (socio-economic structures and land use).

Sustainable solutions

We also ensure there is a clear socio-economic benefit for the community attached to each intervention. This is a way to ensure an intervention is sustainable. The interventions are chosen and implemented in partnership with local communities and local NGO’s, to benefit from local networks and knowledge and in doing so creating sustainable solutions.

Climate impact

Re-greening to cool down the planet

Besides the local benefits for people (e.g. more agricultural revenues and more grass for livestock) and environment (biodiversity), our projects have an impact on the climate too. The returned vegetation ensures cooling, not only because of the shade, but also because plants evaporate water (evapotranspiration) which provides cooling (similar to how sweating cools people).

This can be seen clearly on this picture of the temperature of bare soil and vegetation. The bare soil is over 40 ℃ (104 ℉), the vegetation is much cooler (29.9 ℃/ 86 ℉).

Cloud formation

The vegetation also has an effect on air circulation and cloud formation. Due to the evapotranspiration, more moisture is added to the air which may result in clouds. The following picture shows the effect of temperature and air circulation on clouds: above the land the air rises, cools down and forms clouds, above the water the air drops again and the clouds disappear.

Vegetation for rain

Thus, more vegetation ensures more moisture in the air and causes cooling. This can lead to more cloud formation, which can cause more precipitation which in turn is good for the vegetation. The effects will be the strongest on the ‘fringes’ of the rainy season. In the middle of the dry season the air contains insufficient moisture to trigger precipitation, but at the beginning and end of the rainy season, a change in the land area can make the difference: it could cause rains when it would otherwise remain dry.

Learn more on our impact

Download our whitepaper

Vegetation positively affects the climate in even more ways. One is that vegetation allows for ‘volatile organic compounds’ in the air, very small particles that can bind to moisture in the air and causes raindrops to form.

The article ‘Trees, forests and water: Cool insights for a hot world’ (Global Environmental Change, 2017) gives a good overview. More information can also be found in the Justdiggit whitepaper.

Impact monitoring

We focus on the following metrics to determine the impact of our work:

Water: the volume of water retained by the program (liters).

Vegetation: the surface area of sustainably ‘re-greened’ and restored land (ha).

People: the number of people benefiting directly from the implementation of our program.

Climate: the above leads to a positive impact on the local and regional climate (temperature and rainfall).

Climate

Local and regional climate impact

A positive impact on the local and regional climate (both temperature and rainfall).

Restoration of degraded lands and the water cycle leads to a decrease of climate extremes regarding both temperature and rainfall. The increase of evapotranspiration, changes in air circulation and cooling by vegetation leads to lower temperatures, more rainfall, less intense rains and sequestration of carbon.

Climate indicators

These additional indicators can be studied to determine our impact on climate:

• A decrease in average and extreme temperatures (°C)
• An increase in rainfall and decrease in extremes (mm) and prolongation of the rainy seasons (days)
• Cloud cover (%)
• Humidity (%)
• Soil temperature (°C)

People

Beneficiaries and participants

The number of people benefiting directly from the implementation of our projects.

For this, we consider the people directly benefiting from the project either through employment, agricultural improvement or increase in land value.

People indicators

These additional indicators can be studied to determine our impact on the people:

• Beneficiaries (families, male/female, children)
• Income (level and diversification)
• Employment (direct and indirect)
• Education and training (children and adults)
• Nutrition
• Migration and stability
• Health
• Gender equality and empowerment
• Continuation of the project approach
• Implementation by other communities
• Payment for ecosystem services

Vegetation & soil

Re-greened and restored land

The surface area of sustainably ‘re-greened’ and restored land (ha).

Degraded lands are restored and vegetation (both natural and agricultural) and soil conditions are improved by our projects. The land in our project areas is made more resilient to climate-related hazards (droughts, extreme rainfall).

Vegetation impact

A positive impact on degraded lands means:

• In natural ecosystems; An increase of the vegetation cover and biodiversity by species endemic to the region or fitting natural and ecological ambitions (e.g. no invasive species).
• For agricultural lands; An increase in crop yield in a sustainable way (no overexploitation of natural resources, overuse of pesticides, etc.).
• For soils; less erosion, increase of soil organic matter and infiltration capacity.

Vegetation indicators

These additional indicators can be studied to determine our impact on vegetation and soils:

• Vegetation cover (%)
• Biodiversity (species richness)
• Crop type and yield (ton/ha)
• Soil organic matter (%)
• Infiltration capacity (mm/h)
• Erosion (kg/year)

Water

Impact on the water cycle

The volume of water retained by the project (liters).

Due to our interventions the water cycle is restored, which leads to a healthy balance in infiltration, runoff, groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration. Water availability is sustainably increased and can be used by vegetation, as drinking water and for agriculture.

Water indicators

These additional indicators can be studied to determine our impact on the water cycle:

• Runoff (%)
• Infiltration (mm)
• Evapotranspiration (mm)
• Recharge to deep groundwater (mm)
• Downstream flood risks (likelihood)