Binna Kipandula will defend her master's thesis in Restoration Ecology, "Challenges and opportunities of Catchment Management Approach in Mitigating Land Degradation: The case of Mkuwazi catchment, Malawi" at the Faculty of Environmental & Forest Sciences at the Agricultural University of Iceland.
Binna’s supervisors are Dr. Jóhanna Gísladóttir and Dr. Utra Mankasingh, Agricultural University of Iceland.
The master's defence will take place on Tuesday, June 3rd 2025, at 10:30 in Sauðafell, Keldnaholt Campus Reykjavík. The defence is open to everyone and is presented in English. Link to the Teams meeting.
Abstract
Land degradation is a major environmental challenge affecting many parts of the world, including Malawi, with significant impacts on agricultural productivity and livelihoods. The government of Malawi, with support from the World Bank, is implementing integrated catchment management (ICM) as a sustainable approach to manage water and land resources and to halt land degradation. Integrated Catchment Management promotes the integration of environmental, social, and economic factors within a catchment to ensure sustainable land management. The aim of this research was to identify challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation of ICM in the Mkuwazi Catchment in Malawi. To shed light on this focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted. The key challenges identified include governance and policy gaps, financial and payment difficulties, structural and technical limitations, logistical and administrative constraints, occupational and safety risks, and socioeconomic barriers hindering participation. Despite these challenges, ICM presents opportunities, such as economic benefits for local communities and improved land productivity. Participants considered swale construction and gully reclamation to be the most effective interventions involved in the catchment management. However, governance structures surrounding the ICM in the Mkuwazi catchment need to be strengthened, finance mechanisms improved, technical capacity enhanced, and community involvement promoted to address the challenges involved. Such measures will help reverse land degradation and support sustainable livelihoods in Malawi.
