1. Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS)
A research project of the Institute for Advanced
Sustainability Studies (IASS) Potsdam, Germany,
implemented in five countries: Benin, Burkina Faso,
Ethiopia, Kenya and India.
Soil Protection and
Rehabilitation
for Food Security
The research project cooperates with the “soil protec-
tion and rehabilitation for food security” program of
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenar-
beit (GIZ) GmbH and receives financial support from
the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperati-
on and Development (BMZ).
Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS)
Contacts
Project coordinator
Dr. Anne Flohr
anne.flohr@iass-potsdam.de
Co-Coordinator
Carolin Sperk
carolin.sperk@iass-potsdam.de
Case studies of Benin and Burkina Faso
Larissa Stiem
larissa.stiem@iass-potsdam.de
Case study of Ethiopia
Girum Getachew Alemu
GirumGetachew.Alemu@iass-potsdam.de
Case study of Kenya
Serah Kiragu
serah.kiragu@iass-potsdam.de
Case study of India
Keerthi Kiran Bandru
keerthikiran.bandru@iass-potsdam.de
Project administration
Katrin Wlucka
katrin.wlucka@iass-potsdam.de
IASS Potsdam
Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e. V.
Berliner Straße 130
14467 Potsdam
Germany
Telephone: +49 331-28822-427
www.iass-potsdam.de/en

2. Soil Protection and Rehabilitation for Food Security
Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies Potsdam (IASS) e. V.
Founded in 2009, the IASS is an international, interdisciplinary hybrid between a research
institute and a think tank, located in Potsdam, Germany. The publicly funded institute
promotes research and dialogue between science, politics and society on developing path-
ways to global sustainability. The IASS focuses on topics such as sustainability governance
and economics, new technologies for energy production and resource utilisation, and
Earth system challenges like climate change, air pollution, and soil management.
The accompanying research ‘Soil Protection and
Rehabilitation for Food Security‘
Soil degradation and desertification constitute significant challenges for smallholder
farmers. Globally, 42 % of the poor are affected by soil degradation. Food insecurity
as a result of declining yields is a direct consequence.
Sustainable land management techniques – such as green manure or agroforestry – have
long been known. Nevertheless, in many agricultural contexts, unsustainable land use
practices still prevail. A large number of studies have investigated and identified the factors
that are constraining sustainable land management. Among these are limited access to
markets or financing, insecure land tenure, and insufficient rural infrastructure and services.
The accompanying research of IASS intends to go one step beyond these findings.
Its focus will be on identifying entry points and processes through which the known
challenges to sustainable land management may be overcome in the respective local
contexts. In this regard, processes of social learning, dialogue, and collective action will
play a central role. In accordance with the transdisciplinary approach pursued by IASS, the
accompanying research is implemented in close cooperation with knowledge holders and
practitioners from a variety of sectors, for example, with the farmers affected by land
degradation or with the extension service agents supporting them.
The IASS project will be implemented between 2015 and 2017 in five countries:
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, and India.
©IASS/KeerthiKiranBandru
©IASS/LarissaStiem
TheGlobalSoilForumisdedicatedtoachieving
responsiblelandgovernanceandsustainable
soilmanagementworldwide.Throughour
activities,wecreateacommonforumfordiscus-
sionanddebateamongstdiversestakeholders,
thusfacilitatingtheexchangeandgeneration
ofcontextualizedknowledgewithpractical
relevance.Togetherwithleadingactorsinthe
field,weinitiateprocesseswhichfoster
applicationofthisco-createdknowledgeon
theground.Alignedwiththemissionofthe
IASS,westriveforsocietaltransformation
throughatransdisciplinaryresearchapproach.
Global Soil Forum at IASS
©IASS/LarissaStiem

3. Biophysical context
Equitable access to use of (land) resources, short- and long-term profit-
ability as well as durable soil health should be pursued as simultaneous
objectives of sustainable land management. Only such a comprehensive
approach can ensure that technological soil protection measures serve
food security in the long term. Achieving these objectives depends on
factors such as availability of technologies or access to effective extension
services. The impacting factors will have to be identified separately for
each concrete locality as they depend on the respective biophysical, socio-
economic, cultural and political context. The accompanying research in its
country case studies, thus, focuses on identifying the influential factors
and on developing pathways and processes for overcoming hindrances to
sustainable land management.
Durablesoilhea
lth
Short- and
long-termprofitability
Equitable access to and
benefits from (land) resources
Political/governance context
Culturalcontext
Socio-economiccontext
Technologies
Financingmechanisms
Rural services and infrastructure
Sustainable soil
protection and
rehabilitation for
long-term
food security
tbd
tbd
tbd
tbd = to be developed in multi-stakeholder processes
Research Focus