Worldwide, sustainable land management is increasingly important to maintaining the fragile balance
between human demands and ecosystem services of available natural resources, to enhance food security,
to reduce the risk of conflicts and to foster adaptation to climate change. In this context DecLaRe
aims to identify recommendation domains for scalable innovations towards sustainable crop production
and animal husbandry in West Africa. Focussing on northern Benin, northern Ghana, and southern
Burkina Faso, DecLaRe builds on available local and scientific knowledge and databases. It enhances
their use by fundamental research at the field level and modelling at the national to regional level, aiming
to construct a decision support system (DSS) that can be used for land use and land management as
well as for policy development. The collaborative setup of this open-source DSS with local and regional
stakeholders in a series of workshops will take into account land tenure, crop suitability, soil characteristics,
livestock management, and regional food availability. Digital information technology will be used to
project the effects of innovations on food availability, farmer income, and system resilience to climate
change. Next to guiding local, regional, and international stakeholders towards sustainable land management
options, a close connection between science, policy, and the private sector will facilitate effective
use of the DSS by decision makers in the partner countries and beyond. The project will also engage with
existing MSc and PhD programmes on sustainable land management in the African partner countries
and will train 13 additional PhD students in this context.eländeforschung zu Skalierungsfragen