The agricultural landscape in the highlands of eastern Africa is characterised by increasing fragmentation and serious degradation mainly due to high population pressure and limited use of available technological innovations. Participatory natural resource management (NRM) action research by the African Highlands Initiative (AHI) for the past 12 years has shown that an important reason for limited use of technological innovations in the region is lack of innovative methodologies and approaches to motivate communities' interest in investing in land management. Past efforts have overlooked the crucial role of local communities in the design, planning and implementation of land management projects effectively undermining their experience, local knowledge and priorities. The experience of AHI in integrated natural resource management (INRM) has shown that working with communities based on a strategic entry point that address their priority constraints has a great potential for multiple beneficial effects.
In this article, case studies from Ethiopia and Tanzania are used to demonstrate the importance of using water source rehabilitation as a strategic entry point to stimulate communities’ interest in soil conservation. Apart from ensuring clean and reliable supplies of water the strategy enhanced the communities' social capital by promoting collective action, an important pre-condition for tackling laborious tasks such as soil conservation which individual farmers cannot handle on their own.
