Participatory Approaches to Soil and Water Conservation for Sustainable Smallholder Development

This statement, by the participants of a workshop held in 1991 in Kenya and Tanzania by the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation, says that centrally conceived programmes and technologies for soil and water conservation which are then transferred to the field have been the norm till recently and have led to disappointing results. New, participatory approaches to soil and water management, including PRA, reflect a change in mentality from outside professionals controlling work focused only on SWC to local land users defining problems and directions for finding solutions which lead to improved land husbandry. Experiences with such participatory approaches are very encouraging and further development of the methodologies and their implementation should be encouraged.