The Sustaining inclusive Collective Action that Links across Economic and Ecological Scales in upper watersheds (Scales) project fits mainly in People and Water in Catchments Theme (Theme

2) of the CPWF. Its goal is to contribute to poverty alleviation in the upper watersheds of the

tropics through improved collective action for watershed resource management within and across

social-spatial scales. Scales worked though an integrated program of collaborative action

research, development, and capacity building in key catchments of the Nile and Andes basins, as

The quantity and position of trees in a landscape can have significant impacts on farm soil and water resources. Here we present a synthesis of local knowledge studies conducted in three micro-catchments of the Blue Nile Basin (Diga, Fogera and Jeldu Woredas) exploring natural and anthropogenic drivers of tree cover change. In total more than 90 purposively selected farmers were interviewed, whilst focus group discussions and feedback sessions were held with larger groups.

In early May 2011, people working on the Nile Basin Development Challenge (http://nilebdc.org) met in Addis Ababa in a 'science and reflection workshop'. Session 2 of the workshop examined institutional and other processes that are key to success of the overall program. In this video, Josie Tucker (ODI) reports from small group discussions on ways to support more flexible and participatory implementation of rainwater management and innovation at the local and regional levels.

Using a multi-criteria optimization technique for system analysis, this paper quantitatively characterizes baseline production activities, resource management and environmental relationships of the mixed crop–livestock farming system at the Jaba micro-watershed, upper Blue Nile Basin, to get insights that inform sustainable intensification of small-scale agriculture.

Mali is one of the least developed countries with an economy that relies heavily on rainfed cereal production. Rural communities are faced with extreme poverty as a result of unpredictable rainfall pattern and lack of appropriate agricultural intervention practices. Most agronomic practices in support of development in the past had emphasized farm-level productivity issues with limited scope for managing interactions among components and actors beyond the level of the farm. Several studies showed different techniques practiced at farm level to improve the agricultural productivity.