13. Water management strategies for social-ecological resilience in smallholder agricultural landscapes Chair: Line Gordon, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden Anette Huber-Lee, CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, CPWF-IFPRI, USA Panel members: Johan Rockström, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden Rimjhim Aggarval, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, USA Malcolm Beveridge, WorldFish Center, Aquaculture and Genetic Improvement, Cairo, Egypt Margaret Nelson, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, USA Description: Water management strategies for social-ecological resilience in smallholder agricultural landscapes Improving water management to achieve food security while ensuring environmental sustainability is one of the major challenges for humanity in the nearby future. Meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the 800 million of currently malnourished while securing food for 60-80 million new inhabitants in poor regions over the coming 30 years, will require substantial change of our agricultural production systems. The agricultural sector is also going through rapid transformations due to recent global changes in e.g. diets, biofuel production policies, climatic changes and altered trade regimes, all of which have potentially high impacts on water resources, land use and hydrology at local to global scales. Agriculture is an engine of economic growth worldwide and production has greatly increased and become more reliable over the past 50 years in virtually every country. However, most of the past success in agricultural development has occurred either in water rich regions, through large-scale irrigation developments to secure water supply, or through high input agriculture. This development has often led to large impacts on ecosystems, in some cases causing catastrophic ecosystem regime shifts. These effects have been substantially reviewed elsewhere. However, there exists a fundamental gap in our understanding when it comes to how this dichotomy between on the one hand increased agricultural production leading to food security and economic growth and on the other hand the resulting loss of ecosystem services of importance for human well-being affect social-ecological resilience. We need a much better understanding of the processes needed to ensure resilient agricultural landscapes in the face of these new large-scale changes. Here we present four ongoing case-studies from different parts of the world which focus on how water management in smallholder food production systems have affected social-ecological resilience. The aim of the session is to advance a framework for how to assess resilience as related to water and agriculture. We include both contemporary and historical cases in our analysis. Each presenter will have 10-12 min for the presentation. There will be at least 30 minutes of facilitated panel discussion after the presentations. 1. Short introduction (3-5min) – emerging challenges for analyzing the role of water in resilience of smallholder agriculture in semi-arid regions Line Gordon, Stockholm Resilience Centre and Annette Huber-Lee, CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (Chairs and facilitators of the session) 2. Resilience related to smallholder dryland agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa Johan Rockström, Line Gordon, Stockholm Resilience Centre and Stockholm Environment Institute Abstract (tentative): 3. The roles of aquaculture and fisheries in social-ecological resilience of semi-arid agricultural landscapes: implications in water management strategies Malcolm Beveridge1, Sophie Nguyen Khoa1, 2, Eddie Allison1 and Neil Andrew1 1WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia, 2WorldFish Center and IWMI, Colombo Aquaculture and fisheries play crucial and complementary roles in the resilience of semi-arid agricultural landscapes, roles that are usually neglected in water management strategies. While inland fisheries depend on the conservation of aquatic ecosystems they provide a source of food and livelihoods functions that cannot be readily replaced by agriculture, in particular their role of ‘safety net’ for the poor. While less dependent on ecosystem function, aquaculture is an ecologically efficient means of producing food and can be readily integrated with agriculture, increasing water productivity, providing a high value production alternative for small-scale farmers and stimulating economic growth. It can also exploit waters of marginal economic value (e.g. salinised ground waters) and relieve pressures on over-exploited wild aquatic species. In the face of increasing pressure on water resources, fisheries and to some extent aquaculture are threatened by expansion and intensification of agriculture in semi-arid areas. This is likely to affect the resilience of aquatic ecosystems and the roles of fisheries and aquaculture in agricultural landscapes. However, aquatic ecosystem conservation goals, such as maintenance of environmental flows and protected areas, must consider potential impacts on the poor, especially where they affect access to common pool resources and the distribution of benefits across biophysical and institutional scales. If ignored, these initially valuable objectives may decrease the social-ecological resilience of agricultural landscapes, thereby reducing rather than increasing net positive benefits to society and nature. Holistic analysis across sectors and scales is needed to move beyond traditional forms of water management strategies in agriculture. 4. Resilience related to small-scale irrigated farming systems in India Rimjhim Aggarwal, Arizona State University Abstract 5. Archaeology’s long-term perspective on irrigation infrastructure and vulnerability Margaret C. Nelson, Keith Kintigh, David R. Abbott, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University What relationships can be understood between the physical and social infrastructure of irrigation and the vulnerabilities in socioecological systems? This question has primarily been examined through study of contemporary or recent historic cases. Archaeology extends scientific observation beyond all social memory and thus can illuminate interactions lasting centuries or millennia. The ancient past might appear irrelevant in light of the globalization and rapid technological change that characterize today’s world. However, the archaeological record is replete with instances of heightened inter- and intra-societal interaction, infrastructural investments at different scales, and large-scale anthropogenic, environmental change. Our premise is that such a sweeping view of the human past is not a luxury; investigation of such long-term interaction contributes uniquely to the general understanding of socioecological systems that is needed to formulate effective social and resource-management policy. In addition to allowing us to view repeated instances of transformation, the long-term provides examples of transformations at scales and magnitudes whose study can explain both cross-scale interactions and linkages among factors that influence the nature of the impacts on people and the environment. In this paper, we examine three long-term, prehispanic sequences in the US Southwest: the Zuni area in northern New Mexico (AD 800-1539), the Mimbres area in southwestern New Mexico (AD 900-1450), and the Hohokam area in southern Arizona (AD 700-1450). In all areas, people relied on agricultural systems in arid landscapes that depended on physical and social infrastructure to direct adequate water to agricultural soils. But across the cases, investments in infrastructure varied, as did local environmental conditions. Zuni farming relied primarily on small run-off agricultural systems; Mimbres fields were primarily watered by canals feeding floodplain fields; and the Hohokam area had the largest canal system in prehispanic North America. The cases also vary in their historical trajectories; in Zuni, population and resource use remained relatively stable over centuries, extending into the historic period, while in Mimbres and Hohokam areas, major transformations affected population and environment. These cases, thus, allow us to consider factors that promote vulnerability and influence resilience. Facilitated discussion among panel members, led by Line Gordon, Stockholm Resilience Centre and Annette-Huber-Lee, CPWF