United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Switzerland

Abstract With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community committed to address a great number of challenges. Among those emphasised by the SDGs, some are highly relevant for indigenous groups. Education, poverty, access to justice and climate change are only a few of the issues affecting indigenous people's lives. Yet, indigenous groups are not passive actors. Despite being at the mercy of climate hazards and misleading political decisions, the knowledge system they have developed throughout the centuries has helped them to successfully respond to ecological and development challenges. By exploring indigenous cultures and their knowledge systems in greater depth, this article aims to understand how the sustainable development agenda can benefit from these different forms of traditional knowledge. More particularly, it will attempt to explain the main notions in which traditional knowledge is rooted and analyse means of knowledge maintenance and transmission. It will then explore the relationship between indigenous knowledge, sustainable practices and land and resource management, as well as climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies. These ideas will be supported by a discussion on the need to guarantee indigenous people full access to land and justice in order for them to fully realise their rights. The conclusion reflects on the importance of fostering an integrated system of knowledge in which indigenous groups are involved in knowledge sharing practices and decision making processes.

No abstract. Introduction Madhu Singh, Senior Programme Specialist, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany To follow up on the Belem Framework for Action, 1 the resolution adopted at UNESCO’s Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) in 2009, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has developed the UNESCO Guidelines for the Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of the Outcomes of Non-formal and Informal Learning. The acronym RVA is roughly equivalent to PLA (prior learning assessment) in the USA. RVA is of great relevance as a response to the lack of lifelong learning opportunities and qualifications in many countries, and as a means of increasing social inclusion and participation in education. UNESCO’s broad agenda for RVA includes advocacy, capacity building, comparative research and promotion of dialogue at local, national, sector and institutional levels. Given the global context in which UNESCO operates, a common understanding and language are needed in order to promote the exchange of national experiences on RVA. Moreover, UNESCO believes that the following core values need to be addressed: Equity and inclusiveness in access to learning opportunities; Equal valuing of learning outcomes from formal, non-formal and informal learning; Quality assurance in the entire RVA process; Centrality of individuals; and Shared responsibility from design to implementation and evaluation. The Six Areas of Action outlined in UNESCO’s RVA Guidelines provide a template to identify the critical factors in implementation, as well as obstacles and difficulties that need to be removed to ensure the smooth functioning of RVA. They need to be viewed from both perspectives of macro and micro levels of system change. The macro policy perspective focuses on legal frameworks, a national lifelong learning strategy and qualifications framework, as well as regulatory frameworks for quality, for disadvantaged groups, for the training of RVA practitioners, and for dealing with provincial/territorial issues and funding mechanisms. Critical factors at the micro level include creating awareness and acceptance in formal education and training, informing individuals and learners about opportunities, the costs of processing RVA, the use of RVA to build bridges between the different education sectors, and increasing interaction between educational institutions, enterprises and the voluntary sector. By developing and implementing both macro and micro strategies, countries can contribute to implementing two important development goals: social equity and sustainable development. UNESCO is aware of the many challenges involved in the implementation of RVA. However, it is well positioned to meet these challenges. It has committed itself to playing an active role in developing an RVA Observatory to collect and disseminate best practice, facilitate peer learning activities and comparative studies on different RVA systems, and to respond to the requests of member states to implement the RVA system. In all of these areas, UNESCO activities will reflect innovation and opportunity from both developed and developing countries. Note 1 UNESCO holds a conference on adult learning, CONFINTEA ( Conference Internationale d’Education des Adultes ), every 12 years. The latest one took place in Belem in Brazil in 2009. The Belem Framework for Action called on UNESCO to develop guidelines for the recognition, validation and accreditation of non-formal and informal learning (See UNESCO. 2009. Belem Framework for Action . Hamburg, UIL).

Abstract Extreme droughts are affecting millions of livestock farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, causing water shortages, famines, migration and fatalities. The construction of new small water infrastructures (SWIs), such as deep wells and boreholes, is increasingly supported by climate resilience programmes of non-governmental organizations and national governments to improve water availability for agro-pastoralists, especially as an emergency response to extreme droughts. Although the short-term benefits of SWI are clear, their potential cumulative impact and their long-term effects on the resilience of dryland communities remain unclear. Here, building on in-depth anthropological literature from five key African drylands, we model post-drought pastoralists’ dynamics related to SWI. We show that while developing new SWI releases water shortages in the short term, it can erode traditional adaptation practices without adequate governance. We further illustrate how our model captures early quantitative signals of resilience loss in dryland Angola. This indicates that poorly governed water development in African drylands can be a limiting factor for the long-term resilience of pastoral communities facing a range of social, demographic, economic and climate challenges.

The new scientific decade (2023-2032) of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) aims at searching for sustainable solutions to undesired water conditions – whether it be too little, too much or too polluted. Many of the current issues originate from global change, while solutions to problems must embrace local understanding and context. The decade will explore the current water crises by searching for actionable knowledge within three themes: global and local interactions, sustainable solutions and innovative cross-cutting methods. We capitalise on previous IAHS Scientific Decades shaping a trilogy; from Hydrological Predictions (PUB) to Change and Interdisciplinarity (Panta Rhei) to Solutions (HELPING). The vision is to solve fundamental water-related environmental and societal problems by engaging with other disciplines and local stakeholders. The decade endorses mutual learning and co-creation to progress towards UN sustainable development goals. Hence, HELPING is a vehicle for putting science in action, driven by scientists working on local hydrology in coordination with local, regional, and global processes.

Food systems must become more sustainable and equitable, a transformation which requires the transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge. We present a framework of food sustainability that was co-created by academic and non-academic actors and comprises five dimensions: food security, right to food, environmental performance, poverty and inequality, and social-ecological resilience. For each dimension, an interdisciplinary research team-together with actors from different food systems-defined key indicators and empirically applied them to six case studies in Kenya and Bolivia. Food sustainability scores were analysed for the food systems as a whole, for the five dimensions, and for food system activities. We then identified the indicators with the greatest influence on sustainability scores. While all food systems displayed strengths and weaknesses, local and agroecological food systems scored comparatively highly across all dimensions. Agro-industrial food systems scored lowest in environmental performance and food security, while their resilience scores were medium to high. The lowest-scoring dimensions were right to food, poverty and inequality, with particularly low scores obtained for the indicators women's access to land and credit, agrobiodiversity, local food traditions, social protection, and remedies for violations of the right to food. This qualifies them as key levers for policy interventions towards food sustainability.

An updated stratigraphic subdivision of the Ediacaran and Terreneuvian in the Alcudia valley and the Toledo Mountains, Central Iberian Zone, is documented here. The Lower Alcudian-Domo Extremeño Supergroup is subdivided, from bottom to top, into the conformable Guadiana (La Coronada and Sta. Mª de Zújar formations) and Campanario (Botija, Monroy and Orellana formations) groups. The supergroup contains biostratigraphically non-significant bacterial acritarchs and dubious fossils, but its Ediacaran age is constrained by detrital zircon analyses. This siliciclastic sedimentary package is unconformably overlain by either the siliciclastic-carbonate Ibor Group (Castañar, Villarta and Arrocampo formations) or the siliciclastic Cíjara Formation. The fossil content of the former group includes Sabelliditids, Vendotaenids, macrophytes, bioaccumulations and reefs rich in Cloudina, Sinotubulites, Protolagena and stromatolites and thrombolites, and a wide diversity of ichnofossils; whereas the Cíjara Formation has yielded bacteria attributed to Bavlinella and Palaeogomphosphaeria, and simple trace fossils (Gordia, Helminthoidichnites and treptichnids). The Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary, based on ichnofossils, lies at the base of the Arrocampo Formation and the uppermost part of the Cíjara Formation. In the Alcudia valley, the Ibor Group is subdivided into another three-fold, lithologically equivalent subdivision, known as the Tamujar, Hinojosas (rich in ichnofossils, such as treptichnids, Monomorphichnus, Psammichnites and Taphrelminthopsis) and Cabezarrubias (including Bergaueria and Planolites) formations. Another unconformity, intra-Fortunian in age, marks the tops of the Ibor Group and the Cíjara Formation, wich are subsequently overlain by the San Lorenzo Formation and some megabreccia beds, respectively. Overlying the slope-related Fuentes, Membrillar and Navalpino megrabreccia beds, the Terreneuvian-Cambrian Series 2, heterolithic Pusa Formation is subdivided into thre members, the middle one characterized by the record of phosphate ore deposits (e.g., the Fontanarejo Bed). The formation is shale dominated and has yielded the body-fossil Beltanelliformis and numerous ichnofossils (Monomorphicnus and Treptichnus; lower member), sponge spicules associated with thrombolites (middle member), and Scenella, trilobites, archaeocyaths and ichnofossils (Dactyloidites, Psammichnites, Rusophycus and Teichichnus; upper member). Where the megabreccia beds are absent, the Ibor Group is unconformably overlain by the San Lorenzo and Fuentepizarra formations, the latter containing phosphatic limestone interbeds rich in skeletonized microfossils, such as Anabarella, which represents the Fortunian-Cambrian Stage 2 boundary interval.

Farm numbers are steadily declining in Europe and globally while farms become larger and more intensive. Driven in part by worsening macroeconomic conditions, these structural changes and the associated rationalization of agricultural supply chains have affected social relations in rural areas. In turn, farmers' social contacts influence farming decisions. Social and structural changes are thus interconnected, and they affect the resilience of rural areas through their influence on environmental, social, and economic capital. We examine the connection between farm structures and farmers' social contacts in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Entlebuch (UBE), a mountain region in central Switzerland with a strong presence of family farms, and explore the implications of social and structural change for rural resilience. We conduct a survey of N = 102 farming households and combine it with farm-level agricultural census data and interviews with key stakeholders (N = 13) to analyze farmers' current social contacts and their changes since the year 2000. We use regression and cluster analyses to examine the relationship between (changes in) social contacts and farm-level characteristics. Farmers in the UBE have a high, but decreasing frequency of contacts with family, friends, and colleagues and lower, but increasing frequency of commercial and administrative contacts. Workloads have increased by 6% in five years, driven by farm-level expansion of agricultural area (+5%)—including expanding ecological compensation areas—and intensification in managed areas (+3%), leading to parallel processes of intensification and extensification. Since most of these family farms do not hire workers, growing workloads directly impinge on farmers' free time, affecting informal contacts most. Farm managers in larger and more intensive farms have more frequent and more diverse, but also more rapidly declining, social contacts. Our results point to a net loss in social capital as social contacts become less frequent and shift from local and informal to regional and national professional contacts. A 17% decline in farm numbers in 15 years reflects the vulnerability of farms in this region. Growing financial strain, workloads, time pressure and the associated erosion of informal contacts contribute to this vulnerability. Policymakers from local to national should recognize the contribution of farmers' diverse social networks towards rural resilience and seek options to maintain and enhance such networks. Beyond direct interventions that foster social capital, policymakers should more rigorously consider the short- and long-term interconnections and tradeoffs between different forms of capital.

Wildfires are an increasingly alarming phenomenon that affects forests and agroecosystems, generating several cascade effects among which soil erosion is one of the most deleterious. A robust body of data-based evidence on post-fire soil erosion and sediment yield at the watershed scale is, thus, required, especially when dealing with areas where wildfires are particularly frequent, such as the Mediterranean basin. This study analyzes the impact of the first rains after a large wildfire in terms of soil erosion and sediment yield at the watershed scale in a Mediterranean area, the Pisan Mountains, central Italy. Here about 1,000 ha of olive groves, maquis, maritime pine, and chestnut forests, all on steep slopes, burned in 2018. Fire (or burn) severity was mapped by remote sensing and checked by a field survey. Sediment yield was assessed by sampling earthy materials deposited upstream of a check dam at the outlet of the studied watershed. Finally, a hydrological model was developed in the hydrologic engineering center–hydrological modelling system (HEC–HMS) environment to explore the relationship between the erosion–deposition events observed in the watershed and the rainfall-induced hydrological processes. The first two post-fire rainy events relocated a high mass of sediment, mostly non-organic and characterized by light color, perhaps already in the stream before fire, while the subsequent four rain showers deposited materials rich in pyrogenic organic matter. Overall, the soil erosion caused by these six major rainfall events–the larger of which had a return time of one year–was estimated to amount to 7.85 t/ha (0.26 mm in the watershed), corresponding to 42% of the watershed average annual potential erosion rate in unburned conditions. This value is lower than expected, and, overall, moderate if compared to other Mediterranean case studies, possibly because of the nature of soils in the watershed, i.e., shallow and stony, thus, poor in fines prone to erosion.

Climate change's profound implications for Mediterranean agriculture underscores the urgency of adaptation strategies. These strategies, whether incentivized or farmer-driven, are pivotal in mitigating crop yield losses and harnessing evolving climatic conditions. While the influence of agronomic adaptations on crop yields is well-explored, the implications for water footprint and water balance components remain largely unexplored. With this study, we aim to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the adaptive capacity of agricultural systems in the Ombrone catchment, Tuscany. We estimate the impacts of both climate change and adaptation strategies - also referred to as management changes - on crop yields, water footprint and water balance components by comparing simulations with historical and future climate and with and without adaptation strategies. A Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT+) agro-hydrological model of the Ombrone catchment is calibrated for crop yields of durum wheat, sunflower and irrigated maize. The impacts of climate change are then assessed by forcing the calibrated model with climate data from five bias-corrected regional climate models under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5. Subsequently, we simulate six autonomous agronomic adaptation strategies (earlier and later sowing, supplemental irrigation, longer crop cycles, zero tillage and cover crops). We quantify their impacts on crop yield, water footprint and water balance components, such as evaporation, water yield and soil moisture. Our findings reveal negligible and adverse impacts on crop yields under RCPs 4.5 and 8.5 respectively. Agricultural systems show strong adaptive capabilities under both RCPs, particularly when multiple strategies are combined. The most impactful strategies include earlier sowing and extended cropping cycles. Supplemental irrigation and cover crops are beneficial only with specific combinations of climate models and RCPs. While management changes have limited impact on basin-scale water balance components, they induce an average 27% reduction in water yield at the cropland scale, attributed to practices like zero tillage and cover crops. Despite the uncertain impacts of climate change, our research reveal that changing the management - hence applying adaptation strategies - will be sufficient to maintain or improve current crop yields. Furthermore, we also underscore the non-negligible influence of management changes related to conservation agriculture on water balance components in agricultural catchments. Future adaptation strategy assessments should encompass comprehensive integration to evaluate broader impacts on water resources.

Quality in higher education was not invented in recent decades – universities have always possessed mechanisms for assuring the quality of their work. The rising concern over quality is closely related to the changes in higher education and its social context. Among others, the most conspicuous changes are the massive expansion, diversification and increased cost in higher education, and new mechanisms of accountability initiated by the state. With these changes the traditional internally enacted academic quality-keeping has been given an important external dimension – quality assurance, which requires higher education institutions to continuously demonstrate and improve performance, and which also provides new systems of rewards and sanctions. However, the complex impacts of quality assurance policies have shown a need to further understand the quality issue in higher education.This book is about constructing a more inclusive understanding of quality in higher education through combining the macro, meso and micro levels, i.e. from the perspectives of national policy, higher education institutions as organizations in society, individual teaching staff and students. It covers both theoretical constructions for understanding quality and empirical investigation in the Chinese context. The questions addressed are: How is quality of higher education perceived by the institution, teaching staff and students, respectively? What are the main concerns for the institution, teaching staff and students in their own pursuit of quality? It has been concluded that quality of higher education is not only about educational quality, but also about expanding life chances for the students, prosperity in the administrative system for the teaching staff,and organizational prosperity for the institution. With regard to quality assurance and accountability in higher education special attention should be given to the values pursued and be careful to balance between immediate, single-value efficiency and sustainable development and a wider-range of values that higher education serves.

The climate in the Mediterranean region is expected to become warmer and drier but future projections of precipitation are uncertain, especially in the Northern part. Additionally, the difficulty in determining the plant physiological responses caused by CO2 rising complicates the estimation of future evaporative demand, increasing the uncertainty of future aridity assessments. Vegetation responses to rising CO2 are expected to increase radiation use efficiency and reduce stomatal conductance, hence increasing plant’s water use efficiency. These effects are often neglected when estimating future drought and aridity. Hence, the main objective of this study is to estimate the effect of climate change and vegetation stomatal conductance reduction on projected water balance components and the resulting impact on aridity in a medium-sized catchment of Central Italy. We validate and couple a hydrological model with climate projections from five regional climate models and perform simulations considering the vegetation responses or not. Results show that their inclusion significantly affects potential evapotranspiration. The other water balance components, namely actual evapotranspiration, water yield, percolation, and irrigation, are also influenced but with less significant changes. Considering or not the CO2 suppression effect on stomatal conductance, coupled with the uncertainty related to precipitation, highly affects the estimation of future aridity as the future climate classification ranges from “humid” to “semi-arid” depending on the simulation and climate model, even if model outputs need to be evaluated cautiously with CO2 concentration higher than 660 ppm.

In the last decades, the Rif area in Morocco has been frequently affected by soil erosion due to intense rainfall events. In order to help farmers improve their lives and avoid damages caused by this phenomenon, a management project (the MCA Project) aiming to grow fruit trees has been realized. The objective of this study was to evaluate, in three provinces of Morocco, the effect on the hydrological response of selected erosion control management techniques combined with olive tree plantations. The investigated variables were the final infiltration (If), the imbibition of rainwater (Pi), the runoff coefficient (Kr), and the soil detachment (D). In particular, for each investigated soil utilization, three replications of a rain simulation test (80 mm/h) and soil sampling were conducted. Results for surface conditions demonstrate that under vegetation in matorral and fallow, the surface is covered at more than 75% with a high content of organic matter (OM) at 4.5% and 2.6%, respectively. Despite the compaction observed in those land uses, the surface area opened exceeded 90% in the study area. Regarding the soils physical properties, they were rich in silt at more than 40%; the rate of porosity is high where bulk density is low. At the Taounate site, low porosity was at 62% in fallow and at 55% in plowing, with high densities of 1.01 g/cm2 and 1.2 g/cm2, respectively. Tests also demonstrate that vegetation has an important role in moisture conservation in the depths of 0 to 10 cm at all sites with macroagregate stability (MA%) compared to plowing sites. In terms of soil hydrology, vegetation reduces the runoff because, under matorral (it was at 0%), it avoids soil erosion.

For the last few decades, increasing international and national attention has been directed toward education quality, its meaning, its measurement, and its status as an integral goal in the design and implementation of educational reform. Coming to an understanding of quality education involves careful analysis of the context from which any particular reform or program emerges and of the continuing struggle to define and achieve it (Adams, 1993).

Reservoir reoperation is analysed from the perspective of institutions (rules) governing water resources. A new definition is provided, going beyond ‘modifying dam operations' found in the literature to instead focus on changes to the allocation of water stored and released from a reservoir. Through interviews and archival research, we assess 32 large reservoirs in the US state of Colorado. Using tools from institutional analysis, we find that reoperation is often the result of institutional ‘crafting' by reservoir managers and water users, that property rights strongly influence outcomes, and that well-designed policy can promote water sharing in otherwise rigid institutional settings.

The capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) is a mountain grouse species listed in the Red Lists of Switzerland and other countries of Europe. As a consequence of its conservation status, human activities are restricted in most of its remaining habitats. One sub-population of the capercaillie is located in the Entlebuch UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The margins of one of its territories are increasingly used by snowshoe hikers and ski tourers at the capercaillie’s most vulnerable time, during winter. In order to identify and monitor possible interferences, we tested whether drones can help to detect snowshoe and ski tourer tracks in the winter landscape and whether there is any reaction of wildlife to the drones. Results indicate that certain environmental conditions are needed to carry out accurate drone flights, but that with optimal technical and aeronautical settings, it is possible to gain aerial images that allow winter activities by humans to be identified, and even quantified. No disturbances to wildlife were identified. The findings indicate that drones can be used as a low-cost monitoring tool for detecting human winter activities in remote places, which represent a fast-growing threat to wildlife in mountain areas.

As dams age and values shift, communities face dam removal decisions that involve navigating complex social, economic and ecological interactions. Sometimes, this results in decades-long conflicts, such as that over the removal of the four lower Snake River dams (LSRD) in Washington State, USA – the focus of this study. We apply a broad analytical framework to understand how key factors in this conflict perpetuate it. We find that western science and economic expertise are politicized, and that while venues and geographies for stakeholder engagement are expanding, these shifts are not powerful enough to interrupt the cycle of litigation sustaining the LSRD debate.

Humanity has often faced critical phases determined by climate changes combined with other natural catastrophes that implied significant socio-economic consequences. In this article, we present an observational study on the possible systematic connection between these factors for the specific case of Italy, comparing the occurrence of pandemics, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions with the glacial history of the last millennium. We have found that the natural catastrophes concentrate in the periods of ice expansion in Europe, whereas the phenomena are in attenuation in the current phase of global warming. Such a behavior has influenced the economy of the country: in fact, a comparison with a reconstruction of the per capita Gross Domestic Product since 1310 shows that the periods of maximum economic expansion occurred during the deglaciation phases. This study has confirmed the general connection of the climate with a number of Earth processes and the difficulty to foresee its changes. Furthermore, the extension of the analysis at the world level for the last 2500 years has evidenced that different types of pandemics (plague, cholera and influenza) almost exclusively spread during the phases of glacial expansion.

Abstract. Das Entlebuch ist im September 2001 von der UNESCO als erstes Biosphärenreservat der Schweiz gemäss Sevilla-Strategie anerkannt worden. Biosphärenreservate sollen Modellregionen für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung sein. Um zu überprüfen, ob die UNESCO Biosphäre Entlebuch (ÜBE) dem Anspruch einer Modellregion tatsächlich gerecht wird, bedarf es regelmässiger Evaluationen. Dazu werden Schwerpunkte, Ziele und Indikatoren einer nachhaltigen Regionalentwicklung in partizipativen Prozessen hergeleitet, welche als Basis für eine künftige Zielerreichungskontrolle dienen werden. Am Beispiel des Tourismus werden die wichtigsten inhaltlichen Resultate entlang des touristischen Leistungsbündels mit den Bausteinen Information, Anreise, Unterkunft, Verpflegung, Aktivitäten, Mobilität in der Region und Abreise sowie zu dessen Auswirkungen auf die drei Dimensionen einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung präsentiert. Die konsequente Durchführung der Zielerreichungskontrolle wird zeigen, ob die UBE tatsächlich als Modell für eine nachhaltige Regionalentwicklung gelten kann.

Abstract. Drought impacts are increasingly recognised as socially influenced processes instead of mere hydro-climatic events. Yet, drought assessments continue to be entrenched in disciplinary boundaries or limited by top-down modelling approaches, excluding those who directly experience the impacts of droughts. Transdisciplinary approaches to knowledge co-creation offer a promising opportunity to advance socio-hydrology by considering the role of politics and power, economic visions, and differential agency in shaping drought outcomes, and the experiences and knowledge of those directly affected by drought events. However, transdisciplinary approaches to drought impact studies are limited to scattered empirical cases and miss coherent theoretical and methodological guidance. Drawing from a diverse body of literature on transdisciplinarity in sustainability science, integrated water resources management, socio-hydrology, science and technology studies, and political ecology, we develop an interdisciplinary conceptual framework to guide knowledge co-creation in drought impact assessment and adaptation. The framework stands on five major dimensions: 1) stakeholder analysis, 2) the scope of the co-modelling process, 3) a shared knowledge of drought, 4) model conceptualisation and implementation, and 5) awareness of power biases and knowledge imbalances. We discuss our framework's applicability space, limitations and contributions for advancing transdisciplinary approaches in future drought impact assessments.

Burundi's landscapes are threatened by land degradation and erosion, like many other countries in Central Africa. Environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable technologies should be investigated to address the issue, and Soil and Water Bioengineering (SWBE) represents a suitable solution. This study describes the first-ever application of SWBE in the country, realized within the World Bank's Burundi Landscape Restoration and Resilience Project (PRRPB). An experimental installation of SWBE was implemented in the hilly Isare municipality (Colline) using the training sites method. The overall feasibility of the installation was evaluated through an analysis of the growth of the plants used – a botanic analysis - a transferability analysis and a cost analysis. The botanic monitoring highlighted that a relatively good survival rate was achieved at the site of the experimentation. The transferability analysis results showed minor constraints (mainly know-how on SWBE techniques and the availability of materials, qualified labor, and equipment and mechanical instruments) but no major ones. On the other hand, the presence of high botanical knowledge, jointly with the local biodiversity, and the economic advantages of SWBE, represent decisive factors that can guarantee successful transferability. In terms of costs of a sample SWBE technology (double crib wall), our results show a reduction of 42 % and 72 % in terms of Purchasing Power Parity $ (PPP$) for mechanical and manual excavation respectively, with reference to the cost of the same work in an EU country (Italy). In addition to this, such technology is much cheaper than a gabion wall (−25 % if the crib wall is installed with mechanical excavation; −105 % if with manual excavation) and a concrete wall (−326 % with mechanical excavation; −598 % with manual excavation). The results of this paper show that SWBE is potentially transferable to Burundi, allowing the solution of some of the land degradation problems in the country, specifically targeting small- to medium-sized landslides, and also to countries with similar landscapes and social settings. More experimental installations and more research on the barriers should be realized. The proposed approach can be replicated in any central African country endangered by erosion and landslides. • The first soil and water bioengineering (SWBE) installation in Burundi is presented. • This study was realized within the World Bank's Burundi PRRPB project. • Local plant biodiversity, climate, and cost can allow transferability. • Lack of knowledge and equipment represent a potential threat. • The application is promising and new test should be implemented.