4.1. Dataset
The key dataset used in our research is a 2018 land-use land-cover (LULC) base map created from Google Earth Engine (GEE, https://earthengine.google.com) remote sensing and classification algorithms based on the synergistic use of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 image collection (Fig. 2: 2018 baseline map). Nine LULC classes were identified in Table 1, informed by local knowledge about phenology.
Table 1
Class ID | LULC class | Description |
1 | Sisal | Standardized sisal monocropping in CSF estates |
2 | Mix-crop | Intercropped maize and pigeon pea; one or, in a few cases, two yields annually |
3 | Rice | The primary smallholder cash crop in the sisal belt |
4 | Residential | Built-up rural settlements |
5 | Savanna | Sparsely-vegetated grassland; transitional space between forest and cropland |
6 | Water | Wami River and its tributaries, most of which are seasonal, and some ponds |
7 | Forest | Highland densely-vegetated woodland |
8 | Abandoned sisal | Deserted old sisal fields, usually intergrowing with tree/shrubs |
9 | Outgrowing sisal | Sisal planted by smallholder outgrowers under contract |
InVEST (below) contains a suite of modules that use LULC maps to evaluate the environmental and economic values of ecosystem services provided by a landscape (Sharp et al. 2018). Our research ran a subset of InVEST modules to predict changes in land uses with a specific focus on water quality and annual yield, carbon storage, and the value of several marketed commodities across three different stakeholder-defined LULC scenarios for KSB. Other datasets required to run InVEST are listed in Table S1-3. All datasets were projected into UTM 37S WGS 1984 geographic coordinate system with the raster datasets resampled to 30m resolution. Importantly, climate change is not considered given the complexity of the model and the temporal proximity of the projection year, 2030, to the current average conditions, foremost precipitation, in Kilosa.
4.2. Scenario development and storylines
The InVEST model is based on scenarios that consider drivers, such as policy shifts, socioeconomic effects (e.g., population growth), and landscape dynamics. Our approach used a participatory scenario development method to create stakeholder-defined scenarios to represent alternative estate-smallholder nexuses and the consequent land-use and local development visions in KSB for 2030. This date constitutes the termination of CSF’s short-term plan, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; of the state) and 2030 Tanzania Implementation Agenda, and many other state/regional development policies and strategies (e.g., SAGCOT; Intended Nationally Determined Contributions––INDC). We proceeded with this work in three steps.
Step One was initiated by a review of the literature related to the state/regional land-use and development policies and strategy papers related to the relevant economic and environmental sectors, informed by consultative advice from local experts. Step Two involved extensive interviews with 80 smallholders engaged in estate labor and household agricultural production and with the entirety of the Chinese managerial staff of the estates. This effort clarified current trends in resource use, livelihoods, and commodity production, and led to the development of visions of the land system dynamics and the resulting social-environmental consequences in KSB by the year 2030. These visions were built on plausible underlying estate-smallholder relationships and included three contrasting scenarios: Business-as-Usual, Formal Wage Labor, and Outgrowing Scheme.
Business-as-Usual (BAU) refers to continued population growth and insufficient protection of existing natural resources. This scenario assumes that by 2030 development follows its current trajectory, with most smallholder households maintaining a livelihood combination of estate labor, subsistence, and rice cultivation, CSF adding sisal at the current rate (80 ha annually), and weak governance along with few financial incentives for sustainable development in KSB. A rapidly growing population (average annual growth rate for Kilosa, 5%), ongoing resource exploitation, and non-implementation of nature conservation plans at any meaningful scale lead to land-use/cover conversion, environmental degradation, and slow-to-moderate growth in estate revenue and family income.
Formal Wage Labor (FWL) represents the desired scenario by most landless smallholders who hope to work in the sisal estate full-time under a formal contract. There are two direct results of this estate-smallholder relationship. First, the population grows at a remarkable rate––6%, consistent with that of the past sisal boom periods, largely owing to migrants seeking wage opportunities on the estate. Second, the costs of CSF to operate the estate increase significantly as a result of the rising payment for employment and expedited estate expansion. CSF estimates that it needs to add at least 200 ha new sisal fields into production every year to provide enough jobs for the growing wage seekers, part of their agreement with Tanzania, and to maintain a profitable operation. Cropland increases extensively to meet the rising subsistence demands, whereas rice expansion is constrained due to the restructuring of intrahousehold labor allocation, where fixed labor forces are directed from household fields to the estate. United Nations Strategic Plan for Forest 2017–2030 (3% increase in forest stock––UNSPF) is conditionally implemented.
Outgrowing Scheme (OGS) reflects an optimistic scenario of the future, where KSB meets all its stated policy goals to alleviate poverty and manage natural resources sustainably. Existing forest resources are conserved and committed to increasing 10% by 2030, following the aim of AFR100––the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (Gizachew et al. 2020; Owusu et al. 2021). The population continues to grow, but slowly, at the growth rate stated by INDC, 1.5%. Some larger smallholder landholders (households with six or more acres of land; acres not hectares are locally used) are engaged in the outgrowing scheme initiated by CSF, allocating uncultivated landholdings to grow sisal under contract. They are expected to receive monetary returns from the outgrowing sisal produced and sold to the estate five to six years subsequent to seeding. Cropland declines moderately to the quantity that meets the basic subsistence requirements with bare crops remaining. Essentially, per household land uses for rice cultivation largely stagnate, as an increasing number of labor forces are channeled into the outgrowing scheme.
Based on the three draft scenarios, several storylines about socioeconomic and environmental dynamics were developed. The various storylines were discussed in group interviews with representatives of a broad range of stakeholders (Step Three), including smallholders and estate staff, local policymakers, researchers, and members of NGOs. The informants were asked to evaluate the likelihood that each storyline would take place, and if occurring, the extent to which each storyline would impact LULC and various ecosystem services across the region. Based on the responses, new storylines were added if necessary, and others were eliminated if deemed unlikely to occur. Finally, we ranked the likelihood of each of the storylines and the magnitude of their impacts on ecosystem services. The top-ranked storylines were compiled and finalized for each draft scenario (see Table S4 for details).
Group interviews with major land users, especially smallholders, also helped create rules reflecting constraints for specific land conversions (Table S5). In line with the land-use plans under various scenarios, storylines, and local practices, these rules were evaluated to measure the extent to mimic land change reality using the MCE tool in TerrSet (Clark Labs 2015). We averaged these evaluations and performed pairwise comparison procedures (Saaty, 1977) to derive the best-fit set of weights for each land conversion (Table S6). We lastly factored these derived weights into LULC projections by using Future Land Use Simulation (FLUS), an integrated software application based on coupled system dynamics and cellular automata algorithms for land change analysis and prediction, to quantify and map the LULC patterns for the three estate-smallholder relationship and scenarios (see Liu et al. 2017).
4.3. InVEST models
Ecosystem services and commodity production values are a function of land characteristics and landscape patterns (Nelson et al. 2009). Using the three scenarios and required datasets (Table S1-3), we employed InVEST tools to evaluate three critical ecosystem services and the commodity production outcomes, and evaluated each scenario based on four metrics with contrasting beneficiary groups: (i) carbon storage/sequestration (metric tons C/ha) as a critical global benefit related to climate change mitigation; (ii) water yield (m3/ year), measured as the flood control capacity, affecting the safety and livelihoods of communities living in the study region; (iii) water quality, focused on the total dissolved phosphorous export from watersheds (kg) as the proxy for pollution, given the proximity of the agricultural lands to water bodies, and (iv) market value of commodity production (constant year US$2018), constituting the majority of support from governments, international agencies, and promises from CSF for local poverty reduction and rural development.
Carbon storage and sequestration
We tracked the carbon stored in above- and below-ground biomass, soil, and dead organic matter using standard carbon accounting methods (Lubowski et al. 2006; Nelson et al. 2008; Sharp et al. 2018). The InVEST model aggregated the amount of carbon stored in these pools according to the LULC projections. Land management strongly affects the total carbon stock in the terrestrial system, with implications for soil fertility and CO2 emissions (Li et al. 2021). The amount of carbon sequestered in an area for a particular period is determined by subtracting the carbon stored in the area at the beginning of the time from that stored in the area at the end time.
Water service models: annual water yield and water quality
The InVEST annual water yield model computes spatial indices that quantify the relative contribution of a parcel of land to the generation of both base- and quick-flow (Kienzle and Mueller 2013). This model estimated the volume of freshwater that runs off in unregulated watersheds, which has significant implications for the equilibrium of local agricultural economy, land use, and hydraulic systems, especially annual flows for surface water.
In this application, we also used the discharge of dissolved phosphorus (P) into the local watershed to measure water pollution. Although this single measure ignores other sources of water pollution, it provides a proxy for non-point-source pollution. Slope, soil depth, and surface permeability were the major indexes used to define potential runoff by location (Nelson et al. 2009). Areas with more potential runoff, less downhill natural vegetation for filtering, greater hydraulic connectivity to water bodies, and LULC associated with the export of phosphorous (e.g., agricultural land, and more significantly, the sisal fields in this case) have greater rates of phosphorus discharge.
Commodity production value
The market value of commodities is represented as the aggregate net present value of commodities produced in the area. We focus on the production of three major crops: maize, the primary source of subsistence, commercial rice, and sisal. We excluded the value of local rural-residential housing due to local data unavailability. Livestock raising, aquaculture, timber logging, hunting, and charcoal production exist but were also excluded from this assessment because they either account for only a minimal section of the local economy or are largely prohibited in current community resource administration settings. The estimate of the net present value of crops depends on the crop type, productivity, market prices, and production costs. We derived these variables for 2018 estimates and 2030 projections from field surveys and international assessments (Table S7). In cases of missing local data, such as local crop production costs, data for the same product elsewhere in Tanzania were substituted. We used a discount rate of 5% per annum to compute the net present values of commodity production across time (Moner-Girona et al. 2016).