A gendered ecosystem services approach to identify novel and locally-relevant strategies for jointly improving food security, nutrition, and conservation in the Barotse Floodplain

Figures & data

Figure 1. Mapungu, Lealui and Nalitoya communities located along the Barotse Floodplain in Western Province, Zambia. Upland (white), Saana (light grey), and Plain (dark grey) are the three main sections in which local knowledge divides the Floodplain. Winkel Tripel projection.

Table 1. Ecosystem services assessed per category.

Categories (number):	Ecosystem services
Provisioning (9): where do you go to get … ?	Cultivated crops, Firewood, and charcoal, Fish, Grass for fodder, Materials for agriculture, Materials for construction, Materials for crafts or ornamentals, Water for agriculture, Water for human consumption
Regulating (7): which eco-types are important for, or to … ?	Drought control, Flood control, Pest control, Pollination, Soil erosion control, Soil fertility, Wildlife habitat
Cultural (1): which eco-types are important for, or to … ?	Spiritual and recreation

Table 2. Participants involved in the participatory mapping cultivated eco-types characterization and ecosystem services assessment in Mapungu, Lealui, and Nalitoya.

					Number of participants
District	Community	Other participants also involved during the three activities			Participatory mapping		Cultivated eco-types characterization; Ecosystem services assessment
		Community facilitator^	Traditional leader	Extension officer *	Men	Women	Men	Women
Kalabo	Mapungu	3	1	1	9	16	12	19
Mongu	Lealui	2	6	1	14	11	4 ^†	14
Senanga	Nalitoya	2	0	1	10	10	11	9
	Total	7	7	3	33	37	27	42

* (one woman, two men); ^ (four women, three men); † Eight extra men joined to conduct the characterization of cultivated eco-types for a total group size in this activity of 12 men.

Table 3. Eco-type description complemented and validated by participants in 2015.

Category	Lozi name singular (plural) – Approximate English translation	Icon	Description (Floodplain section / Flooding risk)
Cultivated	Litapa (Sitapa) – cultivated grasslands		Refers to a cultivated flooded grassland, Mulapo, planted in July-Aug after the flood recedes. Cultivated crops must have a very short growing period (<5 months) or resistance to flooded conditions. High soil fertility. (Found on the plain, Saana, upland/high)
	Matunda (Lutunda) – riverbanks		Past or recent riverbanks deposits with an elongated shape. Slightly elevated but can get flooded depending on its size and location. Planted in Aug-Oct in Mapungu or May-Dec in Lealui. Poor soil fertility (Found on the plain, Saana / moderate)
	Mazulu (Lizulu) + islands		Elevated, often human-made and circular shaped. They can be prone to flooding depending on size. Planted in Nov/Dec when the rainy season starts or earlier if closer to the water. Very low soil fertility (Found on plain, Saana/high – moderate)
	Lishanjo (Sishanjo) – seepage		At the floodplain’s edge (Mukulo), it receives underground water from upland ponds, adjacent canals, and the River. For instance, cropping activities depend on canal maintenance. Planted in Aug/Oct or Apr. Only mentioned as used for cultivating in Nalitoya. High soil fertility (Found on the Saana/high – moderate)
	Wet Matongo (Litongo) – wet sandy fields		Flood under high floods. Crop yield depends on rain, residual moisture, and incorporated organic matter. Planted in May/Jun or Aug-Oct/Nov. Very low soil fertility (Found on the plain, Saana/low)
	Dry Matongo (Litongo) – dry sandy fields		Similar to wet Litongo except they do not flood. Planted in Aug or Oct/Nov. Very low soil fertility (Found on the plain, Saana/null)
	Malako (Lilako) – home gardens		Home gardens often located on a Lizulu, Sishanjo or dry/wet Litongo. Planted in Nov/Dec or earlier if closer to water sources. Differing soil fertility (Found on the plain, Saana, upland/low)
	Likaña – ridged fields		Ridged area to drain water during the rainy season. Planted in Apr/May at the end of the rainy season. Only mentioned as used for cultivation in Mapungu. Differing soil fertility (Found on the Saana/low)
	Libala Saana – woodlands		Woodland with sparse and short trees which are cut (some) to plant crops (mostly cassava). Flood under high floods. Planted in Nov/Dec with the onset of the rainy season or earlier if closer to water (e.g. Aug/Sep). Fertile soils (Found on the Saana/low)
	Matema (Litema) – cultivated forest		Cultivated upland forest, Mushitu, (slash and burn). Planted in Aug/Sep. Differing soil fertility (Found on the upland/null)
Native vegetation	Mulapo – flooded grasslands		Concave area often with aquatic grass. First land to be flooded and the last one to dry out (Found on the plain, Saana/high)
	Zita – Papyrus marsh		Marsh dominated by tall grass mostly papyrus (Sagittaria latifolia Willd) (Found on the plain/high)
	Sitaka – Reed marsh		Marsh dominated by tall grass mostly reeds (Phragmites) (Found on the plain/high)
	Libuta* – clustered woodland		Woodland with clustered and short trees with very poor soils and not used for agriculture (Found on Saana, upland/null)
	Libumbu – lowland forest		Forest often located on islands [Mazulu]. Very few remain. Only mentioned in Mapungu (Found on the plain/moderate)
	Mushitu – upland forest		Forest with different human intervention levels and degradation levels (Found on the upland/null)
Aquatic	– river		The Zambezi river and major branches (Found on the Plain)
	– canals		Form a complex network across the floodplain. Often poorly maintained. Used for transportation, irrigation and clearing land for agriculture. Have high cultural values (Found on the plain, Saana)
	– permanent ponds		Hold water throughout the dry season
	– ephemeral ponds		Dry up during the dry season

*Eco-type added in 2015.

Figure 2. Mean geographic distance (standard error – SE and number of points – n) from the community centre to the areas used by women and men for cropping, fishing, and cattle grazing activities. Ellipses indicate the 1st standard deviation and p-adjusted obtained with post hoc Tukey’s Honest Significant mean difference.

Table 4. Average number (and SE standard error) of ecosystem services provided (out of the 17 assessed except cultivated crops) by eco-types during the dry and wet season according to women (W) and men (M). Eco-types are grouped by aquatic (A), cultivated (C) and Native vegetation (N). Pairwise comparisons located on the right. Significant P-values in italics.

		Men			Women			Dunn's test for multiple comparisons
Community / Season	Eco-type	Average	SE	No. eco-types	Average	SE	No. eco-types	Comparisons	Z statistic	Adjusted
										P-value
Mapungu
Dry	A	4.00	1.00	2	4.00	1.00	2	M-W	−0.47	0.32
	C	0.00	0.00	0	0.00	0.00	0	Dry-Wet	0.77	0.22
	N	1.67	0.33	3	1.75	0.48	4	A – C	3.65	0.00
Wet	A	3.33	0.88	3	3.00	1.00	3	A – N	2.57	0.02
	C	1.00	0.00	4	1.00	0.00	1	C – N	−1.88	0.09
	N	2.20	0.58	5	2.25	0.63	4
Lealui
Dry	A	2.50	0.29	4	4.75	1.38	4	M-W	−1.72	0.04
	C	1.00	0.00	3	1.60	0.40	5	Dry-Wet	−0.37	0.36
	N	4.33	0.88	3	7.33	2.91	3	A – C	3.12	0.00
Wet	A	3.00	1.00	3	4.00	0.71	4	A – N	−1.08	0.42
	C	1.00	0.00	3	2.40	0.51	5	C – N	−4.04	0.00
	N	3.00	1.00	3	7.67	2.33	3
Nalitoya
Dry	A	6.00	1.00	3	4.33	1.45	3	M-W	0.09	0.47
	C	2.25	0.63	4	3.25	1.44	4	Dry-Wet	0.74	0.23
	N	11.00	3.00	2	11.00	2.00	2	A – C	2.23	0.04
Wet	A	4.75	0.85	4	3.50	1.19	4	A – N	−2.82	0.01
	C	1.50	0.29	4	2.80	0.49	5	C – N	−4.79	0.00
	N	10.50	3.50	2	11.00	3.00	2

Figure 3. Percentage of allocated cards across the ten cultivated, five native vegetation (Libuta is excluded here since it was added in 2015) and four aquatic eco-types as the source of each ecosystem service. Participants who were unsure about the sources of the ecosystem service or the ecosystem service per se withheld the cards for a particular eco-type. The numbers in parentheses after each ecosystem service indicate the number of additional cards requested by participants to indicate two or more sources. Data labels are displayed for percentages above 15%. * Ecosystem services not assessed in Mapungu due to time constraints, then percentage values are only for Nalitoya and Lealui. See Table 2 for eco-type/icon description.

Figure 4. a) Average number of fields planted by women and men, and during the dry (sun) and wet (drop) season in each and across all three Communities. b) Percentage of field cards assigned to each cultivated eco-type by women and men from Mapungu, Lealui, Nalitoya and across all three Communities indicating each participant’s cultivated fields during the dry (sun) and wet (drop) season. Percentages above 100% indicate that participants have two or more fields on the same eco-type. See Table 2 for eco-type/icon description.

Figure 5. Characterization of cultivated eco-types according to women and men participants from Mapungu (western upland), Lealui (Plain) and Nalitoya (eastern upland). a-c) indicates the agreement among gender-specific focus groups about soil fertility, soil moisture and eco-type proximity to water for manual irrigation; d-e) indicates perceived flood and drought duration in each community and by gender; h) indicates the total number of crops and food groups planted across communities in each eco-type.

Figure 6. Crops planted across the ten cultivated eco-types during the sex-specific (women-♀; men-♂) focus groups characterizing each cultivated eco-type. Food groups includes dark green leafy vegetables (

), legumes, nuts, seeds (

), vitamin A-rich vegetables and tubers (

), other vegetables (

), white roots and tubers (

),vitamin A-rich fruits (

), sweets (

), other fruits (

); cereals (

). * indicate neglected and underutilized species (NUS).

Table

Cultivated crop	Food groups	Cultivated forest [Matema]	Cultivated grasslands [Litapa]	Islands [Mazulu]	Wet sandy fields [Matongo]	Home gardens [Malako]	Ridged fields [Likaña]	Wodlands [Libala Saana]	Seepage [Lishanjo]	Dry sandy fields [Matongo]	River banks [Matunda]
African eggplant *(Solanum aethiopicum)	Other vegetables		L					N			L
Amaranth* (Amaranthus spp.)	Dark green leafy vegetables				MNL	MNL
Bambara groundnuts* (Vigna subterranean)	Legumes, nuts, seeds	MN				N	ML	M
Banana (Musa spp.)	Other fruits			L	N	L
Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)	Legumes, nuts, seeds				N					N
Chinese cabbage (Brassica oleracea capitata)	Dark green leafy vegetables		ML					N
Carrot (Daucus carota subsp. Sativus)	Vitamin A rich vegetables and tubers		L		N						L
Cashew (Annacardium occidentale)	Other fruits; legumes, nuts, seeds									N
Cassava (Manihot esculenta)	Dark green leafy vegetables; white roots and tubers	MN			MNL	MN	ML	L	N	NL	MNL
Cat’s whiskers/African cabbage* (Cleome gynandra)	Dark green leafy vegetables			MNL	MN	MNL					MN
Cowpeas* (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp)	Dark green leafy vegetables; legumes, nuts, seeds	MN	ML	L	MNL	MNL	ML			NL	M
Groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea)	Legumes, nuts, seeds	MN	ML	MNL	NL	MNL	ML	N		NL	MN
Guava* (Psidium guajava)	Other fruits			L
Hibiscus* (Hibiscus spp.)	Dark green leafy vegetables	MN				MNL	ML			N	L
Irish Potato (Solanum tuberosum)	White roots and tubers				N
Lemon (Citrus limon L.)	Other fruits			L	N	M
Livingstone yam* (Plectranthus esculentus)	White roots and tubers	MN								N
Local sugarcane ()	Sweets		MNL	MNL	MN
Maize (Zea mays)	Cereals	MN	MNL	MNL	MNL	MNL		NL	N	MNL	MNL
Mango* (Mangifera indica L.)	Vitamin A rich fruits			L	N	ML				N
Okra* (Abelmoschus esculentus and Hibiscus esculentus)	Dark green leafy vegetables; Other vegetables		MNL	N				N			L
Onion (Allium cepa)	Other vegetables		ML	N	N						N
Orange (Citrus spp.)	Vitamin A rich fruits			L	N	M
Papaya (Carica papaya L.)	Vitamin A rich fruits			L		M
Pear millet* (Pennisetum glaucum)	Cereals	MN				N				NL
Pineapple (Ananas comosus)	Other fruits				N
Pumpkin* (Cucurbita pepo or Cucurbita moschata)	Dark green leafy vegetables; legumes, nuts, seeds; vitamin A rich vegetables and tubers	N	MNL	MNL	MNL	MNL				N	MNL
Rape (Brassica napus L.)	Dark green leafy vegetables		MNL	MNL	MNL	MNL			N		MNL
Rice (Oryza sativa L.)	Cereals		N	MNL	N	L	M	MNL	N	L	MNL
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor)	Cereals	M	MNL	MNL	ML	MNL		N			N
Squash Orange* (Cucurbita moschata)	Dark green leafy vegetables; Vitamin A rich vegetables and tubers		MNL	MNL							MNL
Squash White* (Cucurbita moschata)	Dark green leafy vegetables; other vegetables	N	MNL	MNL		MNL	M			N	MNL
Squash Yellow* (Cucurbita moschata)	Dark green leafy vegetables; vitamin A rich vegetables and tubers		MNL	MNL		MNL	M				MNL
Suggarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.)	Sweets			L		ML
Sweet potato* (white and orange) (Ipomoea batatas)	Dark green leafy vegetables; white roots and tubers		ML	MNL	MNL	MNL	ML	MNL	N		ML
Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum)	Other vegetables		ML	N	N	M		N	N		MNL
Water melons* (Citrullus lanatus)	Other fruits	N	MNL	MNL	M		M
Wheat (Triticum aestivum)	Cereals				L					L	L