Bamboo-based soil–landscape restoration in Southeast Nigeria: integrating soil physics, agroforestry, and ecosystem services for climate-resilient landscapes
Résumé
Land degradation, accelerated erosion, and declining soil organic carbon are defining environmental challenges for Southeast Nigeria—a region hosting some of Sub-Saharan Africa's most extensive and actively expanding gully systems, including the internationally documented Agulu-Nanka complex in Anambra State. The dominant soils—Ultisols and Alfisols—are structurally fragile, inherently erodible, and rapidly depleted of organic matter under conventional cultivation, making the region acutely vulnerable to its bimodal rainfall regime (1,500–2,500 mm yr −1 ). This systematic review, conducted following the 27-item PRISMA-EcoEvo reporting framework, synthesizes global and regional evidence to evaluate Bambusa vulgaris Schrad. ex J.C. Wendl. as a promising component of integrated soil-landscape restoration, and proposes an original site-adapted agroforestry framework delivering soil conservation, ecosystem services, and smallholder livelihood benefits. Evidence from 63 screened studies, 38 yielding quantitative data, suggests that bamboo plantations have been associated with soil bulk-density reductions of 10%−25%, increases in water-stable aggregate content of 20%−40%, and two- to four-fold improvements in infiltration rates relative to degraded or cultivated controls, although effect magnitudes vary by species, stand age, soil type, and climatic context. Field evidence from Abia State confirms that B. vulgaris outperformed vetiver grass and bitter leaf in stabilizing developing gully slopes at gradients of 45°-75° over 4 years. Soil organic carbon under B. vulgaris stands in Cross River State was 2.5–6.5 times higher than continuously cropped Ultisols. Five site-adapted agroforestry designs are proposed—contour bamboo strips, streambank buffers, gully-head stabilization packages, multifunctional bamboo-crop systems, and bamboo–livestock integration—delivering carbon sequestration of 77.67 t C ha −1 , up to 25% runoff reduction, biodiversity support, and an average gross revenue potential of ₦5,400,000 ha −1 , directly advancing Nigeria's NDC and REDD+ commitments. Priority knowledge gaps include the absence of long-term soil-carbon chronosequences, multi-species comparative trials, catchment-scale hydrological models, and gender-sensitive economic analyses from Southeast Nigeria.
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