The objective of this study is to evaluate the contributions of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) practices to the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus balance, design practical pathways, and analyze barriers towards achievement of EbA-WEF balance. An area case study and descriptive methods were used to analyze data collected from 50 community forests (CFs) spread across three regions in The Gambia. Extensive information from relevant literature sources was also referred to in this study. Fourteen priority EbA practices were established and categorized into four major groups based on their application similarities. Among the anticipated ecosystem services were enhanced water resource conservation, food and feed production, enhanced energy supply, and improved community livelihoods to enhance their resilience. Pathways on how each practice under the broad category contributes to water, energy, and food were developed to demonstrate how they individually and collectively contribute towards the nexus balance. Key enablers identified included a conducive policy framework, institutional support, diverse incentives, information, knowledge, and technology transfer, and climate and non-climate barriers were cited as impediments. The paper concludes by outlining recommendations to overcome the established barriers.
Tag: Adaptation
Sustainable development of rubber plantations in a context of climate change: Challenges and opportunities
Land use is a central issue for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Plantations of all major tropical commodities are expanding quickly. This creates opportunities for development. It also raises concerns about the impacts of these plantations on the environment, landscapes and livelihoods. Natural rubber is a particularly interesting example to consider in the perspective of sustainable development of a commodity’s producing countries and value chains. This paper is a collaboration between the Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) research program of the CGIAR (FTA n.d.) and the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) (IRSG n.d.). FTA works across a range of plantations, value chains and tree crop commodities, from timber, palm oil, cacao, coffee and tea to bamboo, rattan and rubber, among others.
Climate finance and gender on the ground: Insights from mitigation and adaptation interventions in Indonesia
Key messages
- Financial mechanisms and climate change-related interventions should prioritize activities that are locally adapted and accessible for both genders, considering the different roles and constraints of each gender.
- Ministries responsible for climate action require a specifically tagged budget to enable interventions to be gender-responsive. The gender-specific indicators provided in this study can support ministries responsible for delivering climate action to include gender within the Indonesian KRISNA (‘Collaborative Planning and Budget Performance Information’) budget system.
- On-the-ground interventions need to acknowledge the necessity of integrating women and the poor as vital allies in achieving climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives – from the design phase through all stages of implementation – and translate this into pro-poor and gender-responsive strategic planning and operational guidance.
- Building the institutional capacities of stakeholders is required at all levels so that plans and actions can be synergized, and different finance sources can be combined to ensure positive gender and pro poor outcomes and the long-term sustainability of finance mechanisms.
- Gender-responsive budgeting needs to include gender variables in monitoring at all levels: this includes indicators for immediate and intermediate results that act as stepping stones in changing longer-term gender relations, therefore contributing to gender transformational change.
- Indicators need to go beyond the usual economic assessments, to look at the social factors related to decisionmaking processes, agenda setting, the representation of women in institutions, their access to assets and markets, and capacity building.
Farmers’ perceptions and matching climate records jointly explain adaptation responses in four communities around Lake Tana, Ethiopia
Farmers’ climate perceptions are responsible for shaping their adaptive responses and are thus essential to consider for the design of strategies to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience. In this study, we collected social data in four communities in the central Ethiopian Highlands on farmers’ climate perceptions and adaptations using group discussions and PRA tools. We related these to climate data spanning 30 years (1981 to 2010), consisting of daily minimum temperature, maximum temperature and precipitation, modelled for the four communities using global databases and regional meteorological data. We found that farmers’ climate perceptions showed considerable spatial and gender differences. Perceptions matched well with records describing climate variability, particularly in terms of the shortening and the increased variability of the rainy season, as well as the occurrence of extreme drought in recent years. Climate change, described by long-term average increases in temperature and decreases in precipitation, was perceived, but with subordinate priority. Perceived climate impacts included reduced crop yield, increased occurrence of pests and diseases and increased crop damage by extreme events and poverty. Adaptations were mainly land based and included agronomic measures, land management and ecosystem restoration. Furthermore, important gender differences in adaptation could be traced back to typical gender roles. Results highlight the risk of broadcast adaptation programs, such as the government-propagated combination of mineral fertilizers and early maturing crop varieties. Most importantly, they point to the need to consider climate variability, site- and gender-specific perceptions and priorities.
Effects of agroforestry and other sustainable practices in the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project (KACP)
With growing global demand for food, unsustainable farming practices and large greenhouse gas emissions, farming systems need to sequester more carbon than they emit, while also increasing productivity and food production. The Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project (KACP) recruited farmer groups committed to more Sustainable Agricultural Land Management (SALM) practices and provided these groups with initial advisory services on SALM, farm enterprise development and village savings and loan associations. Recommended SALM practices included agroforestry, cover crops, mulching, composting manure, terracing, reduced tillage and water harvesting. The effects of the KACP on the uptake of SALM practices, maize yield, perceived food self-sufficiency and savings during the initial four years were assessed comparing control and project farmers using interviews, field visits and measurements. Farmers participating in the KACP seemed to have increased uptake of most SALM practices and decreased the use of practices to be avoided under the KACP recommendations. Agroforestry and terraces showed positive effects on maize yield. During all four years, the KACP farms had higher maize yield than control farms, but yield differences were similar in 2009 and 2012 and there was no overall significant effect of the KACP. In 2012, the KACP farms had higher food self-sufficiency and tended to have higher monetary savings than control farms. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Soil organic matter, mitigation of and adaptation to climate change in cocoa-based agroforestry systems
Belowground roles of agroforestry in climate change mitigation (C storage) and adaptation (reduced vulnerability to drought) are less obvious than easy-to-measure aspects aboveground. Documentation on these roles is lacking. We quantified the organic C concentration (Corg) and soil physical properties in a mountainous landscape in Sulawesi (Indonesia) for five land cover types: secondary forest (SF), multistrata cocoa-based agroforestry (CAF) aged 4-5 years (CAF4), 10-12 years (CAF10), 17-34 years (CAF17), and multistrata (mixed fruit and timber) agroforest (MAF45) aged 45-68 years. With four replicate plots per cover type, we measured five pools of C-stock according to IPCC guidelines, soil bulk density (BD), macro porosity (MP), hydraulic conductivity (Ks), and available water capacity of the soil (AWC). The highest C-stock, in SF, was around 320 Mg ha-1, the lowest, 74 Mg ha-1, was in CAF4, with the older agroforestry systems being intermediate with 120 to 150 Mg ha-1. Soil compaction after forest conversion led to increased BD and reduced MP, Ks, and AWC. Older agroforestry partly recovered buffering: AWC per m of rooted soil profile increased by 5.7 mm per unit (g kg-1) increase of Corg. The restored AWC can support about a week’s worth of evapotranspiration without rain, assisting in climate change adaptation.
Soil Organic Matter, Mitigation of and Adaptation to Climate Change in Cocoa–Based Agroforestry Systems
Belowground roles of agroforestry in climate change mitigation (C storage) and adaptation (reduced vulnerability to drought) are less obvious than easy-to-measure aspects aboveground. Documentation on these roles is lacking. We quantified the organic C concentration (Corg) and soil physical properties in a mountainous landscape in Sulawesi (Indonesia) for five land cover types: secondary forest (SF), multistrata cocoa–based agroforestry (CAF) aged 4–5 years (CAF4), 10–12 years (CAF10), 17–34 years (CAF17), and multistrata (mixed fruit and timber) agroforest (MAF45) aged 45–68 years. With four replicate plots per cover type, we measured five pools of C-stock according to IPCC guidelines, soil bulk density (BD), macro porosity (MP), hydraulic conductivity (Ks), and available water capacity of the soil (AWC). The highest C-stock, in SF, was around 320 Mg ha−1, the lowest, 74 Mg ha−1, was in CAF4, with the older agroforestry systems being intermediate with 120 to 150 Mg ha−1. Soil compaction after forest conversion led to increased BD and reduced MP, Ks, and AWC. Older agroforestry partly recovered buffering: AWC per m of rooted soil profile increased by 5.7 mm per unit (g kg−1) increase of Corg. The restored AWC can support about a week’s worth of evapotranspiration without rain, assisting in climate change adaptation.
Quantifying farmers’ climate change adaptation strategies and the strategy determinants in Southwest China
Purpose: This paper aims to document the adaptation strategies developed by local farmers to adjust to climate change and related hazards in Lijiang Prefecture in Southwest China, and quantify the determinants of the adaptation measures. Design/methodology/approach: The study conducted a household survey with 433 respondents in Lijiang to documents adaptation measures. The authors used a multivariate probit model to quantify five categories of adaptation measures against a set of household features, extension and information, resources, social network, financial assets and perception variables. Findings: The most significant determinants consisted of information on early climate warnings and impending hazards, ownership to land and livestock, irrigation membership in community-based organisations, household savings, cash crop farming and perceptions of climate change and its related hazards. Adaptation strategies and policies highlighting these determinants could help to improve climate change adaptation in the region. Originality/value: This study quantified the determinants of adaptive strategies and mapped important determinants for the region that will provide farmers with the appropriate resources and information to implement the best practices for adapting to climatic changes. The method and findings could be useful and easily replicable for future agriculture policies. © 2020, Nani Maiya Sujakhu, Sailesh Ranjitkar, Hua Yang,Yufang Su, Jianchu Xu, and Jun He.
Climate change awareness and adaptation strategies by smallholder farmers in semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe
Agricultural production, food, nutrition and income security of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are threatened by extreme weather events, such as increased frequency of mid-season dry spells and increased temperatures. Their impacts are exacerbated by the prevalence of sandy soils, characterized by limited water and nutrient retention capacity leading to low crop productivity. In this study, we aimed at assessing farmers’ awareness of extreme weather events, identify adaptation strategies and evaluate maize yield from different soil fertility and water management practices. A household survey including 245 smallholder farmers in Marange, Zimbabwe was carried out. The results revealed that farmers were aware of and had experienced extreme weather events. Among adaptation strategies used were soil water-harvesting, use of improved varieties, mulching and planting trees. Maize yield remains significantly low, averaging 0.62 t ha−1 among farmers using some forms of soil fertility and water management strategies. To further understand the reason for low maize yields and improve climate change related adaptation strategies, more research is needed to quantify and confirm management practices applied by farmers, such as fertilizer use and rates, water and nutrient management, use of improved varieties as well as socio-economic factors.
Smallholders’ awareness of adaptation and coping measures to deal with rainfall variability in Western Kenya
Farmers in Kisumu and Trans Nzoia counties, Kenya, were aware of more adaptation than coping measures for dealing with rainfall variability both on and off-farm. Interviews with female and male farmer groups revealed that they all experienced challenges related to increasing rainfall variability whether or not they had regular access to advisory services. Men identified more measures than women and had better access to learning sources. Farmers in Kisumu were aware of more measures than those in Trans Nzoia but thought them less effective. Money, knowledge and labor were the most limiting factors preventing the uptake of adaptation measures.