Community-based forest management (CBFM) is so far perceived as the best model for forest management in many developing countries. The contribution of CBFM in livelihoods of the local community is thought to be positive but the emerging contemporary discourse of climate change and its impacts on livelihoods is less recognized in CBFM modalities. In order to make the CBFM modalities more successful, there is a need to assess the linkages between climate change and community-based forest management in relation to climate change. It is crucial to explore adaptation practices that can help rural communities to respond effectively to climate change. The present collaborative research attempts to understand how climate change is affecting forest-dependent communities in one of the world’s most vulnerable regions, and the actual and potential adaptation measures that would enable communi-ties and community networks to remain resilient.
Tag: Adaptation
Are homegarden ecosystems resilient to climate change? An analysis of the adaptation strategies of homegardeners in Sri Lanka
Homegarden ecosystems are considered to be resilient to climatic changes partly due to the use of efficient and effective adaptation strategies by the homegardeners. This study documented the strategies adopted by homegardeners in Sri Lanka and investigated the determinants of the choice of such strategies. Data gathered from household surveys conducted in three selected locations were analysed to achieve the study objectives. About 52% of the homegardeners in all locations were found to be small-scale farmers (<0.5 ha) engaged in semi-subsistence farming over a long period of time. The majority (85%) of them have had their education only up to the primary level. Among the homegardeners, more than 63% in Keeriyagaswewa, 54% in Pethiyagoda and 90% in Siwalakulama have not made any significant changes to the plant, tree and animal composition of homegardens over the past 20 years. A number of adaptation strategies have been used by the homegardeners enabling them to maintain the diversity in the homegarden ecosystem. The changes in planting dates (37%), agronomic practices (39%), use of soil and water conservation measures (41%) and technology (55%) such as use of new varieties and irrigation equipments were the most commonly used adaptation strategies. A considerable variation in the type of adaptation strategies across the households was noted. The results of the probit analysis indicated that the type of employment, age, sex, education level of household head, experience in farming, homegarden size, diversity of homegardens measured by the Shannon Weiner Index (SWI), and perceptions towards climate change significantly influence the decision to adopt a given strategy. The development programs to promote adaptation to climate changes in homegardens should hence be designed taking the above determinants into consideration.
Reactions of Adansonia digitata L. provenances to long-term stress at seedling stage
The effects of drought stress on growth parameters and dry matter partitioning of seven provenances (six from West Africa and one from East Africa) of Adansonia digitata L. were assessed in a seedling experiment in Burkina Faso. Three water regimes corresponding to 100 % (control), 75 % and 50 % of field capacity were applied over a period of 18 months. While survival was unaffected by the stress treatments, provenances and water regimes significantly affected growth parameters, and plant dry matter accumulation was significantly reduced by water stress. Provenances had growth rates of diameter and height in response to stress. The fresh weight/dry weight ratio increased with increasing stress. In response to stress, shoot/root ratios decreased at the start of the experiment, but increased at the end, compared to the control. Differences between prove-nances were not correlated to environmental parameters of the site of origin, and the hypothesis about better resistance of seedlings from drier sites to drought stress was not confirmed. However, the provenance from East Africa was in several aspects different from the West African provenances
Agroforestry and livestock: adaptation / mitigation strategies in agro-pastoral farming systems of Eastern Africa
In the mid-1980s the landscape of Shinyanga region in Western Tanzania was declared the desert of Tanzania by thelate President Mwl. Julius K Nyerere due to severe deforestation and degradation. The region covers 5.4% of the totalland area in Tanzania and carries over 20% of the ruminant national herd making it the most overstocked region in thecountry (MLD 2005). The inhabitants mainly of the Wasukuma ethnic group are agro-pastoralists and over 80% of thepopulation derive their livelihoods from livestock kept on extensive grazing systems. The region is semi-arid witherratic unimodal rainfall of 600 to 800mm.The severity of the land degradation problem brought national and international development agencies to implement along term natural resource management programme, which was launched in 1986 with a major thrust on afforestationand agroforestry. Successes have been recorded and the biggest of them was in blending local knowledge and modernscience to reclaim degraded land and generate various socio-economic and environmental benefits (Monela 2004).Revival of Ngitili the traditional land use system in which large areas of land are set aside by communities andindividuals to ensure that forage is available in the dry season was used to rest the land and introduce interventions thatincreased tree density, vegetation cover, soil productivity and consequently more biomass production (Barrow andMulenge 2003; Monela 2004).In 2002 these initiatives received international recognition by the UN Equator Prize 2002 for the outstanding localefforts for poverty reduction and environment conservation. A major criticism has been lack of baseline data for a moreobjective assessment of the impact. Furthermore emerging global challenges of climate vulnerability and povertyreported by the three major global studies i.e. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, Mapping vulnerability andpoverty in Africa, the United Nations Livestock long shadow and more recently the Stern Review on economics ofclimate change give such initiatives new dimensions.The livestock sector is in the spotlight again as one of the top two or three most significant contributors toserious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. In the global warming context livestockis more damaging than all the vehicles in the world and also a major source of land and water degradation(FAO 2006). The sector accounts for 9, 37, 65 and 64 percent of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide andammonia global emissions, respectively. The largest share of emissions come from extensive systems, wherepoor livestock keepers, >100 million in East and Southern Africa, extract marginal livelihoods fromdwindling natural resources and have a very low capacity to invest in change. Recent developments inagroforestry science provide adaptation/mitigation options that can reduce or reverse adverse effects of thislivestockpovertyenvironment enigma. In this presentation we assess one of the agroforestry – livestockinnovations introduced by the project in relation to dry season climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.
A primer on climate change adaptation in the Philippines
The Philippines is one of the developing countries expected to suffer most of the negative effects of climate change. It is already known to most of us that climate change is happening. As climate changes, developing countries like the Philippines are faced with urgent needs for sustainable development: These are: 1.) to improve food security, 2. ) to reduce poverty, and 3.) to provide an adequate standard of living for growing populations (Verchot, et al., 2007). In the previous primer, mitigation strategies were discussed but these are only expected to cushion the effects of climate change. Adaptation efforts are needed to improve the resilience of the community to the impacts of climate change, climate variability or climate extremes.
Uses and vulnerability of ligneous species exploited by local population of northern Burkina Faso in their adaptation strategies to changing environments
Background: Arid and semi-arid areas of West Africa are highly subject to climate change effects. This is combined to other drivers such as population growth and livestock number increase. To cope with such changing environment, endogenous adaptation strategies of poor local communities rely on the use of natural resources through empirical knowledge. Unfortunately, these knowledge and practices are insufficiently known to policy makers, and this hampers their consideration in the elaboration of adaptation strategies. A household survey was conducted in the Sillia village in northern Burkina Faso using semi-structured interviews. This study identified most used (preferred) species in this changing environment together with their ethnobotanical use value (VUET). Results: Overall, 86 ligneous species were listed in seven (7) use categories: human nutrition, fodder, fuel, traditional medicine, handicraft, construction and trade. From the 86 species, 11 appeared the most preferred by local population (VUET 6). Except Piliostigma reticulatum and Boscia senegalensis, all these species were part of the 21 very vulnerable species as revealed by the study. Tamarindus indica, Balanites aegyptiaca, Lannea microcarpa and Vitellaria paradoxa are the first most preferred species (VUET 7) and also most vulnerable (IV > 2.5). In this changing environment, Cassia sieberiana, Combretum micranthum, Balanites aegyptica have, for instance, become the main species used in traditional medicine replacing Ximenia americana, Coclospermum tinctorim, Maytenus senegalensis and Securidaca longepedunculata, formerly used for this need. Also, Piliostigma reticulatum is the main species used in farm lands to combat low soil fertility. Pterocarpus lucens and Adansonia digitata are the main fodder species both during dry and rainy seasons. Apart from the household surveys, vegetation survey was conducted on 96 plots in Sillia. The results showed that 25 species cited in the household surveys had locally disappeared, 22 were rare, 5 were abundant and the others were relatively abundant. Certain collection practices of given species in many use categories increase their vulnerability. Conclusion: This study documented preferred species in the adaptation strategies to changing environments and also assessed their vulnerability status under human influence; it is therefore of great use for designing sustainable management. © 2017 The Author(s).
Forest responses to changing rainfall in the Philippines
Agrifood supply chain, private-sector standards, and farmers’ health: evidence from Kenya
This article evaluates the impact of adoption of European Union (EU) private-sector standards on farmers health in rural Kenya. The study utilizes cross-sectional farm household-level data collected in 2006 from a randomly selected sample of 439 small-scale export farmers.We estimate the casual impact by utilizing a two-stage Poisson regression model, two-stage standard treatment effect model, as well as by regression based on propensity score, to assess the robustness of the results.Using these techniques, we demonstrate that the pesticide-ascribed incidence of acute illness symptoms and the associated cost of illness significantly decrease with the adoption of standards. Ceteris paribus, farmers who adopt standards experience 70% lesser incidence of acute illness and spent about 5060% less on restoring their health than nonadopters. Although standards can potentially prevent resource-poor smallholders from maintaining their position in lucrative export markets, they can also result in positive changes in the health of those farmers who do adopt them, as shown by these results. This implies that, if adopted on a large scale, standards may reduce production externalities, corroborating the view that they may serve as a catalyst to transform production systems in developing countries.
The scientific basis of climate-smart agriculture: a systematic review protocol
Climate-smart agriculture’ (CSA)—agriculture and food systems thatsustainably increase food production, improve resilience (or adaptive capacity) of farmingsystems, and mitigate climate change when possible—has quickly been integrated into theglobal development agenda. However, the empirical evidence base for CSA has not beenassembled, complicating the transition from CSA concept to concrete actions, andcontributing to ideological disagreement among development practitioners. Thus, there is anurgent need to evaluate current knowledge on the effectiveness of CSA to achieve its intendedbenefits and inform discourse on food, agriculture, and climate change. This systematicreview intends to establish the scientific evidence base of CSA practices to inform the nextsteps in development of agricultural programming and policy. We will evaluate the impact of73 promising farm-level management practices across five categories (agronomy,agroforestry, livestock, postharvest management, and energy systems) to assess theircontributions to the three CSA pillars: (1) agronomic and economic productivity, (2)resilience and adaptive capacity, and (3) climate change mitigation in the developing world.The resulting data will be compiled into a searchable Web-based database and analyticalengine that can be used to assess the relative effectiveness and strength of evidence for CSA,as well as identify best-fit practices for specific farming and development contexts. Thisrepresents the largest meta-analysis of agricultural practices to date.
The Pastoral Zone of Sondré-Est: Initial System Analysis
This report is an initial system analysis summarizing “Task 1” of the Governance Assessment work package of the LGACC project in Sondré-Est, a vast territory of 16 460ha delineated in the 1970s specifically for pastoralism in Center-South Burkina Faso. This analysis identifies the “adaptation landscape”, stakeholders, and key issues related to adaptation to climate change at the study site.