It is well established that forest conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of forests and trees outside forests can help to reduce the vulnerability of both humans and ecosystems to climate change. Yet the role of forests and trees in providing multiple goods and services that contribute to the adaptive capacity and resilience of social-ecological systems is only beginning to gain traction in climate policy and action. Climate change research and policy has overwhelmingly focused on the role of forests and trees in mitigation, neglecting the adaptation of societies that own and maintain the forests. We combined two different transformational adaptation frameworks, the Values, Rules and Knowledge framework (VRK) and the spheres of transformation framework to classify and analyse key principles and way they relate to transformational adaptation. We propose a conceptual typology of five overarching concepts and derive 10 organizing principles to address the shortcomings of current adaptation framing. The overarching concepts and key principles emphasize adaptive management, stakeholder involvement, and the need for multiple objectives, synergies and co-benefits. Various constraints are recognized, with institutional and governance barriers identified as the most severe obstacles to implementation. These key principles serve to define operational actions and guidelines specific to forests and trees for transformational adaptation. We discuss how these principles differ from more conventional sectoral and project-based approaches.
Tag: Adaptation
Co-Investment for sustainable production landscape in the downstream Rejoso Watershed
The Rejoso Kita project involved a research pilot to test specific methodologies to conserve ecosystem services, to strengthen the local economy and livelihoods, and to mitigate the impacts of environmental degradation in the Rejoso Watershed. In particular, Rejoso Kita Phase 2 facilitated activities and initiatives: i) to conduct pilots to test, assess, and demonstrate the potential of sustainable paddy cultivation (SPC) techniques and methodologies to improve the production of rice in terms of both quality and quantity, including through the establishment of demonstration plots for this purpose; ii) to conduct pilots to test, assess and demonstrate the potential of appropriately-designed, community-managed artesian wells to improve the efficiency of water usage in the agricultural sector, with particular emphasis on facilitating and assessing behavioral changes, particularly among farmer groups involved in the construction, maintenance, management, monitoring and evaluation of these wells; iii) to revitalize the Pasuruan District multistakeholder watershed to facilitate the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders in replicating, upscaling and mainstreaming of the piloted initiatives to amplify the positive economic and environmental impacts of the project on a wider scale.
Nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation are not located where they are most needed across the Alps
Climate change impacts social-ecological systems in mountainous areas by increasing certain natural disasters and changing nature’s contributions to people (NCP). Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly implemented to help local communities adapt to climatic hazards. However, the relevance of their location in relation to those hazards and local NCP has hardly been addressed. In the PORTAL (Pathways of Transformation in the Alps) project, we identified and mapped a portfolio of 97 NbS for climate change adaptation in the European Alps. Most NbS addressed drought or soil instability and aimed to provide multiple NCP simultaneously such as wood production and protective function against landslides. We analysed whether NbS are located where they are the most needed, according to both current and future intensity of the hazards they aim to address and to supply-flow-demand indicators of the NCP they aim to provide. We found that the location of NbS is not overall related to current supply-flow-demand indicators of most NCP, nor to the intensity of hazards. Nevertheless, NbS addressing droughts and floods are located in areas where these hazards are more intense, but do not match higher values for NCP indicators. Conversely, NbS aiming to produce wood and to provide protective function against landslides are located in areas with greater levels of these NCP, regardless of the intensity of hazards. These results suggest that hazards and NCP indicators are not the main drivers of NbS implementation. We argue that integrating local climate conditions and current NCP flows is needed to underpin a macro-regional strategy for planning NbS implementation.
REGREENING AFRICA. ETHIOPIA Country Overview
Regreening Africa is a five year program which commenced in 2018 that seeks to reverse land degradation across eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa by integrating trees into agricultural systems while improving the livelihoods, food security, and climate change resilience of smallholder farmers. The program’s vision is to spur regreening among 500,000 households and across one million hectares in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Somalia.
REGREENING AFRICA. SENEGAL Country Overview
Regreening Africa is a five year program which commenced in 2018 that seeks to reverse land degradation across eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa by integrating trees into agricultural systems while improving the livelihoods, food security, and climate change resilience of smallholder farmers. The program’s vision is to spur regreening among 500,000 households and across one million hectares in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Somalia.
REGREENING AFRICA. KENYA Country Overview
Regreening Africa is a five year program which commenced in 2018 that seeks to reverse land degradation across eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa by integrating trees into agricultural systems while improving the livelihoods, food security, and climate change resilience of smallholder farmers. The program’s vision is to spur regreening among 500,000 households and across one million hectares in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Somalia.
REGREENING AFRICA. RWANDA Country Overview
Regreening Africa is a five year program which commenced in 2018 that seeks to reverse land degradation across eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa by integrating trees into agricultural systems while improving the livelihoods, food security, and climate change resilience of smallholder farmers. The program’s vision is to spur regreening among 500,000 households and across one million hectares in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Somalia.
REGREENING AFRICA. GHANA Country Overview
Regreening Africa is a five year program which commenced in 2018 that seeks to reverse land degradation across eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa by integrating trees into agricultural systems while improving the livelihoods, food security, and climate change resilience of smallholder farmers. The program’s vision is to spur regreening among 500,000 households and across one million hectares in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Somalia.
Deforestation and its potential disruption of the weather patterns of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Insights from the Kahuzi-Biega National Park landscape
Key messages
- Regions surrounding the Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) and other areas of South Kivu Province in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been losing their natural forests for decades.
- There is a positive correlation between deforestation and CO2 emissions. Our research shows that deforestation increases temperature and negatively impacts rainfall, although not significantly.
- Deforestation and its effects on the local climate are very likely to disrupt local agricultural practices and severely impact the unique biological diversity of the region.
- Understanding the important role of forests in regulating climate not only helps to develop appropriate climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies but also to attain better biodiversity conservation and food security, and to go beyond just carbon sequestration services.
Evidence of early genetic variation in survival and growth traits of baobab (Adansonia digitata L.)—the way forward for domestication and breeding
The results of a Adansonia digitata provenance and clone trials situated in Sadore (Niger) and Samanko (Mali) indicate genetic variation at both provenance level and among clones. There were significant differences among provenances at Sadore in both survival and height by age 10. Differences in survival were very marked, and suggest that provenances ranged from very poorly- to well-adapted to the Samanko site. However, height was weakly and negatively correlated to survival; possibly the trees may have grown slightly taller because of less competition. West African provenances have a tendency towards faster growth than those of East African origin, and the provenances from drier locations tend to be better adapted. While early variation among 4 year-old clones of leaf development, an important production trait, was indicated, future observations at later ages on fruit traits will be required to make valid selection decisions. The reported 10 year-old provenance variation in tree survival and growth suggest valuable gains could be made by selection of the best provenances. Further trials across a wider range of sites, representative of target planting sites are recommended. Both genebanks contain valuable genetic plant materials worth maintaining for further research and development.