ASB News and Events

Category

Climate change a stumbling block to Africa’s economies

Developing countries can shift to lower-carbon paths while promoting development and reducing poverty, but this depends on financial and technical assistance from high-income countries, says World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change (visit website).

The report’s key messages have important implications for ecosystems and livelihoods in the developing world:

Developing countries are highly vulnerable to climate change

Climate change complicates efforts to reduce poverty and promote prosperity

A “climate smart” world is possible if we act now, act together, and act differently

An equitable, efficient climate deal that recognizes the needs of developing countries is critical

The report calls on industrialised countries, which have released most of the greenhouse gases, to lead the way in charting a new low-carbon economic path. In addition, the report calls for financial support to enable developing countries adapt to climate change and lay the foundation for low-carbon economies.

In an op-ed to Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper, one of the report’s authors, Calestous Juma, describes how climate change is already a concern in Kenya.

Fragile ecosystems are a dominant feature of sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly two thirds of its surface area is dry land or desert, which makes it highly vulnerable to droughts and floods. Much of the continent’s political instability is associated with the fragility of its ecosystems and low levels of technological competence to compensate for the natural deficiencies.

Africa’s economies are also highly dependent on natural resources. Nearly 80 per cent of its energy comes from biomass and a third of its gross domestic product comes from rain-fed agriculture, which supports 70 per cent of the population.

Stress is already being felt in critical areas such as water supply. Today, 20 African countries experience severe water scarcity and another 12 will be added in the next 25 years. Economic growth in regional hubs such as Nairobi is now being curtailed by water shortages.

Source: Climate change a stumbling block to Africa’s economies. Daily Nation.

Beyond Copenhagen: REDD+, agriculture, adaptation strategies and poverty

How can the agriculture and food security agenda fit into the debate on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), particularly leading up to the climate change conference in Copenhagen this December? Bruce Campbell, of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Challenge Program (CCAFS) looks the evolution of the REDD debate and possible opportunities and challenges for poverty alleviation and agricultural development efforts.

Source: Campbell, B.M., Beyond Copenhagen: REDD+, agriculture, adaptation strategies and poverty. Global Environ. Change (2009), doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.07.010 (subscription required)

Agriculture and Rural Development Day, 12 December 2009, Copenhagen

12 December 2009

Agriculture and Rural Development Day will be a parallel event to the UNFCCC 15th Conference of Parties, in Copenhagen this December. The event is convened by the CGIAR challenge program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security and will take place on December 12, 2009, at the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

The main objective of the event is to lay the groundwork for a workplan of strategies and actions that will see agriculture fully incorporated into the post-Copenhagen agenda. Approximately 300 participants are expected. The event will consist of an opening plenary with keynote presentations, roundtable discussions on specific themes, poster sessions and a closing plenary. The event will bring together policy makers and negotiators, rural development practitioners, producers, civil society and the agricultural and climate change scientific community. The event will identify the no-regret priorities for agriculture and food security—stressing the areas where the world needs to act regardless of exactly how climate change plays out locally.

The event will focus on the following key areas:
- The role of agriculture and farmers in adaptation and mitigation strategies;
- Future scenarios for agriculture, rural development and food security;
- Climate change as a development issue; and
- Innovations in the agricultural sector of relevance to the climate change agenda.

Roundtable topics include: Climate change impacts on agriculture; Policies and institutions; Agricultural responses for adaptation and mitigation and Unlocking the potential of the carbon market for small farmers.

Given the global significance of Agriculture and Rural Development Day, please forward this announcement to colleagues and relevant listservs. See the attached PDF file for the full announcement.

For further information, please visit www.agricultureday.org or email agricultureday@gmail.com

TIME magazine – Farms and Forests Are Compatible

TIME magazine has picked up on the new global assessment of trees on farms, released by the World Agroforestry Centre in August. The article makes the link between agroforestry and climate change mitigation:

Right now agroforestry isn’t a major part of international climate-change policy, but delegates at the U.N. global-warming summit in Copenhagen that will convene in December could change all that. By putting a greater carbon value on trees planted on farmland through a cap-and-trade program that would give companies a carbon credit for growing and maintaining trees, we could encourage the growth of agroforestry. It’s not a perfect compensation for continued deforestation — whole, virgin rain forests have an enormous ecological value that can’t be replicated by agroforestry — but it’s a realistic fallback. “This is a win-win investment opportunity for the world,” says [Dennis Garrity, the World Agroforestry Centre's Director General]. It’s also a rare bit of green good news.

Agroforestry: Farms and Forests Are Compatible – TIME.

ASB Symposium: High Carbon Stocks Development Pathways

At the World Congress of Agroforestry yesterday, the ASB Partnership convened a symposium on High Carbon Stocks Development Pathways. Land use change and deforestation are critical drivers to climate change, contributing to 20 – 25% of gas emissions.   Smallholder carbon agroforestry can be critical in reducing deforestation while restocking deforested lands.

Smallholder farmers in the tropical forest margins can potentially benefit from global carbon markets and contribute to fighting climate change, by implementing agroforestry practises that store carbon, bring short term economic returns, and fit with local traditional practises.

This symposium built on the key messages of a policybrief published by the ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins in 2008, and brings together case studies from Indonesia, West and Central Africa, and Brazil, as well as bringing the global perspective via the UN-REDD programme. (more…)