Landuse has been identified as one of the critical processes to dealing with climate change. It is estimated that the Africa soils can store approximately 20-43 Tg C /year under improved soil and landuse. However, if funds were to be committed to support agriculture and sustainable landuse in Africa, where should such resources be used?
Currently, there is limited debate on where such resource should be spent to effectively deal with the issues of both improving the practice and deliver positive results. This table below is an attempt to generate this kind of discussion.
According to the UNCCD and FAO – Soil carbon sequestration, through which nearly 90 percent of agriculture’s climate change mitigation potential could be realized, is outside the scope of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). If CDM money was to be used in agriculture, where should it be targetted?
Precisely, that is the reason why Africa should support the inclusion of Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) in a post-2012 climate change framework. The weakness in the Kyoto Protocol, principally the CDM, is that forestry is excluded! Only afforestation and reforestation are eligible. With only 12 countries in Africa presumably REDD ready, there is another 40 odd countries behind. Considering that over 300 million people in Africa live in extreme poverty mostly in rural areas where they depend on the consumption and sale of agricultural and other natural resources, there is a clear need to include agriculture, which provides better opportunities for adaptation benefits and has more impact on livelihoods. It is equally imperative to take a landscape perspective which offers better prospects of multi-user engagement.
Hi Odero,
Do you have the summary overview of the AFOLU and the African position in detail with regard to agriculture and Climate Change? We would like to compile a probable model on per ratio basis focused on climate and agriculture.
How much should be used per dollar or euro with minimum to have both a human impact and climate mitigation e.g. a seminar will have little impact on reducing carbon on the short term?
Planting trees might have a positive impact on the long term but with elevated risks of fire and logging as long as the tree is standing. Biochar in soil will have immediate impact on soil, agriculture and carbon but with risk of commercial scale biochar production threatening biodiversity.
Kuria,
check http://www.asb.cgiar.org