MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Climate experts and development partners at the ongoing summit on climate change in Marrakech, Morocco have said that the world needs an integrated approach for climate resilience, and landscape management in order to feed the ever increasing global population.
Speaking at an event alongside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 22nd session of the Conference of Parties (COP 22) on climate change, Rawleston Moore of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) said there is need to sustain ecosystem service flows by ensuring healthy soils and vegetative cover, need to diversify land use so that farmers have options in production systems, and also need to safeguard high value species to ensure availability of adaptive genetic resources for food, fuel and fiber.
“For the world to remain climate resilient, there is also need to preserve local traditional indigenous knowledge in an integrated approach,” said Moore, the Senior Climate Change Specialist for Adaptation at the GEF.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) the world population is expected to grow by over a third, or 2.3 billion people, between 2009 and 2050, with nearly all the growth taking place in the developing countries.
These trends, according to FAO, mean that market demand for food would continue to grow. Demand for cereals for example, for both food and animal feeds is projected to reach some 3 billion tonnes by 2050, up from today’s nearly 2.1 billion tonnes.
Amid the changing climatic conditions, experts have warned that without extra effort and innovative means of adaptation and food production, there will be a huge food deficit in the near future.
As a result, the GEF has released some $120 through Islamic Development Bank to support food security programmes in 12 African countries.
“Projects have been initiated in different African countries, and am very happy that people’s livelihoods have changed for the better,” said Dr Bashir Jama Adan, the Manager, Agriculture and Food Security Division at the Islamic Development Bank. “Those who depended on food aid can now feed themselves, and people are able to generate income from simple climate resilience projects,” he added.
According to Ketty Lamaro, the Under Secretary Department of Pacification and Development in the Office of Uganda’s Prime Minister, dryland food production projects in Northern Uganda have restored peace in areas such as Karamoja, where households who solely depended on pastoralism can now cultivate food as an alternative way of survival.
However, for communities to respond well to climate resilience programmes, Moore said that there must be political goodwill.
“We need policies to promote incentive mechanisms for good practices that deliver environment and development benefits at scale,” he said.
The Islamic Development Bank provides interest-free financing to vulnerable communities, where profits are shares equitably with the beneficiaries, and losses shared if at all they occur.
MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Climate experts and development partners at the ongoing summit on climate change in Marrakech, Morocco have said that the world needs an integrated approach for climate resilience, and landscape management in order to feed the ever increasing global population.
Speaking at an event alongside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 22nd session of the Conference of Parties (COP 22) on climate change, Rawleston Moore of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) said there is need to sustain ecosystem service flows by ensuring healthy soils and vegetative cover, need to diversify land use so that farmers have options in production systems, and also need to safeguard high value species to ensure availability of adaptive genetic resources for food, fuel and fiber.
“For the world to remain climate resilient, there is also need to preserve local traditional indigenous knowledge in an integrated approach,” said Moore, the Senior Climate Change Specialist for Adaptation at the GEF.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) the world population is expected to grow by over a third, or 2.3 billion people, between 2009 and 2050, with nearly all the growth taking place in the developing countries.
These trends, according to FAO, mean that market demand for food would continue to grow. Demand for cereals for example, for both food and animal feeds is projected to reach some 3 billion tonnes by 2050, up from today’s nearly 2.1 billion tonnes.
Amid the changing climatic conditions, experts have warned that without extra effort and innovative means of adaptation and food production, there will be a huge food deficit in the near future.
As a result, the GEF has released some $120 through Islamic Development Bank to support food security programmes in 12 African countries.
“Projects have been initiated in different African countries, and am very happy that people’s livelihoods have changed for the better,” said Dr Bashir Jama Adan, the Manager, Agriculture and Food Security Division at the Islamic Development Bank. “Those who depended on food aid can now feed themselves, and people are able to generate income from simple climate resilience projects,” he added.
According to Ketty Lamaro, the Under Secretary Department of Pacification and Development in the Office of Uganda’s Prime Minister, dryland food production projects in Northern Uganda have restored peace in areas such as Karamoja, where households who solely depended on pastoralism can now cultivate food as an alternative way of survival.
However, for communities to respond well to climate resilience programmes, Moore said that there must be political goodwill.
“We need policies to promote incentive mechanisms for good practices that deliver environment and development benefits at scale,” he said.
The Islamic Development Bank provides interest-free financing to vulnerable communities, where profits are shares equitably with the beneficiaries, and losses shared if at all they occur.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Agricultural experts and leaders from all over the world have developed an ambitious plan to transform global agriculture, responding to the challenge of climate change and real threats to the production of the planet’s major crops in a hotter world.
This is an outcome of a recent roundtable interaction held in Nairobi seeking to create a roadmap that will implement the Global Action Plan for Agricultural Diversification (GAPAD), which is a declaration agreed upon by world leaders during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 21) in Paris in December 2015.
The GAPAD initiative had earlier been designed to support the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, and to responds to the Declaration on Agriculture Diversification before it was adopted by the United Nations in September 2015.
“Currently, over 7 billion people depend on just four major crops to supply three-quarters of their food,” said Dr Dennis Rangi, the Director General, Development, at the CAB International. And according to studies, the population is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050.
“It is therefore becoming increasingly accepted that in a hotter world, options for agricultural diversification are needed that include a wider range of crops and cropping systems,” said Rangi, noting that there is need for increased species diversity and more resilient agricultural ecosystems that include new crops for food and non-food uses.
The GAPAD initiative is therefore addressing six of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 2 ‘zero hunger’, 7 ‘affordable and clean energy’, 12 ‘responsible consumption and production’, 13 ‘climate action’, 15 ‘life on land’ and 17’ partnerships for the goals’. Agricultural diversification will also eventually contribute to achieving SDG 1on ‘no poverty’.
Among the leaders and experts who deliberated on the initiative included representatives from the African Union Commission (AUC), the Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa and the Australian High Commission, representatives from research and development organisations and a host of journalists drawn from different media organisations.
According to Ruth Oniang’o, a Kenyan Professor in Food Science and Nutrition, agricultural diversification can improve nutrition, enhance food security and help alleviate poverty amongst other benefits.
The experts have therefore developed GAPAD targets based on each of the eight SDG2 targets but focused on the role of agricultural diversification, and have identified the priority activities needed to achieve these targets.
The next step will involve a small group of eminent, respected and highly qualified individuals who will distil and refine the output of the Nairobi roundtable, and integrate these with the distilled and refined outputs from the roundtables that addressed the other five SDGs being addressed by GAPAD.
The result is expected to be a compelling, credible, inclusive, authoritative and investable global plan for agricultural diversification in a hotter world, which has the support of all the relevant institutions.
It is anticipated that GAPAD will be formally launched in mid-2017. At the same time the bold plan for agricultural diversification will be submitted to the secretariat of UNSDA 2030.
In the meantime, GAPAD will seek to build a network of experts, stakeholders, institutions, governments, regional and international organisations, and distinguished individuals to support and champion this urgent and important initiative.
MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Water experts have called for more attention to water by governments as a way of providing solutions to help implement the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Organisers of the the Action Day for Water at the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech (COP22), which is the first time in the history of UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs), created through the Global Climate Action Agenda noted that countries have identified water as a key to adaptation in 93% of their national climate action plans (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).
As water is fundamental for food security, human health, energy production, industrial productivity, biodiversity, in addition to basic human needs and its availability, ensuring water security means ensuring security in all these domains.
In addition, water is critical for successful climate change mitigation, as many efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions depend on reliable access to water resources.
Countries have identified water as a key to adaptation in 93 per cent of their national climate action plans (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, or "INDCs"). As water is fundamental for food security, human health, energy production, industrial productivity, biodiversity, in addition to basic human needs and its availability, ensuring water security means ensuring security in all these domains.
In addition, water is critical for successful climate change mitigation, as many efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions depend on reliable access to water resources. Systematically addressing these challenges is, therefore, key to adapting to climate change and reducing the negative impacts of water-related disasters.
The "Blue Book on Water and Climate" was also launched by the Moroccan government and its partners as a concrete outcome of its interim International Conference on Water and Climate, hosted in Rabat in July 2016, in cooperation with the Government of France and the World Water Council.
The publication collects the orientations and recommendations brought forth by the international water community to support the implementation of climate commitments and proposes a variety of concrete and applicable solutions related to adaptation and resilience through water management.
"This aligns perfectly with COP22, which is striving to be a COP of action. Now, we need to realise what is at stake, since water insecurity leads to increased conflicts, tension between populations, and also provokes migration that threatens overall stability," said Mrs Charafat Afailal, Minister Delegate in charge of Water of Morocco.
The leaders noted that climate justice is also a priority of the Water Action Day, as evidenced by the launching of the "Water for Africa" initiative, established by the Kingdom of Morocco and supported by the African Development Bank.
The initiative aims to render justice to Africa through the adoption of a specific action plan that will mobilise different international political, financial and institutional partners to improve water and sanitation services and management in Africa, for those most affected by climate change.
"While humanity experiences increasing demographic and socio-economic stresses, recent episodes of extreme climate around the world bring additional complexities in finding solutions to reduce these stresses. Water is one of the most impacted resources, but water also provides solutions to these challenges," said Benedito Braga, President of the World Water Council.
In addition, the three alliances for basins, megacities and businesses, created at COP21 in Paris and strongly engaged in water and climate action, which today represent more than 450 organisations worldwide, signed a common commitment to mobilize jointly their partners, identify and disseminate good practices and support the development of new projects by actors on the ground engaged in adaptation and resilience of the water sector.
These three Alliances reported, in particular, during the water showcase event on the positive progress made with the Flagship Projects on water adaptation launched at COP21, such as the Hydrological information system of the transboundary Congo River, the integrated management of the Hai River in China, the strengthening of the new Mexico Metropolitan Organization for Urban flooding drainage or the "Eco-cuencas" Climate adapt cooperation project between European and Andean countries and on new adaptation projects announced at COP22 Water day, for example, the Sebou River management in Morocco, the creation of the Water Adapt Training Center in Brasilia or the future use of the SWOT satellite for Hydrological observations, inter alia".
"Adaptation of water resources to climate change must be organized at the natural level of national or transboundary basin of Rivers, lakes and aquifers, where water is flowing from up-stream to down-stream, and mobilize all actors in the field, including local authorities, economic sectors and civil society to achieve a common vision to face the climate change challenges", said Roberto Ramirez de la Parra, the President of the International Network of Basin Organisations.
"Adaptation of water resources to climate change must be organized at the natural level of national or trans-boundary basin of Rivers, lakes and aquifers, where water is flowing from up-stream to down-stream, and mobilize all actors in the field, including local authorities, economic sectors and civil society to achieve, in concertation and in due time, a common vision to face the climate change challenges", said Roberto Ramirez de la Parra, the President of the International Network of Basin Organisations.
