In part thanks to its considerable contribution to deforestation, agriculture accounts for an estimated 30% of greenhouse gas emissions according to a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Such statistics may make agriculture and forestry seem like unlikely partners. Yet agriculture and forestry can also be leveraged in a way that addresses both growing global demand for food and the need to preserve forests.
Such a scenario could only mean good things for climate change mitigations and the accessibility of forest benefits for future generations. This is the main message being touted by research and development organizations as well as private sector representatives at the Global Landscapes Forum ongoing in Warsaw this weekend, 16-17 November, 2013.
According to Peter Holmgren, Director General at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), “forests and agriculture are inextricably linked parts of a greater ‘landscape’ that supports broader development goals.” These goals, he said, include not just the dynamic relationship between forests and farms, but also the socioeconomic, gender, cultural and political drivers that characterize it.
By adopting a broader “landscapes” approach, researchers, policymakers and the development sector can move beyond traditional boundaries that not only place their respective sectors’ objectives at odds with one another but also the hinder their ability to find and implement cross-sectoral solutions. Climate change adaption and mitigation strategies are critically in need of such solutions.
Early reports from the ongoing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP19), however, indicate that climate change negotiators have once again dropped the ball on including agriculture on the climate change agenda. “The negotiators failed to deal with the fact that agriculture can be both an adaptation and mitigation strategy for climate change,” said Bruce Campbell, Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change and Food Security (CCAFS).
For Rachel Kyte, Vice President for sustainable development at the World Bank, there’s still a two-year window of opportunity for including agriculture and forestry on the climate change agenda as part of the Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. The challenge, she says, is getting policymakers up to speed on what researchers and development workers already know.
Regardless of how and when the agriculture and forestry sectors are included in the UN climate change negotiation process, there’s a growing sense among participants of the Global Landscapes Forum that traditional barriers between the two sectors are falling by the wayside. Rather than being a driver of deforestation, proponents of the landscape approach are driving home the message that more food can be grown on existing farmland by scaling up investments in sustainable land use and protecting the world’s forests and vulnerable landscapes.
Their ability to convey the evidence of agriculture as a tool for mitigating the effects of global climate change ultimately will determine whether or not their efforts gain traction among international policymaking bodies such as COP19.
Blog by Peter Shelton (IFPRI), a social reporter for GLF 2013.
Photo: Nestle
