This 3rd issue of our Millennium Agreement "Controlling Climate Risks" newsletter deals with landuse: adaptation and mitigation. In this newsletter The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund tells more about their Path out of Poverty-program in South Africa and Avalon shows how there fighting desertification in Azerbaijan. The UNFCCC recently acknowledged composting as an emission reduction methodology. The application of compost improves soil fertility and soil organic matter levels. The carbon from organic waste is sequestered within stable soil aggregates. Soil and More and The Louis Bolk Institute are working on this topic and elaborate on it in the partner news section. Land use and climate change also gained importance during the last COP in Copenhagen. In the short news section and opinion more information can be found on this issue.

The newsletter has a new lay-out. When you have problems reading this newsletter click here.
The next newsletter will appear in three months. Copy for this newsletter can be send to the secretariat.

www.millenniumakkoorden.nl
The Agreement on Controlling Climate Risks is Agreement number four on www.millenniumakkoorden.nl.  You can also update your profile there.

Food security and mitigation: options for capturing synergies
Carbon sequestration in agricultural systems by restoring, protecting and conserving soils can generate a significant share of total emission reductions required in the next few decades. As increasing soil carbon sequestration also means increasing soil organic matter, food productivity and resilience of cropping and livestock production systems improve as well. However, before this can be implemented on a large scale, several challenges have to be overcome.
The FAO report ‘Food Security and Agricultural Mitigation in Developing Countries: Options for Capturing Synergies’ wants to be a stimulus to a process of discussion, and ultimately create commitment to support reforms in smallholder agricultural systems that improve food security, as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation.

 Opportunities and challenges for adaptation
In response to the challenge of increasing food insecurity, the World Bank has developed a strategy for addressing climate change adaptation and implementing appropriate risk-reduction measures. High priority is given to adaptation in the agricultural sector because of the inherent sensitivity of food production to climate and the strong inter-linkages that exist between climate, agriculture, and economic growth and development.
The joint discussion paper ‘Agricultural development under a changing climate’ indentifies and summarizes potential climate change impacts on agriculture, examines the causes of vulnerability, provides information on where investments are needed, and describes the relevance of current efforts to achieve more sustainable agriculture to that of managing climate risks for adaptation. 

 Agriculture day
A group of more than 350 policymakers, farmers and scientists meeting in Copenhagen urged on negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to recognise agriculture’s vital role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. More about objectives and outcomes can be found on the website of the event.

 Adaptation conference
The reports and presentations of the '3rd Conference on adaptation to climate change in developing countries' are now availabe on the HIER website.
Presentations concerning the topic of this newsletter, can be found in workshop round 1 - number 5 and workshop round 2 - number 3.

Agenda

• International Workshop Advances in Flood Forecasting and the Implications for Risk Management
  25-05-2010 t/m 26-05-2010, Alkmaar, the Netherlands
  Click here for more info. 
  
  
• 1st World Congress on Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change
  28-05-2010 t/m 30-05-2010, Bonn, Germany
  More info on www.iclei.org
  
  
• Climate Adaptation Futures Conference
  29-06-2010 t/m 01-07-2010, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
  More information can be found here.
  
  
• The International Conference ‘Deltas in Times of Climate Change’
  September 29 – October 1, 2010, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
  See www.climatedeltaconference.org for more info.

 Partners of the Millennium Agreement  "Controlling Climate Risks"

The Netherlands Red Cross, Simavi, Cordaid, BothEnds, AMREF Flying Doctors, Avalon Foundation, Wetlands International, WWF the Netherlands, University for Peace, CARE The Netherlands, ICCO, Save the Children, SNV, Oxfam Novib, ITC, WUR, KNMI, ETC, IVM VU Amsterdam, TSD UT Twente, Eureko, Cardano, FMO, NWP, Commision MER, CPWC, Climate Partners, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Contact details

For questions and remarks concerning this newsletter or the Millennium Agreement, please contact the secretariat.

Millennium Agreement “Controlling Climate Risks” secretariat

Gijs Termeer
Klimaatbureau HIER
Hamburgerstraat 28A
3512 NS Utrecht
The Netherlands
+31-30-234 8267

 
Land use and Climate Change: a major new area of work
By Sible Schone, HIER campaign

Climate change will have serious impacts on agriculture, including droughts, floods, unpredictable seasons, pests and disease patterns, water stress and desertification. A number of projects in the HIER program focused on these impacts, especially related to droughts and desertification.
Agriculture can also be an important part of mitigation through cropland management, grazing land management, restoring cultivated organic soils and restoring degraded lands. Studies from FAO and others suggest, that extra carbon uptake by soils by shifting to more sustainable agriculture in the coming decade can be in the order of 1 Gton carbon. That is more than all renewable sources of energy taken together.

It seems possible to capture synergies between food security, agricultural mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. FAO, the International Federation of Agriculture Producers and others, proposed during CoP 15 to agree on the early establishment of an agricultural work program under the SBSTA and to include agriculture in the international climate agreement.

The Netherlands can play a much more active role. The Netherlands combines knowledge of agriculture in developing countries and climate change. For this reason it is useful to start a network on this issue and to develop a portfolio of projects that focuses on synergies between food security, agricultural mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.

Nelson Mandela Kinderfonds

New future for children in dry regions

An increasing part of the poverty in South-Africa is the result of dryness through climate change, especially in rural areas. This dryness makes harvests fail. The Goedgedacht Program, one of the projects of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, cares for the children of poor farmer workers and helps farmers to break through the cycle of poverty.
Poverty in rural districts is seriously underestimated, even though the consequences of climate change are huge. Traditional harvests of wheat and maize fail one after the other. Enormous unemployment and great poverty are the result, of which children often are victims. The ‘Path out of Poverty’ (POP) program puts in place a set of projects that helps farmer workers and their children to break out of the cycle of devastating poverty. Four major challenges run through the POP-program: education, health, personal development and care for the planet. Currently, the POP-program consists of 17 different projects. The after school support program is one of them. This program gives youth the necessary support and encouragement to complete their schooling. Other important parts are early child developing, life skills training programs, peer education training courses for teenagers, and parent classes. Also, nine safe houses on the farms were installed, where vulnerable children find refuge during the weekends in order to receive attention, care and nutrition from a trained home based care woman. In 2010 three new projects will open in other parts of the Western Cape district, where many more children will participate and get food, care, education, and attention. In addition to this, the Goedgedacht project helps small and poor farmers in the area to switch over to climate resistant olive culture. Farmers follow courses concerning the production of olives and receive the necessary guidance and counseling. Farmers are also assisted with the purchase of plants as lavender, pomegranates, almonds and figs. These plants can be grown in combination with olive trees, are climate resistant and produce harvest from the beginning while the harvesting of olives takes seven years.

The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund in the Netherlands stands for deprived children in South-Africa. To give children of small farmer workers a better and worthy future again, the fund supports the mentioned POP-program in the Western Cape of South-Africa, with thanks to the Dutch Postcode Lottery. Between 1998 and 2008, the POP-program managed to reach over 1.000 children. The new challenge is to help 10.000 rural children over the next ten years.

More information: Nelson Mandela Kinderfonds

Avalon

Farmers fighting desertification

Sustainable land use has a lot to offer. Not only does it help farmers with their problems of desertification and soil erosion, it also makes a difference as climate change is concerned: decrease in GHG’s, increase of soil fertility, carbon storage and water retention capacity.

In 2008 and 2009, Avalon (a Dutch organisation supporting organic farming) and its local partner organisation GABA carried out a project on desertification in the Belasuvar region of Azerbaijan. The people living in this region are Internally Displaced People (refugees) and trying to confront serious environmental damage, such as erosion, by implementing new (organic) agricultural techniques. GABA and Avalon provided them with training and financial support to improve their situation, both socially and economically.
With the help of farmers and school children Avalon started a tree nursery, set up to bring a halt to deforestation, which exceeded all expectations. Instead of planting 5000 a total of 15.000 (!) trees were planted. Also, farmers received financial and educational support to:
- implement biogas installations (gas for cooking replacing firewood and manure)
- develop compost making facilities to increase soil fertility;
- set up demonstration plots for alfalfa and barley crops (to fertilize soil and stop salinisation, and to use the crop itself for animal feed).

School children were involved to ensure future success of this project. Education and information on how to cope with erosion and climate change was given, and practical skills were trained.
This project endorses the Avalon way: linking various stakeholders: consumers, farmers (organisations) and governments, to work together on sustainable rural development. In this quest for a better future - by creating more social welfare and better nature - synergy is created for all involved.

The Ministry of Agriculture in Azerbaijan was strongly committed to this project, and sees it as an example for the proclaimed “Azerbaijan Year of Ecology 2010”. They want to enable farmers in other regions to start similar projects

More information:  Avalon

 
Soil and more & Louis Bolk Institute

Sustainable soil management appropriate tool to adapt to climate change

Climate change causes heavy rains and droughts. Farmers in many parts of the world need to adapt to changing weather conditions: higher resilience to droughts and heavy rains is required. Soil fertility improvement can be achieved through sustainable soil management. One of the key parameters for sustainable soil management is organic matter. The organic matter content in the soil is of high importance to improve the buffering capacity of soils for water and nutrients.
Composting is an ancient technique that enables recycling of organic waste from farms, cities and natural areas into compost. Recently, the interest for composting has been renewed. The UNFCCC acknowledged composting as an emission reduction methodology. The production of compost improves sustainability in the agricultural sector: waste streams are recycled and greenhouse gas emissions from landfills are reduced. The application of compost improves soil fertility and soil organic matter levels. The carbon from organic waste is sequestered within stable soil aggregates. As a result, soils are more resilient to droughts and less nutrients leach to deeper soil layers, surface- or groundwater. In this way composting can be used to achieve win-win solutions in agriculture.
Soil & More International and the AgroEco-Louis Bolk Institute both work on this topic. Soil & More International started several large scale composting facilities in developing countries, especially in areas where soils are degraded and where there is a need to rebuild soil fertility. The AgroEco-Louis Bolk Institute has a long history of research and farmer guidance for sustainable soil management, nutrient dynamics and composting, especially in Europe, Africa and Asia.

More information: Soil&More and Louis Bolk Institute

WUR & LNV

Integrating climate change in policy making and programming

For most developing countries agriculture is still the main economic activity and it provides the basis of the food and livelihood security for most rural people. Clearly, agriculture is a key sector in achieving national and international development goals, it is at the forefront of shaping the concept of sustainable development.
The recent food crises put agriculture back in the center of the development agenda. With this revitalization of agriculture, old approaches looking at improving access to food and increasing productivity need to be reassessed and new approaches looking at vulnerabilities and risks posed by environmental and social change need to be developed.
Clearly over the centuries farmers have adapted to changes in weather, climate, policies, societies and markets to secure livelihoods. So in a way, adaptation comes natural to agriculture. However the order of magnitude and speed of the projected changes are without precedent. With climate change as an additional stressor the resilience and flexibility of agricultural systems will be tested to the full.
Although adaptation is not new to agriculture basic knowledge on climate change, the integration of this complex topic, including mitigation options, into ongoing and planned activities of researchers, policy makers and practitioners is lacking.
There are various kinds of capacities needed to formulate and implement effective, responsive and realistic adaptation and mitigation activities. Firstly, this concerns the ability of researchers to access and provide knowledge to set the policy agenda. Secondly, it involves the ability within the policy system to respond to evidence and societal needs and integrate this in policies. Finally, it concerns the ability within governments to translate policies into actions and to mobilise the required resources for implementation.
In the LNV initiated project (BO-10-009-003 Climate and Adaptation) a common framework is being developed to facilitate communication and interaction between scientists, policy makers and practitioners. A training workshop to inform policy makers and local planners on the possible effects of climate change and how to integrate this in ongoing and new policies and plans, has been developed.

More information: WUR website.