Pro-poor mitigation

With agriculture being a major contributor to climate change, schemes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture need to involve smallholder farmers in developing countries. Smallholder farmers in Africa are already engaging in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and boost carbon stocks, but many farmers have yet to fully benefit.

A new policy brief How can small-scale farmers benefit from carbon markets? summarises lessons from six carbon market projects in East Africa involving poor farmers, and assesses what is needed to ensure projects are more successful, equitable and sustainable. The brief is published by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and EcoAgriculture Partners, with contributions from project developers across East Africa. Read more »

by Mariana Rufino

An example of how CCAFS and its partners are moving from the research desk to action on the ground while supporting local communities is ”the SAMPLES approach”. Systems Analyst Mariana Rufino recently discussed how the ‘Standard Assessment of Mitigation Potential and Livelihoods in Smallholder Systems’ - the SAMPLES approach- help address pro-poor mitigation challenges in developing countries.

Smallholder activities impact, and are impacted by, the constraints of their surroundings. Understanding these cross-scale interactions, between agriculture and the environment, could help generate a range of ecosystem services for which smallholders’ livelihoods depend. Read more »

By Peter Newton

We are standing in knee-deep, tea-colored water. “Pekerjaan kami di sini”, smiles Pak Tukul, “our work is here”. He and his colleague Pak Maryanto have led my colleague Lini and me to this spot in the flooded peat-swamp forest, wading through pools and clambering across roots and over fallen trunks. We are here to see a research plot where they have been working.

They explain that the two of them have helped to painstakingly identify and measure every tree, sapling and seedling in this 25m x 25m plot, and to measure the depth of the peat, in order to estimate the carbon contained in this patch of forest. It took us an hour by canoe, and a 15-minute wade to get to this site: they tell us that this is the most accessible of the 200-plus plots that they have surveyed.

Why all the hard work? The site is part of an innovative REDD-like project, covering a vast 204,000 hectare (Mauritius-sized) tract of forest in Central Kalimantan, just east of the regional capital of Sampit. Read more »

by Meryl Richards

Even though rice farmers in Bulacan province in the Philippines are quite concerned about the changing climate, they are even more concerned about water.

Surplus in the irrigation reservoir that provides water for the area has been steadily decreasing over the past 30 years, due to droughts and increasing water demand from the nearby capital of Manila. Since Filipino law prioritizes domestic use over agricultural irrigation use, when allocating water, this sometimes leaves farmers without enough water to irrigate their rice paddies during the dry season.

CCAFS researchers at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), have been working together with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the National Irrigation Administration, and local irrigator’s associations to test a solution that reduces, not only water demand, but also greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in rice paddies. This can be done through so called alternate wetting and drying (AWD). Read more »