1 of 32 Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food Security and Disaster Risk Management as entry point for Climate Change Adaptation About the FAO Policy Learning Programme This programme aims at equipping high level officials from developing countries with cutting-edge knowledge and strengthening their capacity to base their decisions on sound consideration and analysis of policies and strategies both at home and in the context of strategic international developments. Related resources See all material prepared for the FAO Policy Learning Programme See the FAO Policy Learning Website: http://www.fao.org/tc/policy-learning/en/
2 of 32 Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food Security and Disaster Risk Management as Entry Point for Climate Change Adaptation By Selvaraju Ramasamy, Environment Officer, and Claudia Hiepe, Climate Change Adaptation Officer Climate Change and Bioenergy Unit, Environment, Climate Change and Bioenergy Division of the FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS About EASYPol The EASYPol home page is available at: www.fao.org/easypol This presentation belongs to a set of modules which are part of the EASYPol Resource package: FAO Policy Learning Programme : Specific policy issues: Climate change impacts on agriculture and food security EASYPol is a multilingual repository of freely downloadable resources for policy making in agriculture, rural development and food security. The resources are the results of research and field work by policy experts at FAO. The site is maintained by FAO s Policy Assistance Support Service, Policy and Programme Development Support Division, FAO.
3 of 32 Objectives Improve understanding of the impacts of climate change on agriculture and food security Present the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) approach as an entry point to Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Share the lessons learned from FAO field programmes on linking DRM to CCA
4 of 32 Part I: Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food Security Hiepe Claudia, Climate change adaptation Officer, FAO, Rome
5 of 32 Climate change is a major challenge for agriculture and food security! Agriculture is one of the most climate-sensitive sectors
6 of 32 What do we mean by Climate Change? Increase in Global mean temperature (ºC) Temperature rise and associated climate phenomena cause impacts Past Future short-term: greater climate variability, including extreme events long-term: shifts in mean climate conditions
7 of 32 Climate change threatens Food Security Has the potential to undermine advances in poverty reduction and sustainable development Will greatly affect the health and productivity of crops, livestock, fish and forests and dependant rural livelihoods Will increase hunger and malnutrition, in particular in Southern Africa and South Asia Additional 5 to 170 Million people at risk of hunger by 2080 depending on projections (climate, socio-economy)
8 of 32 Climate change affects not only food production...... it affects all four dimensions of food security! Availability Loss in food production Indirect environmental feedbacks Access Infrastructure damage, asset losses Loss of income and employment opportunities Stability Utilization Increased livelihood risks, pressure on food prices Higher dependency on food imports and food aid Human health risks, nutrition
9 of 32 Climate change impacts are complex and geographically unevenly distributed Latin America Productivity decline in semiarid areas Biodiversity loss in Amazonas Africa Productivity decline, food insecurity Biodiversity loss in East- and South Africa Malaria in highlands of East Africa Asia Lower freshwater availability, Lower crop yields Central/South Asia by 2050s, higher in E/SE-Asia Flooding of mega-deltas (Mekong, Ganges/Brahmaputra) Glacier melting Small islands Degradation of coastal ecosystems Decreased water availability, damaged infrastructure
10 of 32 Who is most vulnerable to climate change? = exposed to hazards + rely on climate-sensitive activities + low adaptive capacity tropical countries small islands, coastal zones fragile ecosystems countries and people highly depending on agriculture least developed countries rural and urban poor marginalized groups urgent need for humans and societies to adapt to climate change = climate change adaptation farmers will adapt but need policy support (autonomous <-> planned)
11 of 32 Agriculture, forestry and land use change cause 1/3 of global GHG emissions! 17% 14% 14% 5% 1.3% 3% 3% 3% Methane from cattle enteric fermentation Manure Biomass Fertilizer burning Nitrous oxide production from fertilised soils Rice production 47% Farm Irrigation machinery urgent need to reduce emissions (mitigation)
12 of 32 What is mitigation? = actions to reduce and avoid GHG emissions and enhance sinks reducing GHG emissions or replacing or avoiding GHG emissions or enhancing carbon sinks
13 of 32 Synergies between adaptation, mitigation, food security and development Adapt to changes + mitigating climate change + ensuring food security + maintaining a sustainable resource base Synergies - Examples Agroforestry Soil and water conservation Integrated rice-livestock systems Improved pasture management Food security Synergies Mitigation Adaptation
14 of 32 FAO E-learning Tool Planning for community-based adaptation to climate change in agriculture Objective: awareness raising and capacity building for planning adaptation Target groups field technicians and agricultural extension staff, governmental and nongovernmental organisations implementing adaptation projects Content Module 1+2 Phenomena and impacts of climate change in general and for agricultural sectors, concepts and examples of adaptation to climate change related to agriculture. Module 3+4 Procedures for planning and implementing community-based adaptation, focus on participatory approaches and institutional aspects Why E-Learning? interactivity, improved learning, support 2-3 days face-to-face workshops
15 of 32 Part II: Disaster Risk Management (DRM) as entry point for Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Ramasamy Selvaraju, Environment Officer, NRCB, FAO, Rome
16 of 32 Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Climate Change brings changes in the frequency, magnitude, and intensity of extreme climate events Development efforts are undermined by these extreme events So far measures to address the consequences are ad hoc
17 of 32 Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Climate change impacts are often perceived through extreme climate events DRM provides solution to manage the impacts of extreme climate events and also reduces vulnerability to long-term gradual changes
18 of 32 Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Key Questions... Who are the groups vulnerable to climate change why are they vulnerable? How does extreme events/climate change affect them? What can be done to make them less vulnerable? What systems (institutions) are in place to support them and how? What are the policy options to address extreme events/climate change?
19 of 32 Determinants of successful adaptation Knowledge on impacts and vulnerabilities Knowledge on natural resources and socioeconomics and Adaptation options Sustained policy support
20 of 32 Community-based adaptation: Underlying principles Be community driven and replicable at national level Contribute to sustainable management of natural resources Decrease vulnerability through enhancement of livelihood assets Be globally relevant and inform policy dialogue
21 of 32 Essential steps of community based adaptation Assessment of current vulnerability, risks and local livelihoods of population Assessment of future climate risks Promotion of institutional capacities Identify and validate suitable adaptation options Designing location-specific adaptation strategies Up-scaling and mainstreaming of community Based Adaptation Cross Cutting Actions Community participation Gender perspective Crosssectoral coordination Policy advocacy
22 of 32 VIDEO on community based adaptation Climate Change is Global but its impact is personal
23 of 32 Group Work (Four Groups) Sl. No. Who are the people most affected by climate change? 1. Small farmers living in drought prone semi-arid areas 2. Population living in coastal areas and low-lying flood plains 3. Small scale fishermen and coastal communities Why? 4. Indigenous people living in mountains including forest dwellers
24 of 32 Part III: Lessons learned from FAO field programmes on linking DRM to CCA Ramasamy Selvaraju, Environment Officer, FAO, Rome
25 of 32 Community based adaptation: Bangladesh Context: Small farmers, drought prone, single season rice crop, tenant farming system, seasonal food crisis Objective: Enhance adaptive capacity to climate change impacts by strengthening livelihood assets
26 of 32 Main lessons: Bangladesh Adaptation to climate change requires location-specific actions Adaptation should start focus on impacts caused by current variability but also take into account gradual changes Institutional capacity building and organizational networking is essential to success
27 of 32 Risk management plans (Local): Nepal Context: Frequent natural hazards of different types; high dependency on agriculture Objective Shift from a reactive emergency response toward a proactive disaster risk management
28 of 32 Main Lessons: Nepal Community perception about the risks are essential to prepare risk management plans Disaster risk management plans should ensure participation of all relevant actors and communities
29 of 32 Risk management plans (National): Jamaica Context The country is in the hurricane belt Methods to assess damages and losses is not adequate Objective 1) Assist in preparing national agriculture disaster management plan; and 2) Systematically collect livelihood baseline data and assess damages and losses
30 of 32 Main lessons: Jamaica Strengthening participation of communities contribute to improve the assessment of damage and losses Baseline assessment carried out before the start of hurricane season allowed to take advantage of the Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility at the national level
31 of 32 Further readings FAO 2008. Community Based adaptation in Action, A Case Study from Bangladesh FAO. Training and Resource book on Climate Change Adaptation CD-ROM FAO climate change publications FAO 2008. Climate change and food security framework document. Summary
32 of 32 Links to Climate Change and Food Security FAO Climate Change Web portal www.fao.org/climatechange Examples of FAO projects on climate change http://www.fao.org/climatechange/53598/