Adaptation funds must reach farmers to have an impact in Africa

By Panorama Correspondent in Copenhagen

Africa would benefit significantly from climate change adaptation fund only if as agriculture and agroforestry are considered.

Developing countries have demanded US$200 billion annually from the developed world for adaptation purposes saying the North is responsible for climate change.

"For Africa, which is most vulnerable to climate change, adaptation is one of the key areas of interest in this talk," says Peter Minang, programmes associate at the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre.

As the talks at Copenhagen winds down, discussion of agriculture and other land use activities, besides forestry, being essential to reducing green house gas emissions is featuring prominently.

Experts are rooting for a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (Redd) mechanism that includes land use practices like agroforestry.

Minang said Africa would miss out on the Redd mechanism if it does not include agriculture, agroforestry and other land use activities because it doesn’t have many forests.

Lands for crops

He says deforestation in Africa is caused by farmers looking for new lands for crop production and cattle grazing as climate change intensified and unless farmers are given new methods to adapt, Africa will suffer tremendously," he says.

"The need for new agricultural methods and technologies that can supply them with wood for fuel and seeds that adapt to changing circumstances and sequester carbon dioxide are crucial," he says.

But Minang doubts that a deal incorporating other forms of land use would be reached in Copenhagen, but said an agreement in principle out of summit would be crucial in laying the basis for further discussions and an eventual agreement to replace Kyoto Protocol when it ends in 2012.

Dennis Garrity, Director General of WRC argues that Redd will not succeed if it does not consider other land use systems such as agriculture, one of the main drivers of deforestation in the developing world if it is to succeed. "Redd++ where other activities are considered is the way to deal with greenhouse gas emissions from forests because of deforestation and degradation. You have to engage small scale farmers and give them the right knowledge and technologies that will help them adapt to climate change," says Garrity.

"We know the drivers of deforestation are related to agriculture," he says.

One of the main causes for deforestation, says Garrity, is the expansion of agricultural land as areas already under farming prove inhospitable resulting in low yields. For instance, Asia’s 30 per cent of agricultural land has been curved out of forests recently.

Growth Habits

Agriculture in the developing world is often associated with massive deforestation and including it in the anticipated United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adaptation fund will benefit small-scale farmers and keep them away from forest. Agroforestry, he explained, presented a huge opportunity for carbon sequestration that will help reduce global warming and enable farmers adapt to changing climate situation.

Garitty says long-term research has proved that an acacia tree with its unusual growth habit—unlike virtually all other trees — could nourish soils and life in Africa.