EcoAgriculture Partners welcomes Dr. Christine Negra to the position of Director of Research at EcoAgriculture Partners in February. Dr. Negra is an experienced scientist with a strong and dynamic track record of linking science with policy in the areas of climate change, food security, land use, and ecosystem services. 

In 2011-12, she led the Secretariat of the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, convened by CGIAR-CCAFS, which developed and disseminated science-based policy recommendations for "Achieving Food Security in the Context of Climate Change." As Program Director at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment in Washington, DC from 2005-2011, Dr. Negra collaborated with individuals in government, academia, industry, and NGOs to bring technical analyses and consensus-based solutions into policy dialogues. She developed indicators of carbon storage and environmental contamination for "The State of the Nation's Ecosystems 2008," directed the Ecological Effects of Air Quality project for the US Environmental Protection Agency, and served as Science Director for the Terrestrial Carbon Group project. She began her career as a soil scientist and early on worked on sustainable agriculture and community leadership with farmers and local and state officials at the US Department of Agriculture Extension System.

 

Over the past few years, Christine has contributed to our work on climate-smart agricultural landscapes. We look forward to the analytical rigor, strategic thinking, energy, and organization Christine will bring to EcoAgriculture Partners and the global effort to build and effectively use the evidence base for integrated landscape management.

Despite Hurricane Sandy grounding all flights from New York and stranding EcoAgriculture Partners' planned meeting attendee Dr. Louise Willemen in Ithaca, EcoAgriculture Partners was still active in the discussion at GCARD2, the 2nd Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development. The meeting, which took place from October 29 to November 1 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, had an impressive social media and web footprint, inviting interaction from organizations and individuals watching the webcasts of sessions on their computers around the world. EcoAgriculture Partners contributed to that fulsome discussion via our Twitter handle @EcoAgPartners and on the Landscapes Blog. See EcoAgriculture Partners' wrap up of the digital conversation on smallholder involvement in agricultural research here.

Below is an opinion piece originally published in the recent SinergiA newsletter - a collaboration between five Latin American PES networks. This edition of SinergiA focuses on agriculture's growing role in payments for ecosystem services schemes, and offers opinions, tools and methodologies, projects, publications, and events related to PES and agriculture in Latin America. SinergiA is available in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

Though largely ignored in the rush to REDD, we contend that agricultural carbon initiatives are equally important to land-based carbon markets, both in Latin America and internationally. Without agricultural components, the integrity and viability of REDD projects is compromised, and the opportunity to develop carbon projects with strong co-benefits for food security, poverty reduction and ecosystem restoration is missed.

Agriculture accounts for 20% of total emissions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Large-scale commercial farms and ranches emit carbon via high use of fertilizer, tillage, irrigation and livestock wastes. Small - scale farmers live in landscape mosaics which store considerable carbon in perennial forest fragments, pastures, palms, hedges, scattered trees and crops. The landscapes contribute to emissions with widespread soil and vegetation degradation. The largest driver of deforestation is agriculture; its exclusion from climate mitigation frameworks makes REDD programs unsustainable.

Carbon markets must evolve to include agricultural mitigation activities. Examples include: reduced soil tillage intensity, reduced soil erosion, perennial crops that maintain root and branch systems year-round, vegetative soil cover, permanent vegetative cover in non-cropped areas, increased biomass in grazing systems through improved varieties and management, improved fertilizer use efficiency, improved livestock waste management and utilization of methane emissions for biogas; and reduced fossil energy use in farm operations. Such practices reduce farm risks and production costs, improve farmer incomes, protecting watershed services and conserve biodiversity. These benefits often exceed those of carbon payments in helping farmers shift to sustainable and profitable systems.

A movement is building to expand agricultural carbon markets globally. Certification standards are proliferating within voluntary markets. In regulatory markets, a work program on agriculture appears likely under the UNFCCC SBSTA coming out of the December COP in Cancun. It's time to move from small projects to whole supply chains and large landscape initiatives that support sustainable development.

Innovators in Latin America are leaders in mechanisms which reward farmers for stewardship.

• The Regional Integrated Silvopastoral Ecosystem Management Project piloted the use of payments to promote carbon sequestration along with biodiversity conservation, through silvopastoral practices in degraded pastures in Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
• CEDECO (Corporaciã³n Educativa para el Desarrollo Costarricense), is developing the potential of small-scale organic farming in Costa Rica, Cuba and Brazil to reduce GHG emissions and sequester carbon, and exploring the potential of landscape-scale projects for 'carbon-plus-biodiversity' that could be branded by the conservation values they achieve.
• Numerous regional projects are re-establishing or improving shade in coffee and cocoa plantations for carbon sequestration, and agricultural product certification programs are experimenting with climate-friendly labeling.

Despite inadequate field measurements in most Latin American farming systems, cost-effective MRV (monitoring, reporting, and verification) methods for field, farms and landscapes are rapidly developing. Colombia, Chile and Uruguay have joined the new Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, now focused on high-input commercial systems. FAO is establishing a center to collect GHG emissions data for diverse farming systems.

To be financially viable, agricultural carbon projects need to reduce transaction costs, reduce costs of aggregating large numbers of farmers in climate deals, reduce risks to farmers, and empower them to negotiate reasonable agreements. Fortunately, the agricultural sector can build carbon projects on existing institutions such as farmer cooperatives, agribusiness outgrowing schemes, and territorial development initiatives. Costs can be reduced with improved local capacity for project development and management, access to project pre-financing, and simplified MRV. Latin American leaders must engage in structuring logical, functional, and regionally appropriate agricultural carbon finance systems.

Also posted on EKOECO.

  

Sajal Sthapit, from EcoAgriculture Partners and Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD), gave the context setting presentation and participated at the Climate Integration Workshop in Begnas, Kaski district, Nepal. 

Mr. Kul Chandra Adhikari, a local farmer, shares his group's work at the Climate Integration Workshop. Photo: Mahesh Shrestha, LI-BIRD

The workshop participants, representing diverse actors in development from government ministries to local and international organizations and farming communities, collaborated in understanding and sharing perspectives on climate change vulnerability and adaptation and its linkages to poverty reduction in the Nepali context.

LI-BIRD, with funding from  The Development Fund of Norway, organized the workshop on 24-28 June 2010 at the Begnas Resort in Pokhara to help integrate climate change into development projects.

The first objective of the workshop was to create a common understanding among the various actors on the vulnerability of local communities in Nepal to climate change. The second objective was to understand ways of addressing climate change adaptation in development projects in order to avoid maladaptation and increase people’s resilience to climate change in the long term.

Climate change is increasingly accepted as a major issue facing Nepali communities. The Initial National Communication to UNFCCC and a range of other studies have shown that Nepal is highly vulnerable to negative impacts of climate change. The scenarios of climate change in Nepal predict significant warming particularly at higher elevations. Climate change will lead to reduction in snow and ice cover, increase the frequency of climate induced disasters including floods and droughts, and cause uneven precipitation over the regional scale.

Climate induced risks and hazards can have wide ranging, often unanticipated, effects on the environment and on socio-economic and development related sectors, including agriculture and food security, water resources, energy, human health and urban settlement. Poor and vulnerable communities of Nepal, therefore, face possible dramatic impacts on their livelihood and well-being. Impacts have been increasingly evident and damaging in Nepal in the past decade. Loss of arable lands to floods and erratic changes in monsoon, water shortages and droughts are constraining food production. Communities in high elevations face growing threats from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). Invasion of exotic species, outbreak of diseases, sharp and sustained decline in food security and threats to biodiversity are all palpable risks for the people of Nepal.

For most marginalized people, climate change is one more stress factor, coming on top of any number of other challenges they are facing, poverty being a major one. Development practitioners now recognize that promotion of development paths that make households and communities more resilient to climatic stresses can also help to reduce poverty in more robust and sustainable ways. There is, at the same time, a growing realization that a failure to take climate change into account can undermine poverty reduction efforts and their intended social, economic and environmental benefits.

There is a need for greater understanding on how to design poverty reduction projects and programs in ways that increase the capacity of individuals, households and communities to respond to climate variability and change.

   

 

Europe’s agricultural landscapes are home to a large variety of plants and animals. This rich biodiversity has been shaped through centuries of low-intensity farming. The new book Grasslands in Europe – of high nature value provides a unique overview of these important ecosystems. Twenty-four case studies and a wealth of full-colour photographs will appeal to specialists and amateurs alike. Complemented with accessible background information, the book provides a strong case for the protection of European grasslands.

Grasslands are an important element of European nature. About half of Europe’s endemic species depend on grasslands, whether in mountains, lowlands, river plains or coastal areas. Many grasslands originate in traditional agricultural landscapes. Modern intensification, however, brings many of these ecosystems under threat.

Grasslands in Europe – of high nature value is a tribute to these important ecosystems. It was written by an international team of grassland experts, who describe twenty-four case studies from countries in all of Europe – ranging from the grasslands of Gotland and öland (Sweden) to the Spanish Dehesa, and from the hay meadows of the British Pennine Dales to the steppes of Turkish Anatolia.

Together, these case studies provide a fascinating glimpse into the various European grasslands, their value for nature, culture and agriculture, and the threats they are facing today. The accessible text as well as the rich illustrations will appeal to a wide audience. Grasslands in Europe contains a large number of stunning full-colour photographs of grassland landscapes, species and cultural history. It also contains many maps and infographics.

Thematic chapters provide essential background information on topics such as grassland fauna, the history of agriculture, grassland communities, and the connection between grasslands and climate. The book also analyses the opportunities and risks of EU policy to conserve these grasslands. It offers a farmer-centred outlook to manage and to maintain the European grasslands of high nature value.

This book was written for both specialists and the broader audience, including policy makers and land owners. It combines the latest insights into the variety of grasslands in Europe and potential conservation measures. As such, Grasslands in Europe provides a powerful argument for increased European efforts to promote sustainable grasslands management and maintain traditional farming traditions.

How to order the book?
Please order the book (€ 69,95 exclusively costs of postage and packing) by contacting KNNV Publishing, PO Box 310, NL 3700 AH Zeist, The Netherlands, phone + 31 (0) 30 233 35 44, fax + 31 (0) 30 236 89 07, e-mail info@knnvuitgeverij.nl or www.knnvpublishing.nl

More about the contents of this book
Please contact Peter Veen, phone + 31 (0)341 25 03 99 of + 31 (0)6 20598483, e-mail: veeneco@planet.nl or Jan van der Straaten phone + 31 (0) 13 5900709, e-mail saxifraga@planet.nl or Jacques de Smidt, phone + 31 (0)20 6235114, e-mail jt.de.smidt@hetnet.nl

Free review copies
Review copies - limited copies are available - may be requested from KNNV Publishing, Kathrin Ohrmann, P.O. Box 310, 3700 AH Zeist, The Netherlands, phone +31 (0) 30-6929 024 (direct) or +31 (0) 30-233 35 44 (general), e-mail: ohrmann@knnvuitgeverij.nl. Please mention your name and the name of your journal and send us a copy of the book announcement. 

Farmlands, collectively, form the largest habitat on the globe, supporting a huge variety of birds. Until recently, a global review of this birdlife has not been published. This gap is now filled by the book Farmland Birds across the World, released in March 2010.

The book has been written by seven experts in biology and agriculture and compiled by the Dutch Centre for Agriculture and Environment (CLM). It is published by Lynx Edicions in Barcelona, also publisher of the famous Handbook of the Birds of the World. The new book covers all the major farmland habitats of the world, from grasslands to rice fields, and from arable land to coffee cultivations. The book details more than 500 species of farmland birds, 160 of which are pictured. It takes the reader on a journey; from common birds, such as the cattle egret which is found on all continents but Antarctica, to endangered rarities such as the crested ibis in Chinese rice fields, the long-billed black-cockatoo in Australian orchards, and the burrowing owl of North American grasslands. The diversity and beauty of farmland birds is overwhelming.

Much of this birdlife, however, is in decline or under threat. The book identifies the many challenges that farmland birds face, such as intensification and greater mechanisation of farming. It also explores the opportunities available for protecting and supporting farmland birds, and highlights actions that can be or have been taken.

Richly illustrated, Farmland Birds across the World aims at a wide audience: the conservation and farming communities, birdwatchers, the food industry, policy makers, and other people interested in sustainable farming, food and birds.

How to order?
Send an e-mail to birdbook@clm.nl, or call CLM at + 31 345 470 700. CLM will send you the book with an invoice. Price: € 24,- plus shipping costs. For larger orders, discounts are possible.
http://www.bookfarmlandbirds.com/

Contents

Foreword by the Dutch minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality

1. Introduction

2. Birds and farmland

3. Grasslands

4. Arable land: cereals and other annual crops

5. Rice fields

6. Orchards, tree plantations and forest gardens

7. Coffee and cacao cultivation systems

8. Farmyards

9. The future of farmland birds