KM & the Environment

This booklet tells the story of a project that has had a profound influence on the management of four large forest areas in Guinea. The Landscape Management for Improved Livelihoods (LAMIL) project has also done much to improve the welfare of local people. Indeed, the two - better forest management and improved livelihoods - are inextricably linked.

The World Agroforestry Centre, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and their partners in the LAMIL project have developed a system of co-management, involving local communities and government agencies, which is generating considerable interest in Guinea and throughout the region.

Not long ago, these forests were managed by government agencies. Local people were forbidden from using them. As a result, the forests were widely abused, and the authorities were able to do little to stem the tide of illegal logging, poaching and land

When GM crops and foods were first introduced in the late 1990s, some scientists raised concerns that genetic modification was imprecise and unpredictable and could result in harm to health and the environment. They warned that:

• GM could create foods that are toxic, allergenic and less nutritious than their non-GM counterparts

• GM crops could damage vulnerable wild plant and animal populations
• GM plants cannot be recalled, but as living organisms will propagate, transmitting any damaging properties from generation to generation
• GM crops could cause irreversible alterations to the food supply, with serious consequences for the environment and human and animal health.

A report by Testbiotech e.V. Institute for Independent Impact Assessment in Biotechnology
Authors: Christoph Then, Christof Potthof October 2009

Summary points compiled by GMWatch

GM food safety testing

• European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) concept of risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) plants is essentially based upon guidelines that were developed by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) as early as 1993 on the assumption that the risks posed by GM plants are the same as those posed by conventional plants.

• But the differences between conventional breeding and genetic engineering of plants are becoming clearer in the light of current genome research. Experience gained from conventional breeding cannot be applied to GM plants.
• Changes in the activity of plant genes in the genetic engineering process are not an expression of natural gene regulation but an indication of disruption.
  

The Generic Drylands Mainstreaming Guidelines have been developed by the UNDP-DDC in close collaboration with the UNEP and UNDP/Global Environment Facility (GEF) Global Support Unit. This document provides broad generic steps for mainstreaming environment and drylands issues into national development frameworks, as well lessons drawn from various countries on environment and drylands mainstreaming.

Policy-makers are experimenting with billion’s of people’s lives on a daily basis without informed consent, and without rigorous evidence that what they do works, has no substantive adverse effects, and could not be achieved more efficiently through other means. In this context, carefully designed and implemented evaluations have the potential to save lives and improve people’s welfare. However, to date evaluations have tended to be selected based on the availability of data, the interest of researchers and donors, and the availability of funds rather than on their potential contribution to broader development strategies. For this reason, the institutionalization of quality evaluation is necessary in order to turn it into an optimal tool for policy-making. This report looks at the experiences of institutionalizing government evaluation efforts and considers the lessons learnt for countries starting down that road.

© UNFPA, WEDO14 October 2009: The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), together with the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), has launched a resource kit on climate change connections, focusing on gender and population and advocating that women are uniquely positioned as innovators, educators, caretakers, leaders and agents of change to address the risks of a changing climate.

The resource kit provides policy guidance, finance and adaptation plans, advocacy tools and best practices related to increasing educational opportunities for girls, economic opportunities for women, and access to reproductive health and family planning, recognizing their role in reducing vulnerability to climate change. Women, population and climate change are the focus of the UNFPA's flagship report, State of World Population, to be released on 18 November 2009. UNFPA Resource Kit: Climate Change Connections - Gender and Population https://www.unfpa.org/public/site/global/lang/en/pid/4028

LEAD Africa, supported by the Royal Danish Embassy and COP 15, has just released a new report “Leading the way: A role for regional institutions” around African leadership on climate change that can be downloaded at the LeadInAfrica.org Website

By : Clive Mutunga and Karen Hardee

This paper reviews 41 National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) submitted by Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and identifies the range of interventions included in countries’ priority adaptation actions. The review found near-universal recognition among the NAPAs of the importance of population considerations as a central pillar in climate change adaptation.

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

Drylands cover 41 percent of the earth’s terrestrial surface. The urgency of and international response to climate change have given a new place to drylands in terms both of their vulnerability to predicted climate change impacts and their potential contribution to climate change mitigation. This book aims to apply the new scientific insights on complex dryland systems to practical options for development. A new dryland paradigm is built on the resources and capacities of dryland peoples, on new and emergent economic opportunities, on inward investment, and on the best support that dryland science can offer.

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

1. Share: Managing waters across boundaries

This publication provides an overview of the world’s shared water resources and insights for managing these resources. Using case studies from around the world, it describes the benefits to be gained from cooperation and the challenges of constructing legal frameworks, institutions, management processes and financing and partnership strategies to govern transboundary waters equitably and sustainably.

2. Assess : Integrated Wetland Assessment Toolkit

Key policy advice from World Development Report 2010 and Making Development Climate Resilient: A World Bank Strategy for
Sub-Saharan Africa - Act Now, Act Together, Act Differently

"Over the past ten years, Sub-Saharan Africa has made a great deal of progress in terms of economic growth. In fact, Africa has the potential to emerge as an exciting new center of growth in the evolving global economy. However, to continue on an accelerated growth path, the region needs to tackle climate variability and climate change, which now pose a daunting risk to growth, development, and poverty reduction. Climate is hardly a new factor in the region's history, but with global warming, Africa's vulnerability is deepening, making it the most exposed region in the world to the impacts of climate change. The hard-won progress of recent years could be reversed with extreme weather, crop failures, and outbreaks of hunger and disease."

Getting started! : running a junior farmer field and life school, Empowering orphans and vulnerable children living in a world with HIV and AIDS

WIEGERS, Esther HILL, Catherine COLBERT,Patricia 2007

Country focus: Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Climate change presents humanity with its largest challenge in recorded history. Its predicted eff ects over the coming decades include extreme weather events, droughts, fl ooding, rising sea levels that could affect countries such as Nigeria and Mozambique, retreating glaciers (although not in Africa, but with global impact), changes in habitats and increased spread of life-threatening diseases such as malaria.

Little concrete analysis has been published on the relationship between climate change and conflict, however, and even less on the potential role that population growth plays in intensifying that pressure.

Attempts to clarify the relationship between adaptation and development by analyzing 135 projects, policies, and other initiatives from the developing world that have been labeled by implementers or researchers as "adaptation to climate change." Confusion about the relationship between adaptation and development has meant that funding mechanisms may create redundancies or leave gaps in the landscape of critical adaptation and development activities.

Drawing on Internet resources, Weathering the Storm attempts to clarify this relationship by analyzing 135 projects, policies, and other initiatives from the developing world that have been labeled by implementers or researchers as "adaptation to climate change."

Planet Action provides satellite imagery, geographic information and technology support to local projects that investigate and assess climate change issues focusing on human issues, drought & desertification, water resources, forestry, biodiversity,
oceans, ice, and awareness. This year, Planet Action will support additional projects while following up on current projects
and their results on the ground. Planet Action supports projects involved at least in one of the following domains:

• Awareness

• Biodiversity & Conservation
• Drought & Desertification
• Human Issues
• Forest & Deforestation
• Ice & Snow
• Oceans & Coastlines
• Water Resources

This resource includes a number of posters from the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) that help conscientise communities about water, water scarcity, water in food production etc. The FAO site is available here . The FAO also has a dedicated youtube channel available on FAO YouTube Website

AIDS and climate change (CC) are two of the most important "long wave" global issues of the recent past, the present and the future. They share similarities, interactions, and present possibilities for a more united response. Yet these links have received little analysis. This paper seeks to address that gap. It first focuses on scientific issues, identifying major, minor, and speculative pathways by which AIDS and CC are likely to interact. These interactions are, here, called the HIV and Climate Change Complex (HACC).

This policy brief looks at the factors constraining the productivity of smallholder farmers to achieve food security for poor households and communities, as a contribution to poverty eradication in southern Africa. The brief examines the characteristics of the region in terms of poverty, the state of food security in the region, and current factors that limit smallholder farmers’ capacity to produce more food in a sustainable way. It also identifies key policy areas for attention and makes recommendations to address policy gaps.

Information Provided by the Southern Africa Trust Website

Aquaculture has been recognized as an important component of rural development, aimed at improving food supply and generating more income for poor farming households. Ponds add value to farming activities: water from ponds can serve
domestic and livestock water supplies as well as irrigation for crops. Raising fish is an obvious use for a farm pond; it adds value to the water and provides improved nutrition for farm families. Smallholder farms ponds can be viable and sustainable
enterprises with appropriate targeted assistance. Planned and implemented interventions can facilitate assistance that makes farmers self-reliant rather than dependent on the public sector, NGOs and donors. The benefits can be:

• organised and better informed farmers

The aim of this report is to compile a synthesis of experiences that can provide insight into the multiple opportunities rainwater harvesting can have when addressing human well-being, while continuing to sustain a range of ecosystem services. This synthesis of linkages between ecosystem services, human well-being and rainwater harvesting interventions examines 29 cases from diverse economic and environmental settings.

Water supply of the right quality and quantity is essential for productive ecosystems and human well-being. The increasing demand on water resources for development whilst maintaining healthy ecosystems puts water resources under pressure.

This paper focuses on the impact of climate change on water resources and the affect it has on human society. Millions of people are at risk from the impacts of climate change associated with the socio-political dimensions of global change and demographic changes.

A model to link the climate and social sciences is developed in a policy-oriented approach to make a holistic assessment of human vulnerability to climate and other drivers of social change. The Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) uses water as a focus as it is a key factor of human and ecological well-being. Though it is not a new concept, it has been developed to encompass variations within countries and it is not limited to specific communities.

This Operational Guidance on the Engagement of Indigenous Peoples and Other Forest Dependent Communities is intended to inform the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN REDD Programme) activities at the global and national level.

The Guidance provides background and context on the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in UN programmes and activities, identifies the guiding principles in order to respect and support the rights of Indigenous Peoples and other forest dependent
communities, and outlines the operational guidelines for the design and implementation of UN REDD Programme activities at the global and national scale.

The publication warns that the UN negotiations aimed at tackling climate change are based on substantial underestimates of what it will cost to adapt to its impacts. The real costs of adaptation are likely to be 2-3 times greater than estimates made by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Professor Martin Parry, a former co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and his co-authors look at the estimates from a range of perspectives, and conclude that:

• the current cost assessments do not include some key sectors, such as ecosystems, energy, manufacturing, retailing, and tourism

• some of the sectors included have been only partially covered in cost estimates
  

"Climate change challenges the traditional assumption that past hydrological experience provides a good guide to future conditions. The consequences of climate change may alter the reliability of current water management systems and
water-related infrastructure. While quantitative projections of changes in precipitation, river flows and water levels at the
river-basin scale are uncertain, it is very likely that hydrological characteristics will change in the future. Adaptation procedures
and risk management practices that incorporate projected hydrological changes with related uncertainties are being developed in some countries and regions."

Climate Change and Water - Technical Paper VI - ENGLISH

This paper explores the potential for governments to create 'green jobs' in developing countries by funding public employment activities to preserve biodiversity, restore degraded land, combat erosion, and conserve water. The paper draws on the experiences of the Working for Water programme in South Africa and the National Rural Employment Guarantee in India.

By :Maikel R. Lieuw-Kie-Song Discussion Paper, April 2009

UNDP Poverty Resources UNDP Website
Wet-Africa.org Waterway Transformation Africa Wet-Africa Website

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

"Desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) in addition to the loss of biodiversity in ecosystems, the disappearance of animals and plants from many habitats, the climate change resulting in melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and increase of extreme events have negative impact on the availability, quantity and quality of water resources resulting in changed conditions for humanity’s sustainable access to water. The challenges and threats of water scarcity to drylands populations are real and set to increase in magnitude and scope in the coming years, with severe and widespread consequences.

The International Water Management Institute IWMI Website has released a Water Policy Brief addressing "Flexible Water Storage Options and Adaptation to Climate Change." Key findings in this Water Policy Brief include: water storage should be one component of a multi-pronged approach to adapting agriculture to climate change; attention must be given to the full continuum of physical water storage from ground water; and appropriate water storage for agriculture can contribute to poverty alleviation and climate change adaptation. (c) IWMI August 2009:

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

"The World Bank’s mission is to alleviate poverty and support sustainable development. Climate change is a serious environmental challenge that could undermine these goals. Since the Industrial Revolution, the mean surface temperature of Earth has increased an average 2° Celsius due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Most of this change has occurred in the past 30 to 40 years, and the rate of increase is accelerating. These rising temperatures will have significant impacts at a global scale and at local and regional levels. While it remains important to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reverse climate change in the long run, many of the impacts of climate change are already in evidence.

Produced by: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2009)

What opportunities are there at farm and local community level to increase the incomes of small-scale farmers? This series of booklets aims to raise awareness and provide decision support information about opportunities for increasing the incomes of small-scale farmers. Each booklet focuses on a farm or non farm enterprise that can be integrated into small farms to increase incomes and enhance livelihoods.

Authors: White,N.; Lamoureux,L.; Staiger-Rivas,S.
Produced by: Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (2009)

The Institutional Knowledge Sharing (KS) Project together with CGIAR Center partners has been experimenting with a range of KS tools and methods over the past five years and has recently been assembling these and many others into this toolkit. It is an evolving resource, continually updated, edited, expanded, and critiqued and it's aimed at scientists, research support teams, and administrators working in international development agencies, with a special emphasis on those engaged in agriculture and agricultural research.

This guide offers suggestions to practitioners and the rural communities they serve on ways to prevent, mitigate and reduce poverty through forest-based interventions. Those who may find it of interest include district forestry officials, forestry and rural development extension workers, local administrators and planners, and people involved in small-scale enterprises, including their partners.

The document highlights the importance of tailoring activities to local circumstances and of using participatory approaches to design and implement interventions. Emphasis is on making and responding to changes for the benefit of people living in or near forests, and on helping users gain a better understanding of:

Authors: D. Satterthwaite; G. McGranahan; D. Mitlin
Publisher: Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council , 2005

This booklet presents a number of community-led initiatives to improve and extend provision for water and sanitation to low-income urban households and discusses their relevance for meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
target for water and sanitation.At the core of most initiatives described in this booklet is the possibility for urban poor groups and their organizations to influence what is done and to be involved in doing it. An analysis of these initiatives demonstrates that:

AfricaAdapt is an independent bilingual French/English network focused exclusively on Africa. The Network’s aim is to facilitate the flow of climate change adaptation knowledge for sustainable livelihoods between researchers, policy makers, civil society organisations and communities who are vulnerable to climate variability and change across the continent.

AfricaAdapt is available on AfricaAdapt Website

The working paper focuses on finance for sustainable forest management (SFM), including strategies at both international and national levels for diversification and enhancement of the quantity and effectiveness of SFM financing. Drawing from
experiences in Latin America, the paper recommends that countries undertake national forest financing strategies when designing their national forest programmes.

With regard to climate change, the paper discusses the potential financing opportunities that addressing climate change brings to SFM. The paper addresses both voluntary and regulatory carbon markets, including those related to reducing emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD).

(c) FAO July 2009

Poor women's limited access to resources, restricted rights, limited mobility and muted voices in shaping decisions make them highly vulnerable to climate change. This resource guide aims to inform practitioners and policy makers of the linkages between gender equality and climate change.

UNDP Website - Women's publications

This Manual attempts to link these two areas of MEA formulation and civil society participation. Its goal is to both strengthen multi-stakeholder participation and Introduction ix increase political momentum for effective MEA development, implementation and enforcement. The two are interdependent and equally essential: by strengthening the effectiveness of stakeholders' involvement, MEAs themselves become more relevant, more resilient and more resolute.