#theme:climateadaptation

The recent rise in the number of food insecure people in the world, coupled with incidences of crop failure due to adverse weather, have made world leaders increasingly aware that future climate change may severely limit our ability to feed the growing population towards 2050. So far, in addition to industrial emission control, Norwegian efforts to restrict climate change have focused on mitigation through forest protection (REDD+) and clean energy (Energy+). A third area of attention is climate-smart agriculture. Producing food in a more ‘climate smart’ way is seen as having three advantages: 1) Providing food for an increasing population, 2) maintaining food production under a changing climate, and 3) reducing greenhouse gas emission from agriculture while absorbing carbon in vegetation and soil. This report explores how Norway can support Africa’s efforts to make agriculture more climate-smart through support to African universities.

The Management for Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC) project in Malawi is implemented by Total Land Care (TLC) with funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Malawi and a 5 years time frame from 2008 to mid 2013. The key objectives of the project are to reduce deforestation, to improve household food security and incomes, and to develop rural-based enterprises. The review team found the project in line with Malawian as well as Norwegian development policy. TLC also has an extensive and good cooperation with Malawian NGOs as well as with international organisations, both in Malawi and abroad. Still it seems that more could be done to avoid duplication of efforts. For activities in forestry and agriculture the prospects of sustainability are assessed as good and the risk of failure as low because project interventions are appreciated by the farmers, the lead farmer system secures that knowledge remains in the villages, the project emphasises training and community empowerment.

Mongolia’s reindeer herders and their taiga homeland are today facing unprecedented challenges from unregulated mining, forest logging, loss of access to natural resources, tourism, and climate change. The Dukha herders and their ancestors have lived for centuries in this fragile transition region on the edge of the steppes, practising an ancient and unique form of reindeer husbandry and helping to conserve the region’s unique biodiversity. Yet this system of reindeer husbandry, with its close relationship between man and reindeer, is under threat. This publication addresses the current state of reindeer husbandry of northern Mongolia and presents recommendations from the Mongolian reindeer herders for improving the sustainability of reindeer herding and the management of pastures and their homeland.

This manual is intended to support adaptive decision-making in vulnerable communities. The participatory monitoring, evaluation, reflection and learning (PMERL) framework presents a participatory methodology for developing and monitoring against community-based adaptation (CBA) indicators. The manual recommends three types of information which are essential to monitoring and evaluating CBA: practice, outcomes and context. These three types of information are needed, because practitioners need to know: what is being done and whether it is being done in ways that engage and support the most vulnerable communities (practice); if activities are resulting in actual vulnerability reductions on the ground (outcomes); and if vulnerability reductions are occurring in light of changing climate and other contexts, to better understand how climate and other stresses influence outcomes and to ensure outcomes are sustainable under climate and other stresses.

This publication provides an analysis of the 20 year history of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The aim is to document the ongoing evolution of the GEF and its approaches to biodiversity conservation, development, sustainability, climate change mitigation and adaptation, land degradation, pollution control and other areas of concern, by exploring in detail some of the most salient experiences of the past two decades at the GEF. The publication consists of an analysis of 20 select projects that illustrate the key lessons learned.

This study on energy smart food production by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) stresses that agriculture's dependence on fossil fuels is undermining efforts to build a more sustainable world economy. It notes that world food production consumes 30 per cent of all available energy, most of which occurs after the food leaves the farm. The paper calls for: increasing the efficiency of direct and indirect energy use in agrifood systems; using more renewable energy as a substitute for fossil fuels; and improving access to energy services for poor households. It also outlines numerous approaches to adapt practices to become less energy intensive.

This paper examines the implications of climate change on human development in the context of Viet Nam. The report is organized into the following section: trends and predictions for physical vulnerability to climate change, climate change vulnerability in a changing socio-economic context, the institutional and policy environment for climate change response and Viet Nam’s current climate change responses and adaptations. The report concludes by arguing that climate change represents a very real threat to human development progress and co-ordinated action to reduce the impacts of climate change should be a top priority for policymakers, international organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations. The report also asserts that vulnerability to climate change is strongly connected to poverty; therefore, the best long-term adaptation measure for the most vulnerable is continued attempts to reduction poverty in all its forms.

This document was submitted to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), a World Bank programme that aims to assist developing countries with Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), during November 2011. The FCPF is responsible for the Readiness Fund and a Carbon Fund. The document outlines general information relating to REDD+ in Viet Nam; this includes: progress to-date; the nature of external support required; partners and organizations involved with REDD+ and an assessment of the social and environmental impacts, and potential additional benefits, of REDD+ in Viet Nam.