How to combine productivity and sustainability to protect the environment?
Sustainable agriculture and food systems play a pivotal role in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and safeguarding the environment for future generations. Since 2006, FAO has been partnering with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to address the most critical issues affecting natural resources and threatening food security around the world. The most recent work program approved by the GEF Council contains one of the largest share of resources programmed to FAO in its 18-year partnership with the GEF, highlighting the central role of agriculture plays in safeguarding the environment.
With a new work program ahead and on the occasion of World Environment Day, FAO looks back on good practices from projects funded by the GEF and implemented by FAO over the past decade. A new publicationtakes stock of scalable and replicable practices that can drive forward the next decade of action in helping countries and communities transition to more productive and sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries while conserving biodiversity, protecting water and land resources, and mitigating and adapting to climate change. These practices will help achieve the SDGs for a healthier planet and people, leaving no one behind.
The publication assesses eleven FAO-GEF projects to extract good practices that led to success. Here is a sample of four of them:
1. Combine tradition with innovation for sustainable land management
Pastoral communities and their herds in southwestern Angola rely on arid ecosystems, which have been eroded by unsustainable management over time. Climate change has made communities even more vulnerable and resources increasingly scarce. Conflicts between pastoral communities rose as the competition for feeding grasses increased.
"When there is no rain, some people have big problems,” said a beneficiary from the Mucubal tribe.
With the, Land rehabilitation and rangelands management in Southwestern Angola project, pastoral communities developed sustainable land management practices: traditional systems were reinstated, such as rotating livestock from mountainous areas in the rainy season to river plains during the dry season. Simultaneously, pastoralists learned innovative techniques for inclusive land management, such as GreeNTD, a participatory approach to land use planning that takes socio-economic factors into consideration. Communities decided together where to rehabilitate land and which grasses to grow, building a stronger sense of community and lowering the risk of conflict.
"Now we understand that we have to help each other and share our knowledge among us so nobody is poor.”
2. Empower women for climate change adaptation
Rural women are among the world’s most marginalised and vulnerable groups. In the Arghakhanchi District of Nepal, they are also on the frontlines of the battle against climate change. Heavier monsoon rains have been eroding the top soil, washing way their crops and threatening their livelihood. “Climate change is a big challenge for us and our crop yields have dropped,” said Goma Panthi Khatri. “We used to harvest 700 kg of grain, but now it’s 200 kg.” Faced with economic uncertainty, men have been migrating to cities and abroad in search of jobs, leaving women in charge of the fields.
The project, Reducing vulnerability and increasing adaptive capacity to respond to the impacts of climate change in Nepal, helped nearly 3 500 farmers – 74 percent of them women, and many heading households alone – to learn climate resilient agriculture methods like intercropping and soil testing to strengthen the land while improving their yields. “Before this project, we had to buy vegetables from the market,” said Ashmita Thapa. “We now grow them in our fields. We can save money.”
3. Bring everyone to the table for successful ecosystem management
Brazil’s Ilha Grande Bay (BIG) hosts one of the world’s most unique and biodiverse ecosystems on land and water, but the recent growth of tourism, industry, and population threatens these ecosystems. Poorly planned coastal development, mangrove deforestation, unsustainable fishing, industrial wastewater, and oil spills have been putting the bay at risk. The Integrated Management of the Ilha Grande Bay Ecosystem project established platforms to balance industrial and economic growth with the imperatives of safeguarding natural resources for the future.
The project helped establish a Watershed Committee that brought communities, public officials, NGOs, businesses, and academia together to resolve conflicts and make decisions collectively to sustainably manage the bay’s ecosystems. The project brought the community at large into the conversation with the BIG 2050 Challenge. The challenge brought out ideas from surrounding businesses and communities, such as turning fish waste into fish feed or upcycling sorted plastic waste, to invest in transformative environmental innovations for the bay.
4. Take small actions with big impact
The Kagera River Basin is fed by Lake Victoria and supports rural livelihoods in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda where the basin extends. Its land and freshwater resource bases have been threatened by deforestation, land degradation, and encroachment into delicate wetlands as the productivity declined in croplands and rangelands.
Thanks to the Transboundary agro-ecosystem management programme for the Kagera River Basin project, the farmers and herders across four countries learned practices that helped to recharge water systems, protect soil, and improve food security. Simple actions like planting trees that feed livestock, revitalize the soil, and prevent erosion can be learned by farmers and even their children.
“On our farm we grow trees that help retain moisture from rain and they also help reduce wind,” said Chitegetse Daud, a teacher at Magareza Primary School in Tanzania. “The children take this knowledge and these skills and go and educate their parents who then start to use the same skills on their farms.”
FAO-GEF Partnership
These projects were completed with the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). As the third largest donor to FAO, the GEF has partnered with FAO since 2002 to enable governments and communities to protect the environment and people through 191 projects in over 100 countries, stewarding practices that can turn the SDGs from policy to action. Read more in FAO’s new publication here.
Nepal: Coping with Climate Change, Addressing Migration