Climate-smart must be livelihood smart too

At the UN Climate Change Conference, COP17, the World Agroforestry Centre will be advocating for climate-smart agriculture which focuses on poverty alleviation.

Climate-smart agriculture - a term being widely promoted by the FAO, World Bank and other international organizations - will be centre stage during discussions on how to reduce the high level of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production.

Henry Neufeldt, head of climate change research at the World Agroforestry Centre says there is now widespread agreement that agriculture can be part of the solution in addressing climate change and not just part of the problem.

“With climate-smart agriculture, the aim is to increase sustainable production and the resilience of farming systems to climate impacts while at the same time mitigating climate change through greenhouse gas emission reductions and carbon sequestration,” says Neufeldt.

“But climate-smart agriculture won’t be effective unless it specifically targets food security and livelihoods. Farmers must have sufficient incentives to change their production systems.”

During the two-week meeting, Neufeldt and fellow scientists will present their case on how climate-smart agricultural production can work for the poor, detailing the constraints and providing recommendations on how these can be overcome.

Agroforestry is of course top among these recommendations for its ability to store carbon (mitigation) and provide resilience (adaptation) in addition to giving farmers produce they can eat and products they can sell to improve their livelihoods

A new book by Centre and other scientists, titled: How trees and people can co-adapt to climate change, will also be launched during COP17. It focuses on the relationship between rural development and the roles of trees and agroforestry in climate-change adaptation and mitigation.

To find out more about our events during the conference, visit the Centre's COP17 web page