February 28, 2014
The Pablo Standard: Encouraging Place-based Agroecology in El Salvador
By Abigail Hart, Project Manager, EcoAgriculture Partners (Translation by Jilka Paz, EcoAgriculture Partners) English Español Just northeast of San Salvador, the Cinquera municipality covers the hillside alongside El Salvador’s largest body of fresh water, the Cerrón Grande reservoir (known locally as Lake Suchitlán). This lake has been recognized as a RAMSAR site, which i ...
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February 26, 2014
Kenyan Farmers’ Soil Carbon Sequestration Builds Resilience to Climate Change
Louis Wertz
EcoAgriculture Partners
John Recha
Krista Heiner
Amos Wekesa
In January 2014, farm households in Kisumu and Kitale, Kenya became the first Africans to earn carbon credits generated in part from soil carbon sequestration. Farmers in these western Kenyan communities are already experiencing the effects of a changing climate. Significant changes are becoming more frequent, such as water scarcity, rainfall variability, emerging pests and [ ...
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February 24, 2014
Scattered Trees Buffer Ecosystems and Livelihoods in the Lower Mekong River Basin
The Lower Mekong River Basin, spanning Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam, is home to millions of impoverished rural people who depend on healthy ecosystems for food production and livelihoods. The area is rich in biodiversity but is also economically significant, as it provides half of the world’s rice exports. The intensive and mixed-use nature […] ...
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February 21, 2014
Global Forest Watch: A Look at Land Use in Liberia
Global Forest Watch is a dynamic and versatile tool created by the World Resources Institute (WRI) for monitoring forests and the many land uses that impact them. The data is open, crowd sourced, obtained from advanced satellite technology, and displayed using using Google Earth Engine to provide the most accurate and up-to-date images of world forest […] ...
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February 17, 2014
Victoria to Chilwa: Integrated Development Successes at the Lake Basin Scale
Krista Heiner
EcoAgriculture Partners
Jes Walton
On February 10, 2014, the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program hosted an event on Integrated Development in Two African Lake Basins. Panelists reported on programmatic and project-level successes, showing the benefits of integrating population, health and the environment for sustainable development. Lake basins are characterized by unique cultures, rich ...
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February 13, 2014
Now Providing Greater Accessibility to Landscape-Scale Climate Data
New data available on the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) research program’s data portal allows for climate modeling at the regional and watershed level, where it previously had not been possible. This higher resolution data is useful for developing tools for climate smart agriculture like conservation planning and crop modeling. And thanks to a [&helli ...
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February 10, 2014
Zooming in on Tree Based Ecosystem Approaches
In November 2013, we introduced EcoAgriculture’s discussion paper: “Taking Tree Based Ecosystem Approaches to Scale: Evidence of drivers and impacts on food security, climate change resilience and carbon sequestration.” Now, during the 2014 World Congress on Agroforestry, we revisit the study by zooming in on research findings for scaling Tree Based Ecosystem Approache ...
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February 8, 2014
Infographic Break: Big Facts on Climate Change and Agriculture
Big Facts is two things. First, it’s a new way to visualize facts related to climate change, agriculture and food security. Second, it’s a source for reliable information on these issues amid a dizzying array of claims that appear in reports, advocacy materials, and other sources. Site users can search for relevant facts and infographics […] ...
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February 7, 2014
Social and Environmental Factors in Finance: Looking at the Bottom Line
Jesse Last
Root Capital
Editor’s note: Jesse Last of Root Capital, a social investment fund that provides credit and financial training to agricultural enterprises in Africa and Latin America, discusses how Root Capital integrates social and environmental factors into credit decisions. The organization supports businesses that are positioned to act as environmental stewards of their ecosyste ...
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February 5, 2014
Sustainability Certification: A Tool for Taking Climate Smart from Farm to Landscape
Jeffrey Hayward
Rainforest Alliance
Martin Noponen
Editor’s note: Our guest authors today highlight work that marries climate change and sustainable supply chains. Rainforest Alliance and the Sustainable Agriculture Network standard, along with its climate module, are operating at the farm level up along the supply chain to achieve landscape-scale benefits for producers and the environment under a changing climate. Gha ...
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