June 3, 2013

Ecosystem-Based Approaches to Relieving Hunger and Restoring Nature

Richard Munang, UN Environment Keith Alverson, UN Environment Elizabeth Migongo-Bake, UN Environment

With global population approaching 9 billion by 2050, huge demand will be placed on governments and the environment to provide sufficient food. Already, the world is searching for solutions to a series of global challenges unprecedented in their scale and complexity. Food insecurity, malnutrition, climate change, rural poverty and environmental degradation are all among them. Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly vulnerable to these threats because both supply-side and demand-side challenges are putting additional pressure on an already fragile food production system. Indeed, current systems of production will only be able to meet 13 percent of the continent’s food needs by 2050, while three out of four people added to the planet between now and 2100 will be born in the region.

In this context, building resilient and highly productive food systems in agriculture-dominated landscapes is imperative. Unfortunately, past attempts to solve this problem have largely focused on mechanized large-scale farms practicing monoculture that disrupt and deplete natural soil processes and contribute to global climate change, undermining long-term productivity and creating a cycle of chemical dependency. Achieving food security in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa is unimaginable without climate change adaptation and practices that not only support food production to meet people’s nutritional needs, but that also prevent soil erosion, conserve and provide clean water, recycle nutrients, and support the pollinators and biodiversity that underpin agricultural productivity. This calls for solutions based on ecological foundations. Ecosystem-based adaptation provides flexible, cost effective, and broadly applicable alternatives for building robust food systems that require fewer inputs while reducing the impacts of climate change.

As the global community crafts the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after 2015, it is crucial that approaches that serve multiple purposes and provide cross-cutting benefits are included.

New Paper Points the Way

A new paper titled “Using ecosystem-based adaptation actions to tackle food insecurity” provides innovative thinking and examples of how ecologically rooted landscape approaches can be used by smallholder African farmers to address the continent’s food and nutrition crisis.

For example, in Xai Xai, Mozambique, many households were experiencing an average of four to five months of food shortage every year, affecting mainly fishers. Thanks to regular drought and a changing climate, this coastal community needed other sources of food. Ecosystem-based adaptation approaches such as fish farming, crab farming, and mangrove reforestation were used to address this food insecurity. These community-based and community-led interventions helped enhance adaptive capacity, resulting in the establishment of fish ponds, crab growth cages and mangrove nurseries, directly benefiting 98 households (490 people).

The project provided seasonal labor for the household members involved in the activities. Families that once could only rely on sea fishing for a significant part of their diet are now involved in sustainable fish and crab farming and are raising enough food to sell surplus in the market. The income is used to purchase food that fills other dietary requirements and other goods for the households, ensuring food security and increasing the resilience of local communities to climate change. Additionally, because mangroves provide a nursery area for many important edible marine species like fish, crabs and shrimp, reforestation of mangroves ensures the continued productivity of this ecosystem. As expected, fishery productivity and yield have increased, contributing to enhanced food security. Thus, the introduction of crab farming is also having the effect of reducing the deforestation pressure on mangroves at the local level and creating demand for mangrove nurseries and restoration activities that provide yet another alternative economic activity.

According to Steiner 2011[1], it is imperative that a new agriculture be found to feed the world’s population both efficiently and equitably. Increases in food production over the past fifty years have come at the cost of biodiversity and ecosystem service provision, yet there is considerable evidence that diverse agro-ecological systems can be equally  productive, if not more so in terms of actual yield outputs, notwithstanding the biodiversity benefits of such approaches. Managing landscapes on a multi-functional basis that combines food production, biodiversity conservation and the maintenance of ecosystem services should be at the forefront of efforts to achieve food security and climate change adaptation. Investment in ecosystem-based adaptation is one of the most important keys to contribute to poverty eradication and to sustainable long-term food security.

Dr. Richard Munang is the Climate Change Regional Coordinator for the Africa Climate Change Adaptation Programme of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
Dr. Keith Alverson is the Head of the Climate Change Adaptation and Terrestrial Ecosystems Branch of the Division on Environmental Policy Implementation, UNEP.
Dr. Elizabeth Migongo-Bake is the Task Manager for Ecosystems Based Approach in Agricultural Landscapes at UNEP
 
 
Photo: Aquila via Compfight
 

[1] Steiner, A. 2011. Conservation and farming must learn to live together. New Scientist 210(2808):28- 29.

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