towards climate resilient agricultural and pastoral ... · biodiversity is under pressure and often...

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A summary prepared by TREE AID of the full report published August 2014 by CARE International UK, RBM, SNV and TREE AID under the DFID-funded Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) programme. Authors: Monica L. Wrobel, Tony Hill, Ellen A. Bean, Mark Mulligan, Sophia Burke, Josh Allen, Felicity Roos and Angie Dazé (© CARE International UK, RBM, SNV, TREE AID, August 2014)

A synopsis of programme design considerations under the constraints of select natural resources, capacity and climate in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger

Project Summary

Building Resilience Without Borders in the Sahel

TOWARDS CLIMATE RESILIENT AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This is a summary of the original study produced by TREE AID on behalf of the consortium of CARE International UK, RBM (Réseau Billital Maroobé – the network of pastoralist associations in Niger), SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) and TREE AID. Funding was provided from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) under their programme, Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED). The study was published as part of the project development phase for Building Resilience Without Borders in the Sahel (BRWB), to be delivered by CARE, RBM, SNV and TREE AID. The BRWB project aims to support vulnerable women and men in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to adapt to climate extremes. The authors wish to thank and acknowledge those representing the consortium partners CARE, RBM, SNV and TREE AID, together with technical partners ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) and AGRHYMET (the regional centre for drought control in the Sahel), for supporting the concept and their role in the evolution of the project proposal design. We thank consortium members Karl Deering, Catherine Pettengell, Joost Nelen, Catherine La Come and Philip Goodwin were instrumental in designing and submitting the initial project concept. Richard Ashiagbor and Alastair Whitson of CARE did much to support the production of the written documents. AmbioTEK and the Department of Geography at Kings College London analysed spatial datasets and produced the suite of maps for the project area using their mapping tool, WaterWorld. Jocelyn Ziemian provided very welcome support in the editing of the document. Proof reading for the French translation of the full report was essential and appreciated from Ludovic Conditamdé and the TREE AID team in West Africa, and Severine Ethanchu.

© CARE International UK, RBM, SNV, TREE AID, August 2014

Cover photo: Women in Barsalogho, Burkina Faso, after harvesting leaves from a pollarded baobab tree © TREE AID/Mike Goldwater

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Variation in rainfall, temperature and unpredictable growing seasons can lead to serious consequences for impoverished people who are disproportionately affected by climatic extremes and disasters. For those living in the Sahel region of Africa, such recurring events can have devastating impacts upon health, nutrition, and household assets. There is no single technique that will be transformative for small holder farming. However it is possible to promote ‘resilience thinking’; low-tech solutions for water access, crop, fodder and tree production; and large scale integrative planning to allow for movement of pastoralists, diversification of livelihoods and rational access to vegetation. Building resilience is achievable through the provision of information and support to farmer innovations and learning which diversify incomes and ensure stable crop yields under highly variable climatic conditions predicted for the region. By including women and other disadvantaged groups as well as considering the position of both farmers and wider-ranging pastoralists, a resilience programme that promotes community-level and cross-border agreements will be integrative and possible to implement at scale. It should improve the sustainable management of natural resources, giving farmers the ability to cope with climatic extremes without a detrimental effect to their livelihoods and which will engender resilience thinking for alternatives when necessary.

WHAT IS ‘RESILIENCE’?

The term ‘resilience’ may be defined as the ability of a system to absorb disturbance and still retain its basic function and structure. It may therefore incorporate the concept of sustainability whereby current demands are met without eroding the potential to meet future needs (Walker and Salt 2006)1. The term can be applied both to ecological systems, for example, a response in an ecological system after a wildfire; and to social systems, for example, how people and governing bodies respond to shocks and stresses currently and their preparedness for the future under potential climate change scenarios. BRWB aims to build the climate resilience of nearly 900,000 women and men in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger by facilitating change in three key areas:

• improving relevance of, access to and use of climate information services for planning and risk management;

• scaling up access to and adoption of sustainable and climate-resilient livelihood options; and

• promoting equitable, sustainable and climate-resilient governance of natural resources.

As part of the project design, a review was conducted of potentially relevant and appropriate technologies for climate resilient agroforestry and crop production in the geographical target area that spans agro-pastoral and pastoral zones from eastern Mali, through northern Burkina Faso to north-western Niger.

1 Walker, B.H. and Salt, D. (2006) Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World. Island Press, Washington.

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CONTEXT IN THE SAHEL

Climate variability, including drought events, is a defining feature of dryland ecosystems in the Sahel. The people of the Sahel have evolved their livelihood strategies to manage this variability, through mobility, diversification of income generating activities and traditional land management systems. However, their inherent resilience has been progressively undermined by a range of factors that includes: poor governance and management of natural resources; marginalisation of traditional institutions; population growth; inadequate or inappropriate policies; market and price instability; and growing insecurity and conflict. The result is chronic poverty, malnutrition, decreasing assets and increasing debt, leaving people with limited options to cope during climate extremes.

Severe droughts in 1973-1974 and 1984 led to widespread famine and loss of livestock. Many households still have not recovered from the 1984 drought, which was devastating in its impact on health, nutrition and losses to people’s household asset base. Less-severe droughts occurred in 1988 and 1993, and the region has experienced a number of abnormally dry years since then.

In general, communities have reported land degradation, decreasing vegetative cover, pasture and crop yields, and increasing tensions over the critical resources of water, wood and pasture. When the frequency of dry years increases it leaves people with little time to recuperate from one crisis before the next one arrives.

Mobility is restricted or constrained with a lack of peace and security or when people wish to avoid potential conflict about the use of land.

In agro-pastoral and agricultural areas, dry periods undermine crop productivity, in some seasons resulting in complete harvest failure. Fish stocks are also said to be decreasing, jeopardising another important food source. For the women, men and children who depend on livestock, agriculture and fishing, these effects have serious consequences for food and income security, with ensuing effects on nutrition, health, education and social cohesion.

In northern areas pastoral production dominates livelihoods. The impacts of low rainfall and poor pasture productivity on livestock are an immediate concern, disturbing the balance between levels of livestock and the carrying capacity of the land to support the need for grazing. Consequent constraints on access to water and fodder have negative impacts on animal health and productivity, in the worst cases forcing the sale of animals at a low value or causing livestock death.

Biodiversity is under pressure and often over-harvested. Communities have observed the disappearance of various indigenous plants, animals and birds from systems which should be well adapted to recurring droughts.

Water availability is an increasing concern where rates of water removal exceed replenishment of lakes, rivers and groundwater.

Indirectly, droughts and low rainfall can exacerbate land degradation. When

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climate extremes affect food and income security, people are driven to seek alternatives. People cope with crop failure and low income by extracting what they can from the land unsustainably, which damages soil fertility and reduces numbers of trees.

Another common coping strategy is the unplanned sale of livestock or the sale of other assets. Pastoralists who no longer own livestock are forced to settle and attempt to grow crops on unsuitable land, trying to feed their families, earn money and reconstitute their herd. Conversely on farmland, dwindling yields force farmers to seek other sources of income such as diversification into livestock herding where the result can be insufficient grazing land for all. People migrate to neighbouring countries for paid work as a coping strategy (seasonal or longer term) to earn income for food and other basic needs. All of these changes can affect the social fibre of communities.

The sale of assets is not an option for the poorest women and men, who are forced to engage in manual labour or to seek aid in the form of food or cash, or to over-exploit common resources. When all else fails, people resort to collective prayer. These latter responses are symptomatic of narrowing options consequent from recurrent shocks, erosion of the household asset base, increasing pressure on natural resources, inequities in decision-making power and access to and control over resources.

CONSTRAINTS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS

Climate extremes particularly impact women in the Sahel. They carry primary responsibility in the household for coping with chronic malnutrition and food insecurity. This increased burden is exacerbated by gender inequality. The lack of women’s empowerment over household or community resources is out of balance with their increasing role in responding to the effects of climate change. Unequal division of labour or an unbalanced time budget for women (collecting water and fuelwood, caring for the family, planting crops) is compounded by the additional barriers to their rights over land and labour.

Reliance on highly climate-sensitive resources can aggravate gender inequality (for example, when food is scarce, families may be more anxious to arrange marriages for young girls). Early marriage and childbirth constrain the ability of women to access education, develop skills, engage in productive activities and accumulate assets, resulting in persistent female illiteracy. Gender dynamics vary across the area based on ethnicity, livelihood system and socio-economic status.

Barriers to protecting or diversifying livelihoods and building resilience are context-specific, such as the perceived roles for women and men. This is an important consideration in assessing the appropriateness and use of different approaches for agroforestry and crop production on the welfare and nutritional security of women and their children.

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CLIMATE MODELLING AND NATURAL RESOURCES REVIEW

The review of existing natural resources together with the interpretation of climate models suggests important implications for farming household choices and wider integrated planning. The outputs of the analysis, maps and interpretations, are included in the full report on pages 11-17. • Local ecosystems and the people that

depend on them can ill afford further degradation of the vegetation. Erosion prevention and maintenance of soil nutrients equates to banking for the future.

• Climate trends are likely to exacerbate

water stress throughout the project area.

• Adopting techniques to harvest,

capture and retain water is a paramount necessity. Improved understanding of current and future water balances and groundwater recharge is a short-term imperative.

• Historically the maintenance of tree

cover in the farming landscape has provided numerous environmental and economic services, serving as an important element of traditional drought-resilient land-use strategies. To protect and restore such services the most practical alternative is the application of agroforestry approaches within food production systems.

• The growing season in the project area

will likely remain short and unpredictable in the north, with the effects of increased spatial and temporal changes on plant productivity. There is a premium on maintaining

mobility for efficient livestock production.

• Maintaining crop and natural

vegetative productivity, along with soil health, requires the adoption of wider-scale soil, water and vegetation management to accommodate the effects of variable rainfall levels and higher temperatures.

• Even if/where increased rainfall extends

the length of the growing season, higher temperatures can be expected to reduce plant maturation rates/time to flowering, with concomitant negative impact on grain/ seed yield.

• At the drier, less warm end of the

spectrum of probable climate scenarios, growing season may be curtailed from a three month period to two months in over half of the project target area. At the wetter, warmer end of the spectrum of climate scenarios, growing season may increase by one to two months over the majority of the project target area, with up to a four month increase in the north-east portion of the project target area. The choice of crop varieties will not be a matter of simply selecting faster growing or higher yielding varieties when the growing season may be highly variable, and given the complex interactions between the environmental conditions and plant physiology.

• The farmer’s choice must be informed

by an understanding of the innate characteristics of each crop variety and how these may express themselves across a range of variable and unpredictable climatic conditions. This is discussed in a text box in the section on photosensitivity versus photoinsensitivity (many modern cultivars) on Page 19 of the full report.

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A farmer in Yako, Burkina Faso, mulches tree leaves from his farm plot into the ‘zai’ pits dug in the earth, to provide nutrients to crop seedlings and retain soil moisture. Photograph by Mike Goldwater EXPLORING RESOURCE AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR THE SAHEL Conclusions were drawn from a review of general studies which are detailed in the full report in Sections 4.1 – 4.5 on pages 19-34. Crop technologies (crop varieties and cultivars, microdosing) Farmers must continue to improve their crop systems under an increasingly variable climate, making judgements about the benefits and disadvantages of modified crop varieties which may mature faster and give higher yields, but may adapt less well to higher temperatures, compared to crop races that farmers themselves have been refining over many generations. Agricultural water conservation and management Some farmers have already adapted low-tech on-farm water management practices to increase efficiency of water-use and retention of water in the landscape. These techniques need to be compared with the costs and benefits of more capital intensive micro-irrigation techniques and equipment. Soil conservation and management (conservation agriculture) Soil management measures and agro-ecological production to increase soil fertility and reduce erosion can be further promoted and scaled up beyond local practice. However, utilisation of

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techniques such as soil bunds and organic manure pits may result in a shift in the labour burden which may be to the disadvantage of women. Agroforestry and tree species management Mixing trees and crops in production systems that enhance agricultural production, soil fertility and groundwater recharge could be practiced on a much wider scale, as could Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration of drought-adapted indigenous trees. Integrative land use planning Pressure on grazing can be addressed through the protection and regeneration of forest and livestock range to improve soil stability and fertility of landscape productivity; integrated plans/agreements can prevent conflicts between agricultural extensification and livestock grazing needs (eg tree- and fodder-banking for times of crisis) and also promote off-farm water, soil and nutrient management.

BUILDING RESILIENCE AT SCALE IN THE SAHEL

Independent of the technologies and approaches employed at household or community levels there is a strong case for integrative planning (as presented in section 4.5 of the full report). This is the best option in the face of increasing uncertainty, frequent scarcity of resources and to accommodate the mobility of people and livestock which is integral to traditional climate adaptation strategies. Interventions at landscape scale, including agroforestry and agricultural water management, can deliver environmental services (notably groundwater re-charge), whilst reducing risk and promoting the diversification of livelihood options. There are pragmatic examples of building community resilience yet giving direct benefits to individuals, such as wide-scale collective planning about grazing lands and trees set aside until urgently needed. Another example is the potential for collective buying power to create demand in remote areas for products such as fertiliser, and for it to be sold in smaller, affordable amounts.

TREE-BANKING Tree-bankng is concept developed by TREE AID, as a stock of tree resources specifically identified, governed and managed by dryland communities with the aim of building household and community resilience to environmental and economic shocks. Communities might establish thresholds by which the trees might be used, and regulate their use to ensure they are available to the community in the event of a climate event or disaster, or the agreement may include ongoing, low level draw-down of the resource. They are distinct from fodder banks (planting of trees and shrubs particularly useful for livestock) in that people have the ability to derive household foods and income directly from non-timber forest products. In some cases, the regulation and fee generation from cut and carry fodder, sale of non-timber forest products and limited pollarding for fuelwood can enhance local livelihoods through microenterprises and in turn generate funds for monitoring and regulating the resource. Mechanisms for investment can also include adopting schemes that produce carbon credit payments for stocks held eg voluntary carbon schemes such as Plan Vivo or potential Payments for Environmental Services (PES) from third parties such as water authorities. Tree-banking increases the visibility of benefits that local communities derive from trees. It also increases local roles in protecting and managing tree resources for longer term sustainability. This helps to discourage and reduce overuse and depletion of the resource through, for example, unregulated timber and charcoal extraction or unregulated livestock grazing.

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We can achieve the scale necessary to tackle the vulnerability of people in the Sahel by: inclusive planning; carefully brokered agreements on their rights of access; management and monitoring of resources supported by trustworthy information sources for all parties; and an understanding of the drivers behind decision-making and the likelihood of uptake.

Key drivers for employing adaptive techniques

We assessed studies and ‘best practice’ cited by researchers examining attempts to promote ‘resilience thinking’ in the face of climate change. Some of the key drivers for people to employ adaptive techniques such as agroforestry are: • Necessity – when people can’t rely on products such as fertiliser to help with their crops (due to prohibitive costs or scarcity), or have a clear need for food, fibre, nutrition and need income and coping alternatives to their usual or past practices • Improved access to knowledge – when people will consider trying new planting techniques or different varieties of plants, especially when they are in contact with another local farmer who has tried it with success. • At least some short-term returns on the time, cost and labour spent ‘on farm’ (such as investing in trees in farm plots or leaving some trees and fodder as “set aside”) to help accept that in the longer term people will have buffers against risk. • Communal planning that not only protects resources for the future but offers the potential for individuals to receive short-term gains (tree- and fodder-banks, income from NTFPs2); if communities collectively agree on the land-uses within their areas they can also be provided with short-term security over land tenure and land management. • Information sources that are trusted and considered relevant by local people, so they will act on the information in making decisions about where to herd animals, gain access to water, how to avoid conflict in growing crops versus grazing land, decide on investments in major assets such as water pumps, and to invest in new livelihood options to manage climate risks.

Empowering women and other vulnerable groups

In order to recognise and cater to differences in gender roles and other groups within communities (such as youth owning no land, or cultural and ethnic differences) we need to understand the various situations in which people have influence and power within their communities (or not) regarding access to and control over common resources, such as trees, land and water. Therefore it is important to raise awareness about the effect of decisions that communities may make on all groups of people. For women, giving opportunities to be empowered in decisions about climate-resilient agroforestry and crop production will require that barriers be addressed. This requires:

2 NTFPs – non-timber forest products

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• Use of participatory analyses to capture women’s perspectives and priorities (such as the tool developed by our partner CARE International: Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis model). • Recognition that it is not just men who should be making use of climate information and market intelligence to inform decisions on the family farm such as when to plant and when to sell, as women are balancing much of the workload themselves. • Support for women to group together, as they will often work best in groups: to overcome barriers (eg building a collective voice and leading by example to overcome the challenges of their labour and time burdens); to seize opportunities for learning new techniques and gaining income (such as from tree products); and to learn from each other as to achieving a higher status in their own household. • External support needs to address inequality in access to natural resources. Women may struggle to change attitudes and local bylaws governing how and where they collect tree products for example, or collect water or sustainably cut firewood close to home. So projects can help to organise discussion with local and religious authorities and traditional natural resource governance leadership (such as land chiefs) to let women put forward their case about access to land and other resources. • Support for business literacy to enable women, including the illiterate, to become business women, form savings and loans clubs, work together to learn techniques for processing goods (such as harvesting honey or making higher quality shea butter), getting their goods to market and achieving higher prices.

CONCLUSIONS

Options for people of the Sahel ‘on farm’ must fit with traditional farming practices or help people solve problems and yet take measured risks – promoting ‘resilience thinking’. There is a spectrum of technologies available which vary in cost and accessibility to a poor farmer in the Sahel, such as irrigation equipment, fertiliser and mulch. The returns on investment and the allocation of human labour, and specifically a woman’s efforts and her time available to adopt different techniques, needs to be considered given the limited time she has to fulfil many domestic duties and family responsibilities. We must recognise that no single technique will be transformative for rain-fed, smallholder farming. However, we can conclude that household food security could be increased and the proportion of household income needed to buy food could be consistently reduced. There is a basic need to provide information and support for farmers to learn about new techniques and group together to stabilise yields and diversify methods of producing food and earning income under variable conditions, and thereby stabilise yields. To deliver resilience at scale, the promotion of individual resilience strategies ‘on-farm’ needs to be combined with community planning ‘off-farm’ to reach a wider geography.

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Integrating livestock herders in decisions at the larger scale of the project target area is essential for land use and decision-making about mobility that is based upon security, trustworthy information-brokering and conflict prevention. By facilitating community level agreements, a resilience programme can ensure the sustainable management of micro-catchments and tree resources, nested within broader agreements for an entire water basin across commune and cross-border jurisdictions to regulate the use of water, soil, tree and fodder resources. The current state of the project area is a water-stressed system. The interpretations of the climate projections underscore that agricultural and pastoral production strategies and commodities must be developed in a coordinated and inclusive fashion.

CARE International UK 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP UK www.careinternational.org.uk Registered charity number 292506 Réseau Billital Maroobe (RBM) BP : 10648, Niamey Niger www.maroobe.org SNV Dr Kuyperstraat 5 2514 BA, The Hague The Netherlands www.snvworld.org TREE AID Brunswick Court Brunswick Square Bristol BS2 8PE UK www.treeaid.org.uk

Building Resilience Without Borders in the Sahel © CARE International UK, RBM, SNV, TREE AID, August 2014

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