17 – 20 June 2009, Chiang Mai, The use of agrobiodiversity by indigenous peoples and rural communities in adapting to climate change

An analysis of agrobiodiversity as a coping strategy to deal with

climate change

Paul Bordoni

www.agrobiodiversityplatform.org/climate_change

Overview

• Where are we topicwise?• What do we hope for?• Where do we come from?• Indigenous & traditional farmers show us the way• Good practices

– Water & soil– Crops– Animals– Insects, pollinators and the environmental

service they provide– Indigenous forecasting

• What can our workshop in Chiang Mai come up with?• What should be our next steps?

• Increase in population• Decrease in the production• Intensification of climate related disasters

and consequently • Increased chances of conflict over scarce resources

– Bangladeshis for example: 70% of them rely on agriculture. 1 degree C increase in the mean T would reduce rice production by 10%. Furthermore Bangladesh has a limited capacity to adapt as between 1974 and 2003 it faced 174 disasters

• The stressors are not merely of climatic nature but also – Social– Political– Economic

Where are we topicwise?

• 3 type of hazards and each of them requires different adaptation strategies

– Discrete recurrent - e.g. storms, droughts, heavy rainfallEarly warning system, disaster reduction strategies

– Continuous - e.g. increase in temperature, decrease in precipitation. Occurs over many years or decades.Evolution of new livelihood approaches

– Discrete singular - shift in climate regimes due to changes in ocean circulationPoorly understood. Might require abandonment of existing lifestyles

Different hazards

What do we hope for?

• Indigenous People and traditional farming communities:– Secure livelihoods– Resource rights– Cultural survival and renewal– Food sovereignty

• Coping with climate change – Enhanced resilience– Reduced vulnerability– Increased adaptability– Monitoring capacity

Where do we come from?

• The Christensen Funds supports the projects’ work

• The Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research is implementing the project

• Bioversity International hosts the secretariat of “The Platform” and the project

• A first workshop was held in FAO, February 08

A website with a blog and discussion forum to

stimulate communication amongst agrobiodiversity

researchers, users and maintainers

A collection of peer reviewed publications & website, databases and

relevant newsletters. A list of experts to be extended.

• Indigenous People respond in a different way to climate change

• Indigenous People and Agrobiodiversity are ignored in the debate

• Tapping into their experiences gives us to gain from an historical perspective of adaptation to change

– !Adaptations are local and context specific!

Indigenous peoples & traditional farmers show us the way

Some points

• We do not want to tell each others how bad it is

• Salience - people generally take into account only what the they are directly concerned with – we should look beyond our nose

• Focus on communities’ responses considering the human dimension

• Importance of social networks

– Allow capacity building, exchange of material and building influence through the horizontal and vertical links of the social networks that tie communities

– Documenting experiences provides the opportunity to learn from each other, transfer technologies and lobby effectively

Communities - social entities

Good practices

instead of going along the ecosystem lines• Water & soil• Crops• Livestock• Insects, pollinators and the environmental service

they provide• Indigenous forecasting the importance of Traditional

Knowledge

Water & soil

• Qhuthañas in Bolivia - traditional water harvesting

• Flood water harvesting in Ethiopia – traditional water management/irrigation/engineering

• Bamboo stems for drip irrigation in Bhutan - traditional water managementIrrigation /engineering - adaptation from the PET pipe drip irrigation

Daldals in northern Tigray, Ethiopia

• New farmland created

• Contains the formation of gullies

• Availability of well-filtered water from the foot of the lowest dam can be collected throughout of the year

Traditional micro-catchment rainwater harvesting systems, Burkina Faso

• Develop innovative ways to catch, store and distribute water

• Improves soil structure• Digging holes or 'basins'

that store rainwater• Sorghum can easily adapt to

possible temporary hydromorphic conditions in the hole

• Research is being carried out to mechanise the technique

Dambos

• In Kasungu District, Malawi– land and water wells over exploited and degraded;

population is growing = food insecurity– additional income by clear cutting the forests in the

hills, irrigation from perennial streams and rivers and the utilisation of the vast dambos (grassland plains along the rivers with seasonally high water levels)

• Water resources are overused, erosion of the hills and dambos is taking place. After the forest vegetation is gone and much of the top soil has washed away, water storage is also heavily reduced. Eventually, also these dambos, their last resorts, might be turned into dry and infertile wastelands.

Malawi and Zambia: Simlemba wetlands(a Wetlands international project)

• protection of the forests on the hills to stop erosion• different ploughing techniques• using crops that need less water• maintenance of the wells• communities organise themselves, to prevent

individuals to overexploit the remaining wells, dambos and forest and to jointly work on protects like fencing of wells or replanting of degraded forest areas

• protection of the forests on the hills to stop erosion• different ploughing techniques• using crops that need less water• maintenance of the wells• communities organise themselves, to prevent

individuals to overexploit the remaining wells, dambos and forest and to jointly work on protects like fencing of wells or replanting of degraded forest areas -

-> Diversity as water management strategy Diversity as water management strategy and value of the social networkand value of the social network

Recommendations: Water & soil

• Capitalise on the low cost, traditional water management and soil conservation/rehabilitation

• Transfer of technology

• Always consider soil and water together (Although other components belong to the picture as well)

• Encourage communication - farmers recognise good practices that maintain their public good and share them across the community

Crops

• Selecting, conserving and using drought, flood resistant or salt tolerant varieties (Rajasthan)

• Community seed banks that maintain diversity – an insurance during periods of uncertainty

• Participatory seed priming (soaking) as a method to increase germinability in drought prone areas

• Traditional seed storage methods (Egypt)• Using a mix of varieties (sorghum and millet) as a safety

net• Picking of wild foods• Agroforestry to improvement of water utilization and

conservation, as buffer against change and as a carbon sink

• Floating gardens (Bangladesh)

Participatory Plant Breeding for Climate Change Adaptation -the case of FIPAH/Honduras and new Santa Cruz

and Capulin Mejorado varieties • farmers of Santa Cruz in the mountainous Yoro region

released two new varieties of corn • the new varieties are based on a local or ‘landrace’

variety that has large cobs but also tall stalks • the new ones have large cobs but short stalks • adapted to high altitude conditions, resistant to heavy

rain and strong winds

-> Local seeds banks, breeding and selection approaches Local seeds banks, breeding and selection approaches have a great protential to mitigate climate change have a great protential to mitigate climate change impactimpact

• farmers of Santa Cruz in the mountainous Yoro region released two new varieties of corn

• the new varieties are based on a local or ‘landrace’ variety that has large cobs but also tall stalks

• the new ones have large cobs but short stalks • adapted to high altitude conditions, resistant to heavy

rain and strong winds

IFAD-NUS project(Building & strengthening gene pools)

-> Build gene pools to secure diversity as a tool toBuild gene pools to secure diversity as a tool tomitigate climate changemitigate climate change

Diversity Field Fora (DFF) give opportunities to farmers to test cultivars and technologies adapted to their changing environment

Thanks to DFF, old and interesting cultivars that have disappeared are re-introduced from other villages or neighbouring countries

Improved varieties proposed by Research that present good adaptation characteristics are selected and adopted by farmers

To mitigate effects of climate change on existing gene pool, farmers develop innovative strategies for domesticating wild species

Diversity Field Fora (DFF) give opportunities to farmers to test cultivars and technologies adapted to their changing environment

Thanks to DFF, old and interesting cultivars that have disappeared are re-introduced from other villages or neighbouring countries

Improved varieties proposed by Research that present good adaptation characteristics are selected and adopted by farmers

To mitigate effects of climate change on existing gene pool, farmers develop innovative strategies for domesticating wild species

Livestock

• Rendille pastoralists northern Kenya which generally rely on their herds look out for wild fruits and vegetables for consumption.

• Switching eating habits in times of crisis is possible for these pastoralists only if the knowledge on wild fruits and vegetables is accessible and transmitted amongst the group members.

– Social network - importance of communication within the community

Livestock

• Moving with the herds

• Managing the herds e.g. herd accumulation, destocking, splitting

• Livelihood diversification: though it is difficult for pastoralists that engage in mining and farming activities to return be pastoralists only

• Sharing, loaning and giving of livestock as gifts

– Collective action to provide a social safety net that can carry vulnerable families through drought and flood events

Many different strategies are put in place by pastoralists- amongst them

Environmental services provided by Agrobiodiversity

• The diversity (animals, plants, soil biota) of traditional agro-ecosystems is an essential component in providing a number of key ecosystem services.

• Role of pollinators (that are decreasing tremendously and are under-investigated in conventional science)

• Diversification enhances resilience

Indigenous forecasting the importance of Traditional Knowledge

• Indigenous forecasting is based on behavioural patterns of animals, leaf fall, growth of particular plant species, water level in streams and ponds, length of a cold season, astronomic observations such as phases of the moon, and appearance of certain stars

• Unfortunately, due to increasing climate variability confidence amongst community members in the traditional, and often solely available, forecasts is declining…

Indigenous weather forecasting

Australian's Government bureau of meteorology forecasts including the knowledge indigenous Australians have based on the local sequence of natural events

What can What can our our workshop workshop in in Chiang Mai Chiang Mai

come up come up with?with?

• A framework made by diverse stakeholders

• Advocacy and awareness role

• Synthesis on tools and practices relevant to using agrobiodiversity for coping with climate change

• Define the share for the indigenous people

What What should should our next our next steps steps be?be?

• Take our findings at the policy level

• Generate a statement that can be brought to Copenhagen

• Set up a task force dedicated to ABD as an instrument to better cope with change that will unquestionably validate and strengthen our message celebrating food sovreignty, benefit to the resource holders

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www.agrobiodiversityplatform.org/climate_change