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Land restoration in food security programmes: synergies with climate change mitigation

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  • Dominic Woolf
  • Dawit Solomon
  • Johannes Lehmann

Abstract

Food-insecure households in many countries depend on international aid to alleviate acute shocks and chronic shortages. Some food security programmes (including Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program–PSNP – which provides a case study for this article) have integrated aid in exchange for labour on public works to reduce long-term dependence by investing in the productive capacity and resilience of communities. Using this approach, Ethiopia has embarked upon an ambitious national programme of land restoration and sustainable land management. Although the intent was to reduce poverty, here we show that an unintended co-benefit is the climate-change mitigation from reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increased landscape carbon stocks. The article first shows that the total reduction in net GHG emissions from PSNP’s land management at the national scale is estimated at 3.4 million Mg CO2e y−1 – approximately 1.5% of the emissions reductions in Ethiopia’s Nationally Determined Contribution for the Paris Agreement. The article then explores some of the opportunities and constraints to scaling up of this impact.Key policy insightsFood security programmes (FSPs) can contribute to climate change mitigation by creating a vehicle for investment in land and ecosystem restoration. Maximizing mitigation, while enhancing but not compromising food security, requires that climate projections, and mitigation and adaptation responses should be mainstreamed into planning and implementation of FSPs at all levels. Cross-cutting oversight is required to integrate land restoration, climate policy, food security and disaster risk management into a coherent policy framework. Institutional barriers to optimal implementation should be addressed, such as incentive mechanisms that reward effort rather than results, and lack of centralized monitoring and evaluation of impacts on the physical environment. Project implementation can often be improved by adopting best management practices, such as using productive living livestock barriers where possible, and increasing the integration of agroforestry and non-timber forest products into landscape regeneration.

Suggested Citation

  • Dominic Woolf & Dawit Solomon & Johannes Lehmann, 2018. "Land restoration in food security programmes: synergies with climate change mitigation," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(10), pages 1260-1270, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:18:y:2018:i:10:p:1260-1270
    DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2018.1427537
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Shigute, Z., 2019. "Community participation and the quality of rural infrastructure in Ethiopia," ISS Working Papers - General Series 643, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    2. Gebeyanesh Zerssa & Debela Feyssa & Dong-Gill Kim & Bettina Eichler-Löbermann, 2021. "Challenges of Smallholder Farming in Ethiopia and Opportunities by Adopting Climate-Smart Agriculture," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-26, February.
    3. Hare Krisna Kundo & Martin Brueckner & Rochelle Spencer & John Davis, 2021. "Mainstreaming climate adaptation into social protection: The issues yet to be addressed," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(6), pages 953-974, August.
    4. Zhe (Han) Weng & Lukas Zwieten & Ehsan Tavakkoli & Michael T. Rose & Bhupinder Pal Singh & Stephen Joseph & Lynne M. Macdonald & Stephen Kimber & Stephen Morris & Terry J. Rose & Braulio S. Archanjo &, 2022. "Microspectroscopic visualization of how biochar lifts the soil organic carbon ceiling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Zemzem Shigute, 2022. "Community Participation and the Quality of Rural Infrastructure in Ethiopia," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 31(4), pages 355-383.
    6. David O’Byrne & Altaaf Mechiche-Alami & Anna Tengberg & Lennart Olsson, 2022. "The Social Impacts of Sustainable Land Management in Great Green Wall Countries: An Evaluative Framework Based on the Capability Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-26, February.
    7. Scognamillo, Antonio & Mastrorillo, Marina & Ignaciuk, Adriana, 2024. "One for all and all for one: Increasing the adaptive capacity of households and communities through a public work programme," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

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