The Role of Sustainable Land Management for Climate ... - CAADP

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1. Introduction
Climate variability and change are major threats for developing countries, especially for the
people of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The high dependence of the economies and rural people of
SSA upon rainfed agriculture, the prevalence of poverty and food insecurity, and limited
development of institutional and infrastructural capacities in this region make coping with
natural climate variability a perennial challenge. This challenge is being magnified by global
climate change, which is predicted by many models to have some of the most negative impacts
on agricultural production in tropical and sub-tropical regions, and especially in parts of SSA
(Cline 2007; Lobell et al. 2008). Higher temperatures throughout SSA are causing increased
evapotranspiration, shorter growing periods, drying of the soil, increased pest and disease
pressure, shifts in suitable areas for growing crops and livestock, and other problems for
agriculture. Climate change is also expected to cause increased variability of rainfall in much of
SSA, and increased intensity and frequency of extreme events, including droughts, floods, and
storms.
Concerted and effective responses by governments, civil society, the private sector,
communities and individuals are necessary to address the challenges posed by climate variability
and change. At the global level, much emphasis has been placed to date on mitigating climate
change caused by emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) through international actions to
implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
particularly through the Kyoto Protocol, as well as other government and private mitigation
initiatives. Despite these actions, it is now widely recognized that it is unlikely that levels of
GHG can be kept low enough to avoid significant adverse impacts from global warming. As a
result, the need to adapt to climate change is increasingly recognized as well, although less
progress has been made toward international action to address this need.
Many actions are needed to mitigate and adapt to climate variability and change. At a
global level, most mitigation activities have focused on reducing emissions of GHG through
improvements in the energy efficiency of industrial activities. Few of these activities have been
in SSA, given the low level of industrialization of this region. Large economic potential also
exists to help mitigate climate change through activities related to agriculture, forestry and land
use (AFOLU), such as afforestation and reforestation, avoiding deforestation and forest
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