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

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degradation, soil and biomass carbon sequestration through improved cropland and rangeland
management and restoring degraded lands, and reduced GHG emissions through improved
management of livestock and manure, paddy production, and nitrogenous fertilizer. SSA could
contribute substantially to climate change mitigation through such activities. However, these
potentials are so far mostly untapped, largely because most of these activities are not eligible for
certified emissions reduction credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the
Kyoto Protocol, the largest carbon market for developing countries. Other major constraints
include the substantial challenges related to the feasibility and costs of establishing, monitoring
and verifying emissions reductions through projects related to such dispersed, small-scale
activities. Overcoming these constraints requires carbon markets to agree upon and accept simple
standards for measuring GHG offsets, and the development of institutions to monitor and enforce
small-scale activities.
Many of the mitigation actions related to agriculture, forestry and land can also help
people to adapt to climate change. For example, agroforestry activities can increase farmers’
agricultural productivity and income security by improving soil fertility, reducing vulnerability
to drought, and helping to diversify income sources, while also sequestering carbon. Water
harvesting, soil and water conservation measures, conservation agriculture, organic soil fertility
management and other sustainable land and water management practices can have similar
income and resilience enhancing impacts, and would also increase carbon sequestration and thus
reduce GHG emissions. Recognition of the potential of such land and water management
practices to help rural people adapt to climate change is increasing, as evidenced by the fact that
such measures are prioritized by almost all of the National Adaptation Programmes of Action
adopted in the region.
Sustainable land management (SLM) measures are also essential to address problems of
land degradation and associated poverty and food insecurity, as prioritized by all countries that
have ratified the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and to protect
and preserve biodiversity, as prioritized under the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD). Hence, there is potential to pursue several critical objectives synergistically through
promotion of SLM in SSA, helping to mitigate and adapt to climate change while reducing land
degradation, conserving biodiversity, and reducing poverty and food insecurity.
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