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

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However, degradation is not an inevitable result of climate variability and change. For
example, many of the predicted rainfall and length of growing season decreases will not be new
to communities although they will increase in prevalence. The impact of such events much
depends on the capacity of households and communities to mitigate and adapt to such changes.
As an example, in the Makindu area of Kenya, the average length of growing period (LGP) could
decrease by 5-10% by the year 2050, when temperatures are predicted to have increased by 1-
2 o C (Thornton et al 2006). However, Cooper et al (2009) note that even today farmers at
Makindu experience LGP’s ranging from 25 days (crop failure) to over 175 days. Thus, a 5-10%
decrease in the average LGP is unlikely to result in farmers having to cope in the future with a
situation that they have not and are not already experiencing; existing sustainable land and water
management technologies to meet current climate variability can therefore help farmers
immensely to cope with future climate change (Cooper et al 2009). Thus, adapting to more
frequent extreme climate events will likely be the larger challenge for African farmers. This will
require concerted efforts on the part of local institutions and national policy makers, a theme
which will be addressed in section 4.
3.2.2 Climate change also may offer new opportunities for improved land management and
livelihoods
While much of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to face harsher agro-climatic conditions, some
areas are predicted to improve. For example, under certain climate change scenarios through
2050, large areas of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria are
predicted to experience an increase in the length of growing period (Thornton et al, 2006),
leading to potentially higher agricultural productivity in such areas. This in turn may offer
greater incentives for investment in agriculture and land management. Increased carbon dioxide
from climate change is expected to have a positive effect on plant growth for many C3 plants
such as rice, wheat, soybeans, legumes, and most trees (Cline 2007). This is through the
stimulus of CO 2 , for a given level of water and sunlight, on the photosynthesis process which
produces energy for plant growth.
With climate change markets for greenhouse gas emission reduction and carbon
sequestration have emerged, promoted by the Kyoto Protocol and voluntary markets.
Furthermore, in late 2005, a process was initiated to develop a formal program for financing of
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