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

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• increased integration of climate change adaptation and mitigation activities, including
SLM investments, into the broader development and poverty reduction strategies and
programs of African governments and in multilateral and bilateral ODA. The
commitment of governments and development partners to substantially increase funding
for agricultural research and development in Africa, as advocated in the 2008 World
Development Report and in line with the Maputo Declaration and the CAADP agenda,
represents a particularly important opportunity for achieving increased SLM investment
for climate change mitigation and adaptation, if these activities are fully integrated into
the agricultural development strategies of African countries and development partners.
In pursuing these opportunities, it will be essential to continue to build on the momentum
that has been established by partnerships and coalitions such as TerrAfrica, strengthening the
linkages among organizations traditionally focused more on climate change, biodiversity or other
environmental issues; those traditionally focused more on land degradation and sustainable land
management issues; and those traditionally focused more on agricultural productivity issues.
Success will depend greatly upon the ability of governments, donors, civil society organizations,
the private sector and land users to work together to achieve the synergies that are possible
among the objectives of mitigating and adapting to climate change and variability, promoting
sustainable management of land and other natural resources, ensuring biodiversity conservation,
increasing agricultural productivity, and reducing poverty in SSA.
In the future, many new opportunities to expand these efforts may become available.
Particularly important are opportunities that may result from the post-Kyoto treaty on climate
change. Among the exciting new opportunities are the potential development of a cap and trade
system in the United States, and inclusion of REDD and AFOLU projects in the post-Kyoto
CDM framework. We discuss each of these opportunities briefly.
Involvement of the United States in climate mitigation
With the election of President Barack Obama and Democratic majorities to both houses of
Congress in November, 2008, the prospects for the United States to ratify a post-Kyoto treaty on
climate change appear to have significantly improved. President Obama has announced that one
of the top priorities of his administration will be addressing U.S. energy security and global
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