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

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5. CONCLUSIONS
In this report, we have reviewed available evidence on climate variability and change and land
degradation in SSA; assessed the potential for SLM approaches to help mitigate and adapt to
these problems; reviewed the policies and strategies being used to promote climate mitigation
and adaptation; identified key opportunities and constraints to improve mitigation and adaptation
through SLM; and identified options to achieve the opportunities and overcome the constraints.
Several key messages emerge from the review:
Climate change and variability in SSA
• SSA is highly vulnerable to climate variability and change.
o The impacts of climate variability have increased in SSA in recent decades, and
are expected to continue to do so as a result of climate change.
o The impacts of climate change on future land use, agriculture and food security
are predicted to be negative throughout much of Africa, as a result of rising
temperatures everywhere, and declining and more variable rainfall in many
locations.
• These impacts will exacerbate and be exacerbated by widespread land degradation in
SSA.
Linkages between land degradation, SLM and climate change in SSA
• Land degradation is widespread in SSA, especially in drylands and forest margin areas,
caused mainly by conversion of forests, woodlands and rangelands to crop production;
overgrazing of rangelands; and unsustainable agricultural practices on croplands.
• Climate variability and change can contribute to land degradation by making current land
use practices unsustainable and inducing more rapid conversion of land to unsustainable
uses.
• However, climate change also can offer new opportunities for sustainable land
management, by increasing temperature and rainfall in some environments, through CO 2
fertilization effects, or through the development of markets for mitigating greenhouse gas
emissions.
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