The challenge of HIV/AIDS: Where does agroforestry fit in? - World ...

Chapter 14: Environmental Services125plot to landscape scales, agrobiodiversityto wild biodiversity, biodiversity to ecosystemfunction and livelihoods, and linksnational systems, development agenciesand international conservation organizations.Specifically, research should identify:i) the role of biodiversity conservation inrisk management, system resilience andlivelihoods; and ii) native tree species thatare valuable but under threat, as prioritiesfor domestication. Location-specificresearch should be done in a way thatcontributes to the identification and negotiationof local solutions. The researchprogramme should cut across and integratethe four themes of ICRAF:• Land and People – concerned with below-groundbiodiversity and the ecosystemservices of biodiversity;• Trees and Markets – concerned withon-farm biodiversity and tree domestication;• Strengthening Institutions – concernedwith building capacity in biodiversityassessment and domestication; and• Environmental Services – concernedwith landscape-scale biodiversity.ICRAF should also be an information clearinghouse,providing storage, organizationand management for enhancing user access.The Centre should promote and convenenon-conventional partnerships:• be an active participant in research aswell as a convenor and catalyst of priorityresearch;• catalyse a Working Group on Biodiversitythat draws together diverse scientificperspectives (agriculture, conservation,development and social science) withinCGIAR and the international conventions;and• continue to be an active member inEcoagriculture Partners.ICRAF should play a vital role in raisingawareness and education, by:• catalysing development of educationalmaterials;• raising community-level awareness tostrengthen local processes; and• participating in sensitizing donors.Major ICRAF outputs for the next10 years in biodiversity:• Conduct a review and develop an actionplan for a strategic research programmethat moves the agricultural biodiversitydebate beyond landraces to ecosystemstructure and function at the landscapelevel.• Support the development of nationalpolicies that take account of the potentialcontributions of agroforestry to biodiversity.• Support landscape initiatives in highprioritylocations with respect to bothbiodiversity and agroforestry.Climate change: climatechange mitigation andadaptation for ruraldevelopmentProblems and challenges relatedto climate changeClimate change will have consequences forfarmers all over the developing world. Theseeffects will play out over long periods oftime, while farmers and policy makers tendto have relatively short planning horizons.There is increasing interest in the idea thatagroforestry can contribute to the mitigationof net greenhouse gas emissions. Thisapproach uses mechanisms that offset continuedcarbon emission in more-developedcountries with carbon sequestration indeveloping countries. The Clean DevelopmentMechanism (CDM) of the KyotoProtocol on Climate Change is one suchagreement that most countries around theworld have already signed. In addition,there has been a mushrooming of similarvoluntary mechanisms outside the CDM.An initial assessment of the potential foragroforestry to contribute to greenhouse gasmitigation was included in a crucial reportof the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange. However, that assessment wasbased on a very thin set of biophysical data.Thus the effects of agroforestry on the emissionof all relevant greenhouse gases needsto be investigated thoroughly, including thegathering of multiyear, multisite evidence.To date, the various discussions about thepotential of agroforestry to contribute tocarbon sequestration have been kept separatefrom discussions of the environmentalconsequences of tree planting and its effecton the livelihoods of the poor.Roles for ICRAF in climate change:• Create a regional project to networknational agriculture research systems,environmental research institutes andcentres of the CGIAR to assess the strategiesthat farmers and communities useto cope with multiple stresses.• Use hotspots of agroforestry adoption aslearning sites for environmental serviceassessment.• Link crop models to climate-changemodels.ICRAF outputs for the next 10 yearsin climate change:• Act as a broker, provider and facilitatoron information on climate change toenable debates at various levels (for example,by supporting farmers to attendinternational global forums).