Climate Action 2010-2011

Ecosystem based adaptation
Dutyion Test Site in the United Arab Emirates.
One example of a promising new technology is the
Root Hydration System owned by DuPont. Faced
with increasing climate-induced water stress, the
government of Jordan, in collaboration with IFAD,
the Global Environment Facility, DuPont and local
farming communities, is testing this innovative and
low-energy irrigation technology. The innovation is
a new, durable plastic tubing material that retains
contaminants while letting clean water through the
pipe’s surface to the plants’ roots. This new system
will allow farmers to use saltwater and low-grade,
brackish water to irrigate their crops. It has great
potential to increase the land available for cultivation,
enabling smallholder farmers to grow more crops
in water-stressed zones, particularly in coastal areas,
without competing for precious freshwater supplies.
and ecosystem services can effectively support adaptation
to climate change by marginal rural and indigenous
communities and strengthen the deployment of new
technologies.
IFAD is supporting indigenous communities through
programmes such as the Regional Programme in Support
of Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon Basin (PRAIA).
The programme aims to recapture the traditional
knowledge of indigenous groups that helps them diversify
their incomes and food sources, for example, in the
harvesting of indigenous plant species for food in times
of drought and medicine in times of hardship.
Practical research to benefit smallholders
Climate adaptation requires the blending of local
knowledge with scientific research. IFAD has a history
of supporting and interacting with research institutes and
other technical bodies, including the Consultive Group
on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), to test,
adapt and disseminate technologies.
IFAD has taken a lead in mobilising interest in and
donor support for research on some of the most important
crops of poor people, such as plantain, bamboo and rattan,
and cassava. Cassava research has been supported for
over two decades, with a range of products generated,
including improved cassava varieties, highly cost-effective
biological control technology for two major cassava
pests, transfer of improved cassava varieties from Latin
America to Africa and, together with CGIAR, the Food
and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and others, the
development of a global cassava development strategy,
with significant benefits for rural poor people.
Beyond carbon markets: payments for
environmental services
Given the apparent difficulties in securing access for
smallholders to carbon market revenues, we must look
more closely at other payments for environmental
services (PES) approaches to provide smallholder farmers
with increased revenue streams or incentives and foster
an integrated and sustainable approach to agriculture.
PES, if formulated correctly, has significant potential
to bolster rural livelihoods and agricultural yields, and
maintain and enhance ecosystem services, such as
watersheds and biodiversity. In addition it can contribute
to disaster risk reduction, with PES revenues generated
serving as financial buffers for communities to climateinduced
shocks. Provided with financing opportunities
and incentives, smallholders and rural communities can
invest in preventing natural disasters by maintaining sand
dunes, mangrove belts, coral reefs, wetlands and forested
slopes as cost-effective measures, while at the same time
protecting their own assets and livelihoods. Dependable
revenue streams would allow them to invest in their crops
and land, strengthening their businesses.
Increase smallholder profits through
sustainable value chains
There is often a misconception that sustainable
approaches to agriculture are not profitable or that
smallholders are not viable business partners at scale.
The experience base that IFAD has built with partner
In the Philippines, the IFAD-supported Cordillera
Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project
has replicated the ‘Lapat’ indigenous system to protect
the country’s vast watersheds. This traditional system
calls upon all community members and neighbouring
communities to observe rules for environmental
protection. These include restrictions on cutting trees,
gathering rattan, hunting animals, and even fishing in
the rivers and streams within the ‘Lapat’ area.
By promoting adoption of the ‘Lapat’ system, national
and regional authorities have empowered indigenous
communities to take over the responsibility, care and
management of forests and natural resources. By the
end of 2007, some 50,000 households were practicing
the ‘Lapat’ system. The sustainability of this approach
lies in the blending and linking of indigenous
practices within modern institutional and policy
frameworks. In this case, ancestral land was surveyed
and over 1,000 land ownership certificates were
issued, strengthening the indigenous communities’
vested, long-term interest in their land.
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