Climate Action 2014-2015

MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION
design and implementation of national
actions will have a direct impact on the
fight against hunger.
This regional initiative is working
to ensure the inclusion of different
stakeholders and bolster collaboration
with the region’s main governance
institutions. FAO is helping CELAC
create a regional plan for the
eradication of hunger and poverty and
is also providing technical support to
Petrocaribe-ALBA to create the “Hugo
Chávez Frías Eradication of Hunger
and Fight against Poverty Plan”, backed
by Venezuela, which will work in 19
countries in pursuit of zero hunger.
FAO is also supporting the Latin
American Parliament’s creation of the
Framework Law on Family Farming, and
is helping to ensure better coordination
among countries, through South-South
cooperation.
The second regional initiative centres
on family farming and rural territorial
development. Most governments in the
region have recognised that promoting
family farming can alleviate poverty,
hunger and combat food insecurity. Most
of the rural population in the region
continues to depend on agriculture to
make a living and generally work on
small-scale family farms. In Central
America, for instance, almost one-third
of the total working population is
engaged in family farming, producing 80
per cent of staple foods.
FAO is working to strengthen
government institutions and producers’
organisations, promoting the
participatory design and implementation
of family farming and rural development
policies, working to improve residents
of the countryside’s access to productive
resources and services, while reinforcing
agri-food value chains to increase
market opportunities and transition
towards sustainable rural development.
FAO will support the implementation
and integration of relevant national
policies and programmes, linking family
farming to social protection and decent
employment strategies in rural areas,
and promoting connections between
family farms and food supply chains
through initiatives such as the public
purchase of their products for the supply
of school feeding programmes. FAO has
also been asked by CELAC to provide
support for the implementation of a
regional integration agenda on rural
development and family farming, to
promote the exchange of experiences
and cooperation between nations.
The third initiative centres on the
Caribbean and is addressing two
fundamental problems that region faces:
Limited value-chain development of
food and feed crops and low utilisation
of domestic agricultural products.
The underlying causes of these two
problems lie in inadequate market
linkages between producers and users
of agricultural products, so FAO is
working with countries and stakeholders
to improve value chains for selected
agricultural commodities, and to boost
the productivity, trade and utilisation of
local products.
WORKING WITH
GOVERNMENT
Climate change is a major challenge
that affects the whole region. FAO is
working at the highest levels of regional
governance, such as CELAC, to promote
the transition towards climate smart
agriculture, while continuing its support
DROUGHT AND SEVERE
WEATHER WARNINGS
Early warning systems and
drought observatories have
been supported by FAO in
several countries to give
proper notice to producers
of threatening weather
conditions. These have
resulted in a reduction of the
impact of severe weather
events, which have become
more common and also more
intense stronger due to climate
change. Countries such as
Uruguay, Chile and Peru have
asked FAO’s assistance to
create policies for climate
change adaptation and risk
management in sectors such
as agriculture, fisheries,
aquaculture and livestock,
while the Organization has
helped Colombia and Mexico to
evaluate the economic impacts
of climate change on the
agricultural sector, a necessary
step in creating climate smart
agriculture to continue the
region’s developments towards
the goal of eradicating hunger.
of initiatives such as agroforestry projects
in Central America, which increase
crop yields, capture carbon and generate
greater resilience of local food and
agriculture systems to changing climate
forces. FAO is helping governments
design public policies to conserve
agrobiodiversity and to encourage
agroecology, both of which place strong
emphasis on rescuing traditional crops
and agricultural practices for the region’s
indigenous peoples and family farmers.
"FAO is working with
countries and stakeholders
to improve value chains for
selected agricultural
commodities."
Specific sites and regions – the island of
Chiloé, in Chile, and Andean agriculture
as a whole, both of which have played
outstanding roles in the birth and spread
of the potato – have been awarded
recognition as agricultural ‘heritage
systems’ for the conservation of genetic
resources and agricultural patrimony.
Such assets are strategic for national,
regional and even global food security.
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