Climate change adaptation and mitigation in different livestock production systems and agro-ecological zones in South Africa: A systematic review.

In recent times, the need for concrete steps to be taken in the adaptation and mitigation of the effects of climate change has taken the centre stage in development discourse. However, there is a scarcity of empirical studies on the extent to which built environment professionals, especially in a developing country like Nigeria are aware of the various climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. This study examined the level of awareness of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies amongst built environment professionals in Lagos, Nigeria. The data were sourced through a cross-sectional survey of 71 respondents including, architects, builders, town planners, estate managers and quantity surveyors in the study area using an online questionnaire. The data were subjected to descriptive statistics and the result shows that the built environment professionals identified the main causes of climate change to include the use of fossil fuels in industrial production, automobiles, and generation of electricity. Also, the major effects of climate change were flooding and excessive heat, while the top three adaptation and mitigation strategies greening/planting trees, enforcement of building guidelines and the use of energy-efficient technologies. This study implies that the built environment professionals are very much aware of the existing climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies but there is an urgent need to internalize them in the production and management of the environment in Nigeria.

Climate change becomes a widely acknowledged and inevitable global challenge of 21st century. For developing countries like Ethiopia, it intensifies existing challenges of ensuring sustainable development. This study examined factors affecting climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies by taking in Protection Motivation Theory. The study draws on mixed research approach in order to assess the subjective understanding about climate change threats and identify the factors determining responses to climate change. While qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions and interviews, quantitative information was collected using semi structured survey from 296 randomly selected farmers from different agro-ecologies. Qualitative data was dominantly analyzed using content analysis while descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze quantitative data. Almost all respondents (97%) perceived that climate change is occurring and threatening their wellbeing. Dwindling precipitation, increasing temperature and occurrence of human and animal disease were perceived to represent climate change. From nationally initiated strategies, farmers were found to largely practice soil and water conservation and agricultural intensification, which they perceived less costly and compatible to their level of expertise. The result of binary logistic regression revealed that perceived severity of climate change, perceived susceptibility to climate change threat, perceived own ability to respond, response efficacy and cost of practices predicted farmers motivation to practice climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Thus, building resilient system should go beyond sensitizing climate response mechanisms. Rural development and climate change adaptation policies should focus on human capital development and economic empowerment which would enable farmers pursue context specific adaptation and mitigation strategies thereby maintain sustainable livelihood.

Climate change is an inevitable global challenge of the 21st century. For developing countries like Ethiopia, it intensifies existing challenges towards ensuring sustainable development. Adopting the protection motivation theory, this study examined factors affecting the practice of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies among farmers. The study employed a mixed research approach to assess the subjective understanding of farmers about climate change threats and identify factors determining their responses to climate change effects. Qualitative data were collected using focus group discussions and interviews. Quantitative information was gathered using semi-structured survey from 296 randomly selected farmers. Qualitative data was dominantly analyzed using content analysis, while descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze quantitative data. Almost all respondents (97%) perceived that climate change was occurring and threatening their wellbeing. Dwindling precipitation, increasing temperature and occurrence of human and animal disease were perceived to represent climate change effects. From nationally initiated strategies, farmers were found to largely practice soil and water conservation, which they perceived as less costly and compatible to local knowledge. The result of binary logistic regression revealed that perceived severity of climate change, perceived susceptibility to climate change threat, perceived own ability to respond, response efficacy, and cost of practices predicted farmers’ motivation to practice climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Thus, building a resilient system should go beyond sensitizing climate response mechanisms. Policies should focus on human capital development and economic empowerment which would enable farmers to pursue context-specific adaptation and mitigation strategies, thereby maintaining a sustainable livelihood.

Climate change and livestock: Impacts, adaptation, and mitigation

Molecular detection of virulence genes in Campylobacter species isolated from livestock production systems in South Africa

Past global efforts at dealing with the problem of global warming concentrated on mitigation, with the aim of reducing and possibly stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. With the slow progress in achieving this, adaptation was viewed as a viable option to reduce the vulnerability to the anticipated negative impacts of global warming. It is increasingly realized that mitigation and adaptation should not be pursued independent of each other but as complements. This has resulted in the recent calls for the integration of adaptation into mitigation strategies. However, integrating mitigation and adaptation into climate change concerns is not a completely new idea in the African Sahel. The region is characterized by severe and frequent droughts with records dating back into centuries. The local populations in this region, through their indigenous knowledge systems, have developed and implemented extensive mitigation and adaptation strategies that have enabled them reduce their vulnerability to past climate variability and change, which exceed those predicted by models of future climate change. However, this knowledge is rarely taken into consideration in the design and implementation of modern mitigation and adaptation strategies. This paper highlights some indigenous mitigation and adaptation strategies that have been practiced in the Sahel, and the benefits of integrating indigenous knowledge into formal climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Incorporating indigenous knowledge can add value to the development of sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that are rich in local content, and planned in conjunction with local people.

Agroforestry is one of the most conspicuous land use systems across landscapes and agro ecological zones in Africa. Some of the components of Agroforestry systems are; home garden agroforestry, alley cropping, forest farming, wind break, river banks, park land, crop land trees and buffer zones agroforestry practices. Climate change impacts by complex weather-related phenomena have threatened agricultural and forest ecosystems and the livelihood of agricultural and local communities. Agroforestry has an important role in climate change adaptation through diversified land-use practices, sustainable livelihoods, sources of income, enhanced forest and agricultural productivity and reduced weather-related production losses, which enhance resilience against climate impacts. Like few other land use options, agroforestry has real potential to contribute to food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, while preserving and strengthening the environmental resource base of Africa’s rural landscapes. It has a key role to play in landscape-scale mitigation schemes under the REDD+or AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry and other land uses) concepts. Home garden agroforestry system indicates that adaptation and mitigation to climate change will largely depend on the increased resilience of both agroforestry systems and of local management capacity. Despite less attention has been given to tree based land use option, agroforestry has played a major role in reducing household vulnerability to shocking. Smallholder farmers have already started mainstreaming tree based land use system as resilience to social needs because the poor are more exposed to change; Agroforestry is one of best risk aversion option to make them move out of food insecurity. Generally, agroforestry systems readily bundle both mitigation and adaptation strategies and provide several pathways to securing food security for poor farmers, while contributing to climate change mitigation. Agroforestry should attract more attention in global agendas on climate adaptation and mitigation because of its positive social and environmental impacts.

Climate change has become a global challenge that affects various sectors of life, including development and the environment. In Indonesia, the impacts of climate change are increasingly felt through increasing air temperatures, erratic rainfall, and changes in wind patterns that threaten the resilience of infrastructure and natural ecosystems. To face this challenge, effective adaptation and mitigation strategies are needed, one of which is through green technology-based environmental engineering. Green technology refers to the use of environmentally friendly technology to reduce negative impacts on the environment and support sustainable development. This study aims to develop climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies by utilizing green technology in environmental engineering. The method used in this study is a literature study, where data is collected through various scientific articles and relevant research on the application of green technology in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The results of the study show that the application of green technology, such as renewable energy, waste management, and sustainable development, can reduce carbon footprints, increase resilience to climate change, and provide long-term economic benefits. This study also found the importance of policies that support the adoption of green technology and increase public awareness of the importance of sustainability. The results of this study are expected to provide guidance for more environmentally friendly development policies and strategies in Indonesia.

Determinants of farmers' perceptions of climate variability, mitigation, and adaptation strategies in the central highlands of Kenya

Cities play a significant role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Urban land planning shapes the urban form and is considered to be an effective approach for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Yet, there is little knowledge about what urban forms can reduce both greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate stresses while considering trade-offs between them. Here, we investigate the role of urban land use in both climate change mitigation and adaptation. In particular, we assess quantitatively the competition between strategies for mitigation and adaptation and identify potential win-win solutions in land use responses. Using a coastal city as a case study, we find that the land use strategies for unilateral mitigation or adaptation can cause contradicting consequences with respect to the reductions in GHG emissions and climate stresses, i.e. reductions in GHGs could increase climate stresses or vice versa. Poorly integrated strategies potentially may compromise international efforts to meet the Climate Action in the Sustainable Development Goals. Properly integrated mitigation and adaptation strategies, or climate-sensitive land use planning, however, can lead to win-win outcomes and eventually achieve co-benefits. Yet, any co-benefits will gradually diminish if there is a delay in climate-sensitive land use planning, implying growing GHGs and intensified climate stresses. Our analysis indicates that integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban land use needs to be enacted as soon as possible: any delays in implementation reduce the window to act to maximize the co-benefits.

How climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies can threaten or enhance the biodiversity of production forests: Insights from Sweden

Climate Compatible Development (CCD) is an emerging development approach which seeks to minimize the threat posed by climate change while maximize the opportunities for development. In view of the adverse impact of climate change on the general development of the country, Ethiopia, a number of polices which constitute climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies have been adopted and established. Among such polices, Ethiopian water resources and disaster risk management policy is expected to have direct and indirect role in addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation. Rainwater harvesting, water shed management, use of water efficiently, small scale irrigation and water resource protection, strengthening drought and flood early warning system are adaptation strategies for water resource policy, and water harvesting and improved energy efficiency are low carbon footprint strategies/mitigation strategies. Disaster risk management policy also comprises climate change and variability related disaster risk reduction strategies; enhancing early warning information system, and safety net program as the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, which are the major component of CCD. These policies also have its own limitation in relation to the system base and institutional gap in implementing CCD. In fact, these barriers can be eased by updating and/or adjustment of the policies under the framework of climate compatible development; mainstreaming climate change issues into water resource and disaster risk management policy; strengthening sector-wise linkage and synergy to avoid overlap; as well as monitoring the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies among sectors. Key words: Climate change, low-carbon footprint, adaptation, mainstreaming, Ethiopia

Given that the livestock production system is sensitive to climate change and at the same time itself a contributor to the phenomenon, climate change has the potential to be an increasingly formidable challenge to the development of the livestock sector in the world. This chapter provides the salient findings established by various researchers in their field of specialization and also elaborates on the future research priorities that are available before the researchers in the field of climate change and livestock production. In the changing climatic scenario, apart from high ambient temperature, air movement, solar radiation, wind speed, and relative humidity are other critical attributes of the climatic variables that hamper livestock production. The direct effects on livestock production are primarily mediated through increased temperature, altered photoperiod, and changes in rainfall pattern. The indirect effects on livestock production are mediated through sudden disease outbreaks, less feed and water availability, and low grazing lands. There are different adaptive mechanisms by which livestock respond to fluctuations of climatic changes including physiological, blood biochemical, neuroendocrine, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of adaptation, respectively. Globally, the livestock sector contributes 18 % of global GHG emissions. Hence, understanding of GHG emissions by sources and removal by sinks in animal agriculture is critical to take appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies and to estimate and develop inventory of GHGs. The chapter also signifies that considerable research efforts are needed to modify the existing shelter design to make them more suitable for the current climate change scenario. The chapter also calls for multidisciplinary approach to develop suitable technological interventions to cope up to climate change for the ultimate benefit of livestock farmers who rely heavily on livestock resources for their livelihood security. If one attempts improving livestock production under the changing climate condition, research efforts are needed to develop strategies encompassing adaptation, mitigation, and amelioration strategies simultaneously, apart from strengthening the existing extension system.

Climate change, characterized by the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, is the greatest environmental challenge threatening global food systems. Its impacts are particularly severe for livestock production systems in developing countries. In low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), livestock production provides critical livelihoods for millions of vulnerable people and plays a significant role in food security. However, the sector is highly susceptible to the adverse effects of climate change. Climate change in LMICs is associated with erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, flooding, drought, desertification, and a higher frequency of extreme weather events. In particular, when temperatures exceed the thresholds projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), livestock are subjected to heat stress, which reduces productivity, lowers conception rates, and can be life-threatening for many species. In response, various climate adaptation strategies have been implemented to enhance resilience in livestock production systems. This review evaluates existing adaptation strategies including their effectiveness in LMICs and proposes simplified and targeted adaptation strategies to build resilience in livestock production systems. Key adaptation measures include genetic improvement and diversification of livestock species, early warning systems, precision livestock farming technologies, climate-smart strategies, institutional and policy frameworks and capacity-building initiatives. Further, key factors influencing adaptation strategies outcomes such as governance, financial investment, community engagement, and technological infrastructure were highlighted. While some strategies such as breeding programs for heat-tolerant livestock and early warning systems have yielded positive results, challenges including limited financial resources, weak institutional frameworks, and resistance to change hinder their widespread adoption. The review also provides recommendations for improving adaptation strategies, including enhanced investment in data-enabled innovations, integration of climate adaptation policies into national development plans, and increased participatory approaches involving local livestock farmers. In conclusion, this study provides a roadmap for building climate-resilient livestock production systems in LMICs to ensure sustainable food production and improved livelihoods under changing climate.

The GGELS Project: European Greenhouse Gases Emissions from Livestock Production Systems LPS Regional Zoning for the Survey of Related Manure Management Practices