Climate change mitigation through environmental intensification a case study of Sub–Sahara African

Abstract

Abstract. The terrestrial biosphere is an important global carbon (C) sink, with the potential to drive large positive climate feedbacks. Thus a better understanding of interactions between land use change, climate change and the terrestrial biosphere is crucial in planning future land management options. Climate change has the potential to alter terrestrial C storage since changes in temperature, precipitation and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations could affect net primary production (NPP), C inputs to soil, and soil C decomposition rates. Climate change could also act as a driver for land use change, thus further altering terrestrial C fluxes. The net balance of these different effects varies considerably between regions and hence the case studies presented in this paper The paper examines African case study at one example of how adaptation and mitigation can be usefully combined in a way that enhances incomes and diversifies livelihoods of the poor, while also securing benefits for biodiversity, gender equality and carbon sequestration. The case study describes how a pilot farm in Nigeria sub-Sahara Africa, has evolved over time to address significant variations in climate change. The Northern Nigerian programme has had to adapt to successive droughts, a drying climate and a growing population increasingly gravitating to urban centers. Planting dense perennial hedges that act as windbreakers helps to generate an agriculturally conducive microclimate. Traditional predominantly rain-fed forms of agriculture have been replaced by irrigation-based commercial crops. The windbreakers fight wind-related soil erosion and desiccation of crops, which had not previously been addressed. They also provide valuable fuelwood for cooking, lessening the burden on girls and women to collect wood. The use of windbreaks to produce the has led to increased production of fruit and vegetables for commercial sale in domestic and high-value export markets as well as demonstrated carbon sequestration benefits. It also provides employment for young people and has helped train a new generation of farmers. The innovations and adaptation practices used in Nigeria have been taken up nationally and supported internationally as being relevant to other sub-Saharan countries, as they illustrate an innovative, integrated way of managing the environment to provide adaptation and mitigation benefits locally as well as globally The paper concluded that agronomists should work alongside other scientists to develop adaptation options that are not only effective in terms of crop production, but are also environmentally and economically robust, at landscape and regional scales. Furthermore, such integrated approaches to adaptation research are much more likely to address the information need of policy makers. The potential for stronger linkages between the results of agronomic research in the context of climate change and the policy environment will thus be enhanced.