Climate smart agriculture, land use, and food security

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https://hdl.handle.net/1813/41295

This collection contains baseline data and reports on climate mitigation and adaptation impacts and potential of food security interventions.

This includes documents related to Ethiopia's food security initiative, the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP).

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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Food-security interventions are a vehicle for climate change mitigation
Solomon, Dawit; Woolf, Dominic; Jirka, Stefan; DeGloria, Steve; Lehmann, Johannes; Milne, Eleanor; Easter, Mark; Belay, Berhanu; Ambaw, Gebermedihin; Getahun, Kefelgn; Ahmed, Milkyas (2015)
Chronic food insecurity and land degradation are global issues. The Ethiopian food security program tackles endemic chronic food insecurity through a program* that links food aid to land and ecosystem restoration projects designed to restore the productive capacity of rural communities.
Carbon finance opportunities for Ethiopia’s PSNP
Tefera, Mulugeta; Strickland, Alastair; Lind, Jeremy; Woolf, Dominic; Jirka, Stefan; Solomon, Dawit (2015)
This policy brief is one of a series produced by the Climate Smart Initiative (CSI), a two-year action research project (2013–15) designed to improve how Ethiopia’s national rural safety net deals with climate change issues. This brief considers how the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) can help mitigate or curb the production of greenhouse gases (GHG), one of the main human causes driving climate change. It also considers the potential of international carbon finance, and the CSI’s role in developing the evidence base needed to access these funds.
Climate finance and carbon markets for Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP): Executive Summary for Policymakers.
Jirka, Stefan; Woolf, Dominic; Solomon, Dawit; Lehmann, Johannes (2015)
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is recognized as a model public works safety net program, which provides food and cash payments to households suffering from food insecurity in return for labor that builds public infrastructure. In addition to the target beneﬁts of food security and infrastructure development, PSNP’s participatory water-shed management interventions, while not their primary objective, are already delivering climate-change mitigation beneﬁts by sequestering carbon in soils and biomass and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the agricultural, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector. New opportunities for support from dedicated climate ﬁnance channels could be opened up by quantifying the climate change mitigation beneﬁts (a.k.a. carbon beneﬁts) generated by PSNP activities. This report summarizes the potential of PSNP's food security program to contribute to climate change mitigation, and the policy actions required to access international climate finance to support this program.
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP): Soil carbon and fertility impact assessment
Solomon, Dawit; Woolf, Dominic; Jirka, Stefan; DeGloria, Stephen; Belay, Berhanu; Ambaw, Gebermedehin; Getahun, Kefelegn; Ahmed, Milkiyas; Ahmed, Zia; Lehmann, Johannes (2015)
Ethiopia’s climate smart initiative (CSI) aims to integrate the implications of climate change into the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) activities, and systems to strengthen this important social safety net program, and enable Ethiopia to better manage climate risks and help its chronically food insecure population to better cope with shocks, create assets and secure livelihoods, even as the climate changes. CSI is also tasked with preparing the ground for PSNP’s sustainable public work programs to access climate finance and possibly payments from ecosystem services and benefits to spur and enable the transition towards low-carbon, climate-resilient growth and development. More robust and cost effective analysis and information on soil carbon stock changes and associate soil fertility and productivity indicators over space and time is required at multiple stages of development and implementation of PSNP’ participatory integrated watershed management projects to access climate finance. The main objectives of this study are to: (i) assemble business as usual and project scenario baseline database on soil carbon and other soils fertility, health and productivity indicators for six chronically food insecure and vulnerable Ethiopian regional states (i.e., Afar, Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, Somali and Tigray), where PSNP’s sustainable agricultural and environmental rehabilitation public works have been implemented widely, ii) assess the impacts of Ethiopia’s PSNP participatory integrated watershed intervention projects on soil carbon capture and sequestration, as well as on other climate smart environmental and agricultural co-benefits in light of climate change, food security and low-carbon livelihoods in these regions, and (iii) support Ethiopia’s safety net climate smart initiative to take advantage of international carbon and climate finance opportunities to support sustaining the existing activities as well as scaling-up future implementations of PSNP participatory watershed public works projects in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) national baseline database (NBD): Georeferenced site, management, topography, climate, soil carbon, soil fertility indicators, yield and low-cost soil mid-infrared (MIR) analysis results
Solomon, Dawit; Woolf, Dominic; Jirka, Stefan; DeGloria, Stephen; Belay, Berhanu; Ambaw, Gebermedehin; Getahun, Kefelegn; Ahmed, Milkiyas; Ahmed, Zia; Lehmann, Johannes (2015)
Ethiopia’s climate smart initiative (CSI) aims to integrate the implications of climate change into Productive Safety Net Programs (PSNP) activities, and systems to strengthen this important social safety net program, and enable Ethiopia to better manage climate risks and help its chronically food insecure population better cope with shocks, create assets and secure livelihoods, even as the climate changes. CSI is also tasked with preparing the ground for PSNP’s sustainable public work programs to access climate finance and possibly payments from ecosystem services and benefits to spur and enable the transition towards low-carbon, climate-resilient growth and development. More robust and cost effective analysis and information on soil carbon stock changes and associate soil fertility and productivity indicators over space and time is required at multiple stages of development and implementation of PSNP’ participatory integrated watershed management projects to access climate finance. The main objectives of this study are to: (i) assemble business as usual and project scenario baseline database on soil carbon and other soils fertility, health and productivity indicators for six chronically food insecure and vulnerable Ethiopian regional states (i.e., Afar, Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, Somali and Tigray), where PSNP’s sustainable agricultural and environmental rehabilitation public works have been implemented widely, ii) assess the impacts of Ethiopia’s PSNP participatory integrated watershed intervention projects on soil carbon capture and sequestration, as well as on other climate smart environmental and agricultural co-benefits in light of climate change, food security and low-carbon livelihoods in these regions, and (iii) support Ethiopia’s safety net climate smart initiative to take advantage of international carbon and climate finance opportunities to support sustaining the existing activities as well as scaling-up future implementations of PSNP participatory watershed public works projects in Ethiopia.
Climate Finance for Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP): Comprehensive report on accessing climate finance and carbon markets to promote socially and environmentally sustainable public works social safety net programs
(2015)
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP)—recognized as a model public works safety-net program—active for over ten years, provides food and cash payments to households suffering from food insecurity in return for labor that builds public infrastructure, including the rehabilitation of degraded lands. In addition to the target benefits of food security and infrastructure development, PSNP’s participatory watershed management interventions deliver climate-change mitigation benefits by sequestering carbon in soils and biomass, and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the agricultural, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector. To date, Ethiopia’s PSNP has been primarily funded by development assistance from bi- and multi-lateral donors. However, new opportunities from climate finance channels could be opened up by quantifying PSNP’s climate-change mitigation impacts (frequently referred to as “carbon benefits”). This study, conducted within PSNP’s Climate Smart Initiative (CSI), demonstrates that PSNP’s participatory watershed management interventions usually deliver net positive carbon benefits across varied agro-ecological zones. On average, the 28 CSI sites are expected to deliver a mean carbon benefit of 5.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent per hectare per year (tCO2e ha-1 yr-1) over a 20-year accounting period. These benefits are attributable, in order of importance, to (i) above- and below-ground biomass sequestration, (ii) soil organic carbon accumulation, (iii) reduced GHG emissions from livestock management, and (iv) abatement of other land-use related GHGs. Considering that Ethiopia’s PSNP projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares, this study provides compelling evidence to recommend that methodologies to quantify the carbon benefits be embedded in future PSNP 4 and related interventions, to facilitate access to climate finance. But, neither compliance nor voluntary carbon-offset markets are currently in a state to support ambitious carbon projects on a scale comparable to the size of PSNP. However, ongoing negotiations within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) indicate that a binding international commitment to reduce global GHG emissions is likely to be reached in the near future. And it is probable that carbon offset markets will be one of the mechanisms available for countries to meet their GHG reduction obligations. In consideration of the above points, we recommend that Ethiopia act now to that it is well-positioned to take advantage of anticipated carbon market opportunities as they arise. By developing one or more carbon market projects on a scale of tens to at most hundreds of thousands of hectares (a scale that is compatible with current market opportunities), PSNP’s in-country capacity will be greatly enhanced, thus positioning Ethiopia to scale up rapidly as and when the carbon finance outlook improves. However, it imperative to note that all carbon market projects must meet additionality requirements. This has specific implications for PSNP in that a program of work that is already planned and financed would not be eligible for carbon finance. To demonstrate additionality, any carbon project established under PSNP will need to demonstrate: (i) an increase in the geographic scale, (ii) an improvement in implementation, or (iii) an increase in the longevity of the project that would not be achievable without the provision of the additional support from climate finance. It is also important to consider that project development, implementation and monitoring costs can be substantial, and PSNP should address this by focusing on large contiguous areas and deploying lost-cost and streamlined methods for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV). To lay the foundation for larger jurisdictional carbon accounting methodologies, necessary for cost-effective scaling up, PSNP should pursue development of standardized methods to quantify carbon benefits across extensive land areas commensurate with PSNP’s wide geographic extent. One such type of initiative already under development independently of PSNP is the Oromia Forested Landscape Program (OFLP). OFLP can serve as a proving ground for jurisdictional carbon accounting approaches related to reforestation, avoided deforestation and degradation (REDD+) in Oromia Regional State. However, for PSNP’s diverse suite of climate-smart agricultural practices, Oromia remains too large a scale for jurisdictional accounting in the near term, given the current complexities of developing GHG accounting methodologies for smallholder agricultural systems. Given that it will be several years before OFLP mitigation finance begins to flow even for REDD+ projects, PSNP should work in parallel to the OFLP to advance policy objectives of carbon finance support for PSNP in the near-term. A proposal should be developed and submitted to PSNP’s development partners to support creation of a task team within the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) unit of the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) for climate finance of PSNP. Notwithstanding the anticipated potential of carbon markets to support PSNP, direct income from bi- and multi-lateral donors in the form of grants and loans remains the mainstay of climate finance opportunities at present. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is an attractive emerging multilateral climate fund for Ethiopia’s PSNP public works, being the main vehicle through which future mitigation and adaptation funds are expected to flow from developed to less-developed nations under the auspices of the UNFCCC. The GCF’s six investment criteria, are all well-aligned with the objectives and scope of PSNP. In addition to bi- and multilateral climate-focused funds, the potential for demonstrated mitigation benefits of Ethiopia’s PSNP to be used in support of negotiations for international development funding should not be overlooked. This is known as results-based finance and is increasingly used by international donors to justify expenditures for climate change mitigation.
Guide to Developing Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land-Use (AFOLU) Carbon Market Projects under Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP)
Jirka, Stefan; Woolf, Dominic; Solomon, Dawit; Lehmann, Johannes (2015)
This report outlines the general steps required for development of a carbon project intended for sale of carbon credits via a carbon offset program, whether compliance or voluntary. While there are differences among the numerous offset programs, the major components are generally the same and any carbon project originating in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector will follow these steps. This report was written as a guide to development of carbon projects for Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), but the same process outlined here is equally applicable to any AFOLU carbon project.
Climate Change Mitigation Potential of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety-Net Program (PSNP)
Woolf, Dominic; Jirka, Stefan; Milne, Eleanor; Easter, Mark; DeGloria, Stephen; Solomon, Dawit; Lehmann, Johannes (2015)
Food security programs designed to alleviate poverty, of which Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) is a model example, are contributing also to climate-change mitigation in Sub-Saharan Africa. PSNP’s climate-smart land management and ecosystem restoration interventions deliver climate-change mitigation principally by sequestering carbon in soils and biomass. This opens a new line of thinking and opportunity where food-security interventions that target underlying drivers of food insecurity—such as ecosystem and land degradation—become a vehicle for climate-change mitigation. Using a combination of geospatial modeling and biophysical approaches, we here show that the mean carbon benefit of all PSNP sites was 5.7 tonnes CO2e /ha /yr. On average, these carbon benefits were primarily due to increases in biomass (40% of total), in soil organic carbon (38%) and reduced livestock greenhouse gas emissions (22%). Extrapolating these results to the whole of PSNP’s 600,000 ha of already-established area enclosures would imply that a total carbon benefit in the order of 3.4 million t CO2e /yr has already been achieved by PSNP. This shows that food security safety net programs, despite not being initially intended to provide climate change mitigation, are nonetheless climate smart, achieving mitigation impacts comparable to the largest carbon projects currently implemented in the agriculture forestry and other land use sector globally.

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