Opportunities in agriculture and forestry to mitigate greenhouse gases: results of a scientific consultation

Experts agree that the doubling of atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide seems to be inevitable. There is an urgent need for off-the-shelf solutions to bridge the next 30 50 years until new technologies will be broadly available. Agriculture, forestry and agro-forestry present some good opportunities: sequestering atmospheric carbon through state-of-the-art agriculture, forestry and agro-forestry could help to buy time which is urgently needed. This contribution could be done under classic win-win conditions, as these systems enhance soil organic matter and improve land quality, while concurrently contributing to improved global environmental conditions. Initial partnerships between large multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), farmer associations, the private sector and the public sector could speed up the global adoption and implementation process. The carbon trading credits established under the Kyoto Protocol do encourage such partnerships."Non-PRIFPRI-5COM; COM6 page

Evolving concepts and opportunities in soil conservation

The terrestrial landscape has changed considerably compared to that of the early 20th century when soil conservation was first institutionalized. Large portions of the land are already intensively managed, and the remainder is increasingly receiving human interventions. Previous work on soil conservation focused attention on technological innovations, particularly control and mitigation of soil erosion. However, land degradation has continued and actually accelerated in many parts of the world, due mainly to demands for continued economic development, using technologies that are highly exploitive. In many cases, this has been facilitated by highly inadequate and unsympathetic institutional, legislative, and policy environments. The paper discusses some of the new driving forces, new international programs, and new potential partners in soil conservation. Increasingly, international efforts to mitigate land degradation are shifting from studies of the biophysical processes to improving the global, national and local enabling policy environment, as well as mainstreaming of soil conservation into national and regional policies and programs. Also, increased emphasis is placed on economic instruments and international markets, such as carbon trading, and incorporation of non-market values in ecosystem investment, such as payment for ecosystem services, certification schemes, etc. The paper discusses some of the opportunities for soil conservation that accrue from these new driving forces

Practical and cost-effective indicators and procedures for monitoring the impacts of rural development projects on land quality and sustainable land management

Abstract The impact(s) of development activities on land quality often become manifest only several years after termination of a project. Baseline studies and cost-effective monitoring needs to be initiated while activities are on-going, and this needs to be continued in post-project activities. This is possible, however, only when relatively simple and cost-efficient monitoring methods are available. These tools, however, are still rare and need to be further developed. An international working group, initiated by GTZ and SDC (Swiss Development Co-operation) and strongly supported by the 'Land Quality Indicator Initiative' of the World Bank, developed guidelines for impact monitoring to address this constraint. These included a toolkit of relatively easy to handle and cost-effective methods. The impact monitoring procedure presented involves seven basic steps: identification of stakeholders, identification of core issues, formulation of impact hypotheses, identification and selection of indicators, selection and development of monitoring methods, data analysis and assessment of sustainable land management, as well as information management

Resource management domains as a vehicle for sustainable development

The concept of sustainable development (SD has been discussed for more than a decade. At the forefront of the discussion has been the Brundtland Commission report and Agenda 21, the environmental blueprint devised at the Rio Conference. Chapter 40 of Agenda 21 "information for' Decision Making" highlights the importance of using appropriate information and information technology in decision making. However, there have been few attempts to develop paradigms and tools based on information technology to operationalize and implement the concept of SD into the actual development planning processes at the national and regional level. Nevertheless, the operationalization of SD will require the development of such new methods and tools that can cope with the complexity of SD by utilizing state-of-the-art information technology. The international research community is actively working to develop tools for operationalizing the sustainable development concept. An example is the concept of Resource Management Domains that is defined as follows: "A Resource Management Domain (RMD) is a spatial (landscape) unit that offers opportunities for identification and application of resource management options to address specific issues. It is derived from georeferenced biophysical and socio-economic information, and it is dynamic and multiscale in that it reflects human interventions in the landscape." This paper focuses on RNlDs for sustainable land management for agriculture and draws on papers and Working Groups discussions at the lnternational Workshop on Resource Management Domains: Kuala Lumpur, August 26-29, 1996. The paper also draws on proceedings of the Expert Group Workshop on Decision Support System for Sustainable Development held at lnternational Institute for Software Technology, United Nations University, Macau Feb. 25 - March 8, 1996. The RMD approach can be applied to other application domains as well

Land quality indicators

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Strategies and Economies for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Agriculture

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