A systematic analysis of enabling conditions for synergy between climate change mitigation and adaptation measures in developing countries

AbstractThere is a growing quest for synergy between mitigation and adaptation due to concerns of inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the compartmentalized approaches to climate change. However, little has been done to explore the necessary enabling conditions for synergistic design and implementation. This paper proposes an analytical framework to assess enabling conditions for synergies at the national level and applies it to developing countries to explore the potential move toward synergy. Four enabling conditions for integrating adaptation and mitigation, i.e. policies and strategies, programs and projects, institutional arrangements and financial mechanisms, were used to score developing countries relative to each other. We hypothesized that low income and vulnerable countries might more likely pursue synergy given the urgency for both adaptation and mitigation. Despite the relative infancy of the synergy concept, about half of countries studied exhibited good synergy potential, 80% of which were middle-income developing countries. The assumption of vulnerability as a precursor for pursuing synergy was supported by the fact that small island states possessed relatively high synergy potential. Income was weakly associated with the synergy potential with least developed countries having low synergy scores. Emerging economies possessed strong synergy potential which might be associated with better capacity available and/or potential for shaping their global images due to their growing emissions. In sum, the proposed analytical framework could be useful to identify areas of emphasis to promote holistic and efficient climate policies. As this study largely focused on the enabling conditions, further studies are needed to scrutinize and manage the mitigation-adaptation balances in countries possessing good synergy potentials

REDD plus Policy Approaches in the Congo Basin : A Comparative Analysis of Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Peer reviewe

Illegal logging, governance effectiveness and carbon dioxide emission in the timber‑producing countries of Congo Basin and Asia

The empirical link between governance and illegal logging is widely accepted amongst scientist, although a minority still purports that illegal logging does not necessarily prevail because of poor governance. However, the nexus linking governance, illegal logging and carbon emission is not well enshrined in scientific literature. This paper seeks to review the literature on illegal logging and governance and empirically investigate the effect of illegal logging and governance effectiveness on carbon emission. Using panel dynamic ordinary least square method on data covering three Congo Basin timber-producing countries and three Asian timber-producing countries, this paper further investigates disaggregated effects between these two groups of countries. The empirical evidence underscores that Congo Basin timber-producing countries are characterized by increasing trend of illegal logging, poor governance effectiveness and corruption. Panel regression reveals a positive and significant impact of illegal logging, governance effectiveness and corruption on carbon emission. Asian producing countries depict a reducing trend in illegal logging and improvements in governance and corruption. There is a positive but not significant impact of illegal logging on carbon emission, and governance effectiveness reduces carbon emission. Thus, the dynamics of governance, illegal logging and carbon emission is not the same between timber-producing countries in Asia and Congo producing counties, thus suggesting the ability of institutions to curb illegal logging and enforce laws to reduce the effects of carbon emission. Multi-stakeholder consultations, government engagement, partnerships and training of control staff can help curb corruption. Legality checks should go beyond having legal documents to effectively check and control of timber concessions and small-scale logging

Coalitions for Landscape Resilience: Institutional Dynamics behind Community-Based Rangeland Management System in North-Western Tanzania

The past few decades have seen a continuing shift of natural resource management paradigm towards multifunctional and multi-actor adaptive management in hope of achieving more resilient landscapes. Recognizing the multitude of institutional actors and their roles as well as dynamics helps to understand communal behaviour, its manifestations in the landscape and resilience under changing socioecological circumstances. We examined institutional actors and their functions and relationships in a long-standing community-based natural resource management system, the ngitili, in north-western part of Tanzania. The aim of the research was to deepen understanding on the role of institutional arrangements and their limitations in supporting resilience of community-based management system. Data was collected through group discussions and interviews in three case study villages and district level, and institutional arrangements were analysed using 4Rs framework and social network analysis. The study shows that the management arrangements have evolved with time and are based on locally negotiated roles and collaboration among bureaucratic and socially embedded village level actors. These local level actors are resource poor, which hinders collaboration and implementation of ngitili management functions. External interventions have temporarily increased management efficiency in the villages but they did not create sustained multi-scale collaboration networks to address external threats to the ngitili resources. The results show that diversified funding sources, technical support and benefit sharing mechanisms are required to incentivize sustainable resource management. For the management system to be more resilient, the existing institutional actors and their ability to adapt should be nurtured by awareness raising, wider stakeholder participation and bridging organizations.</p

Community capacity for social enterprise development : Empirical evidence from community forest enterprises (CFEs) in Cameroon

With increasing forest devolution globally, community forest enterprises (CFEs) are emerging as potential options for local development based on forest resources. CFEs trade to meet their economic, social, and environmental goals; however, empirical studies have highlighted capacity deficiencies as key drawbacks to their development. Knowledge of what these capacity gaps are is low. This paper uses a systematic framework to explore capacity and deficiencies in capacity and the relation between the two within CFEs in Cameroon. Using the contextualised organisational capacity theory in combination with asset-based mobilisation theory, data was gathered from 31 CFEs based on focus group discussions. Principal component analysis and descriptive statistics were used to evaluate community capacity at individual, organisational (CFE), and network levels. Pearson correlation tests were used to explore the relationships between different domains of community capacity. The results indicate that community members and development practitioners agree that communities are weak in creating partnerships, networking, and resource mobilisation. The participatory community evaluation highlights major capacity gaps in infrastructure, members' skills and knowledge, and sense of community. This confirms that capacity gaps were larger at the individual and social network level, while organisational capacity scored higher except for a sense of community and resource mobilization. Although the community capacities at the individual level are generally low, these capacities correlate strongly with organisational capacity. The potential of the CFEs to meet objectives depends a lot on the capacities of individual members and networking capacity, indicating that these should be prioritised in development efforts, which should involve multiple stakeholders, with policy support and participation by the entire community

Climate change adaptation in and through agroforestry: four decades of research initiated by Peter Huxley

Agroforestry (AF)-based adaptation to global climate change can consist of (1) reversal of negative trends in diverse tree cover as generic portfolio risk management strategy; (2) targeted, strategic, shift in resource capture (e.g. light, water) to adjust to changing conditions (e.g. lower or more variable rainfall, higher temperatures); (3) vegetation-based influences on rainfall patterns; or (4) adaptive, tactical, management of tree-crop interactions based on weather forecasts for the (next) growing season. Forty years ago, a tree physiological research tradition in aboveground and belowground resource capture was established with questions and methods on climate-tree-soil-crop interactions in space and time that are still relevant for today’s challenges. After summarising early research contributions, we review recent literature to assess current levels of uncertainty in climate adaptation assessments in and through AF. Quantification of microclimate within and around tree canopies showed a gap between standard climate station data (designed to avoid tree influences) and the actual climate in which crop and tree meristems or livestock operates in real-world AF. Where global scenario modelling of ‘macroclimate’ change in mean annual rainfall and temperature extrapolates from climate station conditions in past decades, it ignores microclimate effects of trees. There still is a shortage of long-term phenology records to analyse tree biological responses across a wide range of species to climate variability, especially where flowering and pollination matter. Physiological understanding can complement farmer knowledge and help guide policy decisions that allow AF solutions to emerge and tree germplasm to be adjusted for the growing conditions expected over the lifetime of a tree.</p

Synergizing climate change mitigation and adaptation in Cameroon: An overview of multi-stakeholder efforts

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the policy environments, institutional arrangements and practical implementation of some initiatives undertaken by the Government of Cameroon, together with some relevant stakeholders, in addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation at various levels in the country, which are prerequisites to promote synergistic ways of addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation. Design/methodology/approach - Using a qualitative approach to data collection, the paper draws upon information collected from relevant literature and interviews with 18 key country resource personnel. Findings - Results revealed that most reviewed policies/programs/strategies do not mention “climate change” explicitly but propose some activities which indirectly address it. Interaction is fair within the government ministries but weak between these ministries and other institutions. Inadequate financial resources are being opined as the most important challenge stakeholders are (and would continue) facing as a result of adopting integrated approaches to climate change. Other challenges include inadequate coordination, insufficient sensitization and capacity building, ineffective implementation, inadequate compliance, lack of proper transparency and inadequate public participation. To redress the aforementioned constraints and challenges, the paper concludes by outlining a number of recommendations for policy design. Originality/value - The following recommendations were made: create a national technical committee to oversee and provide scientific guidance to the government on synergistic approaches; promote private sector investment and sponsorship on synergistic approaches; create local awareness, etc. It is important to underscore that minimal studies have been conducted to analyze multi-stakeholder perspectives on synergies between climate change mitigation and adaptation in Cameroon. This study attempts to bridge this major gap

The Role of Agriculture in the UN Climate Talks

Agriculture, and consequently food security and livelihoods, is already being affected by climate change, according to latest science from the IPCC. The various strands of work already underway on agriculture within the UNFCCC process can be strengthened and made more coherent. A 2015 climate agreement should reference food production and provide the financial, technical and capacity building support for countries to devise ambitious actions for the agricultural sector. A new climate agreement should be consistent with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) proces

Progress on agriculture in the UN climate talks: How COP21 can ensure a food-secure future

Agriculture, and consequently food security and livelihoods, is already being affected by climate change, according to latest science from the IPCC (Porter et al. 2014). The IPCC agrees that the world needs to produce at least 50% more food than we do today in order to meet the goal of feeding a projected 9 billion people by 2050. This must be achieved in the face of climatic variability and change, growing constraints on water and land for crops and livestock, and declining wild capture fishery stocks. Although the protection of food security lies within the core objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (Article 2), formal arrangements for addressing agriculture within COP21 are unlikely. CGIAR would welcome the strengthening of aspirations for food security through action on mitigation and adaptation within a new agreement. We recognise that the new climate agreement is unlikely to be prescriptive about how adaptation in agriculture is supported and how agriculture might contribute to emission cuts. These issues are addressed within countries’ INDCs and determined at national level

Community Capacity for Implementing Clean Development Mechanism Projects Within Community Forests in Cameroon

There is a growing assumption that payments for environmental services including carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reduction provide an opportunity for poverty reduction and the enhancement of sustainable development within integrated natural resource management approaches. Yet in experiential terms, community-based natural resource management implementation falls short of expectations in many cases. In this paper, we investigate the asymmetry between community capacity and the Land Use Land Use Change Forestry (LULUCF) provisions of the Clean Development Mechanism within community forests in Cameroon. We use relevant aspects of the Clean Development Mechanism criteria and notions of “community capacity” to elucidate determinants of community capacity needed for CDM implementation within community forests. The main requirements are for community capacity to handle issues of additionality, acceptability, externalities, certification, and community organisation. These community capacity requirements are further used to interpret empirically derived insights on two community forestry cases in Cameroon. While local variations were observed for capacity requirements in each case, community capacity was generally found to be insufficient for meaningful uptake and implementation of Clean Development Mechanism projects. Implications for understanding factors that could inhibit or enhance community capacity for project development are discussed. We also include recommendations for the wider Clean Development Mechanism/Kyoto capacity building framework