Strengthening climate resilience of rural communities by co-producing landscape-specific integrated farming systems in Cambodia

Climate change poses a major threat to the livelihoods of rural smallholder farmers in Cambodia. Adaptation measures through sustainable land management (SLM) and farming practices can help farmers to increase their resilience to climate change and secure their livelihoods. This paper presents a novel approach for promoting landscape-specific integrated farming systems (IFS) through multi-stakeholder engagement, knowledge-based decision-making and improved land use planning. It presents a stepwise participatory approach, applied under an IFAD-funded project, to define context-specific IFS models. Through co-production processes with multiple stakeholders, three landscape units and seven landscape-specific IFS models consisting of different SLM technologies were defined and demonstrated on 1,500 farms in two case study sites. The process included training and awareness raising to enhance local stakeholder engagement in developing integrated farm plans. This paper provides insights into how such a novel approach can be embedded in rural development projects to enhance smallholders’ resilience and livelihoods

Teaching Manual for for Bachelor’s and Master’s courses on Sustainable Development and Sustainable Land Management at the Royal University of Cambodia

Purpose of this teaching manual This teaching manual was developed to enable lecturers at the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) and agriculture-focused higher education institutions in Cambodia to deliver a course on Sustainable Development and Sustainable Land Management for Bachelor’s and Master’s students. The structure of the course was jointly developed by the RUA and the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) of the University of Bern, Switzerland, based on the requirements of the RUA. The teaching manual aims to provide lecturers with an increased understanding of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and skills to implement ESD at the university and other higher education institutions. The lectures will deliver the content of sustainable development and sustainable land management through ESD-oriented teaching. This will capacitate the lecturers to establish good quality tertiary education with a focus on ESD. Students will be well trained in sustainability issues with a view to contributing to sustainable development and to the sustainable use of natural resources in their country. The students will be able to address today’s challenges of food security, climate change, resource degradation, and poverty