Ecosystem-based Adaptation for
Smallholder Subsistence and Coffee
Farming Communities in Central America
(CASCADE)
Presented by: Celia A. Harvey
Co-authors: Francisco Alpízar, Jacques Avelino, Pavel Bautista, Luis Calderer,
Tabaré Capitan, Mario Chacón, Camila Donatti, Emily Fung, Pablo Imbach, Lee
Hannah, Ruth Martínez, Claudia Medellin, Maggie Holland, Efraín Leguía, Julio
López, Marilyn Manrow, Claudia Medellín, Herminia Palacios, Bruno Rapidel,
Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Milagro Saborío, Leo Saenz, Sierra Shamer, Karyn
Tabor, Luis Trevejo, Raffaele Vignola, Juan Carlos Zamora
Overview
1. An introduction to the CASCADE project (Ecosystem-based
Adaptation for Smallholder Subsistence and Coffee Farmers in Central
America)
2. Some initial findings from the first year
3. Work in progress and next steps
4. Relevance of this project for ‘Climate Smart Landscapes’
1. WHY CASCADE?
• Central America is one of the regions with the highest
projected changes in future climatic conditions
(higher temperatures, greater rainfall variability and
more extreme weather events)
Agriculture is a key sector for the
region (41.4% of population; 2.3 million
farming families; smallholders)
Climate change will likely have
significant negative impacts on
smallholder farmer livelihoods … unless
action is taken to help them adapt
Adaptation to climate change is a top priority for
Central American governments
Despite the threat of climate change to
smallholder farmers , there is currently limited
information on:
•Which smallholder farmers are most vulnerable
•How farmers are being impacted by climate change
•How farmers are coping with ongoing changes
•What strategies they are implementing
•How effective different strategies are
This information is necessary for identifying options
for helping smallholder farmers adapt to climate
change
In addition, little is known about the extent to
which ecosystem-based adaptation may help
reduce farmer vulnerability to climate change
What is Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA)?
Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is the use of biodiversity and
ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help
people to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.
EbA uses the sustainable management, conservation, and restoration of
ecosystems to provide services that enable people to adapt to the
impacts of climate change.
Some examples of EbA in agricultural landscapes:
Conservation of forests in
upland areas to prevent
land slides
Restoration or protection of
riparian areas to ensure future
water supply
Use of agroforestry to reduce
impacts of extreme droughts or
heavy rains.
Diversification of agricultural
systems to secure food provision
What we are doing in the CASCADE Project?
Objective: To help vulnerable smallholder farmers adapt to climate
change by identifying and testing Ecosystem-based Adaptation strategies
that can help farmers, and building local capacity to support the
implementation of these strategies in smallholder farming communities
Project outcome: EbA strategies are in place, implemented by
smallholder farmesr through the effective use of extension services, and
leveraged into national policies in 3 target countries (Costa Rica,
Honduras and Guatemala)
Specific goals of the CASCADE project:
1. Understand the vulnerability of Central American smallholder
farmers and ecosystems to climate change
2. Identify which ecosystems, ecosystem services and small scale
farming communities are most vulnerable to climate change
3. Document household livelihood strategies (and EbA) used to
cope with climatic variability across a range of different
smallholder communities
4. Test the effectiveness of existing on-farm activities that are
relevant for EbA in a subset of communities
Specific project goals (cont.)
5. Identify local and national institutions that could promote EbA
approaches among smallholder farming communities and define
strategies for strengthening these institutions
6. Strengthen capacity of key organizations to support
implementation of EbA with smallholder farmers by developing
and delivering training courses and extension materials
7. Promote the incorporation of EbA approaches in national and
regional adaptation strategies and associated policies
Project characteristics
Principal partners:
Funding:
Duration: 6 years (December 2017)
Countries: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras
Target groups: smallholder subsistence and coffee
farmers ,coffee institutes, farmer organizations, local
and national governments, extension agents, and
private sector
2. What have we learnt so far?
i) There is very little information available on smallholder farmer
vulnerability in Central America
A literature review: 57 papers, but limited, vague and incomplete information
Key gaps:
•
Poor and incomplete maps of agricultural land use (CR, Hon)
• No national maps of where smallholder farmers are located
• No maps or statistics of overall farmer vulnerability to climate change
• No national level maps of farmer adaptive capacity
…this
lack of information limits the ability of national governments
and other decision-makers to set priorities for adaptation for
smallholder farmers
To fill this gap, we are using participatory methods to map where
smallholder farmers occur, how vulnerable they are to extreme
weather events, and what their adaptive capacity is
(75 experts interviewed,
3 expert workshops to
validate maps)
An example of a map of smallholder farmer adaptive capacity in
Honduras:
Land tenure
1.2
1
Extreme events
0.8
Technical
assistance
0.6
0.4
0.2
Financial
resources
0
Agricultural
practices
Migration
Assets
(See poster for more information)
Crop adherence
These maps allow us to identify areas where smallholder
farmers are highly vulnerable to climate change
Exposure to extreme
weather events
Most vulnerable farmers
Dependence on agriculture
for livelihoods
Subsistence agriculture
ii. There is a lot of good information on alternative management
practices for coffee and maize/bean systems …
Table 1. Nmber of papers that highlight the means by which different coffee management practices help
enhance the adaptive capacity of coffee systems (based on literature review of >400 papers)
Biophysical means by which the measure enhances adaptive capacity
Management
practice
Use of shade trees
Buffers
temper
ature
12
Reduces
solar
radiation
4
Buffers the
impact of
heavy
rainfall
2
9
3
2
1
1
1
Improves
soil fertility
5
Decreases
pest
outbreaks
Decreases
incidence
of disease
outbreaks
8
7
5
1
+
Live barriers
..
1
Increases
Reduces
water
Reduces soil erosion
retention in water runoff and gully
soil
formation
1
Organic
production
Contour ploughing
Increases
water
infiltration
into soil
3
2
+
2
But, with the exception of shade management, there is still
1
1
4
1
Pruning
limited information on how different management practices help
1
7
influence the adaptive capacity of coffee plantations
IPM
5
5
iii. There is also very little discussion of EbA in agricultural
landscapes, even though many practices could be considered EbA
Quesungual system.
Diversification and management of shade canopy
Coffee agroforestry systems
Soil conservation strategies
Use of windbreaks
Conservation of riparian forests
No till maize with mulch
iv. There are many barriers to implementing
adaptation measures with smallholder farmers
Key barriers (based on interviews with ~50 experts):
• Farmers’ low income prevents investment in adaptation measures (31)
•
Lack of technology transfer from institutions to farmers (23)
• Lack of interest/innovation from farmers (17)
• Weak agricultural institutions and extension services, with little
knowledge of EbA (14)
• Lack of participatory research for farmers (9)
• Demographic trends in communities (absence of youth in the field) (9)
→The project will address some of these barriers directly (e.g.,
technical assistance, capacity building)
3. Ongoing work and next steps
•Downscaling of climatologies and modeling work of
climate impacts on ecosystem services (pollination,
water provision), crop suitability and crop production
• Household survey of smallholder farmers (~600
total) on impacts of climate change, adaptation
measures employed (especially EbA) and factors
influencing adoption
•Field work to characterize EbA practices on farms,
and assess their effectiveness
•Study of the role of institutions in supporting
adaptation of smallholder farmers and identification
of key groups to strengthen through training
•Policy review to identify opportunities for
incorporating EbA approaches into existing policies,
strategies or government programs
Expected project outputs and impacts
-Identification of which smallholder farmers are most
vulnerable to climate change
-Understanding of the impacts of climate change on
ecosystem services, agricultural production and farmer
livelihoods
-Information on which ecosystem-based approaches are
most effective for subsistence and coffee farmers
-Development of training materials on EbA
-Enhanced capacity within relevant institutions to provide
technical assistance on EbA
-Analysis of policy and institutional barriers to EbA
-Scientific papers and policy briefs highlight adaptation
needs and opportunities for smallholder farmers
4. This research will help us achieve ‘climate smart’
landscapes by:
• Identifying which landscapes and communities should be priorities for
future interventions
• providing information on how farmers are changing management
practices (both of crops and natural resources) in response to climate
change
• identifying promising EbA approaches which can be applied at both
the farm and landscape level
• building capacity of key institutions to promote EbA practices
• Creating awareness about the importance of ecosystem-based
approaches for smallholder farmer adaptation to climate change and the
need to work at the landscape scale
THANK YOU
For more information see: http://www.conservation.org/cascade
Or contact :
PI’s: Celia Harvey ([email protected]) and Francisco Alpízar
([email protected])
Project managers: Ruth Martinez ([email protected]) and
Milagro Saborío ([email protected])