Page 17 - FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change

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Theme 4.
Climate change adaptation, resilience and linkages to food security
We need to examine incentives and the adoption patterns of mitigation practices linked to improved food security in high and middle-income countries.
To support a Monitoring-Reporting-Validation (MRV) agenda on GHG mitigation, emissions from smallholder or suboptimal production systems in developing countries should be better evaluated and integrated into any productivity improvements.
The effects of land management change, and in particular biophysical effects, are a major knowledge gap.
KEY MESSAGES
Rebuilding land and soil health
We need to do a better job to link soil management with water quality and nutrients’ leaching and move to better integrate critical soil health indicators, like soil carbon with other processes and practices.
We need to promote best practices that offer clear economic gains as well as net long-term mitigation benefits.
We need better instruments to account for payments for environmental services (PES) as part of any integrated soil- water-nutrient management package and to assess the potential role of the private sector.
We need improved measurements that combine ecological and economic valuation of soil loss and design incentive programmes (e.g. through PES) that help minimize soil loss.
We need to adopt integrated frameworks, such as the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) initiative, to maintain or enhance the land-based natural capital and the ecosystem services that flow from it through sustainable land management and interventions that restore degraded land.
We need to adopt ecosystem-based adaptation approaches that are proven to be cost-effective and can lead to a multibeneficial strategy for adaptation.
Adaptation to water scarcity and equitable access to water
We should integrate technical and economic assessments when measuring the impact of improved water use efficiency (maximizing “crop per drop”) vs sustainable water use (optimized renewable use of water within a river basin).
Economic analyses and institutional mechanisms are needed to improve governance and water access equity among different users affected by its scarcity.
The costs of increased flooding and coastal soils salinization under climate change needs to be better assessed and options developed for agricultural systems adaptation.
Integrated, participatory research will allow local or regional water assessments to develop frameworks to manage water, land, agroforestry and crops under different water demand, supply and pricing conditions.
FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change, land use and food security