Large-scale implementation of adaptation and mitigation actions in agriculture

This paper identifies sixteen cases of large-scale actions in the agriculture and forestry sectors that have adaptation and/or mitigation outcomes, and distils lessons from the cases. The cases cover policy and strategy development (including where climate-smart objectives were not the initial aim), climate risk management through insurance, weather information services and social protection, and agricultural initiatives that have a strong link to climate change adaptation and mitigation.
 
Key lessons learned include:

• Trade-offs can be avoided, at least in the near-term and over limited spatial scale
• We need cost-effective and comparable indices for measuring GHG fluxes and formonitoring adaptive capacity
• Strong government support is crucial to enable large-scale successes
• Upfront costs may be substantial and can be met from multiple sources
• An iterative and participatory learning approach with investment in capacitystrengthening is critical

Cooper, P.J.M., Cappiello, S., Vermeulen, S.J., Campbell, B.M., Zougmoré, R. & Kinyangi, J. (2013). Large-scale implementation of adaptation and mitigation actions in agriculture. CCAFS Working Paper no. 50. CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Copenhagen, Denmark.
 
This Working Paper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial–NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
 
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