Climate Resilient Landscape
In many areas where we work, people's livelihoods depend on their environment and the availability of natural resources. Urban and rural landscapes provide local populations with environmental benefits essential to development and increase resilience to shocks and climate change adaptation.
Deforestation, unsustainable farming and grazing management, urbanisation, infrastructure development, adverse climate conditions, industrial pollution, and improper waste disposal are the leading causes of land degradation and biodiversity loss.
Impact of land degradation
Land degradation leads to reduced agricultural productivity, as the land loses fertility and structure, resulting in lower crop yields and diminished food production, increasing food insecurity and hunger and malnutrition risks. This process also causes biodiversity loss, destroying habitats and deteriorating soil quality, leading to the extinction of plant and animal species and disrupting ecosystems.
Land degradation disrupts natural water cycles, decreases water retention, and exacerbates droughts and water shortages. Additionally, degraded lands contribute to climate change by releasing stored carbon into the atmosphere, further accelerating global warming.
The economic impacts are severe, with reduced land productivity and higher rehabilitation costs leading to significant financial losses, particularly for communities dependent on agriculture and natural resources. This degradation often forces people to migrate, causing social and economic displacement and increasing competition for resources in other areas.
Our expertise
Effective landscape management ensures sustainable use of resources, protects biodiversity, and mitigates the impacts of climate change by preserving ecosystems that regulate water cycles, store carbon, and prevent soil erosion. Additionally, it supports agriculture, safeguards livelihoods, and enhances the overall well-being of communities by promoting a balanced and integrated approach to land use that considers ecological, economic, and social factors.
The effective technical solutions to landscape management vary from proven traditional techniques to modern high-tech innovations that lead to nature-based solutions, thus recovering the natural ecosystem dynamics and functions in cultural landscapes. We address the underlying causes and introduce technical solutions for localities and communities.
We also address environmental degradation, climate change-induced landscape variations, and agricultural productivity. Analysing geohazards alongside existing agricultural and livelihood practices is essential in providing a holistic solution to protect communities from the impacts of natural disasters and enhancing productivity, livelihoods, and food security. Our response within this area engages all key stakeholders, and our approaches include climate-smart agriculture, natural resource management techniques, and biodiversity and environmental conservation.
Key examples:
Natural Resource Management in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan – Building on the experience from our first NRM and Agriculture programming in Afghanistan, we developed a series of NRM and agriculture projects that expanded our agriculture sector portfolio. These projects spearheaded community landscape management, agroforestry, reforestation, conservation agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, and nature-based solutions. Recently, we promoted the development of extension services for climate-smart agriculture in Iraq and Syria.
Sustainable agriculture and reforestation in Ethiopia: we support Ethiopia through the participatory development of productive landscapes and ecological stability of the Dijo-Bilate River Watersheds to address deforestation, erosion, droughts, and floods. Our support includes most of the productive & climate-resilient landscapes' flagship components: participatory community landscape design, local authorities' capacity building, GIS-driven landscape planning and modelling, behavioural change design, and land-access facilitation.
Empowering conservation through community action in Zambia: in partnership with WWF Zambia, we address unsustainable practices such as overgrazing and illegal logging for charcoal. This integrated approach promoting conservation for sustainable livelihoods empowers communities to co-manage natural resources sustainably while facilitating clean energy and alternative livelihoods.
