Building ecosystem services for poverty alleviation
Climate and Resilience (CLARE) is a partnership co-funded by IDRC and the UK’s Department for International Development. CLARE selected a group of recently closed or near to closing IDRC-supported research programs to further develop and scale their results for greater impact. The selected recipients are expected to participate in a mid-term learning review in late 2020 to reflect on their efforts to achieve scaling and research uptake.
One of these recipients is the Ecosystems Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA). This project integrates results from ESPA by supporting four initiatives with strong potential for further scaling or uptake of results to achieve greater impact.
The first initiative will build on a community-based mangrove conservation effort funded through the sale of carbon credits. New work will seek to replicate this effort and scale conservation by selling blue carbon credits in the Vanga Blue Forest in Kenya.
The second initiative will involve strengthening reforestation efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change in Madagascar. This work will inform the implementation of the national reforestation plan, with local people delivering field-based training sessions for government officials.
The third initiative is to scale climate-smart cocoa production in Ghana. New work will focus on establishing a monitoring network in comparable forest-cocoa landscapes in lands adjacent to the Kakum National Park, including analysis of historical satellite imagery and long-term cocoa productivity data.
The fourth initiative will transition the wood fuel industry in southern Mozambique. New work aims to assist three villages in managing the expansion of the wood fuel sector by developing a regional plan to ensure more sustainable harvests and reduce associated carbon emissions
Project ID
109238
Project Status
Active
Duration
22 months
IDRC Officer
Bruce Currie-Alder
Total Funding
CA$ 1,167,555.00
Location
Ghana
Kenya
Madagascar
Mozambique
Programs
Climate-Resilient Food Systems
Climate Adaptation and Resilience
Institution Country
United Kingdom
Project Leader
Casey Ryan
Institution
The University Court of The University of Edinburgh
Institution Website
Institution Country
United Kingdom
Project Leader
Julia Jones
Institution
Bangor University/Prifysgol Bangor
Institution Website
Institution Country
United Kingdom
Project Leader
Ken Norris
Institution
Zoological Society of London
Institution Website
Institution Country
United Kingdom
Project Leader
Mark Huxham
Institution
The Court of Edinburgh Napier University
Institution Website
Outputs
| Elevated fires during COVID-19 lockdown and the vulnerability of protected areas Article
There is little robust, quantitative information on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the extinction crisis. Focusing on Madagascar, one of the world’s most threatened biodiversity hotspots, we explore whether the cessation of on-site protected-area management activities due to the pandemic were associated with increased burning inside protected areas. We identify monthly excess fire anomalies by comparing observed fires with those predicted on the basis of historical and contemporary fire and weather data for all of Madagascar’s protected areas for every month 2012–2020. Through to 2019, excess fire anomalies in protected areas were few, short in duration and, in some years, coincident with social disruption linked to national elections. By contrast, in 2020, COVID-19 meant on-site management of Madagascar’s protected areas was suspended from March to July. This period was associated with 76–248% more fires than predicted, after which burning returned to normal. At a time when international biodiversity conservation faces unprecedented challenges, our results highlight the importance of on-site management for maintaining protected-area integrity. Author(s): Eklund, Johanna, Jones, Julia P. G., Räsänen, Matti, Geldmann, Jonas, Jokinen, Ari-Pekka Language: English |
Blue carbon solutions in Kenya’s climate actions Brief
Blue carbon ecosystems (mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows) are highly efficient carbon sinks with the potential to make an important contribution to the mitigation of climate change. Conservation and management of Blue Carbon ecosystems and commitments in Kenya are summarised in Table 1 of this brief, along with key stakeholders who need to engage with them. The incorporation of ocean climate actions into Kenya’s updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC, 2020) is a significant milestone in climate change intervention measures. Kenya has about 612 km2 and 317 km2 of mangroves and seagrass respectively. Author(s): Lang’at, J.K.S., Shilland, R., Dencer-Brown, A., Huxham, M., Kairo, J.G. Language: English |
CLARE - Ecolimits building ecosystem services for poverty alleviation Report
Gaining access to long-term production data is one of the biggest challenges to climate change adaptation policy planning. The project team successfully engaged the government in the analysis and review process of the Ghana Cocoa Board’s long-term big data sets (over seventy years of production data at multiple scales). Analysis improved the capacity of key stakeholders to understand the inter-relationships between the environment /climate, farming, and people’s lives and livelihoods. The process helped consolidate in-country partnerships including with the Forestry Commission, Cocoa Board, Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Environment Protection Agency, relevant District Assemblies and Tropenbos Ghana. Author(s): Mason, John, Norris, Ken Language: English |
Network to understand the changing socio-ecology of the southern African woodlands (SEOSAW) : challenges, benefits, and methods Article
Findings from the Socio-Ecological Observatory for the Southern African Woodlands (SEOSAW) will underpin the sustainability of two of the largest industries on the continent: wood fuels and timber. Author(s): The SEOSAW partnership Language: English |