Network for Climate-Resilient Agroforestry and Regenerative Landscapes

Context

Agroforestry is a sustainable land use approach which deliberately integrates trees and woody shrubs with crops and animals for environmental, economic and social benefits. With globally impressive results across a range of contexts, including Nigeria and Ghana, agroforestry is a highly promising climate-smart technology in addressing the intertwined challenges of food security, climate change, land degradation and poverty. 

Northern regions of Nigeria and Ghana are experiencing unpredictable rainy seasons, higher temperatures, dry spells and recurring droughts. The rapidly changing climate, coupled with rising unsustainable land use practices such as logging and excessive chemical usage, is contributing to significant land degradation and desertification. These challenges are exacerbating conflict as well as the marginalisation of vulnerable groups such as women, hindering the advancement of the SDGs and ultimately the climate resilient development (CRD) pathways that climate-smart agricultural practices such as agroforestry seek to achieve.

CRD advocates for actions that simultaneously address greenhouse gas emissions, climate change adaptation and the SDGs, with emphasis on four enablers: 

•    ecosystem stewardship
•    equity and justice
•    inclusivity and
•    diversity of knowledge

For agroforestry to advance CRD, the four enablers must be at the centre in designing any agroforestry technologies, ensuring social issues such as gender inequalities are addressed, and diverse knowledge and perspectives are considered when developing and scaling these technologies. Such efforts are crucial given that women’s rights are afforded such low recognition in many sub-Saharan African countries (including Nigeria and Ghana), often due to socio-cultural and religious factors. 

The common agroforestry practices promoted to farmers in both regions include Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), Alley cropping and Taungya systems, and use of Multi-purpose Trees (MPTs) on crop land. Many of these practices are also used in parts of Brazil. Given the importance of matching the ‘Right Trees to the Right Place’ (RTRP), it is important to understand the suitability of the trees for the two regions.

Aims and Objectives

In this project we use the four CRD enablers as a framework for bringing together diverse stakeholders across the 4 partner countries (UK, Brazil, Ghana and Nigeria), helping inform the design and scaling of the agroforestry technologies to be advanced in these regions. Through stakeholder analysis and engagement, online workshops, interviews and desk-based literature review, we aim to identify opportunities for trilateral collaboration and knowledge sharing to promote agroforestry as a technology for CSA, supporting sustainable food production systems in Ghana and Nigeria.

The Project Focus Area will be Agroforestry and integrated or regenerative landscape management.

The Project will:

1. Build a network between the UK, Brazil, Ghana and Nigeria
2. Explore, identify and consolidate opportunities for collaborations
3. Disseminate the outputs and knowledge gathered during the project to relevant stakeholders.

Stakeholders will be drawn from government institutions, private sector organisations, international donor agencies, research organisations and universities, local ministries of environment and agriculture, traditional leaders, farmer groups, women groups, and local NGOs.