Country: Zambia

Zambia

The role of forest ecosystems in community-based coping strategies to climate hazards: Three examples from rural areas in Africa

We investigated the coping strategies of rural communities in three countries in Africa to climate hazards. Forest ecosystems deliver food and shelter during extreme events (droughts and floods) and are thus key assets for increasing the resilience of poor communities. In some villages, forests and their NTFP serve as supplementary income during periods of climate stress at the community-level. These coping strategies can form a basis for dealing with future climate changes and can contribute to the development of planned adaptation strategies for anticipated changes. We identified factors that promote or prevent the use of sustainable coping strategies related to forest ecosystems.

Gender, nutrition- and climate-smart food production: Opportunities and trade-offs

Future food and nutrition security is threatened by climate change, overexploitation of natural resources and pervasive social inequalities. Promising solutions are often technology-focused and not necessarily developed considering gender and social disparities. This paper addresses issues of gender and human development opportunities and trade-offs related to promoting improved technologies for agricultural development. We examined these aspects for conservation agriculture (CA) as part of a cropping system with nutrition- and climate-smart potential. The paper is based on a literature review and field experiences from Zambia and Mexico. Findings point up situations where the promotion of CA for smallholders in developing countries may have undesired effects from gender and human development perspectives, specifically relating to drudgery, nutrition and food security, residue use, assets, mechanization and extension. The direction and magnitude of potential trade-offs depend on the local context and the specific intervention. The analysis is followed by a discussion of opportunities and pathways for mitigating the trade-offs, including gender transformative approaches; engagement with alternative or non-traditional partners with different but complementary perspectives and strengths; “smart” combinations of technologies and approaches; and policies for inclusive development.