The current and projected severe impacts of climate change in Africa make adaptation an urgent priority. While reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a vital task, the benefits will only emerge over time. Adaptation to the impacts of climate change is needed now as well as over the next few decades. But adaptation faces many challenges. […]
The recovery and acceleration of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa since about 1995 has been widely recognised. But less is known about the extent to which this growth has led to improvements in welfare and poverty reduction in particular. In our recently published, open-access book, we attempt to provide a comprehensive assessment of growth and […]
Urban agriculture is widely promoted as the solution to the growing problem of urban food insecurity in South Africa and in Africa more broadly. It is said to provide livelihoods and social cohesion, and have environmental benefits. But it’s also promoted as having additional food security benefits. It is the primary, and usually the only, […]
Industrial timber plantations could provide a way for Ethiopia to reduce rural unemployment and conserve natural forests. Work on a timber plantation in Ethiopia is tough, with low wages, poor conditions and little security – but at least it’s a living. And in a country with high demand for wood products and widespread rural poverty […]
This past April, a team of ecosystem management practitioners came together in Nairobi, Kenya. Their mission? To put the Ecosystem Management of Productive Landscapes project on the map. Demand for food, energy, and fiber is projected to increase 40-60%, a strain on industry and agriculture that will also be exacerbated by stresses from climate change. Considering the future of […]
The latest episode of the Thrive podcast takes a close look at the ground beneath our feet. Soil, on which terrestrial life depends, is often ignored precisely because it is everywhere and yet invisible. Healthy soils contribute so much to human well-being, from nutritious food to clean water, and yet the soils of more than […]
As world leaders planned finance strategies for executing the Sustainable Development Goals, we highlighted the many advantages of Integrated Landscape Initiatives. From July 13-16th world leaders and national delegations from more than 150 countries convened in Africa’s diplomatic capital to hammer out the logistics of paying for the post 2015 development agenda. The Financing for Development Conference (FfD3) was the […]
Having our cake and eating it, too: Can we grow more food on the world’s range lands while at the same time conserving the wealth of biodiversity those range land support? Rangelands cover one-quarter of earth’s land mass and they are storehouses of biodiversity. The scrublands of the Southern African Karoo, for example, are estimated […]
The second photo-film of a two-part series, “The Ground Beneath Your Feet,” was launched during the 2015 Global Soil Week, where CIAT was highlighting the importance of soil, debating the latest science and technology as well as methods for preserving this vital natural resource. In Lushoto, Tanzania, a cluster of CCAFS climate-smart villages nestle in the stunning Eastern Arc Mountains, stretching between Tanzania and […]
