23rd UN Climate Change Conference: Helvetas Side Event

This blog is about the side event of Helvetas on “collaborating to scale up sustainable food systems in a changing climate” at the 23rd UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany. Climate change impacts most acutely the global water and food systems. Water productivity and agro-biodiversity are key adaptation measures to sustain healthy food systems in a changing climate. At yesterday’s side event at the UN Climate Change Conference, civil society and private sector representatives highlighted ways of scaling up agroecological practices through collaboration.

Agriculture is key for climate change resilience
At this year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Helvetas, jointly with IFOAM – Organics International and ANDES convened a side event on agriculture and climate resilience. Agriculture and land use change are responsible for 30% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the millions of smallholder farmers that produce 70% of the global food are particularly prone to climate change. Agriculture is thus not the only key for mitigation but also for climate change adaptation. Due to the complexity of today’s food systems, however, the agriculture sector needs to be addressed in a collaborative way by all involved stakeholders: the civil society, the private sector, governments and research.

What did the panellists say?
The session was opened by Arjumand Nizami, Country Director, Helvetas  Pakistan, scoping the term collaboration and outlining new emerging roles of the stakeholders from the diverse sectors on the example of the Water Productivity Project in Pakistan. Communities shall feel a stronger obligation for climate actions such as enhanced water use efficiency, while the private sector should promote adequate technologies and provide incentives for sustainable production. At the same time, governments need to recognize the contribution of diverse actors and act as an effective regulator by adopting conducive policies. Further, the civil society shall act as a facilitator of multi-actor collaboration e.g. for water stewardship processes. Last but not least, participatory research is required to generate innovation and provide most needed evidence to trigger action. See the presentation of Arjumand Nizami.

Dr. Martin Frick, Senior Director for Policy and Programme Coordination of UNFCCC outlined the urgency to put agriculture on the agenda of future climate discussions and encouraged the audience to support this process by sharing experiences and continuing to communicate the relevance of the topic. The following statement brings his speech to the point: “We need to finally acknowledge that people that work on the land – be it forests or arable land – are stewards for our planet. They earn our support and need access to climate funding.”

Gábor Figeczky, Advocacy Manager, IFOAM – Organics International, Hélène Botreau, Programme Coordinator and Lead Researcher of the Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security Programme (SD=HS), ANDES, shared their experiences of collaborating for scaling up agroecological practices on the example of the SD=HS programme and the Nutrition in Mountain Agro-Ecosystems Programme. Both programmes combine local with scientific knowledge and make use of community-based research to foster local innovation such as local breeding of climate adapted varieties or the inclusion of organic principles into local agricultural systems. The presenters emphasized the need to share local experiences on national and global platforms and to foster exchange among agricultural solution finders at diverse levels. An example is the dynamic Mountain Agro-ecosystems Action Network. See the presentations of Gabor Figeczky and Hélène Botreau.

Luc Beerens, Global Sustainable Sourcing Director, MARS FOOD shared MARS’ commitment to reduce its climate footprint by at least 70% in 2030. This can only be reached through a stronger collaboration with the farming community and thanks to the support of platforms such as the Sustainable Rice Platform that offer guidelines for more sustainable rice production. Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of collaborating with governmental and non-governmental organisations for upscaling impact beyond the sourcing area of a company. See the presentation of Luc Beerens.

Sonia Quispe, a farmer representative of the Association of communities of the Chalakuy Park from Peru closed the session with her powerful statement and a plea to TAKE ACTION!

Bring agroecology onto the agenda of international climate negotiations
All inputs emphasized the need for enhanced collaboration to scale up agricultural practices that on the one hand have the potential to close carbon cycles and regenerate natural resources, and on the other hand, create opportunities for smallholder farmers to make a decent living in a changing climate. In order to achieve this aim, agriculture has to be recognised as a key sector in climate resilience and needs to be brought onto the agenda of international climate discussions. Helvetas will continue its collaboration and advocacy efforts to scale up agroecological solutions in the frame of the WAPRO project, the Organic Rice Project in India and Thailand and other relevant initiatives. Also will we persist in enriching the global climate discussions with hands-on experiences and evidence.