A large number of governance interventions are being developed in order to reduce deforestation and enhance the sustainability of commodity

supply chains across the tropics. The extent to which individual agricultural commodity supply chain interventions can achieve scale, and

environmental or social objectives, depends in part on the ways in which those interventions interact with other interventions. We use a casestudy

of the new Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) cattle certification program in Brazil to explore the different ways in which governance

Restoration interventions to combat land degradation are carried out in arid and semi-arid areas to improve vegetation cover and land productivity. Evaluating the success of an intervention over time is challenging due to various constraints (e.g. difficult-to-access areas, lack of long-term records) and the lack of standardised and affordable methodologies. We propose a semi-automatic methodology that uses remote sensing data to provide a rapid, standardised and objective assessment of the biophysical impact, in terms of vegetation cover, of restoration interventions.

The agricultural development project Resilience and Economic Growth in Arid Lands – Accelerated Growth (REGAL-AG) has promoted improved livestock management that resulted in a decrease in net emissions of 10%. Since emissions from livestock account for the majority of Kenya’s agricultural emissions (95%), reduction of emissions in the livestock sector has high potential impact.

Although the Ganges River Basin (GRB) has abundant water resources, the seasonal monsoon causes a mismatch in water supply and demand, which creates severe water-related challenges for the people living in the basin, the rapidly growing economy and the environment. Addressing these increasing challenges will depend on how people manage the basin’s groundwater resources, on which the reliance will increase further due to limited prospects for additional surface storage development.

? The Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program II

(RDCP) was estimated to have resulted in a

strong decrease in the GHG emissions intensity

of milk production, defined as the GHG

emissions per unit (liter) of milk produced.

Extensive cattle production systems reduced

their GHG emission intensity by an estimated -

4.11 tCO2e per 1000 l of milk (-60%), while

intensive production systems reduced their

intensity by an estimated -1.7 tCO2e/1000 l (-

47%). The decrease in GHG emission intensity

Rwanda’s variable and changing climate is an increasingly serious challenge to the country’s

agricultural sector and farming population. Climate information services are emerging as a

means to support farmers to manage risk and provide an opportunity to build the resilience of

agriculture to climate at all time scales. Climate services include historical, monitored and

forecast information, and value-added information products such pest and disease risk

warnings, crop yield forecasts, or management advisories. The new Rwanda Climate Services

Measurements of nutrient stocks and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes are typically collected at very local scales (<1 to 30 m2) and then extrapolated to estimate impacts at larger spatial extents (farms, landscapes, or even countries). Translating point measurements to higher levels of aggregation is called scaling. Scaling fundamentally involves conversion of data through integration or interpolation and/or simplifying or nesting models. Model and data manipulation techniques to scale estimates are referred to as scaling methods.

Agricultural landscapes must provide food, fiber and energy to

a growing population in a changing climate, while potentially

serving as instruments for climate change mitigation. Agriculture

is the backbone of the Kenyan economy, contributing approximately

25% of the GDP annually and employing more than 75%

of the population (The Government of Kenya 2010). The development

of agriculture is also important for poverty reduction since

most of the vulnerable groups, like pastoralists, the landless, and

InfoAndina TV es el nuevo programa producido por el Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la Ecorregión Andina CONDESAN que surge como un espacio de diálogo y difusión de cultura ambiental y de desarrollo sostenible de nuestra región andina. Luego de una buena acogida del programa de estreno, continúa con su transmisión semanal vía La Mula TV.

Adapting to climate risks is central to the goal of increasing food security and enhancing resilience of farming systems in East Africa. We examined farmers’ attitudes and assessed determinants of adaptation using data from a random sample of 500 households in Borana, Ethiopia, Nyando, Kenya, Hoima Uganda, and Lushoto, Tanzania. Adaptation was measured using a livelihood-based index that assigned weights to different individual strategies based on their marginal contributions to a household’s livelihood.