In a world in which poverty is increasingly concentrated in vulnerable or fragile states, and fragility is increasingly driven by climate change, climate-induced displacement has become one of the most visible manifestations of the relationship between ecological and societal breakdown. Newest figures from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reveal that over 70% of the 33 million newly displaced people (2019) had climate-related triggers.

The Kyoto Protocol negotiated in the mid-1990s to address climate change adaptation and mitigation will be replaced by a post-Kyoto agreement in 2012. The new agreement under negotiation needs to seal the policy gaps in adaptation and mitigation that were omitted or excluded from Kyoto on account of scientific uncertainties. Particular attention needs to be given to the potential of land in all its dimensions considering its high capacity to store carbon. Land stores twice as much organic carbon as vegetation and the atmosphere combined.

Land has many uses. It provides water, food and energy. It is used to create wealth and employment and grow economies. And it provides other, often less obvious and tangible, services such as conserving biodiversity, storing carbon, purifying and storing water. It even regulates the Earth’s climate, for instance, by absorbing the heat from the sun. All of its uses are undermined and destroyed when land is degraded. Degrading the land disrupts these functions and leads to severe food, water and energy shortages.

Human activities are the principal drivers of the processes of land degradation, desertification and climate change. Though highly complex and difficult to predict, interactions between climate change and land degradation are likely to affect a range of different ecosystem functions and the services they deliver, with consequent impacts on food production, livelihoods and human well-being. Society must therefore mitigate or reverse these stresses through innovative approaches.

Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity the world faces today. Be it for jobs, security, climate change, food production or increasing incomes, access to energy for all is essential. Sustainable energy is an opportunity too as it fuels lives, economies and the planet. Getting sustainable energy to all who want it represents one of the biggest development challenges of the 21st century.

As of 2017, SGP has awarded over 3,800 small grants to land degradation projects in over 120 countries, many of which are in regions with extreme levels of poverty and food insecurity across Africa and Latin America. Africa, in particular, is experiencing the highest population growth of the developing world, while being exposed and vulnerable to the rising impact from climate change.

Land provides crucial ecosystem services for human existence and human well-being, including provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services. Those services provide among others the production of fresh air, food, feed, fuel and fibre. They regulate the risks of natural hazards and climate change, offer cultural and spiritual values to our society, and support key ecological functions such as nutrient and water cycling, filtering and buffering, and are central to economic vitality.

Un guide pour faciliter la déclinaison du SRADDET dans les Plans Climat Air Energie Territorial (PCAET)

L’approbation du Schéma Régional d’Aménagement, de Développement Durable et d’Égalité des Territoires (SRADDET) de la Région SUD, le 15 octobre 2019, marque une étape décisive en actant la stratégie régionale d’aménagement à horizon 2030 / 2050.

La réussite de ce projet collectif passe par sa mise en œuvre, notamment à travers sa déclinaison dans les documents de planification et de programmation locaux.

Ce rapport de synthèse fournit un aperçu de haut niveau des principaux thèmes abordés dans les Lignes directrices sur l’atténuation des impacts des projets d’énergie solaire et éolienne sur la biodiversi-té, publiées en 2021. Celles-ci visent à fournir un soutien pratique aux projets d’énergie solaire et éolienne, afin de gérer efficacement les risques et améliorer les résultats en matière de bio-diversité et de services écosystémiques.

Au Niger comme dans tous les pays du Sahel, le pastoralisme fait face à des défis majeurs. La transhumance transfrontalière – pratique séculaire caractérisant le pastoralisme dans toute l’Afrique au sud du Sahara et dont les bienfaits ne sont plus à démontrer – est dangereusement menacée.