Degraded Landscapes Threaten Stable Livelihoods – Okonjo-Iweala

Immediate past finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Saturday insisted that degraded landscapes have remained a threat to the ability of countries to provide stable livelihood to rural people.Speaking at the High-Level Opening Plenary Global Landscapes Forum, Palais des Congress, Paris, on “Shaping Global and National Economies to Better Respond to Climate Challenges in Landscapes,” Dr Okonjo-Iweala noted that she was delighted to have been given the privilege to address the forum on an issue of grave importance to developing countries.Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s paper disclosed that agriculture accounts for most of employment””more than two-thirds in Africa””and a substantial share of GDP in most countries.“Developing countries are not only aware of climate change, but many of them are already living with the consequences. They worry about the most recent predictions from IPCC that food production per capita in their countries will be sharply lower in the coming decades.“Most have put increasing food productivity and increasing the resilience of rural livelihoods at the top of the policy agenda.”While pointing out that land use is imperative in addressing climate change, the former minister posited that, “The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, of which I am a member, has featured land use issues in its New Climate Economy project.“It finds that land use interventions can produce from 15% to 35% of the needed mitigation to get the world back to a 2 degree Celsius climate pathway by 2030. It also shows this path to be unlikely without a big contribution from these interventions in developing countries.“This Forum addresses the main need for going forward, a stronger consensus that landscape restoration is critical to achieving a vital “triple win” for development and climate: increasing rural productivity, resilience, and mitigation simultaneously.“According to FAO, a staggering third of all agricultural landscapes are now degraded, mostly in developing countries. Worse, 12 million ha net are being added each year to that total. Degraded landscapes threaten the ability of countries to provide stable livelihoods to rural people.“Solutions need to come from those most directly involved. India for example has led on forest restoration. By 2030, additional forest and tree cover is expected to absorb at least 2.5 Gt CO2e. Prime Minister Modi put it very nicely in the Financial Times last Sunday: “The instinct of our culture is to take a sustainable path to development. When a child is born, we plant a tree.“The massive restoration of China’s Loess Plateau from the mid-1990s onwards is another. Annual household incomes grew from US$70 to US$200 per person over the first decade, through agricultural productivity gains and diversification. Soil losses were reduced by 100 million tonnes per year, and massive amounts of new biomass and soil carbon sequestered.”Okonjo-Iweala also pointed out that in Niger, a change in the forest code in the 1990s brought about the encouragement of farmers in the centre-south to increase trees within their fields 10- to 20-fold.She added that, “Commitment for change is growing. Thirty-five African countries submitted INDCs that mention land use interventions. Most of these expect benefits such as higher yields, reduced erosion, and less loss of productive land.“Thirteen have detailed quantitative targets for emissions reduction through land use interventions that would lead to 1.2 Gt CO2e in reduced emissions over the next 10 years, an amount equivalent to more than one-third of Africa’s current total annual emissions.”The former minister further noted that developing countries would require assistance from other countries so as to deliver.“The NCE Working Paper being released today suggests a way forward through structured capital partnerships put together by “Impact Investors.”“Such investments in land use in developing countries have been of the order of US$1 billion per year to 2013. But the amount is expected to continue to double every 4-5 years going forward.”