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Agroforestry: An Appropriate and Sustainable Response to a Changing Climate in Southern Africa?
(2020)
Agroforestry is often discussed as a strategy that can be used both for the adaptation to and the mitigation of climate change effects. The climate of southern Africa is predicted to be severely affected by such changes. With agriculture noted as the continent’s largest economic sector, issues such as food security and land degradation are in the forefront. In the light of such concerns we review the current literature to investigate if agroforestry systems (AFS) are a suitable response to the challenges besetting traditional agricultural caused by a changing climate. The benefits bestowed by AFS are multiple, offering ecosystem services, influence over crop production and positive impacts on rural livelihoods through provisioning and income generation. Nevertheless, knowledge gaps remain. We identify outstanding questions requiring further investigation such as the interplay between trees and crops and their combination, with a discussion of potential benefits. Furthermore, we identify deficiencies in the institutional and policy frameworks that underlie the adoption and stimulus of AFS in the southern African region. We uphold the concept that AFS remains an appropriate and sustainable response for an increased resilience against a changing climate in southern Africa for the benefit of livelihoods and multiple environmental values
This chapter aims at providing an overview of the diversity of agroecological conditions, features of main farming systems, agricultural land use, its dynamics and drivers during the last two decades as well as major threats in ten countries of southern Africa (SA10). Based on this, we attempt to identify the resultant challenges for sustainable land management and outline potential interventions with a focus on smallholder farmers. By analyzing cropland dynamics during 2000–2019, we show how land use has been shaped by climate, demographic development, economic imperatives and policy realities. Concrete examples of these complex interactions illustrate both considerable shrinkage in South Africa and Zimbabwe or expansion of cropland in Mozambique and Zambia. During the past 20 years, cropland increased by 37% on average across SA10 mainly at the expense of forestland—showing huge spatiotemporal heterogeneity among countries. Most smallholders face shrinking farm size and other resource limitations that have resulted in soil nutrient mining and low agricultural productivity—a highly unsustainable situation. We conclude with an outlook on potential transformation pathways (“TechnoGarden” and “AdaptiveMosaic”) for the near future and thereby provide a frame for further studies on sustainable land management options under given local settings.
Ecosystems in southern Africa are threatened by numerous global change forces, with climate change being a major threat to the region. Many climate change impacts and environmental-based mitigation and adaptation options remain poorly researched in this globally important biodiversity hotspot. This book is a collection of chapters covering research undertaken in southern Africa by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s (BMBF) SPACES and SPACES II programs. SPACES II covered a wide range of global change-linked environmental issues ranging in scope from the impacts of ocean currents on global climate systems through to understanding how small-scale farmers may best adapt to the impacts of climate change. All the research has identified policy implications, and the book strives for a balance between presenting the detailed science underpinning the conclusions as well as providing clear and simple policy messages. To achieve this, many chapters in the book contextualize the issues through the provision of a mini-review and combine this with the latest science emulating out of the SPACES II program of research. The book therefore consolidated both past and the most current research findings in a way that will be of benefit to both academia and policy makers.
The sustainability of southern Africa’s natural and managed marine and terrestrial ecosystems is threatened by overuse, mismanagement, population pressures, degradation, and climate change. Counteracting unsustainable development requires a deep understanding of earth system processes and how these are affected by ongoing and anticipated global changes. This information must be translated into practical policy and management interventions. Climate models project that the rate of terrestrial warming in southern Africa is above the global terrestrial average. Moreover, most of the region will become drier. Already there is evidence that climate change is disrupting ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. This is likely to continue in the foreseeable future, but impacts can be partly mitigated through urgent implementation of appropriate policy and management interventions to enhance resilience and sustainability of the ecosystems. The recommendations presented in the previous chapters are informed by a deepened scientific understanding of the relevant earth system processes, but also identify research and knowledge gaps. Ongoing disciplinary research remains critical, but needs to be complemented with cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary research that can integrate across temporal and spatial scales to give a fuller understanding of not only individual components of the complex earth-system, but how they interact.