Eco-nationalism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-nationalism

 

Eco-nationalism (also known as ecological nationalism or green nationalism) is a synthesis of nationalism and green politics. Eco-nationalists may be from many points across the left–right political spectrum, but all are bound to the idea that the nation-state and its citizens have a special duty to protect the environment of their country.

Definitions and tenets

According to Jane Dawson, eco-nationalism is the rise of social movements that closely connect problems of environment protection with nationalist concerns. Dawson also surmised that eco-nationalism is "the synthesis of environmentalism, national identity, and the struggle for justice". Professors of history K. Sivaramakrishnan and Gunnel Cederlöf have defined eco-nationalism as, whether nativist or cosmopolitan in nature, "when the state appropriates the environment and environmental policies as forms of national pride, thereby consolidating and legitimating the nation."

One of the first instances of eco-nationalism was in the 1980s in the then Soviet Union, where citizens perceived environmental degradation as both a systemic fault of socialism and a direct result of Moscow's desire to weaken a particular nation by destroying its natural base, and exploiting its resources. Estonian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian independence movements drew great strength from environmental activism, especially from an antinuclear stance. In 1985–1991, eco-nationalism was one of the symptoms and at the same time a new impulse of the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Eco-nationalism as defined by anthropologists often manifests in the adoption of nature as an entity outside of culture that must be protected in its pristine and untouched state whenever possible. In subaltern studies and cultural anthropology, eco-nationalism refers to the iconification of native species and landscapes in a way that appeals to a nationalist sentiment.

Ethnic Eco-nationalism vs. Civic Eco-nationalism

When discussing eco-nationalism, many writers have noted it is important to understand the difference between ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism believes that the nation-state should be constructed primarily around a single ethnicity, whereas civic nationalism believes that the nation-state should be constructed around a diversity of people who all share common values, beliefs, and culture. The former tends to be insular, isolationist, nativist, and typically right-wing, while the latter is open, egalitarian, multicultural, and typically more left-wing. Whether ethno nationalist or civic nationalist, when a nationalist group adds an environmentalist dimension to their ideology, they believe the nation-state and its citizens have a duty to protect the environment of the country.

Bioregionalism

Bioregionalism is the belief that political, cultural, and economic systems are more environmentally sustainable and just if they are organized around naturally defined areas called bioregions. This idea that a state should conform to the natural geography of the land is compatible with the older nationalist concept of a natural border, which also believes that natural geography should determine the borders of a state. Due to the compatibility of these two ideas, Bioregionalism is often a tenet of eco-nationalist thought.

Ecotourism and cultural eco-nationalism

Eco-nationalism can manifest in ecotourism, which can enrich local economies but has garnered criticism from a variety of perspectives. Artistic works that extol the virtues of a nation's natural phenomena, such as the poetry of William Wordsworth or the paintings of the Group of Seven, are another expression of eco-nationalism.

National examples

Africa

Nigeria

The flag of the Ogoni people

The struggle of the Ogoni people in Ogoniland in coastal south Nigeria against the national government has been characterised as an eco-nationalist movement by Jane Dawson. Following the discovery of oil in the region during the 1960s, the federal government altered how states in Nigeria were budgeted. Before the discovery of oil, a state's budget was based on how much it contributed to the national economy, but after the discovery of oil, the policy became that wealth must be shared out amongst all states. The result of this was that little of the newfound wealth being generated in Ogoniland was reinvested locally, and was instead redistributed to the more politically powerful states in the north of the country. The small percentage of wealth reinvested into Ogoniland was invested into building oil infrastructure, infrastructure which had dire environmental consequences on the region. As a result, Ogoni nationalism took on a distinctive environmentalist dimension in response to these issues.

Asia

India

The struggle of the practitioners of the Sarna sthal religion in India, particularly in the Jharkhand state, to receive official recognition from the state has been described by some as an "eco-nationalist" one, as the Sarna identity has been suggested to born out of a sense of nation infused with ecological thinking.

Taiwan

Further information: Taiwanese indigenous peoples § Ecological issues

Some scholars have suggested that Civic Eco-nationalism is a distinct feature of Taiwanese politics. Similar to countries in the Eastern Bloc in the 1980s, Environmentalism protests in Taiwan in the 1990s were a means by which the citizens could indirectly criticise the party-state. Just like the Baltic nations in the Soviet Union, Environmentalism as a mass movement began in Taiwan as a backlash against the introduction of Nuclear power. Protests against the construction of the Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant led by Lin Yi-hsiung in 1994 have been cited as a foundation point for Eco-nationalism in Taiwan as well as part of the momentum that led to Taiwan's transition to democracy in the late 1990s and 2000s. Part of Chen Shui-bian's platform in the historic 2000 Taiwanese presidential election, in which the ruling Kuomintang lost for the first time ever, was to halt the construction of the Lungmen plant. The issue of nuclear power, and specifically Lungmen, have never been resolved in Taiwan and following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, the issue of nuclear power once again became a key issue in Taiwanese politics.

Another area in which Taiwanese environmentalism and eco-nationalism can be seen demonstrated is in the politics of Taiwan's indigenous population. A persistent critique in Taiwan is that land traditionally held by indigenous Taiwanese has been transformed by the state into mines and national parks, while the indigenous have been prevented by the state from using the same land for homes or for hunting. In 2018, a member of the New Power Party stated that 80% of Taiwan's 217 mining areas were located in aboriginal territories. This situation has led to the ongoing Indigenous Ketagalan Boulevard protest, which began in 2017. Another example of the environmental burden placed on indigenous Taiwanese has been the issue of nuclear waste dumping practised in secret by the state on the largely indigenous Orchid Island. The discovery of this nuclear dumping led to mass protests in 2002. The sentiment that the price of Taiwan's industrial development has unfairly fallen on indigenous communities has led to the growth of Eco-nationalism in Taiwan, with Eco-Nationalists arguing that the struggle of the indigenous must be tied to environmentalism and that there must be environmental justice for the indigenous.

Another cited example of a merger of Taiwanese nationalism and environmentalism is in the increasing environmental aspect of the "huan-dao"; the huan-dao is an emerging Taiwanese tradition in which a Taiwanese citizen cycles the entire length of the country along Taiwan Cycling Route No.1. Considered both a coming-of-age ritual as well as an act of Taiwanese patriotism, a developing aspect of the huan-dao is for travellers to collect and dispose of waste along the route as a patriotic act.

Europe

Baltic nations and Ukraine

As noted above, some of the first instances of eco-nationalism were observed in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine in the 1980s. It was during this time period that nationalists in those countries discovered that the Soviet Union did not seek to block anti-government activity if it was under the banner of environmentalism. Thus nationalists in those countries threw themselves into environmental causes, particular after the Chernobyl disaster. In Estonia, eco-nationalists campaigned on the issues of oil-shale pollution, nuclear risk and mineral (phosphate) mining. In Latvia, fears about the potential damages to the natural environment by large hydro-dams on the Daugava River, as well as concerns that the symbols of the Latvian nation the Oak and Linden tree species were being destroyed. The eco-nationalism of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine are described as being eco-civic-nationalist rather than eco-ethno-nationalist.

Scotland

Members of the Scottish Greens supporting the Yes Scotland campaign for Scottish Independence

The centre-left, civic nationalist Scottish National Party has been described in some sources as eco-nationalist; Espousing Scottish nationalism, the SNP has accused the Westminster government of being a "negligent landlord" that tosses its waste and pollution in Scotland. The SNP is noted for a longstanding willingness to work alongside environmental activists. In 2019 the SNP-led Scottish government was one of the first countries in the world to officially declare a climate emergency and followed this up with the radical Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019. The act was subsequently praised by the UN as "an inspiring example of the level of ambition we need globally to achieve the Paris Agreement". Following the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP and Scottish Greens entered into a ruling coalition together. Like the SNP, the Scottish Greens favour independence from the United Kingdom.

Spain

Pro-Independence Catalans during a protest in 2012. The Estelada can be seen throughout.

Republican Left of Catalonia, a center-left Catalan nationalist party, has been described as eco-nationalist. In 2017 they passed a climate emergency declaration through the Catalan parliament that would have taken radical actions such as banning fracking, planning a closure of all nuclear facilities by 2027 and a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 27% at a minimum by 2030. However, the Spanish supreme court vetoed the act after deeming it to be unconstitutional because it exceed the scope of powers granted to regional parliaments in Spain. In addition to their work in the Catalan parliament, the ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) have been praised by the Climate Action Network for their work in the European Parliament, where between 2014 and 2019 ERC were deemed to have a pro-climate voting record even better than Spain's main green party, Greens Equo, and were ranked amongst the best performers on green issues of any party sitting in the entire European Parliament.

The left-wing Galician Nationalist Bloc has also been called eco-nationalist. The party has called for laws that would provide protection to the landscape and ecosystems while addressing issues of mobility, waste, energy, mining and water management. In 2019 the party asked for the creation of a crisis cabinet at the regional level in Spain to act on the climate emergency, as well as to tackle the threat of invasive species as a threat to water management and biodiversity.

France

In 2014, the nationalist leader of the French National Front, Marine Le Pen, launched a 'patriotic ecology' project. Termed New Ecology, the movement branded itself on a nativist form of environmentalism - encouraging locally sourced products being an example. In keeping with Le Pen's nationalist agenda, Le Pen described open borders as "anti-ecological". Conversely, Le Pen also promised to "decree an immediate moratorium on wind energy" In an article in the Huffington Post, the Danish entrepreneur Jens Martin Skibsted, reported that he once saw Marine Le Pen's father and former leader of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, "cut a water melon in two to demonstrate that green environmentalists were in fact hidden red communists."

Hungary

The Hungarian political party Our Homeland Movement has been described as chauvinistically eco-nationalist in orientation; for example, the party has called on Hungarians to show patriotism by supporting the removal of pollution from the Tisza River while simultaneously placing the blame on the pollution on Romania and Ukraine. Elements of the far-right Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement proscribe themselves to the "Eco-Nationalist" label, with one member stating "no real nationalist is a climate denialist".

Russia

The new age religious movement Anastasianism, which stresses the people's spiritual connection to nature, has been described in academia as being "eco-nationalist" in political outlook.

Germany

Nazi Fascists like Friedrich Ratzel, Wilhelm Riehl, and Theodor Fontane, espoused ideals such as German nationalism and rootedness, in terms of the land as a food source and being German ground. German soil and German blood are nearly synonymous, or at least very closely related, in these contexts. This agro-romanticism was also popularized amongst Nazis because German cities were “Jew-ridden,” according to Adolf Bartels, a National Democratic Party and journalist.

German magazine Umwelt and Aktiv has been identified as a potential “camouflage publication” for the National Democratic Party. The NPD is a far-right political organization, whose personal publications do not in themselves promote anti-Semitic ideas, but are frequently used for anti-semitic purposes.Umwelt and Aktiv contains information about gardening and genetically-modified food, as well as right-wing propaganda and slurs. This magazine is not the only modern trace of the far-right green movement. In northern Germany, individuals with right-wing and ecologically-driven beliefs created new settlements inspired by agro-romanticism. These individuals grow their own food and knit with wool from their own livestock. Their food is sold through Biopark, an organic cultivation organization. Consumers have been warned of the risk of supporting the National Democratic Party, and Biopark has been questioned on the ethics of allowing members to sell through them. The organization’s vetting process is done only through cultivation practices. A farmer and former candidate for a party position questioned why left-wing individuals have dominated the ecological scene. The German Greens are Europe’s most successful environmental party ever since their rise in the 1980s.

Oceania

Australia and New Zealand

Patriotic pride in the country's landscape and environment is particularly visible in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, which are known for their unique animal life. Eco-nationalism is also marked by national pride in natural wonders such as the Great Barrier Reef or Mitre Peak, extensive conservation efforts towards iconic species such as the kākāpō and largetooth sawfish, and the creation of National Parks in order to protect these species and areas. While beneficial for conservation efforts, eco-nationalism has been criticized as an extension of colonialist dichotomies and ontologies and rarely addresses Indigenous ecological knowledge.

The Oil Free Wellington group and its sister projects in other areas of New Zealand, a movement that campaigned against deep-sea drilling for oil off the coast of New Zealand because of the damage it was doing to the nation, has been described as another example of New Zealander Eco-Nationalism.

Ethnoecology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnoecology 

Ethnoecology is the scientific study of how different groups of people living in different locations understand the ecosystems around them, and their relationships with surrounding environments.

It seeks valid, reliable understanding of how we as humans have interacted with the environment and how these intricate relationships have been sustained over time.

The "ethno" (see ethnology) prefix in ethnoecology indicates a localized study of a people, and in conjunction with ecology, signifies people's understanding and experience of environments around them. Ecology is the study of the interactions between living organisms and their environment; enthnoecology applies a human focused approach to this subject. The development of the field lies in applying indigenous knowledge of botany and placing it in a global context.

History

This image depicts a set of books on binomial classification, an important Western scientific taxonomic method. An important part of ethnoecology is comparing and contrasting local naming systems (folk taxonomies) with scientific taxonomies to gain a deeper understanding of local cultures.

Ethnoecology began with some of the early works of Dr. Hugh Popenoe, an agronomist and tropical soil scientist who has worked with the University of Florida, the National Science Foundation, and the National Research Council. Popenoe has also worked with Dr Harold Conklin, a cognitive anthropologist who did extensive linguistic and ethnoecological research in Southeast Asia.

In his 1954 dissertation "The Relation of the Hanunoo Culture to the Plant World", Harold Conklin coined the term ethnoecology when he described his approach as "ethnoecological". After earning his PhD, he began teaching at Columbia University while continuing his research among the Hanunoo.

In 1955, Conklin published one of his first ethnoecological studies. His "Hanunoo Color Categories" study helped scholars understand the relationship between classification systems and conceptualization of the world within cultures. In this experiment, Conklin discovered that people in various cultures recognize colors differently due to their unique classification system. Within his results he found that the Hanunoo uses two levels of colors. The first level consists of four basic terms of colors:; darkness, lightness, redness, and greenness. While, the second level was more abstract and consisted of hundreds of color classifications such as: texture, shininess, and moisture of objects also were used to classify objects.

Other anthropologists had a hard time understanding this color classification system because they often applied their own idea of color criteria to those of the Hanunoo. Conklin's studies were not only the breakthrough of ethnoecology, but they also helped develop the idea that other cultures conceptualize the world in their own terms, which helped to reduce ethnocentric views of those in western cultures. Other scholars such as Berlin, Breedlove, and Raven endeavored to learn more about other systems of environment classifications and to compare them to Western scientific taxonomies.

Principles

Ethnoscience emphasizes the importance of how societies make sense of their own reality. In order to understand how cultures perceive the world around them, like the classification and organization of the environment, ethnoecology borrows methods from linguistics and cultural anthropology. Ethnoecology is a major part of an anthropologist’s toolkit; it helps researchers understand how the society conceptualizes their surrounding environment i and that it can determine what the society considers "worth attending to" in their ecological system. This information can ultimately be useful for other approaches used in environmental anthropology.

Ethnoecology is a field of environmental anthropology, and has derived much of its characteristics from classic as well as more modern theorists. Franz Boas was one of the first anthropologists to question unilineal evolution, the belief that all societies follow the same, unavoidable path towards Western civilization. Boas strongly urged anthropologists to gather detailed ethnographic data from an emic standpoint in order to understand different cultures. Julian Steward was another anthropologist whose ideas and theories influenced the use of ethnoecology. Steward coined the term cultural ecology, the study of human adaptations to social and physical environments, and focused on how evolutionary paths in similar societies result in different trajectories instead of the classic global trends in evolution. This new perspective on cultural evolution was later named multilineal evolution. Both Boas and Steward believed that a researcher must use an emic standpoint and that cultural adaptation to an environment is not the same for each society. Furthermore, Steward's cultural ecology provides an important theoretical antecedent for ethnoecology. Another contributor to the framework of ethnoecology was anthropologist Leslie White.  White emphasized the interpretation of cultures as systems and laid the foundations for interpreting the intersection of cultural systems with ecosystems as well as their integration into a coherent whole. Altogether, these anthropologists, established the foundations of ethnoecology we see today.

Traditional ecological knowledge

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), also known as Indigenous Knowledge, "refers to the evolving knowledge acquired by indigenous and local peoples over hundreds or thousands of years through direct contact with the environment." It involves the accumulated knowledge, beliefs, and practices widely held by a specific community through their relationship with the environment. In this context, TEK consists of a community’s shared ideas when considering subjects such as the acceptable uses of plants and animals, the best approach to maximizing the potential uses of land, the social institutions in which members of society are expected to navigate, and holistically, their worldview.

The study of TEK frequently includes critiques of the theoretical division between cultural systems and ecosystems, interpreting humans as an integral part of the whole. Humans, for example, can represent a keystone species in a given ecosystem and can play critical roles in creating, maintaining, and sustaining it . They can contribute to processes such as pedogenesis, seed dispersal, and fluctuations in biodiversity. They can also modify and condition animal behavior in either wild or domesticated species.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge has traditionally focused on what Western science can learn from these communities and how closely their cultural knowledge mirrors scientific structures. It has been argued that this previous understanding of ecological adaptation could have major influences on our ecological actions in the future.

Local knowledge in western society

Within the discipline of ethnoecology, there is a clear emphasis on those societies that are deemed "indigenous", "traditional", or "savage", a common trend in anthropological pursuits through the 20th century. However, societies exist within a wide range of biomes, and have needs to know and understand clear and present dangers beyond those of harmful plants or how to get the best crop. Cruikshank contends that this may because many see Traditional Ecological Knowledge as a "static, timeless, and hermetically sealed" notion. Locked within time and space, there is no opportunity to innovate, and is therefore not found within the very new structures of a post-industrial society, such as that of the United States.

In this way, ethnoecologies may exist without the bounded notion of the other. For example, social scientists have attempted to understand the markers inner-city youth use to identify a threat to their livelihood, including the wearing of gang colors, tattoos, or protrusions through clothes that may represent or be a weapon. Likewise, concepts are spread about the health and needs of the community as they are related to the area around them. Instilled with recognizing dangers at an early age, and who these threats come from, a set of beliefs are held by the members of the society on how to live in their country, city, or neighborhood. This broadening of the discipline (bordering on human ecology) is important because it identifies the environment as not just the plants and animals, but also the humans and technologies a group of people have access to.

Similarly, social scientists have begun to use ethnoecological surveys in ethnographic studies in attempts to understand and address topics relevant in Western society as well as prevalent around the world. This includes researching the ways in which people view their choices and abilities in manipulating the world around them, especially in their ability to subsist.

Traditional medicine

Traditional societies often treat medical issues through the utilization of their local environment. For example, in Chinese herbal medicine people consider how to utilize native plants for healing.

Almost 80% of the world’s population utilizes ethnobotanical methods as a main source of treatment for illnesses, according to WHO.  In the face of modern climate change, many traditional medicinal practices have been promoted for their environmental sustainability, such as Ayurveda from India.

See also: Ethnomedicine

Epistemological concerns

According to Dove and Carpenter, "environmental anthropology sits astride the dichotomy between nature and culture, a conceptual separation between categories of nature, like wilderness and parks, and those of culture, like farms and cities.". It is inherent in this ideology that humans are a polluting factor violating a previously pristine locale.

This is especially relevant due to the role in which scientists have long understood how humans have worked for and against their environmental surroundings as a whole. In this way, the idea of a corresponding, but not adversarial, relationship between society and culture was once in itself baffling and defiant to the generally accepted modes of understanding in the earlier half of the twentieth century. As time went on, the understood dichotomy of nature and culture continued to be challenged by ethnographers such as Darrell A. Posey, John Eddins, Peter Macbeth and Debbie Myers. Also present in the recognition of indigenous knowledge in the intersection of Western science is the way in which it is incorporated, if at all. Dove and Carpenter contend that some anthropologists have sought to reconcile the two through a "translation", bringing the ethnological understandings and framing them in a modern dialogue.

In opposition to this paradigm is an attribution to the linguistic and ideological distinctiveness found in the nomenclature and epistemologies. This alone has created a subfield, mostly in recognition of the philosophies in ethnotaxonomy. To define ethnotaxonomy as new or different though, is inaccurate. It is simply placing a different understanding of a long-held tradition in ethnology, discovering the terms in which different peoples use to describe their world and worldviews. It is worth noting that those who seek to use and understand this knowledge have actively worked to both enfranchise and disenfranchise the societies in which the information was held. Haenn has noted that in several instances of working with conservationists and developers, there was a concerted effort to change the ideas of environment and ecology held by the native groups to the land, while plundering any and all texts and information on the resources found there, therefore enabling a resettlement of the land and redistribution of the knowledge, favoring the outsiders.

Agroecology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agroecology 

Agroecology (IPA: /ˌæ.ɡroʊ.i.ˈkɑː.lə.dʒi/) is an academic discipline that studies ecological processes applied to agricultural production systems. Bringing ecological principles to bear can suggest new management approaches in agroecosystems. The term can refer to a science, a movement, or an agricultural practice. Agroecologists study a variety of agroecosystems. The field of agroecology is not associated with any one particular method of farming, whether it be organic, regenerative, integrated, or industrial, intensive or extensive, although some use the name specifically for alternative agriculture.

Definition

Agroecology is defined by the OECD as "the study of the relation of agricultural crops and environment." Dalgaard et al. refer to agroecology as the study of the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment within agricultural systems. Francis et al. also use the definition in the same way, but thought it should be restricted to growing food.

Agroecology is a holistic approach that seeks to reconcile agriculture and local communities with natural processes for the common benefit of nature and livelihoods.

Agroecology is inherently multidisciplinary, including sciences such as agronomy, ecology, environmental science, sociology, economics, history and others. Agroecology uses different sciences to understand elements of ecosystems such as soil properties and plant-insect interactions, as well as using social sciences to understand the effects of farming practices on rural communities, economic constraints to developing new production methods, or cultural factors determining farming practices.^{[citation needed]} The system properties of agroecosystems studied may include: productivity, stability, sustainability and equitability. Agroecology is not limited to any one scale; it can range from an individual gene to an entire population, or from a single field in a given farm to global systems.

Wojtkowski differentiates the ecology of natural ecosystems from agroecology inasmuch as in natural ecosystems there is no role for economics, whereas in agroecology, focusing as it does on organisms within planned and managed environments, it is human activities, and hence economics, that are the primary governing forces that ultimately control the field. Wojtkowski discusses the application of agroecology in agriculture, forestry and agroforestry in his 2002 book.

Varieties

Buttel identifies four varieties of agroecology in a 2003 conference paper. The main varieties he calls ecosystem agroecology which he claims derives from the ecosystem ecology of Howard T. Odum and focuses less on the rural sociology, and agronomic agroecology which he identifies as being oriented towards developing knowledge and practices to agriculture more sustainable. The third long-standing variety Buttel calls ecological political economy which he defines as critiquing the politics and economy of agriculture and weighted to radical politics. The smallest and newest variety Buttel coins agro-population ecology, which he says is very similar to the first, but is derived from the science of ecology primarily based on the more modern theories of population ecology such as population dynamics of constituent species, and their relationships to climate and biogeochemistry, and the role of genetics.

Dalgaard et al. identify different points of view: what they call early "integrative" agroecology, such as the investigations of Henry Gleason or Frederic Clements. The second version they cite Hecht (1995) as coining "hard" agroecology which they identify as more reactive to environmental politics but rooted in measurable units and technology. They themselves name "soft" agroecology which they define as trying to measure agroecology in terms of "soft capital" such as culture or experience.

The term agroecology may used by people for a science, movement or practice. Using the name as a movement became more common in the 1990s, especially in the Americas. Miguel Altieri, whom Buttel groups with the "political" agroecologists, has published prolifically in this sense. He has applied agroecology to sustainable agriculture, alternative agriculture and traditional knowledge.

History

Overview

The history of agroecology depends on whether you are referring to it as a body of thought or a method of practice, as many indigenous cultures around the world historically used and currently use practices we would now consider utilizing knowledge of agroecology. Examples include Maori, Nahuatl, and many other indigenous peoples. The Mexica people that inhabited Tenochtitlan pre-colonization of the Americas used a process called chinampas that in many ways mirrors the use of composting in sustainable agriculture today. The use of agroecological practices such as nutrient cycling and intercropping occurs across hundreds of years and many different cultures. Indigenous peoples also currently make up a large proportion of people using agroecological practices, and those involved in the movement to move more farming into an agroecological paradigm.

Pre-WWII academic thought

According to Gliessman and Francis et al., agronomy and ecology were first linked with the study of crop ecology by Klages in 1928. This work is a study of where crops can best be grown.

Wezel et al. say the first mention of the term agroecology was in 1928, with the publication of the term by Basil Bensin. Dalgaard et al. claim the German zoologist Friederichs was the first to use the name in 1930 in his book on the zoology of agriculture and forestry, followed by American crop physiologist Hansen in 1939, both using the word for the application of ecology within agriculture.

Post-WWII academic thought

Tischler's 1965 book Agrarökologie may be the first to be titled 'agroecology'. He analyzed the different components (plants, animals, soils and climate) and their interactions within an agroecosystem as well as the impact of human agricultural management on these components.

Gliessman describes that post-WWII ecologists gave more focus to experiments in the natural environment, while agronomists dedicated their attention to the cultivated systems in agriculture, but in the 1970s agronomists saw the value of ecology, and ecologists began to use the agricultural systems as study plots, studies in agroecology grew more rapidly. More books and articles using the concept of agroecosystems and the word agroecology started to appear in 1970s. According to Dalgaard et al., it probably was the concept of "process ecology" such as studied by Arthur Tansley in the 1930s which inspired Harper's 1974 concept of agroecosystems, which they consider the foundation of modern agroecology. Dalgaard et al. claim Frederic Clements's investigations on ecology using social sciences, community ecology and a "landscape perspective" is agroecology, as well as Henry Gleason's investigations of the population ecology of plants using different scientific disciplines.^[3] Ethnobotanist Efraim Hernandez X.'s work on traditional knowledge in Mexico in the 1970s led to new education programs in agroecology.

Works such as Silent Spring and The Limits to Growth caused the public to be aware of the environmental costs of agricultural production, which caused more research in sustainability starting in the 1980s. The view that the socio-economic context are fundamental was used in the 1982 article Agroecologia del Tropico Americano by Montaldo, who argues that this context cannot be separated from agriculture when designing agricultural practices. In 1985 Miguel Altieri studied how the consolidation of the farms and cropping systems impact pest populations, and Gliessman how socio-economic, technological, and ecological components gave rise to producer choices of food production systems.

In 1995, Edens et al. in Sustainable Agriculture and Integrated Farming Systems considered the economics of systems, ecological impacts, and ethics and values in agriculture.

Social movements

Several social movements have adopted agroecology as part of their larger organizing strategy. Groups like La Via Campesina have used agroecology as a method for achieving food sovereignty. Agroecology has also been utilized by farmers to resist global agricultural development patterns associated with the green revolution.

By region

Latin America

Agroecology is an applied science that involves the adaptation of ecological concepts to the structure, performance, and management of sustainable agroecosystems. In Latin America, agroecological practices have a long history and vary between regions but share three main approaches or levels: plot scale, farm scale, and food system scale. Agroecology in Latin American countries can be used as a tool for providing both ecological, economic, and social benefits to the communities that practice it, as well as maintaining high biodiversity and providing refuges for flora and fauna in these countries. Due to its broad scope and versatility, it is often referred to as "a science, a movement, a practice."

Overlooking a large shade cacao plantation where the Ixcacao Mayan Belizean Chocolate company grows and produces chocolate using Mayan techniques.

Africa

Garí wrote two papers for the FAO in the early 2000s about using an agroecological approach which he called "agrobiodiversity" to empower farmers to cope with the impacts of the AIDS on rural areas in Africa.

In 2011, the first encounter of agroecology trainers took place in Zimbabwe and issued the Shashe Declaration.

Europe

The European Commission supports the use of sustainable practices, such as precision agriculture, organic farming, agroecology, agroforestry and stricter animal welfare standards through the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy.

Debate

Within those academic research areas that focus on topics related to agriculture or ecology such as agronomy, veterinarian science, environmental science, and others, there is much debate regarding what model of agriculture or agroecology should be supported through policy. Agricultural departments of different countries support agroecology to varying degrees, with the UN being perhaps its biggest proponent.

Agricultural productivity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_productivity 

Food production per capita since 1961

Grain silos

Rice plantation in Thailand

Cambodians planting rice, 2004

Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs to inputs. While individual products are usually measured by weight, which is known as crop yield, varying products make measuring overall agricultural output difficult. Therefore, agricultural productivity is usually measured as the market value of the final output. This productivity can be compared to many different types of inputs such as labour or land. Such comparisons are called partial measures of productivity.

Agricultural productivity may also be measured by what is termed total factor productivity (TFP). This method of calculating agricultural productivity compares an index of agricultural inputs to an index of outputs. This measure of agricultural productivity was established to remedy the shortcomings of the partial measures of productivity; notably that it is often hard to identify the factors cause them to change. Changes in TFP are usually attributed to technological improvements.

Agricultural productivity is an important component of food security. Increasing agricultural productivity through sustainable practices can be an important way to decrease the amount of land needed for farming and slow environmental degradation and climate change through processes like deforestation.

Sources of agricultural productivity

Wheat yields in least developed countries since 1961. The steep rise in crop yields in the U.S. began in the 1940s. The percentage of growth was fastest in the early rapid growth stage. In developing countries maize yields are still rapidly rising.

Productivity is driven by changes in either agricultural technique or improvements in technology. Some sources of changes in agricultural productivity have included:

• Mechanization
• High yield varieties, which were the basis of the Green revolution
• Fertilizers: Primary plant nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and secondary nutrients such as sulfur, zinc, copper, manganese, calcium, magnesium and molybdenum on deficient soil
• Education in management and entrepreneurial techniques to decrease fixed and variable costs and optimise manpower
• Liming of acid soils to raise pH and to provide calcium and magnesium
• Irrigation
• Herbicides
• Genetic engineering
• Pesticides
• Increased plant density
• Animal feed made more digestible by processing
• Keeping animals indoors in cold weather

See: Productivity improving technologies (historical) Section: 2.4.1: Mechanization: Agriculture, Section 2.6: Scientific agriculture.

Impact

The productivity of a region's farms is important for many reasons. Aside from providing more food, increasing the productivity of farms affects the region's prospects for growth and competitiveness on the agricultural market, income distribution and savings, and labour migration. An increase in a region's agricultural productivity implies a more efficient distribution of scarce resources. As farmers adopt new techniques and differences, the more productive farmers benefit from an increase in their welfare while farmers who are not productive enough will exit the market to seek success elsewhere.

A cooperative dairy factory in Victoria.

As a region's farms become more productive, its comparative advantage in agricultural products increases, which means that it can produce these products at a lower opportunity cost than can other regions. Therefore, the region becomes more competitive on the world market, which means that it can attract more consumers since they are able to buy more of the products offered for the same amount of money. As productivity improvement leads to falling food prices, this automatically leads to increases in real income elsewhere.

Increases in agricultural productivity lead also to agricultural growth and can help to alleviate poverty in poor and developing countries, where agriculture often employs the greatest portion of the population. As farms become more productive, the wages earned by those who work in agriculture increase. At the same time, food prices decrease and food supplies become more stable. Labourers therefore have more money to spend on food as well as other products. This also leads to agricultural growth. People see that there is a greater opportunity to earn their living by farming and are attracted to agriculture either as owners of farms themselves or as labourers.

A liquid manure spreader.

It is not only the people employed in agriculture who benefit from increases in agricultural productivity. Those employed in other sectors also enjoy lower food prices and a more stable food supply. Their wages may also increase.

Food security

Further information: Food security

Agricultural productivity is becoming increasingly important as the world population continues to grow. As agricultural productivity grows, food prices decrease, allowing people to spend less on food, and combatting hunger. India, one of the world's most populous countries, has taken steps in the past decades to increase its land productivity. In the 1960s North India produced only wheat, but with the advent of the earlier maturing high-yielding wheats and rices, the wheat could be harvested in time to plant rice. This wheat/rice combination is now widely used throughout the Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Uttar Pradesh. The wheat yield of three tons and rice yield of two tons combine for five tons of grain per hectare, helping to feed India's 1.1 billion people.

Higher global food prices between 2006 and 2008, primarily caused by an increasing amount arable land used for growing biofuels and the growing economies in China and elsewhere causing an increase in demand for meat products (which are less efficient than plants in terms of land use), caused the percentage of incomes used for food to increase throughout the world, forcing families to cut back on various other expenditures such as schooling for girls. In areas of sub-Saharan Africa, a decreased agricultural productivity due to crop failures has caused starvation. On the other hand, higher global prices actually mean farmers with successful yields earn more, and this thus increases their productivity.

Investing in the agricultural productivity of women in farming communities is of particular importance in boosting economic development and food security in parts of the developing world. Women in some areas of the world, for example in Africa, traditionally have less agency than men, but are often also more invested in farming in terms of time spent. They are furthermore generally more responsible for childcare, thus their productivity is more likely to translate in gains for the family as a whole.

Relation to population growth

Further information: Population growth

Some critics claim that increasing agricultural productivity results in human overpopulation. They are argue that, like other species, human populations grow up to their carrying capacity. When a species reaches its carrying capacity, the number of poor and weak individuals who die from disease or starvation is equal to the number of individuals being added to the population via birth. Because innovation continues to improve agricultural productivity (specifically yields), however, the theoretical carrying capacity continues to increase, allowing the human population to continue to grow. These writers claim that there are too many people on Earth and that therefore growth in agricultural productivity is detrimental to the environment — if the carrying capacity was lower, the human population would reach an equilibrium at a lower number.

However, unlike other animals, in humans greater development and prosperity has led to lower fecundity. Thus as productivity has increased and poverty has been reduced worldwide, population growth is declining. Research suggests we may actually face a declining world population in the future.

Inverse relationship theory

Dairy cattle in Maryland

Some essential food products including bread, rice and pasta

Deolalikar in 1981 investigated the theory first proposed by Sen in 1975 that in traditional, pre-modern farming in India, there is an inverse relationship to size of the farm and productivity, contrary to the economy of scale found in all other types of economic activity. It is debated whether the inverse relationship actually exists. Numerous studies falsify this theory. In Zimbabwe, policies on agrarian land reform under president Robert Mugabe, especially in and following 2000, split large farms into many smaller farms, and this decreased productivity. Marxist agrarian land reform in the Soviet Union, China and Vietnam combined small farms into larger units, this usually failed to increase productivity.

Nonetheless, increasing agricultural productivity amongst smallholder farms is an important way to improve farmer livelihoods in the developing world.

Sustainable increases in productivity

Because agriculture has such large impacts on climate change and other environmental issues, intensification of agriculture, which would increase productivity per amount of land being farmed, is seen by some as an important method for climate change mitigation, because farmers will not require more land, and are thus incentivized not to participate in further land degradation or deforestation. Implementing intensification through sustainable agriculture practices makes farming more sustainable in the long term, maintaining the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs while conserving the environment. International policy, embodied in Sustainable Development Goal 2, focusses on improving these practices at an international level.

Not all effects of climate change will be negative on agricultural productivity. The IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land and the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C both project mixed changes in the yields of crops as global warming happens with some breadbasket regions becoming less productive, while other crops increase ranges and productivity.

Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas_emissions_from_agriculture 

 

See also: Effects of climate change on agriculture

One-quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions result from food and agriculture.

The amount of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture is significant: The agriculture, forestry and land use sector contribute between 13% and 21% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture contributes towards climate change through direct greenhouse gas emissions and by the conversion of non-agricultural land such as forests into agricultural land. Emissions of nitrous oxide and methane make up over half of total greenhouse gas emission from agriculture. Animal husbandry is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The agricultural food system is responsible for a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to being a significant user of land and consumer of fossil fuel, agriculture contributes directly to greenhouse gas emissions through practices such as rice production and the raising of livestock. The three main causes of the increase in greenhouse gases observed over the past 250 years have been fossil fuels, land use, and agriculture. Farm animal digestive systems can be put into two categories: monogastric and ruminant. Ruminant cattle for beef and dairy rank high in greenhouse-gas emissions; monogastric, or pigs and poultry-related foods, are low. The consumption of the monogastric types may yield less emissions. Monogastric animals have a higher feed-conversion efficiency, and also do not produce as much methane. Furthermore, CO₂ is actually re-emitted into the atmosphere by plant and soil respiration in the later stages of crop growth, causing more greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of greenhouse gases produced during the manufacture and use of nitrogen fertilizer is estimated as around 5% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The single most important way to cut emissions from it is to use less fertilizers, while increasing the efficiency of their use.

There are many strategies that can be used to help soften the effects, and the further production of greenhouse gas emissions - this is also referred to as climate-smart agriculture. Some of these strategies include a higher efficiency in livestock farming, which includes management, as well as technology; a more effective process of managing manure; a lower dependence upon fossil-fuels and nonrenewable resources; a variation in the animals' eating and drinking duration, time and location; and a cutback in both the production and consumption of animal-sourced foods. A range of policies may reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector for a more sustainable food system.

Emissions by type of greenhouse gas

Agricultural activities emit the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

Carbon dioxide emissions

Activities such as tilling of fields, planting of crops, and shipment of products cause carbon dioxide emissions. Agriculture-related emissions of carbon dioxide account for around 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Farm practices such as reducing tillage, decreasing empty land, returning biomass residue of crop to soil, and increasing the use of cover crops can reduce carbon emissions.

Methane emissions

Methane emissions from agriculture, 2019. Methane (CHa) emissions are measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalents

Methane emissions from livestock are the number one contributor to agricultural greenhouse gases globally. Livestock are responsible for 14.5% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. One cow alone will emit 220 pounds of methane per year. While the residence time of methane is much shorter than that of carbon dioxide, it is 28 times more capable of trapping heat. Not only do livestock contribute to harmful emissions, but they also require a lot of land and may overgraze, which leads to unhealthy soil quality and reduced species diversity. A few ways to reduce methane emissions include switching to plant-rich diets with less meat, feeding the cattle more nutritious food, manure management, and composting.

Traditional rice cultivation is the second biggest agricultural methane source after livestock, with a near-term warming impact equivalent to the carbon-dioxide emissions from all aviation. Government involvement in agricultural policy is limited due to high demand for agricultural products like corn, wheat, and milk. The United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) global hunger and food security initiative, the Feed the Future project, is addressing food loss and waste. By addressing food loss and waste, greenhouse gas emission mitigation is also addressed. By only focusing on dairy systems of 20 value chains in 12 countries, food loss and waste could be reduced by 4-10%. These numbers are impactful and would mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while still feeding the population.

Nitrous oxide emissions

Global nitrous oxide budget.

Nitrous oxide emission comes from the increased use of synthetic and organic fertilizers. Fertilizers increase crop yield production and allows the crops to grow at a faster rate. Agricultural emissions of nitrous oxide make up 6% of the United States' greenhouse gas emissions; they have increased in concentration by 30% since 1980. While 6% may appear to be a small contribution, nitrous oxide is 300 times more effective at trapping heat per pound than carbon dioxide and has a residence time of around 120 years. Different management practices such as conserving water through drip irrigation, monitoring soil nutrients to avoid overfertilization, and using cover crops in place of fertilizer application may help in reducing nitrous oxide emissions.

Global methane budget.

Emissions by type of activity

Land use changes

Substantial land-use change contributions to emissions have been made by Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Pacific Islands. Area of rectangles shows total emissions for that region.

Agriculture contributes to greenhouse gas increases through land use in four main ways:

• CO₂ releases linked to deforestation
• Methane releases from rice cultivation
• Methane releases from enteric fermentation in cattle
• Nitrous oxide releases from fertilizer application

Together, these agricultural processes comprise 54% of methane emissions, roughly 80% of nitrous oxide emissions, and virtually all carbon dioxide emissions tied to land use.

Land cover has changed majorly since 1750, as humans have deforested temperate regions. When forests and woodlands are cleared to make room for fields and pastures, the albedo of the affected area increases, which can result in either warming or cooling effects depending on local conditions. Deforestation also affects regional carbon reuptake, which can result in increased concentrations of CO₂, the dominant greenhouse gas. Land-clearing methods such as slash and burn compound these effects, as the burning of biomatter directly releases greenhouse gases and particulate matter such as soot into the air. Land clearing can destroy the soil carbon sponge.

Livestock

See also: Environmental impact of animal agriculture § Greenhouse gas emissions

Livestock farms where methane is emitted from the cattle.

Livestock and livestock-related activities such as deforestation and increasingly fuel-intensive farming practices are responsible for over 18% of human-made greenhouse gas emissions, including:

• 9% of global carbon dioxide emissions
• 35–40% of global methane emissions (chiefly due to enteric fermentation and manure)
• 64% of global nitrous oxide emissions (chiefly due to fertilizer use.)

The Niamana Livestock Market

Livestock activities also contribute disproportionately to land-use effects, since crops such as corn and alfalfa are cultivated in order to feed the animals.

In 2010, enteric fermentation accounted for 43% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from all agricultural activity in the world. The meat from ruminants has a higher carbon equivalent footprint than other meats or vegetarian sources of protein based on a global meta-analysis of lifecycle assessment studies. Small ruminants such as sheep and goats contribute approximately 475 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to GHG emissions, which constitutes around 6.5% of world agriculture sector emissions. Methane production by animals, principally ruminants, makes up an estimated 15-20% global production of methane. Research continues on the use of various seaweed species, in particular Asparegopsis armata, as a food additive that helps reduce methane production in ruminants.

Worldwide, livestock production occupies 70% of all land used for agriculture, or 30% of the land surface of the Earth. The way livestock is grazed also affects future fertility of the land. Not circulating grazing can lead to unhealthy compacted soils. The expansion of livestock farms affects the habitats of native wildlife and has led to their decline. Reduced intake of meat and dairy products is another effective approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Slightly over half of Europeans (51%) surveyed in 2022 support reducing the amount of meat and dairy products people may buy to combat climate change - 40% of Americans and 73% of Chinese respondents felt the same.

The Stockholm Environment Institute has suggested that livestock subsidies be phased out in a just transition.

Fertilizer production

The amount of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide produced during the manufacture and use of nitrogen fertilizer is estimated as around 5% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. One third is produced during the production and two thirds during the use of fertilizers. The single most important way to cut emissions from it is to use less fertilizers. According to Dr André Cabrera Serrenho: ""We're incredibly inefficient in our use of fertilisers," "We're using far more than we need". Nitrogen fertilizer can be converted by soil bacteria to nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas. Nitrous oxide emissions by humans, most of which are from fertilizer, between 2007 and 2016 have been estimated at 7 million tonnes per year, which is incompatible with limiting global warming to below 2 °C.

Rice production

Research work by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture to measure the greenhouse gas emissions of rice production.

Scientists measure the greenhouse gas emissions of rice.

In 2022, greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation were estimated at 5.7 billion tonnes CO2eq, representing 1.2% of total emissions. Within the agriculture sector, rice produces almost half the greenhouse gas emissions from croplands, and some 30% of agricultural methane emissions and 11% of agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. Methane is released from rice fields subject to long-term flooding, as this inhibits the soil from absorbing atmospheric oxygen, resulting in anaerobic fermentation of organic matter in the soil. Emissions can be limited by planting new varieties, not flooding continuously, and removing straw.

Global estimates

Global greenhouse gas emissions attributed to different economic sectors as of 2019. 3/4ths of emissions are directly produced, while 1/4th are produced by electricity and heat production that supports the sector.

Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, by region, 1990-2010

Between 2010 and 2019, agriculture, forestry and land use contributed between 13% and 21% to global greenhouse gas emissions. Nitrous oxide and methane make up over half of total greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

In 2020, it was estimated that the food system as a whole contributed 37% of total greenhouse gas emissions, and that this figure was on course to increase by 30–40% by 2050 due to population growth and dietary change.

Older estimates

In 2010, agriculture, forestry and land-use change were estimated to contribute 20–25% of global annual emissions.

Mitigation

Further information: Climate change mitigation

Mean greenhouse gas emissions for different food types

Food Types	Greenhouse Gas Emissions (g CO2-Ceq per g protein)
Ruminant Meat	62
Recirculating Aquaculture	30
Trawling Fishery	26
Non-recirculating Aquaculture	12
Pork	10
Poultry	10
Dairy	9.1
Non-trawling Fishery	8.6
Eggs	6.8
Starchy Roots	1.7
Wheat	1.2
Maize	1.2
Legumes	0.25

In developed countries

Agriculture is often not included in government emissions reductions plans. For example, the agricultural sector is exempt from the EU emissions trading scheme which covers around 40% of the EU greenhouse gas emissions.

Several mitigation measures for use in developed countries have been proposed:

• breeding more resilient crop varieties, and diversification of crop species
• using improved agroforestry species
• capture and retention of rainfall, and use of improved irrigation practices
• Increasing forest cover and Agroforestry
• use of emerging water harvesting techniques (such as contour trenching)

Research in New Zealand estimated that switching agricultural production towards a healthier diet while reducing greenhouse gas emissions would cost approxiately 1% of the agricultural sector's export revenue, which is an order of magnitude less than the estimated health system savings from a healthier diet.

In developing countries

Agriculture is responsible for over a quarter of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Given that agriculture's share in global gross domestic product (GDP) is about 4%, these figures suggest that agricultural activities produce high levels of greenhouse gases. Innovative agricultural practices and technologies can play a role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. This adaptation and mitigation potential is nowhere more pronounced than in developing countries where agricultural productivity remains low; poverty, vulnerability and food insecurity remain high; and the direct effects of climate change are expected to be especially harsh. Creating the necessary agricultural technologies and harnessing them to enable developing countries to adapt their agricultural systems to changing climate will require innovations in policy and institutions as well. In this context, institutions and policies can play an important role at multiple scales.

State- or NGO-sponsored projects can help farmers be more resilient to climate change, such as irrigation infrastructure that provides a dependable water source as rains become more erratic. Water catchment systems that collect water during the rainy season to be used during dry periods can also be used to mitigate the effects of climate change. Some programs, like the Asociación de Cooperación para el Desarrollo Rural de Occidente (C.D.R.O.), a Guatemalan program funded by the United States' government until 2017, focus on agroforestry and weather monitoring systems to help farmers adapt. The organization provided residents with resources to plant new, more adaptable crops to alongside their typical maize to protect the corn from variable temperatures, frost, etc. C.D.R.O. also set up a weather monitoring system to help predict extreme weather events, and would send residents text messages to warn them about periods of frosts, extreme heat, humidity, or drought. Projects focusing on irrigation, water catchment, agroforestry, and weather monitoring can help Central American residents adapt to climate change.

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) was developed in 2010 to evaluate agricultural models and intercompare their ability to predict climate impacts. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, South America and East Asia, AgMIP regional research teams (RRTs) are conducting integrated assessments to improve understanding of agricultural impacts of climate change (including biophysical and economic impacts) at national and regional scales. Other AgMIP initiatives include global gridded modeling, data and information technology (IT) tool development, simulation of crop pests and diseases, site-based crop-climate sensitivity studies, and aggregation and scaling.

At the 2019 United Nations Climate Summit, the Global EverGreening Alliance announced an initiative to promote agroforestry and conservation farming. One of its goals is to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. The coalition aims to restore tree cover to a territory of 5.75 million square kilometres, achieve a healthy tree-grass balance on a territory of 6.5 million square kilometres, and increase carbon capture in a territory of 5 million square kilometres.By 2050 the restored land should sequester 20 billion tons of carbon annually. The first phase of the initiative is the "Grand African Savannah Green Up" project. In 2019, millions of families had already implemented these methods, and the average territory covered with trees in the farms in Sahel reached 16%.

Climate-smart agriculture

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) (or climate resilient agriculture) is an integrated approach to managing land to help adapt agricultural methods, livestock and crops to the effects of climate change and, where possible, counteract it by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, while taking into account the growing world population to ensure food security. The emphasis is not simply on carbon farming or sustainable agriculture, but also on increasing agricultural productivity.

CSA has three pillars: increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; adapting and building resilience to climate change; and reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. There are different actions listed to counter the future challenges for crops and plants. For example, with regard to rising temperatures and heat stress, CSA recommends the production of heat tolerant crop varieties, mulching, water management, shade house, boundary trees, carbon sequestration, and appropriate housing and spacing for cattle. CSA seeks to stabilize crop production while mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change while maximizing food security.