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Integrated Natural Resources Management in drought-prone and salt-affected production landscapes in Central Asia and Turkey
1. Izmir, Turkey
June 16-18 2015
Ines BEERNAERTS
Land and Water Management Officer
FAO Sub-Regional Office for Central Asia
2. Strengthening the capacity and creating of an enabling
environment for SLM policy, investment and harmonization of
institutional frameworks
Mainstreaming and scaling up of INRM and SLM practices in DLDD
affected landscapes
Sustainable pasture management
Sustainable forest management
Drought risk management, including early warning systems
Climate – smart agriculture
CACILM II National priorities
ELD system for valuation of land, water and ecosystem services
3. Unified approaches and methods for assessing economic
values of land and ecosystem services
Drought risk management
Salinity control through integrated landscape management
Support in implementation of aligned NAP in the context of
the UNCCD Strategy (2008 – 2018)
CACILM II Regional priorities
4. Paradigm shift
Reactive crisis management Proactive risk management
Recommendation:
FAO, together with UNCCD and
WMO, should support MC for
developing and implementing
policies, strategies and action plans
on drought risk management at
national and transboundary levels.
5. Preparation of
Draft
Implementation
Plan (Pillar 1 –
Antalya, 13-17
October ‘14)
Plenary and
Steering
Committee
Meeting
(Samarkand,
September’14)
Launch
workshop
(Moscow,
Nov.’13)
Where are we starting from?
Where are we going to ? With
whom? Chair, Vice-chair and WGs;
ICBA, ICARDA, ELD?
How are we going to do it?
Implementation Plan
(Izmir, June 16-18 2015)
Priority:
Soil Salinization
Eurasia Sub-Regional Soil Partnership
6. Economics of land degradation
A global initiative for sustainable land
management
Cooperation and partnership (technical,
scientific and political)?
7. To scale up integrated natural resources
management in drought prone and salt
affected agricultural production systems in
the Central Asia and Turkey.
Integrated Natural Resources Management can be defined as “the responsible and
broad-based management of the land, water, forest and biological resources base
(including genes) needed to sustain agricultural productivity and avert degradation of
potential productivity"
(Technical Advisory Committee / Science Council Secretariat, FAO, September 2003)
9. Barriers for scaling up INRM
• Barrier 1: Inadequate regional mechanism for
evidence-based knowledge
• Barrier 2. Inadequate integration of
resilience into policy and decision-making
• Barrier 3. Absence of strategy for scaling up
of INRM.
10. Project
Component
Project Outcomes
1. Multi-country
collaboration and
partnership to foster
the implementation of
cost-effective INRM,
focusing on drought-
prone and salt-
affected production
landscapes
1.1 Enhanced knowledge of the costs of land degradation and
benefits of INRM , drought preparedness and biosaline
agriculture to national economies and the region as a whole
to informs policy and investment decisions at all levels, incl.
NAP processes
1.2 Enhanced multi-country collaboration and information
sharing to promote investment for INRM scaling up, focusing
on drought prone and/or salinity affected production
landscapes
Scale up integrated natural resources management in drought-prone and salt-affected agriculture production landscapes in Central Asia and Turkey
Objective: Scale up integrated natural resources management in drought prone
and salt affected agricultural production systems in the Central Asia and Turkey.
11. Project Component 3. Multi-country collaboration and partnership to
foster the effective delivery of INRM
Outcomes Outputs
1.1. Enhanced
knowledge of the costs
of land degradation
and benefits of INRM
and DRM to national
economies and the
region as a whole
informs policy and
investment decisions
at all levels, including
NAP processes (linked
to 1.1)
1.1.1 Standardized approach across countries for valuation of
ecosystem services affected by land degradation, drought and
desertification
1.1.2 Identification of incentives to scale up INRM (e.g. PES
schemes)
12. Project
Component
3. Multi-country collaboration and partnership
to foster the effective delivery of INRM
Outcomes Outputs
1.2. Enhanced multi-
country collaboration
and information
sharing to promote
investment for INRM
scaling up, focusing
on drought prone
and/or salinity
affected production
landscapes
1.2.1 Multi-country platform for knowledge consolidation
and harmonization on INRM (link to global SLM/DSS
platform, EASP and ELD Secretariat) to support national
advisory / extension and climate information services,
including early warning systems
1.2.2 Multiscale and participatory approaches in place for
monitoring of ecosystem services that integrates GEBs with
socio-economic and gender considerations
13. Project
Component
Project Outcomes
2. Integration of
resilience into policy,
legal and institutional
frameworks for INRM
1.1 Resilience integrated across NRM sectors and production
landscapes
1.2 Incentives for climate-smart agriculture in place at
national and sub-national levels
3. Upscaling of
climate-smart
agricultural practices
in drought prone
and/or salt affected
production landscapes
2.1 Up-scaling of a proactive drought risk management
(DRM) approach and innovative INRM technologies in
selected production landscapes /land use systems use
systems (e.g. pastoral, agro-sylvo-pastoral, tree-based,
irrigated, rainfed, home gardens) in Central Asia and Turkey
2.2 Adaptation and scaling up of technologies and approaches
for management of salt-affected production landscapes
Enabling Environment
Institutional and individual
Capacity Development
14. Institutional arrangements
CACILM Steering Committee (SC) will review project achievements and report to
members of the Strategic Partnership Agreement and provide overall strategic
guidance.
Multi-Country Secretariat (MCS). This Project Coordination Unit (PCU), supported
and coordinated by FAO SEC office, will provide the administrative services for the
SC. It will operate the project monitoring and evaluation system. The execution of
the multi-country component will supported by CAREC and ICBA.
National Advisory and Coordination Group (ACG), responsible for aligning action
with country’s policy and strategic priorities and providing strategic guidance to
NSEC. It is composed of the FPs of UNFCCC, UNCCD and UNCBD, representatives of
the key Ministries related to Agriculture, Water, Land use, Environment,
Meteorology, science representatives and, the Ministry of Finance. The ACG may
also include the designated GSP FP.
National Secretariats (NSEC) providing support to the UNCCD FPs in the execution
of the national components (component 2 and 3).
15. Budget
Country
GEF Project
Financing
KYR 180,125
TAJ 268,846
UZB (LD) 1,455,424
UZB (CC) 2,607,483
KAZ (LD) 900,624
KAZ (CC) 900,624
TUK 2,688,464
TUR 178,975
From GEF global set aside 1,801,250
TOTAL 10,981,,815
16. Global environmental benefits
Indicator / Target
Land under integrated management (ha) : 335,000 ha
GHG emissions avoided or reduced (tons CO2e) :4 million
Area with improved irrigation efficiency (ha):100,000 ha
Socio-economic benefits
Beneficiary households (number) in pastoral, agro-sylvo-pastoral,
tree-based, irrigated and, rainfed systems: 30,000,
Beneficiary households (number) for home gardens: 10,000
Improvement in incomes from INRM (disaggregated by
gender):25%
1. Prioritization process
National priorities
Multi-country priorities
2. Design and programming process
GEF 2020 strategy & GEF 6 programming directions
Project framework
3. Expected Global Environmental Benefits and Socio-Economic Benefits (indicators/targets).
Background:
CACILM : Central Asian Countries initiative on Land Management (1st phase between 2007-2011 and a number of follow-up projects).
National priorities for the second phase were presented by the representatives of the CA countries in a UNCCD meeting, which took place in Ashgabat in August 2-3, 2014.
The priorities are based on the results of alignment NAP (National Action Programmes) with the 10 year UNCCD strategy. All countries reported drought risk management and ELD as priorities.CPFs (country programming frameworks - FAO country-level strategic prioritization and overall medium-term country-level programming) : countries reported salinity management as a priority for Technical Assistance from FAO (including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Turkey).
Concept note submitted by UNCCD Focal Points confirmed and enlarged these priorities (see slide).
Concept note submitted by UNCCD Focal Points (at the end of October 2014 )confirmed multi-country (thematic) priorities:
Drought risk management
Salinity control– link with EASP
Economic of land degradation and NAP alignment with 10 year UNCCD strategy
Drought is a normal and recurrent feature of climate in Europe and Central Asia… The region is vulnerable to drought and agriculture is the most vulnerable sector. Coupled with climate change and anthropogenic pressures, drought is an increasing threat to Europe and Central Asia’s water security.
Recommendation: FAO and other organizations support MC for developing and implementing policies, strategies and action plans on drought risk management at national and transboundary levels and, more particularly, support the Drought Planning Process.
Key message: We must re-think our policies and strategies to reduce vulnerability of our society to drought, adopting a paradigm shift from reactive crisis management to pro-active risk management, especially when considering food and water security.
[Drought planning process: drought monitoring and early warning system, impact and vulnerability assessment and drought mitigation and response].
. During the last two events, discussion on potential FAO – ICBA collaboration for upscaling and mainstreaming best practices on integrated natural resources management in salt affected landscapes. Potential areas for collaboration include 1. enhancing quantity and quality of data on the severity, extend, trends and costs of salinization of arable land (irrigated land) and 2. identifying and reporting social, economic and environmental benefits of salt-land agriculture and 3. promoting capacity development for a wide range of stakeholders at all levels.
4. As we are finalizing the mplementation plan, we are presenting this project as it is a concrete opportunity for its immediate execution.
1. In close collaboration with UNCCD, there is an opportunity for collaborating on generating and sharing evidence-based knowledge on the costs of land degradation and benefits of integrated natural resources management, biosaline agriculture and drought risk management, in order to inform policy and investment decisions at all levels, including NAP processes.
2. Support from ELD for reviewing the WOCAT database and eventually further developing cost-benefits analysis of SLM technologies
Often referred to as CACILM2
Integrated Natural Resources Management can be defined as “the responsible and broad-based management of the land, water, forest and biological resources base (including genes) needed to sustain agricultural productivity and avert degradation of potential productivity" (Technical Advisory Committee / Science Council Secretariat, FAO, September 2003).
The project has been designed as a multi-focal area project (Land Degradation and climate change mitigation), in order to contribute not only to multiple global environmental benefits but also address socio-economical benefits.
LD1 – Priority on action that diversify income and improve livelihoods of the farmers.
LD3 – Support efforts to scale up policies, practices and incentives for improving production landscapes with environmental benefits
LD4 – Target innovative mechanisms for multi-stakeholder planning and investment
CCM2 – The program supports mitigation focused management practices in agriculture, including climate-smart agricultural practices. Focus on methods to increase carbon sequestration not only above but also below ground in farmland and reduce methane emission.
The project has been designed to address three main barriers:
Barrier 1: Inadequate regional mechanism for evidence-based knowledge
There are knowledge gaps related to the costs and benefits of various INRM practices and the values/impacts (direct and indirect) of preventing or mitigating degradation, sustaining or enhancing ecosystem services and adopting drought preparedness planning. The absence of a regional mechanism for generating and sharing evidence-based knowledge makes it difficult to convince policy makers to review their policy instruments and invest in preventing land degradation (including soil and water salinisation) and reclaiming degraded land.
Lesson learned: CACILM-1 indicates the need to harmonize SLM knowledge dissemination platforms and the need to strengthen the capacity of competent regional centres for ensuring knowledge dissemination.
2. Barrier 2. Inadequate integration of resilience into policy and decision-making.
In Central Asia, one of the challenges is to anticipate, plan and successfully manage transitions for building greater resilience in the medium and long term. (centrally planned economy to market based economy, male headed households to female headed households in the rural areas,…to name a few).
Policy, legal and institutional frameworks are currently inadequate for managing these transitions and ensuring that INRM best practices are scaled up and applied for increasing resilience of agricultural production landscapes.
Lessons learned of CACILM-1 have also revealed that there is a need for further strengthening cross-sectoral coordination mechanisms and, enhancing capability of national institutions for the formulation and implementation of drought preparedness plans and (watershed/catchment) salinity management plans.
3. Barrier 3. Absence of strategy for scaling up of INRM.
Despite the efforts of national governments and international donors, mobilization of financial resources to scale up INRM is a priority. Most of the best practices (including SSM) that are already being applied in the CACs and Turkey need to be more widely adopted. Advanced agronomic practices (crop diversification, pasture improvement, etc.) and SSM practices (conservation agriculture), demonstrated at pilot/experimental farms, confirm their high efficiency and benefits for small farms on salt-affected and degraded soils. However, pilot demonstrations of relevant approaches and salinity mitigation interventions in arid landscapes are often not replicated outside project areas. Often, wider dissemination and adoption of these practices and methods, including indigenous knowledge, are restricted by a range of technical, organizational and institutional constraints (e.g. Weak institutional facilities (specialized geospatial software), data exchange, …).
The overall objective of the Project is to scale up integrated natural resources management (INRM) in drought prone and salt affected agricultural production landscapes in the Central Asian countries and Turkey. This will be done, through mechanisms for overcoming the barriers to scale up sustainable management practices and enhance capacity to cope with or adapt to drought and salinity. In particular, adoption of integrated landscape management approaches and INRM practices should help stabilize and even reverse trends of soil salinization, reduce soil erosion, increase the sequestration of carbon, etc., thereby reducing the desertification trend in terms of extent and severity.
The project objective will be achieved during a 5 year period through four project components. It is structured as a program with one multi-country component addressing shared priorities at multi-county level (component 1), two components at national level ensuring national implementation in selected production landscapes / land use systems (component 2 and component 3), and one M&E component (component 4) .
This multi-country component will address the first barrier ‘Inadequate regional mechanism for evidence-based knowledge’.
It will bring together all target groups of the CA region and Turkey and provide support to: (i) generate evidence-based knowledge on the costs of land degradation and benefits of INRM, drought preparedness and biosaline agriculture to the people, the national economies and the region as a whole for informed investment decisions by high-level government officials and, (ii) ensure multi-country collaboration, information sharing and investment for INRM scaling up, with a focus on drought and salinity management.
The component will promote the adaptation and mainstreaming of Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) approaches and best practices into national strategies. The ELD methodologies will be harmonized across countries for valuation of ecosystem services at various scales. Total economic valuation will consider the externalities associated with DLDD (such as loss of productive land and productivity, reduced tCO2e mitigated and increased vulnerability to drought). Incentives to scale up INRM will be identified for reversing the trend of land degradation, such Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes and carbon markets.
The component will establish an efficient multi-country knowledge platform. It will also support links and collaboration with the global decision-support platform on SLM (LADA-WOCAT), the Eurasia Soil Partnership, the global ELD initiative and other international partners, forums and processes, with a view to developing a multi-country process and program, with the participation of the Central Asia Regional Environmental Centre (e.g. CAREC), international research centers (ICARDA and ICBA) and development agencies, aimed at the restoration of degraded lands in Central Asia and Turkey. Strong partnerships will be built with other international processes and CA regional programs (e.g. Aral Sea Basin program-3 and Central Asian Initiative on Sustainable Development) on combating desertification and climate change, as well as on food and water security. International expertise on salinity control and drought risk management, including members of the EASP outside CA and Turkey, can be mobilized. (South-South cooperation mechanism within the EASP region - Ukraine).
The second component addresses Barrier 2. Inadequate integration of resilience into policy and decision-making.
This component will support Government of MC to integrate resilience into policy, legal and institutional framework for INRM, leading to the scaling up and adoption of climate-smart agriculture management practices, and managing transitions more successfully, in the medium term and long term. This component will strengthen inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms on SLM/INRM at national level.
Based on the guidelines on ELD developed through the multi-county component, economic losses caused by DLDD will be assessed for the various agricultural production landscapes / land use systems in the pilot areas and valuation of economic benefits of INRM, drought risk management and biosaline agriculture will be carried out. Results of the assessment will be communicated to high-level decision makers, land users and other stakeholders and used to support an investment framework to be financed by international financial institutions and other funding sources.
Support will be provided in the development of incentives for climate-smart agriculture at national and sub-national levels. It will increase involvement of public sector, including community based organizations (CBOs), and private sectors (e.g. Coco-Cola Cie, Turkey), linking them with the establishment of food and feed value chains. Financial incentives could be provided for various types of activities including: the selection of salt tolerant crop species (e.g. pearl millet, safflower, quinoa, sorghum) for salt affected production landscapes, adoption of water saving technologies for high-value crops (e.g. drip irrigation systems) as well as the establishment of related supply chains (from seed multiplication to distribution, from manufacturers to suppliers to retailers of water saving technologies). ICBA has already supported seed multiplication and agro-food value chain for 8 potential salt tolerant crops. Remark: We need to adopt strategies for not only enhancing production but also sustaining production in salinity-affected production landscapes incl. to promote change in crops and production systems with different management systems.
The third component addresses the Barrier 3 ‘Absence of strategy for scaling up of INRM’.
This component will focus on scaling up INRM and SLM (incl. SSM) practices that generate both socio-economic benefits to local communities and global environmental benefits. It is based on multi-stakeholder land-use plans with targeted investment for selected agricultural production landscapes / land use systems as well as guidelines for the development / piloting of watershed/catchment salinity management plans.
Scaling up will be based on effective extension /advisory services for enhancing skills of a wide range of stakeholders at all levels for wide adoption of innovative approaches for drought and salinity mitigation and INRM technologies that contribute to food and nutritional security. The component will not only consider increasing technical capacities of extension/advisory service providers of institutions but also the functional capacities (e.g. knowledge, partnership, communication, and implementation capacities, including resource mobilization) of the related institutions to promote sustainable transformations in the agriculture sector.
It will increase irrigation efficiency and reverse the salinization trends in irrigated areas while increase the value of marginal water and soils for alternative livelihood systems. It will support diversification of crops (e.g. salt-tolerant crops and halophytes) for providing the necessary adaptability and resilience. It will ensure adoption of climate smart agricultural practices that simultaneously enhance mitigation, adaptation and productivity through increasing carbon sequestration below and above ground (e.g. conservation agriculture, integration of fodder crops in crop rotation), reducing methane emissions (e.g. improved livestock management, balanced feeding for better waste management in intensive livestock systems) and enhancing reliability of production and productivity per unit of land, as well as in terms of water, labour and energy (e.g. through resource use efficient integrated farming systems).
+ 4. Monitoring and evaluation - The Project will undertake monitoring and evaluation of both implementation progress and Project impacts. Integrated approaches to natural resources management will be monitored, assessed and evaluated for their socio-economic and environmental impacts in order to determine if they have a positive impact on ecosystem services and resilience, and livelihoods and food security.
The project is based on partnerships between multiple stakeholders at international, regional, national and local levels. It is strengthening the institutional arrangements put in place under CACILM1.
CACILM Steering Committee (SC), revitalized by GEFSEC and FAO, will bring together representatives from UNCCD, at least five country representatives from government agencies (responsible for the relevant Focal Areas) and representatives of the Strategic Partnership Agreement (including CAREC, EC-IFAS, relevant GEF agencies and main donors). The SC will meet once a year. Its responsibilities will be to review and report project achievements to governments and members of SPA, advise on problems and issues and provide overall strategic guidance.
Multi-Country Secretariat (MCS). This Project Coordination Unit (PCU), supported and coordinated by the sub-regional FAO SEC office based in Ankara, will provide the administrative services for the SC. It will operate the project monitoring and evaluation system. It will report to donors and country SC members on project implementation. The execution of the multicountry component will be conducted with support of CAREC and ICBA (Remark: Detailed arrangements and partnerships with other actors such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), ICARDA and ELD are to be elaborated during the PPG).
National Advisory and Coordination Group (ACG)
The Advisory and Coordination Group, chaired by the National Coordinator of the UNCCD,.ACG is composed of the focal points of UNFCCC, UNCCD and UNCBD, representatives of the key Ministries / Agencies related to Agriculture, Water, Environment, Land use, Meteorology, science representatives and, the Ministry of Finance. The ACG may also include the designated Global Soil Partnership Focal Point (GSP FP). The ACG is responsible for aligning action with country’s policy and strategic priorities and providing strategic guidance to NSEC. The ACG is always represented on the CACILM-2 Steering Committee.
National Secretariats (NSEC)
The NSEC is a national authority providing support to the UNCCD Focal points in the execution of the national components (component 2 and 3) which will be done by the national ministerial partner- institutions responsible for land reclamation and salinity mitigation management issues in water and agricultural sectors, in collaboration with local governance structures and water basin authorities when appropriate. It will also serve as coordination and information hubs, provide inputs to M&E system of the MSEC, develop and update UNCCD NAP, …
We would like to thank all countries for having committed their country STAR allocation and provided an indicative co-financing (in-kind/grant), i.e. 38,606,000 USD.
The project has been designed to contribute not only global environmental but also address socio-economic benefits. Catalytical support to the upscaling of innovative and cost effective INRM practices in x countries will potentially contribute to increase __335,000____ ha of agricultural land under sustainable management.