Overview of Most Effective Approaches to Mainstream Biodiversity in Rural Development

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Overview of Most Effective Approaches to
Mainstream Biodiversity in Rural Development

• Presented on behalf of
• Marjory-Anne Bromhead, Advisor, ARD

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75 of the worlds poor are rural and most are
involved in farming
In the 21st century, agriculture remains
fundamental for poverty reduction, economic
growth and environmental sustainability.
World Development Report 2008
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Growth from Agriculture is Especially Effective
for Poverty Reduction

• GDP growth from agriculture benefits the income
  of the poor 2-4 times more than GDP growth from
  non-agriculture (43 countries)

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Agricultural-based countries spend too little on
agriculture (and RD).
Challenges
Ag GDP/GDP
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Mis-investment is also pervasive.
Challenges
Subsidies
Public Investment
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Challenges
OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE (12 in 1990)
AGRICULTURE 4
WORLD POOR
PUBLIC SPENDING (Sub-Saharan Africa)
AGRICULTURE 4
RURAL 75
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What Should We Do?

• Accelerate smallholder productivity increases for
  agricultural growth and food security in Africa
• Follow a comprehensive approach to reduce
  rural-urban disparities and poverty in
  transforming countries of Asia
• Enhance sustainability and environmental services
  from agriculture
• Pursue multiple pathways out of poverty
  smallholder farming, labor market, rural non-farm
  employment, migration, etc.
• Improve the quality of governance in
• agriculture at local,
• national, and global levels.

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2009-2012 Agriculture Action Plan - 5 pillars
3. Reduce risk and vulnerability
1. Raise agricultural productivity
2. Link farmers to market strengthen value
chains
4. Facilitate agricultural entry, exit rural
non-farm income
5. Enhance environmental services and
sustainability
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• Societies depend on natural and managed
  ecosystem resiliency watersheds, soils,
  hydrology, forests, wetlands, coral reefs,
  agriculture and grazing land, fisheries for
  fuel, water, fiber, safety, recreation and for
  many other things.

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How Can Biodiversity Benefit Agriculture?

• Genetic biodiversity improves agricultural
  productivity
• Ecosystem resiliency sustains land and water
  productivity
• Biodiversity increases adaptive capacity of
  agricultural production to stresses
• Biodiversity sustains essential functions such as
  pollination, pest/disease regulation, nutrient
  recycling

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Environmental Sustainability
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Lifting Livestocks Long Shadow
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Sustainable Forest Management Provides
Energy
Timber
Coastal Zone Protection
Ecosystem Services and Forests
Freshwater Resource Conservation
Mountain Development
Biodiversity
and many more
Watershed
Soil Conservation
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Fisheries Contribute to Food Security and
Livelihoods and Depend on Healthy Aquatic
Ecosystems.

• Since 2005 the Bank has an expanding project
  pipeline (35 projects US330 million in
  IBRD/IDA) and by establishing the PROFISH
  partnership.
• Essential nutrition for 3 billion people
  livelihoods of gt500 million in developing
  countries
• Aquaculture Worlds fastest growing food
  production system (7 annual growth)

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The Study

• Input into the new environment strategy
• Reviews a sample of ARD operations with
  biodiversity conservation co-benefits.

Bottom line With some important exceptions, and
for a variety of reasons, biodiversity
conservation has not featured prominently in the
agriculture and rural development portfolio,
though there has been more focus on broad
ecosystem restoration in programs which aim to
restore land and water productivity.
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The Sample of Projects

• ARD projects categorized into 7 subsectors
  agricultural productivity community action
  forestry fisheries and coastal zone management
  irrigation, drainage and water resource
  management NRM and watershed management and
  land administration.
• To get a better picture of ongoing ARD work,
  mostly excluded closed projects, and GEF-only
  projects, and all regions have been included.

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Types of Biodiversity Interventions in the
Projects Sampled

• Most projects have supported the restoration of
  land and water ecosystem functions, which have
  provided the base for recovery of wetlands,
  grasslands, forests and watersheds, and revival
  of a wide variety of fauna and flora.
• Operations which have supported ecosystem
  restoration have mostly addressed integrated
  watershed management, irrigated land restoration,
  and forestry.

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Key Findings

• 1. With some important exceptions, recent
  agriculture and rural development operations
  supported through IBRD lending and IDA credits
  have not aimed explicitly to support biodiversity
  conservation.
• 2. GEF co-financing has helped to pilot
  incorporation of biodiversity into agricultural
  and rural development projects but recently for
  all but the countries richest in biodiversity,
  GEF biodiversity funding has been very limited.

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Key Findings
3. Forestry operations have mostly included
biodiversity conservation as an explicit
objective, in recognition of the multiple
services that forests provide. However, overall
Bank support to forestry is limited, accounting
for less than 0.5 of Bank lending. 4. Bank
fisheries operations often include support to
enhanced ecosystem management but overall
support remains limited, although it is gradually
increasing.
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Key Findings

• 5. There are also more recent examples in middle
  income countries of rural competitiveness
  operations which also support ecosystem recovery
  (Latin America, Europe).
• 6. There are also cases of supporting rural
  income enhancement through development of
  ecosystem services (forests for water services in
  Costa Rica, landscapes for tourism in Montenegro)
  but mostly in upper middle income countries.

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Key Findings

• 7. Operations which have supported ecosystem
  recovery together with long term productivity
  enhancement include Loess Plateau in China,
  Eastern Anatolia in China, a series of Sodic
  lands recovery operations in India, policy
  lending in Mexico, irrigation/drainage/wetland
  restoration programs in the Lower Aral sea basin.
  Common features have included a long term
  commitment and a commitment to intervene at
  scale.

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Key Findings

• 8. The current global food security initiative
  (GASFP) does not address ecosystems recovery or
  biodiversity in the pillars it supports.
• 9. Climate change offers opportunities for
  renewed focus on ecosystems recovery both as
  part of climate resilience and of low carbon
  growth/carbon sequestration and the community of
  practice should take advantage of this.

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Examples of Agriculture and Rural Development
Projects with Ecosystems Conservation Components
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Turkey Eastern Anatolia Watersheds Total
budget 70 million (Various phases 1993 -2012)
The project aims to support sustainable NRM
practices and thereby raise incomes of
communities affected by resource degradation. The
GEF component aims to introduce farming practices
which will reduce discharge of agricultural
nutrients into surface and ground water in
watersheds.
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Large Scale Application of Community Driven Land
Water Good Practice
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Community Adoption of Controlled Grazing Critical
to Landscape Recovery
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Water Flows Water Quality Impacts of Landscape
Recovery
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Loess Plateau, China The Long March to
Sustainable Landscapes Total budget 252 million
(1992-2003 Various phases)
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Loess Plateau

• Covers 2 million ha in 12 river basins of the
  Loess Plateau
• Aims to increase agricultural production and
  incomes and improve ecological conditions in
  tributary watersheds of the Yellow River.
• Features comprehensive development of small
  watersheds (integration of forestry, soil and
  water conservation, agriculture, and livestock
  sectors), with interventions to combat soil
  erosion, and raise agricultural productivity and
  farm incomes.
• Direct impacts on biodiversity due to increased
  vegetative and forest cover, better managed
  grassland, terraced cropland, dams, more secure
  land-use rights, taking certain areas out of crop
  production to allow natural re-vegetation or
  planting native species, etc.

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Syr Darya Control and Northern Aral Sea 64.5
million (2001-2006)

• The project is designed to improve water
  management in the Syr Darya basin in Kazakhstan
  and to reverse the environmental degradation from
  the decline of the Aral Sea.
• The project aims to enhance agricultural and fish
  production as well as improve human health and
  biodiversity through interventions such as the
  construction of ah dike across the channel
  rehabilitation of barrages supplying water and
  the Chardara dam aquatic restoration and
  fisheries development.

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The Shrinking Aral Sea 1973, 1986, 2004
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Aral Sea Expansion
April 2005
Increase in yields of freshwater fish, sturgeon
and caviar, and with increased rainfall, the
improving climate is benefiting air, soil and
water qualities, biodiversity and flora/fauna.
April 2006
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(No Transcript)
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UP Sodic Lands Reclamation III 272 million (2009
2015)

• Built on the successes of the first and second
  phases of the project which helped farmers
  reclaim over 250,000 hectares of unproductive
  land. Over 425,000 poor families have benefitted
  so far, experiencing a three- to six-fold
  increase in crop yields.
• The project aims to increase agricultural
  productivity of degraded lands by reversing
  water-induced land degradation, enhancing soil
  fertility, and improving the provision of
  agriculture support services.

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Mozambique Market-Led Smallholder Development in
the Zambezi Valley
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Mozambique Market-Led Smallholder Development in
the Zambezi Valley Total budget 27.40 million
6.20 million GEF component (2006 -2012)
The project aims to increase the income of
smallholder farmers of the Zambezi Valley region,
through direct support to smallholder groups and
other supply chain participants as well as
through local level capacity building. The GEF
component is there to ensure that land
degradation is stopped and reversed and to
improve the ecosystems resilience towards
climate change in the central Zambezi valley.
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Santa Catarina Rural Competitiveness
Project(Total Budget 180 million)

• Objective is to increase the competitiveness of
  rural family agriculture producer organizations
  and to support it by improved public-services-prov
  iding activities.

• Ecosystem Management component that aims to
  implement Ecological Corridors by creating areas
  of biodiversity conservation-friendly land use
  mosaics, established on private lands, supporting
  ecological corridor connectivity in project
  watersheds.
• Development and implementation of incentive
  mechanisms involving private/productive lands
  that requires rehabilitation or preservation (to
  comply with environmental legislation and/or
  receive PES) or improvement to obtain e.g.
  certification or to add ecological value to their
  production.

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• Improving the Enabling Environment Challenges
  and Opportunities
• Instruments CAP, WTO, Vertical Funds

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Challenge Donor Support to Agriculture
rural poverty
ODA to Ag
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Challenge Increasing Land Water Constraints
Cropland per capita of agricultural population
of population in absolute water scarcity
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Opportunity Recognition of the need to increase
food production, due to increasing global food
demand.
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Opportunity Growing annual World Bank
commitments to agriculture (3.6 billion in 2009)
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Opportunity A new agriculture of high value
products and non-traditional exports.
Developing country exports
Developing country consumption
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How can renewed focus on agriculture also renew
focus on the link between ecosystem services and
agriculture?

• Renewed focus on the challenges of
• Long term land and water productivity enhancement
  versus short term production needs
• Upstream-downstream trade-offs
• Private versus public goods
• Local versus global public goods

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Vertical Funds Challenges and Opportunities

• The GEF supports biodiversity
• Climate funds provide opportunities
• GASFP does not mention ecosystem services
• Do the vertical funds risk fragmenting the
  ecosystem services agenda or support it?
• How can we mainstream ecosystems in agricultural
  support measures?

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EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2007-2013
Pillar I
Pillar II
RD measures
Production Subsidies

• RD Core objectives
• Improving farm forestry sector competitiveness
  through restructuring, development innovation
  support
• Improving environment countryside through
  support for land management
• Improving quality of life in rural areas
  encouraging diversification of economic activity

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Axes to implement the objectives
Priority Axis 1 Competitiveness of Agriculture
and Forestry
Priority Axis 2 Improving the Environment and
Countryside
Priority Axis 3 Quality of Life and
Diversification of the Rural Economy
LEADER Axis Area-based, bottom-up, local
partnership
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Axis 2 Improving the Environment and Countryside
Agricultural landMountain areas other areas
with handicaps Natura 2000 areas
agri-environment animal welfare support for
non-productive investments

• Forestry landFirst afforestation first
  establishment of agro-forestry systems, Natura
  2000 areas forest-environment restoring
  forestry potential and introducing prevention
  actions support for non-productive investments

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Agri-Environment Programmes
Payments to farmers from public money to produce
environmental products/services by maintaining,
enhancing or restoring traditional landscapes,
valuable wildlife habitats and other areas rich
in natural, cultural and historical features.
Types of AE Schemes
Broad and shallow schemes- benefits to
biodiversity, landscape, water quality
throughout the countryside.
Higher or specialised schemes targeting
specific habitats and species
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WTO Green box Mechanisms

• (WTO terminology subsidies are identified by
  boxes)
• Amber Box Measures Agricultural
  subsidies/domestic support measures that can
  distort production and/or change the flow of
  trade
• Examples commodity-specific market price
  supports, direct payments and input subsidies.
• Green Box Measures Agriculture-related subsidies
  that are not trade distorting and include direct
  income supports for farmers that are decoupled
  from current production levels and/or prices.
• Examples environmental and conservation
  programs, research funding, inspection programs,
  domestic food aid including food stamps, and
  disaster relief.

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WTO Measures

• Opportunity for enhancing green box measures with
  more focus on agri-environment measures
• Vertical funds on biodiversity and climate change
  could potentially be combined with green box
  measures to reinforce ecosystems outcomes

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Questions/Comments.