World Renew is working to help people adapt to weather extremes in impoverished communities around the world. In West Africa, where this work has mainly been focused on drought relief over the last decade, it is now flooding that has recently displaced 48,000 people and killed 20 more.
These variations in weather patterns, especially changes in the start of the rainy season, make it difficult for farmers to know when to plant their crops. A season of crop failure for a subsistence farmer can be devastating, but ten years of poor or no harvests is deadly. World Renew has been assisting people in poverty in western Africa with both disaster aid and development strategies that help them prepare for and cope with climate change and environmental degradation.
To help families in poor communities build resilience in adapting to weather extremes, World Renew is working with farmers in West Africa to develop robust agro-forestry systems. These can include either planting carefully selected trees at specific internals, or, for example, a tree management technique called “farmer-managed natural regeneration” or FMNR. The process involves better managing trees and shrubs that regenerate naturally in the field.
FMNR helps farmers, especially those who live in dry, tropical climates, by rebuilding crop and grazing land so that they are productive again. This kind of management system helps to improve biodiversity and resilience naturally in locations where people are trying to adjust to climate change—those who live in poverty on already marginal land in sub-Saharan Africa and several Asian countries.
FMNR is not a new technique—it’s a centuries-old system of forest management that is now being used to maintain productive farm land and rebuild degraded soil. The method allows selected trees to regenerate at spaced intervals in crop and grazing fields. The trees drop soil-enhancing leaves, increase potential sources of income, and provide limited shade for farm crops to improve production. The trees also decrease wind and heat damage and prevent soil erosion.
World Renew is training local farmers in West Africa in FMNR techniques and also providing information about water accessibility, tree nurseries, and different tree species. In 2014, World Renew will collaborate with other international organizations to facilitate the first Master Tree Growers Course in West Africa.
While World Renew is helping farmers with FMNR and planted agro-forestry systems, field staff note that “It’s not just about trees. Adapting to changing weather patterns means needing to conserve and restore the soil and water. It means diversifying crops and livelihoods, building social acceptance for new strategies and techniques, and implementing other disaster risk reduction strategies as well.”
To provide a spectrum of interventions in addition to FMNR, World Renew also trains subsistence farmers in conservation and evergreen agriculture to give them low-risk, low-investment options that will improve their resilience and ability to adapt to the changing climate and increase food security.