 Hello, my name is Terry Salland and I'm here with my C4 colleague at Giacomo and this afternoon I'm going to be talking about the integration of landscape approaches and climate change mitigation and adaptation So Giacomo, you work primarily on the interface between climate change mitigation and adaptation Where do you see that interface with the work that we're doing on landscape approaches? Yes For me, we are working on adaptation mitigation synergies, right? We talk a lot about synergies, but often it's also a trade-off. So to really address climate change There are basically the two strategies, right? Trying to reduce the current emission of carbon from human activities And at the same time we want to try to reduce people vulnerability. So this is about adaptation I think it's a very interesting approach, a landscape approach because it broadened a bit There is this discussion about this scale, right? Where our intervention should occur and I think from an adaptation mitigation perspective it's very interesting scale, this landscape, because it broadens up a bit the actual space for our intervention and from my understanding, it's also helped to include the different stakeholders that have activities in a landscape because there could be winners and it could be losers if we try to implement any activities which can have an impact on climate change What does that actually mean on the ground though? I mean you talk about scale, you talk about livelihoods, you talk about adaptation Which is all, you know, like resilience to climate change But what does it actually mean? Well, if I went to a landscape we could see these types of projects on the ground What would I see? Well, you might see a landscape which is very heterogeneous, I would say, very multifunctional if you talk about synergy between adaptation mitigation I think a resilient landscape should be one that have these same features It's a mosaic of different structures You might have different trees, different tree species, a lot of different agricultural species with different crops You can have a vertical structure as well as an horizontal structure Yeah, I think this could be the ideal landscape to really address some of the climatic issues that we are facing today It's interesting because I mean the work that we've been doing on landscapes at Seaforth for almost 20 years is about that, is about that very multifunctionality and these complex mosaics of agriculture, forestry, plantations And so I think we're not talking about anything really different It's just a different way of maybe looking through the landscape lens as it were in terms of climate change Yeah, I think you're completely right, you're not really reinventing anything But it's like looking at this issue from a different angle Which actually I think can bring interesting perspective and it can really help At least for adaptation to be more integrated in mitigation Very often and even if you look at the climate finance Like 77% of the climate finance is currently going to mitigation projects Adaptation is lagging behind and looking at the landscape and the possible intervention between the landscape Could be a way to try to integrate more adaptation into this climate change policy discourses And what role does RED and RED Plus play in terms of preserving this multifunctionality of landscapes? Yes, so RED has mainly mitigation strategies Of course it's main objective is mitigation but it's becoming more and more important This discussion about co-benefits that our project can bring to local people Improved plant tenure, communities benefits, biodiversity and even adaptation So I see RED as a big opportunity if it's implemented well And it's design, it's really sound and there are some thoughts By involving a lot of stakeholders Then RED can be an effective instrument to help communities to be less vulnerable to the impact of climate change I think that's an interesting point that you mentioned The issue of co-benefits, some various aspects of C4's research has shown a very nice correlation Between biodiversity and biomass So if I was a RED Plus funder I would want to get those co-benefits Not only for livelihoods but also for biodiversity So you know co-locate projects where you get the maximum livelihood benefits But also maximum benefits for biodiversity That's an interesting point But the RED Plus mechanism is lagging behind Is it not in terms of the original expectations in around 2006-2007 To here we are in 2014 There are very few operational RED projects on the ground Why is that? Yeah it's a very difficult question I think, well maybe there were so many expectations And the enthusiasm of the early days Faced difficulties in these broad requirements for participation And this actually requires a lot of times A lot of people needs to be involved Especially when we talk about mitigation and adaptation synergies There are different experts working in these different fields And often they work in silos And it's even difficult to bring them together And RED is a very interdisciplinary instrument Then it requires time and effort from different people Different government agencies to come together and discuss And agree on things that needs to be changed In order to be ready for RED Maybe this was a bit underestimated But I think what has been done in these last years It's not a regret option Whatever has been done it will bring benefits Maybe more along term but we don't see it now But I have a question for you about the food security In our work on synergies between adaptation and mitigation Sometimes people say we are forgetting the food aspects Which is the basis of climate smart agriculture How do you see the role of food in the climate change? I think even the phraseology climate smart agriculture Is quite interesting Because it implies there is almost a climate stupid agriculture I think that we underestimate the adaptability of local people In the first place to adapt their agricultural systems to change One of the key aspects of our current food system Is that 40-60% of the world's food is grown in small holder diverse systems And these are much more resilient to climate change Than what we consider the commercial agricultural systems Of monocultures with most of the trees and other natural vegetation removed And those systems unfortunately don't get the support In terms of research support but also development support Because they are small holder farmers that tend to be relatively poor And despite the contribution to the world's food systems They are pretty much out there on their own And the post harvest losses are extremely high as well And there is also a big yield gap The yield gap between what is actually achieved per hectare Could actually be increased by very minimal inputs So with those sort of development type inputs Talking about in terms of fertilizer or other products And extension, better seeds, better germ plasm We can actually support these small holder farmers to produce yet more food And yet exhibit that level of resilience and adaptation that we are striving for Okay, maybe Terry, very often we hear that agriculture and forestry are enemies And yeah, what do you think about this? Do you agree or what can benefit, what forest can get from agriculture? And vice versa That's a good question because the silo mentality is pervaded science For the last 30 to 50 years And I think that something that C4 as an institution within the CGIR Is trying to break down those silos And trying to understand the role of forests and agriculture And the interaction between them As I mentioned earlier, much of the world's food is grown in landscapes with trees And there is interaction between them Trees and forests play an incredibly important role As a host for pollinators They play a great role in pollination services And many of our crops Soil stabilization, watershed protection And other ecosystem services that are important for agriculture And so getting people to understand that is critical We're undertaking a systematic review right now Looking at exactly that What is the role of forests and trees in sustaining agriculture And related to that is the direct provisioning of trees and forests And what we used to refer to as non-timber forest products Forest fruits and other edible materials Leaves from the forest Do actually play an incredibly important role For nutrition of people living in the proximity of forests And so relatively poor people With our researchers shown Have a better diet than people who actually have more money And would tend to buy less healthy products For their dietary consumption So that's actually got quite a powerful message That trees and forests not actually Not just provide ecosystem services to support agriculture But provide a nutritious source of foods in themselves So that's, as I say, a powerful message That we're taking to the political table To try to get forests and landscapes on the agriculture map Yeah And very often, even in our research We find out that forests and trees can offer a lot of alternatives To the people that are living in disaster prone areas They are more and more affected by droughts By the extreme floods And they can actually relay on the safety net of forests To help them with some non-timber forest products Or some alternatives to the livelihood That has been disrupted because of That's exactly right Yeah, forest-paying incredibly important role As a safety net function Particularly in terms of adaptation to climate change When there are climatic shocks People rely on, as you say, non-timber forest products And other things from the forest Yeah, that role shouldn't be underestimated Yeah And even though all the trees and forests are playing before In the anticipation of a disaster If we have a healthy ecosystem Or a healthy forest protecting steep slopes From soil erosion or degradation Sometimes we only realise later when the forest is not there anymore That problem might rise, right? And that's why we have to be proactive in our research And not reactive And that's where I think the comparative advantage of C4 is We start to predict some of those things Before they actually happen So we can mitigate against them