Neglect of nature’s solutions stalling climate-smart farming
Forest degradation. In recent years, illegal logging has become common in many districts with cartels controlled by powerful individuals, including district officials who should be fighting forest destruction. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Scientists call for strategies that aim at addressing environmental damage, including the impact of disasters, climate change and water and food insecurity.
Africa’s population is growing. This means more landscape change and the development of supporting infrastructure. Ecosystems are under pressure, made worse by natural disasters induced by climate change.
In response, governments, scientists and environmentalists are turning their attention to nature-based solutions. These are environmental strategies that aim to address environmental damage, including the impact of disasters, climate change and water and food insecurity.
Nature-based solutions are taking off all over the world.
In Uganda, sustainable land management practices like agroforestry and watershed restoration are being promoted to improve water retention and prevent soil erosion. Wetland restoration is another key nature-based solution, crucial for biodiversity and human livelihoods. Other examples include reforestation, and setting up green infrastructure in cities, such as urban forests and roof gardens.
Dialogue
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) are significantly underfunded in East Africa’s climate adaptation strategies, despite their potential for long-term benefits, a new study reveals. This was a key finding highlighted at a high-level regional policy dialogue held in Kampala last week.
The dialogue, convened by Makerere University Business School (Mubs) and the Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN), brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to discuss the effectiveness of climate adaptation projects across nine East African nations: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The research, which critically reviewed 242 climate adaptation projects, was jointly led by Dr Maria Nantongo (Mubs) and Mr Henry Galiwango (Makerere University/Kilimo Trust). It aimed to identify successful interventions and persistent gaps to inform future investments by governments and development partners.
Dr Nantongo emphasised the uneven distribution of climate adaptation funding across the region, with countries like South Sudan and Somalia, facing acute climate vulnerabilities, often being overlooked.
“We must ensure equitable investment across all countries, especially those facing acute vulnerabilities like South Sudan and Somalia,” Dr Nantongo stated.
She added: “Adaptation must be inclusive, context-specific, and supported by integrated financing and strong institutions.” Dr Nantongo explained that the region is increasingly experiencing severe climate impacts.
“We are having increased droughts, more severe, but also more frequent. We have more when it rains, and then we get floods, so it’s raining too much, and the floods are also more frequent. We’ve experienced heat waves, so there are several landslides people have experienced,” she said.
The study also stresses the importance of ecological outcomes in monitoring frameworks and the need to strengthen local capacities through farmer training, institutional collaboration, and the active involvement of youth and women in project design.
Dr Nantongo pointed out the short-term nature of many current projects.
“Many solutions have been tried to promote climate-smart agriculture technologies, but projects are short-lived. They are donor-based, project-based... We are arguing in this research that there's a need to build sustainable models beyond the project timeframes,” the scientist noted.
She added that effective solutions must be affordable, community-owned, and have long-term financial support. Mr Galiwango underscored the necessity for greater synergy between project interventions and national policy frameworks. He highlighted the success of projects like the Building Resilient Communities, Wetland Ecosystems and Associated Catchments in Uganda, which aligned with national priorities and demonstrated tangible ecological and community benefits.
“We need to stop treating climate adaptation as a series of fragmented projects,” he said, adding: “The most impactful interventions were those that aligned with national priorities, involved local leadership, and connected sectors.”
Synergies
Participants discussed the critical linkages between agriculture and other sectors like water and trade, emphasising the need for integrated planning to ensure the sustainability and economic viability of climate adaptation solutions for farmers.
Mr Humphrey Mutaasa from The Grain Council of Uganda stressed the importance of building structured inter-sectoral partnerships to protect Uganda's grain farmers from recurring climate shocks.
A significant concern raised during the dialogue was the underfunding of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).
Researchers warned that neglecting these areas could exacerbate climate vulnerabilities and deepen inequalities.
Dr Nantongo elaborated on the findings regarding nature-based solutions, stating: “One thing which we found is that first of all, they are not very widespread. There is now a bit of knowledge beginning to understand them, but not widely used and implemented across the region.”
She emphasised that while agriculture has received significant policy attention and funding, “Nature-based solutions, not yet.
There’s limited financing for them, partly because they’ve not been given that policy space to thrive”. Dr Nantongo also stressed the need for participatory approaches to nature-based solutions.
She noted: “We need participatory approaches; approaches that engage with the communities... They are highly contextual... Very importantly, there's a need to streamline this in the policy frameworks... There must be local funding frameworks for them.”
She called for public-private partnerships and stronger governance regarding infrastructure projects.
“We have a huge problem with infrastructure because of the huge amounts of funding that are necessary for it... we must strengthen local governance structures,” she said, emphasising the importance of community involvement in infrastructure planning to ensure projects meet the needs of all, including the most vulnerable.
Dr Nantongo, however, acknowledged the progress made in mainstreaming adaptation into policy frameworks. “Where we are still lacking is implementation. Why? Because of financing... What we should be doing now, very actively, is trying to build financing models for adaptation. That is key,” she said.
Summary
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) are significantly underfunded in East Africa’s climate adaptation strategies, despite their potential for long-term benefits, a new study reveals. Nature-based solutions are taking off all over the world.
In Uganda, sustainable land management practices like agroforestry and watershed restoration are being promoted to improve water retention and prevent soil erosion.
Wetland restoration is another key nature-based solution, crucial for biodiversity and human livelihoods. Other examples include reforestation.
