A large number of governance interventions are being developed in order to reduce deforestation and enhance the sustainability of commodity

supply chains across the tropics. The extent to which individual agricultural commodity supply chain interventions can achieve scale, and

environmental or social objectives, depends in part on the ways in which those interventions interact with other interventions. We use a casestudy

of the new Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) cattle certification program in Brazil to explore the different ways in which governance

A general overview and technical details of natural treatment systems (NTS) including constructed wetlands (CWs), waste stabilization ponds (WSPs), duckweed ponds (DPs), water hyacinth ponds and polishing ponds have been provided in Chapters 8 and 10. As outlined in Starkl et al. (2013), often assessment studies focus on technical aspects only, with no or little consideration of the non-technical aspects. It has been argued that the non-technical aspects do influence the long-term sustainability of technologies and therefore their critical assessment is of importance.

An analysis of the effects of climate change on 22 critical agricultural commodities and three important natural resources in the developing world reveals a number of cross-cutting themes: The world’s agricultural systems face an uphill struggle in feeding a projected nine to ten billion people by 2050. Climate change introduces a significant hurdle in this struggle.
- Securing and maintaining necessary levels of calories, protein and nutrients for populations around the world will be an exceptional challenge.

Rangeland resources are among the most important – and almost certainly the most neglected – agro ecosystem component in dry areas. They are the largest land-use category, home to the poorest segment of the population, and crucial for millions of small-scale livestock producers. The availability of grazing resources for livestock in the world’s drylands is low and erratic due to the recurrent droughts in which animals can often fall victim.

The CGIAR Water, Land and Ecosystems research project on Targeting Agricultural Innovations and Ecosystem Services in the northern Volta basin (TAI) is a two year project (2014-2016) led by Bioversity International in collaboration with 11 institutes: CIAT, CIRAD, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), King’s College London (KCL), SNV World Burkina Faso (SNV), Stanford University, Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), University of Development Studies Ghana (UDS), University of Minnesota, University of Washington, and the World Agroforestry Institute.

The agricultural development project Resilience and Economic Growth in Arid Lands – Accelerated Growth (REGAL-AG) has promoted improved livestock management that resulted in a decrease in net emissions of 10%. Since emissions from livestock account for the majority of Kenya’s agricultural emissions (95%), reduction of emissions in the livestock sector has high potential impact.

Rwanda’s variable and changing climate is an increasingly serious challenge to the country’s

agricultural sector and farming population. Climate information services are emerging as a

means to support farmers to manage risk and provide an opportunity to build the resilience of

agriculture to climate at all time scales. Climate services include historical, monitored and

forecast information, and value-added information products such pest and disease risk

warnings, crop yield forecasts, or management advisories. The new Rwanda Climate Services

Land degradation due to soil erosion is a major issue in the Ethiopian Highlands. Deforestation leads to ongoing gully erosion during the rainy season (June to September) and thus the hydrology of a watershed changes as dense gully networks cause direct drainage of rain water. To better understand watershed scale gully processes in the Ethiopian Highlands, three gauging stations were installed in the 56 km2 large Gumara-Maksegnit catchment in the northern Amhara region, to monitor discharge and sediment load in the gullies during rainy season.

? The Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program II

(RDCP) was estimated to have resulted in a

strong decrease in the GHG emissions intensity

of milk production, defined as the GHG

emissions per unit (liter) of milk produced.

Extensive cattle production systems reduced

their GHG emission intensity by an estimated -

4.11 tCO2e per 1000 l of milk (-60%), while

intensive production systems reduced their

intensity by an estimated -1.7 tCO2e/1000 l (-

47%). The decrease in GHG emission intensity