Climate-smart agricultural landscapes are mosaic landscapes that use various climate-smart agricultural systems in harmony with natural resource management to be productive, resilient to climate change, and reduce environmental impacts. They involve the interaction of farming and livelihood systems within an agroecological space and are influenced by ecological, social, economic and cultural factors. Achieving climate-smart agricultural landscapes requires collaboration among different stakeholders and integrated landscape management to achieve multiple objectives of agricultural production, ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, and community livelihoods.

1. What is a Climate Smart
Agricultural Landscape?
Kwesi Atta-Krah,
Humidtropics,
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

3. Climate Smart Agriculture
• Agriculture threatened by and contributes to
climate change
• CSA addresses adaptation to Climate Change and
also contributes towards mitigation.
– Making agric productive and ecologically-friendly
– Food and nutrition secure over time.
• Avoids negative externalities
– Environment
– Natural resources (soil degradation)
• Biodiversity and diversity rich

4. • Landscape carrying mosaic of CSA
systems, in harmony with other
natural resources land
management options
– Natural and/or human-modified
ecosystems
• Configuration of topography,
vegetation, land use and
settlements
• Socio-ecological system : People
and communities in center
• Influenced by ecological, historical,
economic and cultural process and
activities of the area
Neil Palmer, CIAT
Climate Smart Agriculture Landscape?

5. Climate-Smart Landscapes

6. Systems Thinking: Prerequisites for Climate
Smart Agricultural Landscapes
Multi-component
interactions, trade-offs
Role of larger ecosystem
health in agricultural
sustainability & resilience
Community engagement
and Stakeholder
Participation mechanisms
and Processes
- Gender relations
A system: interaction
between a farming system
and livelihoods system,
within a defined
agroecological space
Neil Palmer, CIAT

7. Integrated Landscape Management
Requires collaboration among different groups of land
managers and stakeholders to achieve the multiple
objectives required from the landscape.
Neil Palmer, CIAT
Agricultural production, provision
of ecosystem services, protection
of biodiversity, beauty, identity,
recreational value, local
livelihoods, human health, well-
being
- Kabale, Uganda example

8. Food-Secure Landscapes
• Farm and forest
landscapes can be
“designed” to produce
food year-round, while
providing habitat.
• Agroforestry Systems
– Trees on farm
– Tree plots within
agricultural landscapes
• Proper management of
wild populations in
forest and uncultivated
landscapes:
– deer, agouti, raccoon, &
other traditional sources
of animal protein
• Wild plant and fruit
foraging
Ecoagriculture protects wild species and conserve habitat
while increasing agricultural production and farmer incomes

9. Sustainable Intensification
Sustainable Intensification:
• Ecological Intensification
• Genetic Intensification
• Socio-economic
Intensification
Sustainable Diversification
• Crop species diversity
• Wild species diversity
• Habitat diversity
• Landscape diversity
Increasing world food production for growing population
cannot be done by clearing more forest land ….. Principles

10. Agroecological Production Systems
that Produce Food & Ecosystem
Services

11. New Priorities for Crop Genetic
Improvement and Conservation
• New varieties adapted
to/mitigate climate change
• Domesticate wild species
• Improvement and promotion
of Minor crops
• Increase resilience
• Reduce input requirements
• Reduce GHG emissions
Photo: © IFAD

12. Natural Area Networks for Wildlife
Habitat and Watershed Protection

13. Who Needs to be Part of These
Multifunctional Landscapes?
• Communities that live in and rely upon the landscape
• Policy makers at national, regional and local levels
• Organizations championing integrated landscapes
• Climate change research programs, such as CCAFS
• Systems Research programs, such as Humidtropics
Neil Palmer, CIAT

14. Diverse Landscape Challenges
Require Locally-Adapted Solutions
More than 80 communities of practice
Uganda
• Integrated watershed management
• Greening agricultural corridors
• Territorial development
• Model forests
Niger Kenya
• Biological corridors
• Landscape restoration
• Eco-regional programs
• Others…

15. Photo: Piet Van Asten, IITA
A Systems Approach to Research
& Development
1. Systems / Landscape
mindset
2. A “multi” R&D Team
3. Stakeholder engagement
4. Systems improvement
5. Institutional Inovation:
hard-, soft- and ‘orgware
6. Scale dimension:
7. Gender research:
8. Capacity building
9. Development orientation
10. Learning

16. All photos by Neil Palmer, CIAT.
Thank you!!
A Smiling Future:
.. We can make it happen!!