Millions of people have been affected by worst drought in decades in the US, Africa, southern Europe, and elsewhere. Numbers are likely to increase in future as climate change is expected to change rainfall patterns and produce more droughts. With global population approaching 8 billion by 2025, this will place a huge demand on governments and the environment to provide sufficient food. The challenge of building sustainable and resilient food systems requires innovative solutions.
Adopting ecological approaches can help build resilient food systems in achieving food security in a changing climate. This raises the question of how ecological-based approaches will impact food systems. Can they provide innovative solutions in addressing food shortages and how can they be consolidated and extended ? Closer attention to approaches that go beyond words into actions and guide policy practices are urgently needed. One of such approaches is ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) which provides flexible, cost-effective, and broadly applicable alternatives for building robust food systems and reducing the impacts of climate change.
EbA is the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people and communities adapt to the negative effects of climate change at local, national, regional and global levels. It provides many other benefits to communities, including food security (from fisheries to agroforestry), sustainable water management, and livelihood diversification (through increasing resource-use options).
Click here to read the full story.
