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Choosing Indicators for a "Climate-Friendly" Landscape
Criterion I4: The market provide incentives for climate-friendly landscapes. Producers need access to markets for products and services that return a profit as well as incentives to invest in sustaining ecosystem function and food security. Examples include market access for certified agricultural products and markets for ecosystem services and payment for ecosystem services.
Optimum efforts to mitigate climate change through changes and innovation in land-use practices should achieve co-benefits for rural communities for the climate-friendly landscapes to be sustained.
Next is a list of some institutional actions and market incentives that contribute to achieve a sustainable production and improve rural livelihoods and thus, help building ecoagricultural landscapes.
Click on the Indicators to see means of measure.
Indicators of Institutional Support of Incentives for Stakeholders
- Presence/absence of programs to improve farmers access to the market.
- Presence/absence of funding programs to facilitate changes in the land use practices.
Indicators of Consumers Awareness of Food and Fiber “Footprint”
- Consumer demand of “climate-friendly” products.
- Relationship between the buyers and the producers (abundance of local markets)
- Availability of educative programs to encourage buyers to support climate-friendly products.
Indicators of Product Certification Standards
- Presence/absence of certification schemes, including information about GHG emisions reduction.
- Farmer access to certified markets.
Indicators of Benefits for Farmers from Carbon Sequestration and other Climate Change Mitigation Practices
- Payments from ecosystem services (PES)
Go back to Unit 4 for more information about how to select indicators.
Continue to Unit 5 Establishing a Baseline
Choosing Indicators for a "Climate-Friendly" Landscape
Criterion L5: Households and communities are resilient to external shocks derived from climate changing conditions (drought, flooding, disease and epidemics).
Social resilience is the ability of human communities to withstand and recover from stresses, such as disturbances caused by global changes in climate. In agricultural landscapes, human and ecological systems interact. Resilience in such combined systems concerns how much shock the system can absorb and still remain within a desirable state, the capacity of self-organization, and the capacity for learning and adaptation.
In this example, there have been selected some critical functions and attributes of the agricultural landscapes that contribute to build resilience and increase their adaptation capacity in changing conditions, and indicators to measure them.
Click on the Indicators to see the means of measure.
Indicators of Food Availability and Production
- Crop yield/demand
- Livestock production/demand
- Production of timber and non timber products/demand
- Diversity of products
Indicators of Fresh Water Supply
- Watershed health (availability and distribution of natural sources of water)
- Water quality
- Availability and distribution of multipurpose water supply systems
Indicators of Natural Hazard Protection
- Abundance and distributions of undisturbed buffers.
- Flood storage capacity of wetlands and recharge areas.
- Abundance and distribution of vulnerable landscape features.
Indicators of Waste Decomposition and Detoxification
- Nitrogen mineralization
- Microbial biomass
- Soil respiration (CO2 generated by biological activity of the soil)
- Litter decomposition rate (integrated indicator)
- Dilution potential of acuatic systems
Indicators of Emergency Response Capacity
- Availability of finantial and human resources.
- Proportion of the population living in high risk areas.
- Access to health resources.
Go back to Unit 4 for more information about how to select indicators.
Continue to Unit 5 Establishing a Baseline
Choosing Indicators for a "Climate-Friendly" Landscape – System Resilience
Criterion P3: The production system is resilient to disturbances caused by climate change. The system maintains the natural capital that sustains production over time and makes it resilient to disturbances (drough, flood, mudslides and diseases) caused by climate change.
Ecosystem resilience describes the capacity of an ecosystem to cope with disturbances caused by climate change. A resilient ecosystem has the capacity to withstand shocks and, if damaged, to rebuild itself. Without resilience, landscapes become vulnerable to effects of disturbance. In a agricultural landscapes, human and ecological systems interact. Managing agricultural landscapes for resilience enhances the sustainable development of rural communities in a changing environment.
Identifying the components of the system that needed for renewal and reorganization is critical to build its resilience. In order to select indicators that can tell us about the landscape resilience, there have been selected eight functions of the systems that that increase its resilience and contribute to sustain production, and the indicators to track their performance in the landscape.
Click on the Indicators to see the means of measure.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity plays a critical role in increasing ecosystem resilience. Ecosystems seem to be particularly resilient it there are many species performing the same function (such as photosyntesis and decomposition) and if species withing such “funtional groups” respond in different ways to disturbances and compensate for each others. In forests, retain plant diversity can stabilize the ecosystem, making it less vulnerable to extreme weather events and pest damage.
| Indicator | Measurement Unit | Means of Measure |
| Species Richness | Number of different species in a given area (S) | Measuring Biodiversity Indicators |
| Species Eveness | Relative abundance or proportion of individuals among the species present in an ecosystem | Measuring Biodiversity Indicators |
| Functional Attribute Diversity | Number of functional groups (providing important ecosystem services) within the lanscape and their importance. | Assesing the Functional Structure of the Landscape |
System Conectivity and Habitat Diversity
| Indicator | Measurement Unit | Means of Measure |
| Degree of connectivity and habitat fragmentation | Patch Number/Density (PN/PD)
Patch atribbutes (Area, shape,…) |
Measuring Landscape Structure |
| Availability and distribution of buffer areas | Area of buffer zones and attributes (shape, connectivity, conservation status…) | Measuring Landscape Structure |
Nutrient Cycling and Soil Fertilization (Soil Health)
The use of climate-friendly management techniques can increase the ecosystem resilience by stabilizing soil structure, reducing erosión and increasing soil organic matter. This increases fertility and moisture holding capacity of the soil. In turn, this decreases vulnerability to high-intensity rainfall, floods and droughts.
| Indicator | Measurement Unit | Means of Measure |
| Soil Organic Matter (SOM)
Other biological, chemical and physical indicators of Soil Health |
Percentage of Carbon in the Soil | Soil Organic Matter (SOM) |
Waste Decomposition and Detoxification
- Nitrogen mineralization
- Microbial biomass
- Soil respiration (CO2 generated by biological activity of the soil)
- Litter decomposition rate (integrated indicator)
- Dilution potential of acuatic systems
Water Supply
- Water quality.
- Watershed health.
Erosion Control
- Land use pattern.
- Vegetation cover and root density in critical areas.
- Soil infiltration.
- Sediment analisys.
Pollination
- Abundance and distribution of native crop pollinators.
- Availability of natural habitats for pollinators.
Pest Control and Crop Resistance
- Abundance of natural parasitoids and predators.
- Crop variability and distribution.
- Frecuency and distribution of pests outbreakes.
Livestock Disease Protection
- Prevalence of disease.
- Disease risk asociated with type of production.
- Disease risk reduction measures taken (traceability, veterenary tests, emergency protocols).
Continue to Indicators for a climate-friendly landscape: Criterion L5
Go back to Unit 4 for more information about how to select indicators.
Continue to Unit 5 Establishing a Baseline
Choosing Indicators for a "Climate-Friendly" Landscape – Regulating Ecosystem Services
Criterion C4: The landscape provides locally, regionally, and globally important ecosystem services that contribute to the mitigation of climate change.
The ecosystem services that a climate-friendly landscape is desired to perform are global climate regulation and local climate regulation. Both are regulating services, the regulation of the local climate also contributes to increase the resilience of the system to disturbances caused by global changes in climate.
Click on the links to see means of measure.
Indicators of Global Climate Regulation
| Indicator | Measurement Unit | Means of Measure |
| Carbon Sequestration (in vegetation, crops and soils) | Tonnes of Carbon per hectare and per year | Carbon Sequestration |
| GHG emissions derived from land use (metane, nitrous dioxide, carbon dioxide) | Depends on the sources of the emissions, and the unit of area and time we want to refer the measures to. Examples of measurement units include mg CH4, μg N2O per m2 from crop fields; T CO2 per ha; kg CH4, N2O per head of livestock per acre. | IPCC Guidelines for National GHG Inventories (vol. 4: AFOLU Sector) |
Indicators of Local Climate Regulation
| Indicator | Measurement Unit | Means of Measure |
| Vegetation cover and structure | Area (ha or acres) of vegetation cover, Percentage of vegetation cover within the landscape.
Number of trees per unit of area (tree density), abundance of perennials, average tree height, analysis of vertical structure of vegetation cover. |
Land pattern analysis |
| Watershed Health | Measures of Water Quality | Infiltration capacity |
| Precipitation | Inches or millimeters (mm) per unit of time | Precipitation Rate |
| Evapotranspiration | Millimiters (mm) per unit of time | Evapotranspiration Rate |
Continue to Indicators for a climate-friendly landscape: Criterion P3
Go back to Unit 4 for more information about how to select indicators.
Continue to Unit 5 Establishing a Baseline
Selecting Criteria for "Climate-Friendly" Landscapes
Agricultural systems can contribute to climate change mitigation through the application of agricultural practices that enhance carbon storage in vegetation and soils, and reduce green house gas emissions derived from production, livestock, burning, and use of inorganic fertilizers (see Farming and Land Use to Cool the Planet, Chapter for the World Watch Report State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World, by Sara J. Scherr and Sajal Sthapit).
Next is a selection of criteria that define a climate-friendly agricultural landscape. The criteria provide the basis to choose the indicators against which to measure the performance of the landscape through the goals of mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
Selected Criteria
From the twenty criteria for healthy landscape performance described in Unit 3, four of them relate directly to climate change and the outcomes mentioned above. Click on each criterion to see indicators for measuring their performance in the landscape:
- Conservation criterion C4: The landscape provides locally, regionally, and globally important ecosystem services…including those that contribute to climate regulation and mitigation of climate change.
- Production criterion P3: Production systems are resilient to natural and anthropogenic disturbances including drought, flooding, mudslides and diseases… that may be brought about by climate change.
- Livelihood criterion L5: Households and communities are resilient to external shocks such as drought, flooding, and disease epidemics…that may be brought about by climate change.
- Institutions criterion I4: Markets provide incentives for producers to invest in products and services that can return a profit and also help sustain ecosystem function….such as ‘climate-friendly’ certified outputs.
Choosing indicators to measure the performance of the selected criteria
The criteria provide the basis for selecting and developing indicators, that can be measured and tracked to assess the performance of the landscape.
The Unit 4 provides a guide for developing indicators and measures. In this example, we identified the relationship between the function that the landscape is expected or desired to perform, and corresponding attributes of the system and activities, that are likely to be measurable.
Based on the Theory of Change technique of conceptual modelling for landscape planning, the following diagram depicts some of the relationships that conect system functions and activities with the desired outcomes. The process of creating a conceptual model for our landscape can help to generate indicators that make sens locally. It is important to engage stakeholders in the process. Click on the above Criteria to see the indicators selected.
Go back to Climate Change & Agriculture Section
Go back to Unit 4 for more information about how to select indicators.
Continue to Unit 5 Establishing a Baseline
Agriculture, Forestry & Other Land Use
Emissions Trading (the "Carbon Market")
Forests provide economic, social and environmental benefits for local communities. Forests can also play an important role on the mitigation of the climate change. The biomass of trees and vegetation in forests holds vast reserves of carbon that help to keep in balance the carbon cycle on which life on Earth depends. Plants and trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via photosynthesis, retain the carbon as they grow and produce fiber and release oxygen back to the atmosphere. Therefore, forests represent effective carbon sinks as long as they are maintained.
The burning and clearing of tropical forests is one of the major causes of climate
change. Therefore, protecting the carbon stores in natural forests and grasslands is a key strategy for the climate change mitigation and adaptation.
New income opportunities are possible for communities in developing countries through trade mechanisms derived from the Kioto Protocol such as the “carbon market” and the Clean Development Mechanisms.
These mechanisms help the Parties with an emission reduction commitment under the Protocol, meet their emission targets in a cost-effective way. At the same time they provide a new income source for developing countries.
In today’s market, greenhouse gas reductions may refer to either reductions in actual emissions, avoidance of potential emissions, or the creation of emission sinks, for example, through sequestration. Entities that manage forest or agricultural land might sell carbon credits based on the accumulation of carbon in their forest trees or agricultural soils. Similarly, entities that reduce their carbon emission may be able to sell their reductions to other emitters.
The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) is aimed at tipping the economic balance in favor of sustainable management of forests. The goal is to create incentives to ensure actual, lasting, achievable, reliable and measurable emission reductions while maintaining and improving the other ecosystem services forests provide.
"Climate-friendly" agricultural landscapes
An ecoagricultural landscape should ideally provide food and fiber to meet the needs of the community and respond to demand from external markets, protect biodiversity, enable local people to have viable livelihoods, and coordinate institutions to enable the other goals to be realized.
In terms of climate change, ecoagricultural landscapes and farming systems can contribute to the mitigation of its effects through the sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere in vegetation and soils, the reduction of methane emissions from rice production, livestock and biomass burning, and the reduction of emissions of nitrous oxide from inorganic fertilizers. At the same time, production systems can be affected by changes in climate. A climate-friendly landscape is one that both contributes to the mitigation of climate change, and is resilient to its effects.
- Rice Terraces in Bali (Indonesia). Terrace farming has been used traditionally to prevent soil run-off and erosion due to the irrigation of water.
A variety of agricultural practices can help to bring about climate-friendly landscapes when they are adapted to local conditions, needs and knowledge. Sara J. Scherr and Sajal Sthapit in their report Farming and Land Use to Cool the Planet, chapter for the World Watch Report State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World, decribe five basic strategies to simultaneously increase the mitigation and adaptation to climate change in agricultural landscapes:
- Enriching soil carbon
- Creating high-carbon cropping systems
- Promoting climate-friendly livestock production systems
- Protecting existing carbon stores in natural forests and grasslands
- Restoring vegetation in degraded areas
Each strategy can be implemented through the applicatation of already available, well developed and low-cost techniques, and with the support of government and institutions to provide incentives for farmers and other stakeholders.
The following diagram outlines these strategies and the agricultural practices mentioned in Sara J. Scherr and Sajal Sthapit chapter, and how the market incentives and public policies can affect their implementation and therefore, the achievement of climate-friendly landscapes. To see the entire chapter, click on the link above.
The response of the landscape to changes in management practice is considered positive when ecosystem functions upon which the landscape’s performance goals depend are improved.
Local farmers and communities can significantly contribute with their knowledge and other resources to apply the land use strategies that realize these goals and increase the resilience of agricultural landscapes and ecosystems to climate change.
Go back to Climate Change & Agriculture Section
Baseline photography and participatory visualization in Mt. Elgon National Park periphery
A 7 page case study describes and illustrates how IUCN’s Livelihoods and Landscapes Initatiave engaged residents and other stakeholders in developing future scenarios for their landscape, and how the activity led to the creation of outcome indicators. To view the case study click here.
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