We now live in a world where temperatures are rising, natural resources are being depleted, and species loss is accelerating. Agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to Green House Gas (GHG) emissions; yet it is greatly affected by climate change. Sustainable agriculture is the way to go if we are to mitigate the effects of climate change. According to Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform, "Sustainable Agriculture is a productive, competitive and efficient way to produce agricultural products, while at the same time protecting and improving the natural environment and social / economic conditions of local communities."

Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification is one of the certifications that promote sustainable agriculture practices. The RA works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behaviour. I had a chance to be involved with Rainforest Alliance certification while working with a tea growing and export company in Uganda as a Standards Coordinator. We decided to pursue RA certification to improve overall sustainability in the tea estates having been alarmed by a recent report released by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture entitled "Future Climate Scenarios for Ugandas Tea Growing Areas" which revealed that climatic suitability of much of Ugandas tea-growing areas would decline significantly by 2050 due to climate change.

Rainforest Alliance certification hinges on the Sustainable Agriculture Network Standard represented by the following ten principles:

1. Management System
2. Ecosystem Conservation
3. Wildlife Protection
4. Water Conservation
5. Working Conditions for Workers
6. Occupational Health and Safety
7. Community Relations
8. Integrated Crop Management
9. Soil Conservation
10. Integrated Waste Management

A patch of forest adjacent to a tea estate

Patches of natural forests (bio-corridors) are maintained within the tea estates. This helps in crop care as forests are sources of natural predators, and helps in maintaining soil health and preventing erosion. It is also one way of conserving biodiversity and for this matter there are numerous fauna and flora on the tea estates.

With an internal control system as part of management system, documentation helps in the prediction of long-term tea production patterns. International tea buyers are also showing a preference for RA-certified teas, one of them being Lipton (a Unilever brand), which is committed to sourcing all of their tea from Rainforest Alliance certified estates by 2015.

With RA certification, the company is playing its part in making sure consumers of their tea worldwide enjoy a cup of tea without compromising the needs of future generations. 

Sustainability -- like so many things in life -- is a journey, not a destination and every company should be in it for the long haul.

In 1939 Walter Lowdermilk, one of the pioneers of resource conservation said:

"Thou shalt inherit the holy earth as a faithful steward, conserving its resources and productivity from generation to generation.

Thou shalt safeguard thy fields from soil erosion, thy living waters from drying up, thy forests from desolation and protect hills from overgrazing by the herds, that thy descendants may have abundance forever.

If any shall fail in this stewardship of the land, thy fruitful fields shall become sterile stony ground of wasting gullies, and thy descendants shall decrease and live in poverty or perish from off the face of the earth."  

You can contact Denis Twinamatsiko at denistwina@gmail.com

 

Denis Twinamatsiko

In our on-going effort to engage on a deeper level with our growing audience, team C4C is going to be digging a little deeper into our main categories of focus. We hope this will encourage the sharing of ideas and solutions along these very critical categories. Each Wednesday, well delve into the topic of forestry and how climate change is affecting forests - more specifically the people, communities, and eco-systems that rely on forests for their survival. Today well focus on diverging conservation advocacy strategies currently in play. We want to look at how large multi-national NGOs communicate to their base about the issues around forestry, versus how individuals, communities, and grass roots sensitization organizations approach the issue.

In all forms of activism, there is often a difference in approach and perspectives between grassroots movements and international campaigns from high-budget organizations. Forests are useful and valuable for a variety of reasons, leading to a variety of perspectives on the best way to manage or conserve them. And as with any advocacy effort, there are a myriad of stake holders with a vested interest in having their concerns addressed.

International campaigns tend to approach issues in a way that is necessary to have relevance to a global audience. This video from UNEP and the UNs International Year of Forests - 2011 highlights that forests provide countless resources for humans, mitigate climate change, and most importantly require our protection. (Personally, I cannot watch it without yearning for a stroll in the woods or a tree-planting excursion.) Such high-profile campaigns from international organizations are fantastic for raising awareness of issues and the need to act on them.

However, the nuances of conservation efforts are often lost in the attempt to reach a global audience. The reality of forest conservation is far more complex than is often depicted. Efforts to preserve forests, in implementation, have sometimes neglected the rights of indigenous groups or the needs of rural populations. It then can lead to displacement, environmental degradation elsewhere, and the loss of cultural heritage - sall of which alienate people from conservation efforts, as in Uganda in the 1990s:

...The National Resistance Movement (NRM), now the ruling party, thought it prudent to conserve Mabira and started reforestation efforts, including evicting many of the families who had come to live in it.

(More governments are now providing incentives for communities to preserve their forests.) International organizations cannot be faulted for leaving these nuances out of campaigns. The complexity of most issues is impossible to summarize and address in awareness-raising campaigns or calls to action for the general public. You simply cannot fully educate everyone about everything.

Grassroots campaigns, on the other hand, have more ability to focus on the nuances of specific situations and address the needs of specific communities. But grassroots campaigns struggle with access to resources necessary for global attention, funding projects, and enacting change.

How then can grassroots movements and international organizations work together to make their campaigns most effective, their policies most beneficial to forests and the communities which rely on them? What role can technology play?

Global Unification the Gambia (GU) is a youth-led, community-based, research and development organisation, established 2006.  In partnership with relevant institutions, our objective is to provide education, skills and strengthen the capacity of young people, groups working with youths and local communities to enable them participate effectively in sustainable development processes of The Gambia. We work with young people and local communities, supporting their efforts to move out of poverty, access quality health care services and adapt to the impact of climate change.

In 2008, we decided redirected more of our efforts towards creating awareness on environmental protection, sustainable management of forest resources, biodiversity conservation and climate change solutions geared to reducing the threats to livelihood security among local communities cause by the changing climate. As result in 2009, we developed a five year action plan that is dedicated to climate change education and creating pro-poor climate action projects. Under this strategy, we do sensitisation, trained traditional communicators, youth leaders, women cooperative societies on adaptation skills and support public access to climate change information. We lobby policy makers at national and international level for policy shift toward green economy, promote youth participation on discussion and decision on sustainable development issues in the country.

Some of our previous projects are climate talk; rethinking our future, a year radio advocacy program, National Stakeholders Workshop on community based adaptation, which was a platform to identify barriers to adaptation in the Gambia and proposed sustainable solution, Green School initiatives, which promote tree planting in schools, where we award prices to most green school. We also celebrate major international days such as world environment day, earth day, earth hour etc.  Please visit this link for update list of past activities.