Written by Jonathan Marriage, Research Officer
Last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its sixth and final assessment report on the impact that climate change is having on our planet. The key takeaway from the report: “there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”
The comprehensive report, which compiled years of research and contributions from hundreds of scientists, outlines that human activity is driving widespread and rapid changes in our climate, which threatens to inflict substantial damages and irreversible losses upon our planet and adversely impact billions of people living across the globe.
What is more, the report makes clear that the current actions we are taking to reduce global emissions fall well short of the measures needed to successfully limit warming to below 1.5°C. Any future hope of achieving this goal requires deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale, while failure to do so will lead to the multiplication and intensifying of climate impacts with every additional increment of warming.
The IPCC report offers us insight into the dire situation we face globally. However, the report does observe that climate adaptation and mitigation policies and measures have progressed across all sectors and regions of the world, with varying levels of effectiveness. In agriculture, a sector that is particularly vulnerable to the global impacts of climate change, the use of sustainable land management approaches, agroecological principles and practices that work in harmony with natural processes, have helped farmers to reduce the impact of climate risks on their agricultural practices.
In Africa, a region that due to climate change, could face losses of up to 10% to 20% in its food production capacity, placing hundreds of millions of Africans at risk of severe food insecurity, agroecological approaches are becoming increasingly integrated into farming practices and have been advocated for by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) to be placed at the centre of Africa’s climate adaptation strategy.
One group leading the charge in the promotion and education of African farmers in sustainable and environmentally supportive agricultural practices is the organisation Nous Sommes la Solution/We are the Solution (WAS), an ecofeminist, agroecology movement that is made up of more than 500 rural women’s associations from the West African countries of Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Guinea.
WAS opposes large-scale industrial farming. It believes that industrial practices that rely upon pesticides, chemicals and genetically modified crops contribute towards the chronic issues of hunger and landlessness in Africa. Instead, the group advocates for the use of agroecological farming practices that prioritise sustainability, the promotion of indigenous forms of knowledge and the growing of crops that are suited to the soil and land in which they are grown.
The knowledge and practices of WAS’s female leaders has helped to build systems that are localised, self-sufficient and climate resilient, in an area of the world that will be disproportionately affected by climate change. It is also critical to recognise the role of WAS in driving social change. The work of WAS has reshaped attitudes towards the vital role women play in farming and protecting the environment. It has also empowered women economically and opened the door for female, African leaders to champion discussions around how best to address the climate-induced, food security issues facing Africa and the world.
Industrialised agriculture is responsible for 10-12% of global emissions. By transitioning away from large-scale, industrialised agriculture practices and towards agroecological ones, we could potentially help eliminate 8.5% agricultural emissions globally. However, for this to be successful, we must work in collaboration with actors in a just and equitable way, drawing on the knowledge and practices of local, indigenous communities from across the world.
Ultimately, WAS demonstrates how small-scale, rural, female farmers in Africa – one of the most vulnerable groups to the impacts of climate change – are central to our mission of achieving a sustainable future. This may allow us to reframe the narrative of women in developing countries as mere victims of climate change, and instead recognise the vital role they play in leading the design and implementation of solutions to climate change that we are desperately crying out for.
References
https://africanarguments.org/2022/11/agroecology-is-the-african-led-solution-we-need-from-cop27/
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/
https://thousandcurrents.org/partner/nous-sommes-la-solution/
https://grassrootsonline.org/blog/frontlines-grassroots-west-africa/
https://www.oneearth.org/five-climate-solution-projects-around-the-world-powered-by-women/