A workshop by the UN Environment Programme - World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and partners on scenario-guided policy analysis concluded that there is a need for increased integration between plans for agricultural development and environmental management.
The workshop, which focused on the future of development, food security and the environment under climate change in East Africa, meant to identify important future policy questions for the region guided by research, and more specifically, modeling.
6 October 2014: A workshop by the UN Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and partners on scenario-guided policy analysis concluded that there is a need for increased integration between plans for agricultural development and environmental management. The workshop, which focused on the future of development, food security and the environment under climate change in East Africa, meant to identify important future policy questions for the region guided by research, and more specifically, modeling.
The workshop, titled ‘Scenario-guided Policy Analysis on the Future of Development, Food Security and the Environment in East Africa,’ took place in Entebbe, Uganda, from 25-27 June, and was organized jointly by UNEP-WCMC, the Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) and the Scenarios Team from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The event brought together stakeholders from governments, development organizations, civil society and the academia from the East African Great Lakes region.
Basing their work on scenarios on the future of the Great Lakes region in the form of maps on land use, biodiversity and ecosystem services, participants sought, inter alia, to identify the trade-offs between improving livelihoods and safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services amidst a backdrop of population and urban growth, expansion of agriculture and climate change. Participants also examined potential synergies between environmental protection and sustainable agricultural development.
Each map represented a distinct future world, characterized by different development and climate change conditions, and different challenges for policymakers. Participants used the maps to test the possibility of achieving their policy proposals.
Furthermore, the workshop sought to: validate modeling work conducted by the UNEP-WCMC on biodiversity and ecosystem service impact scenarios for the Great Lakes region; and receive inputs on key regional concerns and priorities for developing country-specific and regional impact pathways and actions to address issues related to sustainable land use and sustainable development, in relation to ecosystems and biodiversity conservation.
The UNEP-WCMC is the specialist biodiversity assessment arm of UNEP, and is based in Cambridge, UK. The workshop was part of the UNEP-WCMC’s ‘Commodities and Biodiversity, Planning for Future Capacity’ project. [UNEP-WCMC Article] [CGIAR-CCAFS Blog Post]