Resilience of food and water systems

Alain VidalResilience TWG

Global Drivers TWG WorkshopSeptember 12-14, 2011, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Re-greening the Uganda “Cattle Corridor”

Community corralling of cattle for 2 weeks

permits pasture establishment

Local organizations invest in up-scaling of pasture regeneration

Termites destroy any attempt to reseed degraded pasture

The resilience challenge

Food production communities and ecosystems should be able to cope with local and global changes (climate, economy, demography, migrations…), ie become more resilient

Achieved through improved water productivity (more food with less water) together with empowerment, equity, market access, health and ecosystemservices

Questioning resilience of theUganda “Cattle Corridor”

Community corralling of cattle for 2 weeks

permits pasture establishment

Local organizations invest in up-scaling of pasture regeneration

Termites destroy any attempt to reseed degraded pasture

?

Review of two CPWF adaptive and collective management cases

Re-greening the Uganda “Cattle Corridor”

Restoring river flows, quality and ecosystem services in the Andes

Triggers for change between alternate resilient states

S

SWater depletion, grazing pressure, loss of soil organic matter

Manure applied through night corralling provides a preferred diet for the termites

Wet Season:Dry matter 4.5 T/ha9 species / m²

Wet Season:Dry matter 0 T/ha0 species / m²

Downstream – where the concern for ecosystem services emerged

Eutrophication and shrinking of

Fuquene Lake (downstream)

High altitude wetland (paramo)

degraded by potato cropping and overgrazing

Restoring upstream and downstream ecosystem services

Paramo restored through

conservation tillage and oat/potato

rotation

Water quality and downstream ecosystem services from Fuquene

Lake improved

Resulting changes on upstream water

Treatment

1

Treatment

21 2

Horizon

36

38

40

42

44

46

48

50

52

54

56

58

60

% v

olu

metr

ic w

ate

r

Conservation agriculture

Traditional agriculture

% V

olu

met

ric

Wat

erMore water stored, restoring the buffer

role of paramo

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

1 2 3 4

Size fraction

AO

M (

g/g

)

RT-Horizon 1 CT-Horizon 1 RT-Horizon 2 CT-Horizon 2

Conservation agriculture

Traditional agriculture

Acc

um

ula

ted

Org

anic

M

atte

r (g

/g)

Better soil porosity, filtration, increased water and carbon

storage

Triggers for change between alternate resilient states

S

Annual net income:2,183/ha

Annual net income:US$ 1,870/ha

Conservation agriculture and paramo restoration supported by revolving fund

Farmers‘ insufficient gain and risk aversion: only 11% converted

Revolving fund credit: +180 farmers /year

Potato cropping, grazing pressure, degradation of paramo

Lessons learnt on water and food social-ecological systems

States defined by recurring (local) variables

Soil properties (eg organic matter, carbon)

Water quantity and quality

Animal density (livestock, fish)

Household income

Community organisation

Non-linear changes,most often reversible

Lessons learnt on adaptability and transformability

Degraded water and food systems are often locked in resilient (poverty)

traps

Long-term efforts required to strengthen the resilience of desired states

Negative feedbacks (innovation adoption vs. risk-aversion)

Precariousness

Socio-economic interventions

Resilience TWG

Revisiting definitions Ability to maintain functioning despite stress, shocks or disturbance

Reflects ability of system to self-organize - build capacity for learning and adaptation

Resilience Analysis: looking at our BDCs with a “resilience lens”

After inception workshop, Basin champions now

Develop working definitions of their respective SES

Prioritize what their resilience research will focus on

Deal with some aspects that are particularly relevant in their

contexts (e.g. disturbances, thresholds, capacity for renewal and

learning etc), or

Attempt to conduct entire resilience assessments

TWG to develop of a position paper that links

theoretical approaches in resilience thinking to case

studies in the CPWF (phases I & II)

Thank youa.vidal@cgiar.org

www.waterandfood.org

www.slideshare.com/CPWF