Agriculture and Climate Change in Honduras*

Agriculture is one of the sectors affected by climate change. The extreme weather events that will be increasing during the next years are a threat to food security and agricultural yields. Droughts and floods compromise the production for farmers and this affects their economy. According to Douglas Haynes in an article for the Boston Review, “Climate change is gradually pushing more people toward poverty and worsening the food insecurity of already-vulnerable people. In addition to producing new hardships, climate change is making inequalities more extreme by the year.” And here, from Honduras, I have observed this is true. 

The evidence that climate change is seriously affecting the rural population of the world is still not enough to get agriculture to the formal part of international treaties’ negotiations. It is a problem you cannot hide from for very long. The agriculture sector emits greenhouse gases, is one of the most affected sectors by climate change and its effects are already showing. It is urgent that it is considered in negotiations in order to compromise countries to certain goals that make agriculture sustainable and adapt it to climate change. 

As with most of the climate change effects, the effects of climate change on agriculture are being felt in regions such as Central America, even though the people here are some of those least responsible for emissions, like Douglas Haynes describes in the case of Nicaragua. When combined with poverty, weak governance, conflict, and poor market access, the effects of climate change are exacerbated and this is the case for a country like Honduras. 

According to a recent study of the Economics of Climate Change in Central America, for the agricultural sector there will be a drop of 9% by 2100. For specific crops, the yields of bean and rice will decrease as the average global temperature increases and the precipitation patterns are affected. In the case of corn, at the beginning we will be having an increase in the yields but will eventually drop as the temperatures begin to increase more as predicted in the scenario A2 for 2100, if no adaptation measures are taken for these crops.

Farmers in Honduras are suffering the effects of climate change.
Photo from La Prensa, Honduran newspaper

So, what are we doing in Honduras to tackle the disastrous climate change effects in agriculture in order to ensure food security? The National Strategy for Climate Change (which will be presented in a future post) includes the agricultural sector proposing different adaptation and mitigation objectives and guidelines.

The main objectives for the agriculture sector are:

• Facilitate farmers adapt to climate change, improving resilience of crops and pastures to the thermal and water stress, and preventing or reducing the incidence of pests and diseases caused by climate change. For this objective some of the actions proposed are the selection of crops resistant to droughts, floods, and extreme temperatures; to promote technologies and systems for sustainable agriculture and integrated plague management.
• Prevent erosion, loss of possible productivity and desertification of soils, considering the effects of climate change. In order to achieve this objective, integrated management of soils and agroforestry systems will be promoted.
• Preserve and improve the nutritional quality and contribute to the food security of the population, under conditions climate change. This objective includes actions such as the diversification of crops and improve the production, processing, and storage of agricultural products.

In the last six months, thanks to an initiative of the Inter-American Institute forCooperation on Agriculture (IICA) who was asked by the Central American Integration System (SICA for Spanish) to perform actions in order to aid the adaptation of climate change of agriculture, a group of interested organizations has been getting together. In these meetings, the group works in identifying other institutions that might help in the implementation. It is a harder job than you might imagine, not all of the relevant actors are interested in climate change, and some of them are even climate change skeptics.

As of the moment, a first approach will be concluded by April 2012 when the results of a thorough investigation in climate change adaptation projects and publications in Honduras are presented. This investigation is supported by the members of the group and it is being performed by one of the organizations of this group, financed by international cooperation. The next step will be the systematization and analysis of the results of this investigation. With these done, each of the institutions part of the group will fully engage (hopefully) in their role of performing actions that will help agriculture adapt to climate change, minimizing the losses and achieving the objectives proposed in the National Climate Change Strategy.

It is certainly not a bright present for agriculture and climate change, but the future promises things will improve; and whether or not international treaties bind countries into performing actions to help adapt agriculture to climate change, we at Honduras will still be working on them. 

*This post is a shorter version of an article written by me in Kither (an online magazine which you should totally check out). 

Climate Resilience & Water Security in Honduras: Adaptation Fund Project

Honduras was not only the country hosting the first CERs emitted worldwide, but also the first country to access to the Adaptation Fund. 

The Adaptation Fund is a financial mechanism created to help developing countries adapt to climate change by financing projects that seek this objective. 

This money comes from the shares of the CERs issued, specifically the 2% of this shares. Due to this limited source and the ambiguity of what will happen after this period of the Kyoto Protocol to CDM, as of right now, each country can only access to 10M USD and Honduras has already accessed a little bit more than 5M USD with this first project. Our project is called: "Climate Resilience & Water Security in Honduras" for short and has a total duration of 5 years. It's objective is to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience in poor urban areas in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. 

The implementing entity for this project is UNDP and the executing entity is SERNA (Natural Resources and Environment Secretariat in Honduras) specifically, the National Climate Change Office. 

Barrio El Chile, Tegucigalpa, Honduras: We are not ready for climate change, we need to adapt!

It is a very complex project including multi disciplinary work groups in order to work in the different components, which are:

Component 1- Relevant institutional structures strengthened for mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into water resources management as well as into national planning, public investment - budgeting and decision-making processes. 

Component 2 - Comprehensive measures piloted to safeguard Tegucigalpa City's water supplies in response projected climate change induced water scarcity.

Component 3- Targeted capacity building and outreach to enable stakeholders at all levels to effectively respond to long-term climate change impacts. 

This project is still on its first year of execution, and there already tangible results for each of the components. You can check the project's activities and news over here in English and here in Spanish (more information is available in Spanish) and feel free to ask any questions about it. 

Busy Week Friday Reflection

Picture taken at Lancetilla, Honduras on a warm summer day

CTICC

In 2009, a group of Climate Change related experts had periodic meetings to discuss issues related to this topic concerning Honduras, but they understood that they needed the participation of different institutions in order to achieve their goals and make a relevant progress in climate change oriented actions. 

In 2010, the Climate Change Inter-institutional Committee (CTICC for Spanish) was officially created as a permanent organ to support the National Climate Change Office in Honduras. This Committee is formed by a fixed person from each of the Institutions that are part of it. There are around 60 institutions from the public, private, and social sectors that are represented in the CTICC, including two that group most of the NGOs in Honduras. The CTICC is the ideal platform to work on climate change., because its members' diversity gives place to relevant discussions and different points of view.

Pre-CTICC meeting to discuss climate change issues

The CTICC is called every now and then (2 times a month, on average) to discuss new project proposals when they arrive, to discuss were Honduras should stand in climate change issues before the COPs, or to propose and define how and who will take action on climate change adaptation and mitigation projects for Honduras. Not many countries have an Inter-institutional Climate Change Committee, and of course, I'm proud that Honduras does. 

For February 2012, we will be calling the Committee for a meeting to work on Rio +20 country and region position, and I'm sure there will be some other meeting that will emerge through the month. 

**BTW I just listed this blog at Technorati so here is my code to claim this as my blog: V8NPJZTZ8WET

CDM in Honduras

First, for those of you who are not familiar with Clean Development Mechanism (CDM or MDL for Spanish) I will give you a brief explanation: 

 

CDM is one of the mechanisms defined under the Kyoto Protocol to assist industrialized countries (or Annex I countries) in their reduction and limitation of greenhouse gases by supporting or assisting developing countries (or countries not included in Annex I) in sustainable development projects. You can find here the updated list of the Status of Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the participating countries. 

So, basically industrialized countries invest in "emission reduction" projects in the developing countries, where is cheaper to invest and there is a greater need for them. These projects will help the country's development in a "clean", green way, so it is kind of a win-win situation, theoretically. 

In 2005, the first Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), in the world, under the CDM of the Kyoto Protocol were issued, and I am proud to say these were issued for hydroelectric projects in Honduras. My country is really participative when it comes to these kind of projects. Maybe it is because it is cheap and there is so much room for improvement, meaning that there are lots of opportunities for sustainable development given that we have a great variety and rich natural resources to protect and to invest in. For whatever reason, we are thankful and honored for being considered. 

Hydroelectric Power Plant in Río Blanco, Honduras. one of the first CDM projects that issued CERs.  Built and maintained by Grupo Terra

Compared to other Central America countries, Honduras has the highest amount of CDM projects registered (around half, actually), bad news is we have the lowest amount of CERs issued due to the nature of these projects. CDM projects in Honduras are small scale and too simple. Still, a higher amount of projects means a higher amount of locations and they may be impacting more population, so it is good for us. You can search here for CDM projects, their status and much more information. 

We have projects in different areas, most of them are Hydroelectric power plant projects but we also have Biogas recovery, Methane capture and a few cogeneration plants. We still need to work in other areas like solar and wind energy, reforestation projects and waste management. These areas are all opportunities for significant projects that will allow us to issue a higher amount of CERs and have a greater impact in reducing emissions. I will be posting about specific ongoing CDM projects in Honduras too and I will let you know if there are new projects in new areas. 

So, if you are from an Annex I country and are interested in investing in a CDM project, consider us! If you come to visit, I will personally tour you around this beautiful country, you won't regret it! 

Lancetilla

Lancetilla, Atlántida, Honduras

A few years ago I volunteered to work in a semi-abandoned plant tissue culture lab at Lancetilla Botanical Garden, one of the 100 (approx) Protected Areas in Honduras. In this case, Lancetilla is classified as a National Park.

Its 16.8 km2 are covered with vegetation, both exotic and native.

There is a mangosteen plantation which produces every year and, given to the poor management in the place, lots of this fruit just rots away.

Crystalline water rivers run through this garden, loud monkeys and pleasing birds' sounds wake you up early in the morning.

Mahogany and teak plantations are around the garden and on its mountains, protecting it. There is also a great variety of flowers, and fruit trees. My favorite: miracle fruit. You try it, and after a minute everything you eat is the sweetest thing you have ever had. I had a lemon and it was deliciously sweet.

At night, you can see a field enlightened by a million fireflies, it is just magical. At day, I always encountered snakes, strange lizards, birds, and butterflies. I once counted how many different butterfly species I saw in a day, I made it to 21 (consider I spent most of the day at a Lab and not outside).

During my summer at Lancetilla, every day at seven o'clock rain poured from the skies, as  if it was programmed to. Tropical forests, you know...

Around and inside the garden there are small villages and this people that live in them protect the garden.

It is located around 10 km from the beach. Marine and coastal ecosystems are highly affected by climate change and this exotic paradise will surely be damaged.
It hurts... so pretty, but so fragile...

Green lizard on bamboo tree @Lancetilla

Climate Change 3D

Welcome to a Climate Change 3D. This blog will give you a different view about Climate Change, a 3D view that will enhance your depth perception about this issue because I'm writing, according to Germanwatch data for 1990-2009 for Climate Risk Index, from the country that is in the 3rd place, this is Honduras.

Since I was a teenager, I was into this climate change issues, it seemed interesting. I always read blogs and news from Europe, USA, and Africa. I rarely stumble upon blogs from Central America about climate change. There are many reasons why this does not happen. For instance, most of the blogs are in English and only a few percentage of Central Americans speak and can write in English, given our tongue is Spanish (just in case you were wondering, because I have met another Latin Americans that didn't know we speak Spanish in CA). Also, we do not have the habit, as a culture, to read and write much. So now that I finished college and I'm working involved in Climate Change issues back in Honduras I decided to blog about our situation.

You usually see pictures of how climate change is affecting us when extreme events hurricanes and storms hit us, but this is way more common that people outside Honduras imagine or have lived. A 45 minute breeze can paralyze traffic in the city and leave lots of persons without a place to live in because of landslides. You see, apart from being the 3rd most vulnerable country in the accumulated damage through the years, we are also the second most poor country in America and are easily affected by these events. It is very hard (and expensive) to get back on to our feet before another disaster occurs.

Climate change adaptation is crucial, and that is why I love my job, because I can do something about it.

I'll keep you posted!!