Climate change, land use change, and land degradation have substantial impacts on agriculture and sustainable development both individually and in combination. Human activities and underlying socio-economic processes play a key role in shaping the dynamics of these coupled socioecological systems. Climate change, land use change and land degradation often amplify each other, thus, requiring integrated actions to address them across different spatial and temporal scales.

ZEF’s research on this theme seeks to develop new concepts and groundbreaking methodologies, identify synergies and trade-offs between land use, climate change and their impacts. Key aspects of ZEF‘s research on agriculture and land use in relation to climate change are working across scales, accounting for social and ecological heterogeneity and distributional effects, integrating intersectoral links and spillovers, and deploying novel data combinations as critical ways forward for more comprehensive understanding and appropriate design of sustainability polices.

ZEF has a long and very rich experience of research at the cross-section of land-climate-agriculture. For example, ZEF’s leadership and research under the WASCAL project contributed significant information and knowledge at the local, national, and regional levels in West Africa helping these countries cope with the adverse impacts of climate change and devise integrated mid and long-term options to build resilient and productive socio-ecological landscapes.

(Text: Alisher Mirzabaev; Photo: Asrat Gella, Ethiopia)