Agroecosystems and Sustainable Landscapes
Sustainable land use systems: A way to help achieve Colombia’s climate change mitigation and peacebuilding goals
Colombia has set ambitious targets to mitigate climate change and achieve stability. One promising approach to help achieve those simultaneously is designing and promoting sustainable land use systems that incorporate the views of all the stakeholders in the value chain.
Inter-institutional team tackles Honduras’s water crisis
More than 300 actors, including technicians and decision makers from six departments in western Honduras (Copán, Intibucá, Lempira, La Paz, Ocotepeque, and Santa Bárbara), have benefited from the Honduras Water platform [Agua de Honduras], co-developed by CIAT’s Agroecosystems and Sustainable Landscapes (ASL) and Decision and Policy Analysis (DAPA) research areas.
Cattle urine’s planet-warming power can be curtailed with land restoration
When cow urine falls on degraded land, it releases far more nitrous oxide – a potent greenhouse gas – than when absorbed by healthy pasture. The findings show additional benefits of landscape restoration and conservation.
“Green manure” cover crops – why they deserve a second chance
What goes around comes around! Green manure cover crops – or GMCCs, as we affectionately call them – have some history. The idea to grow plants that protect the soil and improve its fertility dates back some two to three decades at least, if not centuries.
How much progress are we making in land restoration? CIAT scientists evaluate this progress by looking at 154 projects in Latin America and the Caribbean
Countries have ambitious land-restoration goals, including Initiative 20×20, which aims to restore 20 million hectares in Latin America by 2020. CIAT’s Lou Verchot and colleagues are evaluating the progress in restoration across the region.
CIAT’s research areas combine efforts to advance the Cacao for Peace initiative in Colombia
Last August, CIAT’s Research Areas in Agroecosystems and Sustainable Landscapes and Agrobiodiversity organized a workshop to discuss and develop a work plan to summarize the instruments, methodologies, activities, and timeline of the project entitled “Geographical Information System Mapping for Optimized Cacao Production in Colombia,” under the Cacao for Peace (CfP) Initiative.
CIAT “roots” in El Salvador
CIAT, acting through its Agroecosystems and Sustainable Landscapes research area, joins Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Caritas Santa Ana, and PRISMA, in a landscape restoration project titled “RAÍCES” (Roots), with the aim of building awareness among farmers about the importance of looking after soils as a NON-renewable resource against advanced degradation processes, by helping them to better understand soil processes and dynamics.
CIAT Strategy refreshed for 2018–2020
In the five years that have passed since CIAT’s current strategy (2014–2020)1 was prepared, we have embraced new initiatives such as sustainable food systems, big data, and land restoration. We have also incorporated into our agenda the mandates of the UN Sustainable Development Goals2 and the Paris Agreement on climate change while maintaining our focus on impact at global, regional, national, and
subnational levels.
CIAT offers training in measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in real time
With the aim of measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in real time, CIAT carried out the first training in the Eddy Covariance system under the project “Ecological Productivity Management Information System in Colombia (EcoProMIS)”.
A move to improve pasture management and cut down greenhouse gases from cattle
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), from the UK Research and Innovation initiative, it’s working with CIAT and three UK Universities in two projects to improve pasture management and cut greenhouse gases (GHG) from cattle, in partnership.
Marcela Quintero
Director, Agroecosystems and Sustainable Landscapes (ASL) Research Area
M.quintero@cgiar.org