Biodiversity and Impacts of Climate Change in Home Gardens

Home garden is a complex multi-functional land use system that combines multiple farming components of the homestead and provides environmental services, household needs, and employment and income generation opportunities to the households. Predicted climate changes have serious implications for crop and livestock yields particularly in tropical regions. Home garden may act as a cushion to the adverse climate shocks. There is dearth of in-depth study of home garden ecosystem in India. The authors have selected 100 households in Garhbeta-1 block, which is in the dry zone in the district of Paschim Medinipur in West Bengal, India for the study. The main objectives of the chapter include (1) identification of the key characteristics of the home garden, (2) assessing biodiversity in home gardens, (3) identifying the pattern of climate change from the household perceptions and the problems in home garden, and (4) the changes made in the home gardens.

Climate Change and Diseases of Plants and Animals

Home Garden is a complex sustainable land use system that combines multiple farming components of the homestead and provides environmental services, household needs, and employment and income generation opportunities to the households. Predicted climate changes have serious implications for crop and livestock yields particularly in tropical regions. Home garden may act as a cushion to the adverse climate shocks. There is dearth of in-depth study of home garden ecosystem in India. Authors selected 100 households in Garhbeta-1 block, which is in the dry zone in the district of Paschim Medinipur in West Bengal for this study. The main objectives of this chapter include: (a) identifying key characteristics of the home garden, (b) identifying the pattern of climate change from the household perceptions and the changes made in the home gardens. (c) identifying different diseases of plants and animals in home gardens in the study area (d) managing diseases of plants in home gardens, (e) identifying different problems/ constraints in home.

FARMERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, ITS ASSOCIATED RISKS AND ADAPTATION METHODS: A CASE STUDY OF GHAZIABAD, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA

This study makes an attempt to explore farmers’ perception of climate change, awareness of adaptation and techniques adopted by them. Study area is Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh because this district is located in seismic zone IV and due to this, district is exposed to natural and man-made calamities such as, floods, drought, wind storms. Non-parametric test named Mann-Kendall has been employed to observe monthly trend in the climatic variables. Minimum temperature and maximum temperature showed an upward trend in most of the months; however, rainfall shows an insignificant downward trend in most of the months. The primary survey results indicate that farmers are observing increase in temperature, erratic rainfall and other changes in climate but they are not aware of “climate change” per se. Most farmers believe that “Ancestral Spirits” are the main cause of the variations taking place in climate. The farmers are aware of the climate shocks and climate variability. Although farmers haven’t taken any concrete steps to combat the perceived climate changes, they are changing their farming practises.

Climate Change, Inequality, and Human Migration

This paper investigates the long-term implications of climate change on global migration and inequality. Accounting for the effects of changing temperatures, sea levels, and the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, we model the impact of climate change on productivity and utility in a dynamic general equilibrium framework. By endogenizing people’s migration decisions across millions of 5 × 5 km spatial cells, our approach sheds light on the magnitude and dyadic, education-specific structure of human migration induced by global warming. We find that climate change strongly intensifies global inequality and poverty, reinforces urbanization, and boosts migration from low- to high-latitude areas. Median projections suggest that climate change will induce a voluntary and a forced permanent relocation of 62 million working-age individuals over the course of the twenty-first century. Overall, under current international migration laws and policies, only a small fraction of people suffering the negative effects of climate change manages to move beyond their homelands. We conclude that it is unlikely that climate shocks will induce massive international flows of migrants, except under combined extremely pessimistic climate scenarios and highly permissive migration policies. By contrast, poverty resulting from climate change is a real threat to all of us.

Climate-Related Risks Faced by Low- and Moderate-Income Communities and Communities of Color: Survey Results

The impacts of climate change are creating new risks and exacerbating existing risks for individuals, communities, and the economy. Climate shocks and stresses disproportionately impact groups that have traditionally faced higher barriers to participating in the economy than the general population, including low-income communities, communities of color, and Tribal populations. Our team fielded a survey targeting professionals in the western United States from a broad range of sectors whose work on community development‒related issues impacts the personal and economic well-being of low-income communities and communities of color. Over 250 respondents shared their perceptions of how climate-related risks may be affecting the communities they serve and their organizations’ work.

Climate-Related Risks Faced by Low- and Moderate-Income Communities and Communities of Color: Survey Results

The impacts of climate change are creating new risks and exacerbating existing risks for individuals, communities, and the economy. Climate shocks and stresses disproportionately impact groups that have traditionally faced higher barriers to participating in the economy than the general population, including low-income communities, communities of color, and Tribal populations. Our team fielded a survey targeting professionals in the western United States from a broad range of sectors whose work on community development‒related issues impacts the personal and economic well-being of low-income communities and communities of color. Over 250 respondents shared their perceptions of how climate-related risks may be affecting the communities they serve and their organizations’ work.

Central Mali: Armed Community Mobilization in Crisis

The proliferation of community-based armed groups (CBAGs) in Mali’s Mopti and Ségou Regions has contributed to transforming Central Mali into a regional epicenter of conflict since 2016. Due to the lack of adequate presence of the state, certain vulnerable, conflict-affected communities resorted to embracing non-state armed groups as security umbrellas in the context of inter-communal violence. These local conflicts are the result of long-standing issues over increasing pressure on natural resources, climate shocks, competing economic lifestyles, nepotistic and exclusionary resource management practices, and the shifting representations of a segregated, historically constructed sense of ethnic identities in the region. This report untangles the legitimacy of armed groups, mobilizing factors, and the multi-level impact of violence implicating CBAGs. It further explores the relations amongst different actors, including the state, armed groups, and communities. The findings provide relevant insight for context-specific policy design toward conflict resolution and hybrid security governance.