Climate Change is Irreversible. Who can give children a green planet back?

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Climate Change is Irreversible Who can give children a green planet back?


The United Nations Development Programme launched the biggest ever standalone public opinion survey on climate change this year. Respondents came from 77 countries and spoke 87 different languages. The results revealed that 86% of the people want to see their countries set aside their geopolitical differences and work together on climate change. 56% of respondents said they think about climate change issues regularly, i.e. daily or weekly, including some 63% of those in the least developed countries. Four out of five of the respondents also hope that their country could do more to protect and restore the land.

In fact, although the Paris Agreement was adopted by 195 countries around the world in 2015 and clear goals were set in the hope of limiting global warming, extreme weather and climate crises have become an irreversible fact in recent years. As a result, as opposed to a national concern, climate change has become an immediate concern to the public. However, is it already too late to respond?

Climate change is taking a toll

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, climate change means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.

In recent years, we are more aware of the changes of climate owing to global warming and extreme weather that are increasingly widespread. Global warming is a proven fact as 2023 was the warmest year in 174 years of climate records. The long-term rise in global temperatures is due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In mid-2023, La Niña has taken over El Niño, which has caused temperatures to rise rapidly from 2022 to 2023. In addition to exacerbating drought conditions, global warming, rising temperatures, or the lack of water and nutrients have hindered crop growth and reduced harvests. Extreme weather will trigger more frequent or stronger storms, floods, heat waves and droughts, affecting more crops, seriously threatening the livelihoods of farmers and herders, and even causing displacement due to food shortages. In 2023, many African countries that have long faced drought problems, including Ethiopia, Burundi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia and Kenya, encountered extreme weather and floods, resulting in the displacement of 1.8 million people. Climate change has undoubtedly exacerbated food security issues and displaced those affected, making the lives of vulnerable communities even more difficult.

Land degradation is worsening the crisis

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, as much as 40% of the world's land are degraded. The United Nations Secretary-General Guterres warned, "We are vandalising the earth that sustains us. Every second, around 4 football fields of healthy land are degraded." Since land degradation may lead to a 12% drop in global food production, more people will be displaced in search of livelihoods and food. The United Nations predicts that by 2030, land degradation and desertification may force 135 million people to migrate or even become climate refugees, worsening social and economic inequality.

Currently, more than 1 billion children and adolescents under the age of 25 around the world live in areas that directly depend on land and natural resources for their livelihoods. The increasingly severe problems of climate change and land degradation have made them suffer from food insecurity, harvest failures and food price fluctuations. Although children are the least responsible for climate crisis, they directly suffer from the long-term impacts on food and nutrition, water and sanitation, disease, immunity, as well as physical and mental development.

Children are facing climate crisis

920 million children

are highly exposed to water scarcity.

820 million children

are highly exposed to heatwaves.

240 million children

are highly exposed to coastal flooding.

400 million children

are highly exposed to cyclones.

Source: The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2021.

World Vision's climate action

Climate change is a crisis for all, but the most vulnerable, especially children, usually bear the brunt of it. As a child-focused agency, World Vision aims to address some of the most pressing climate threats by restoring the natural environment and working towards climate justice in order to create a thriving environment for children and the future generations to come. Our work covers 8 distinct areas of environment and climate action:

1. Natural resource management (NRM)
2. Agroforestry and Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR)
3. Climate-smart agriculture
4. Community-based disaster risk management
5. Integrated water resource management
6. Climate empowerment through environment and climate change education
7. Waste management
8. Energy-efficient technologies

Finding hope in climate action

A key environment and climate action, "Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration" (FMNR), is one of the seven new UN World Restoration Flagships in 2024. This technology was discovered in Niger 40 years ago by Australian aid worker and agronomist, Tony Rinaudo. Tony is currently serving as the Principal Climate Action Advisor at World Vision Australia. He and his team have helped introduce and promote FMNR in 27 countries across Africa and Asia, contributing to the regeneration of millions of hectares of land. Tony is known as the “Forest Maker”. He became the winner of the Right Livelihood (Alternative Nobel Prize) award in 2018 for his contribution to promoting FMNR.

The underlying process of FMNR is fairly simple. The first step is to look for tree stumps on the land, identify its species, and then prune and protect them carefully, so that the stumps above the living roots can regrow trees and generate harvests. Farmers can benefit from the cut stems and branches and use them as animal feed, building posts and firewood. These could be for their own use or for sale to increase their income. At the same time, restoring stumps can improve soil fertility, allowing more food to be grown, improving both food supply and family finance of the farmers, while effectively preventing land degradation and desertification.

In essence, when combined with other land restoration techniques, FMNR is far more effective than planting trees. Per hectare, FMNR can be up to 36 times cheaper than tree planting. Moreover, although tree planting may seem easy, it requires long-term care to grow the trees. Therefore, it is not the best solution for sustainable protection and revitalisation of agriculture and forestry. On the contrary, through rehabilitation, pruning and protection of stumps, FMNR allows trees to grow and harvest faster than tree planting, effectively mitigating the impact of climate change.

Speaking of the irreversible climate change, and whether it is too late for all climate actions, Tony said, "It is late, but it is not too late." We really have no excuse not to restore a green planet for our children.

How FMNR works

Find

Identify indigenous shrubs with extensive root systems.

Prune

Selectively prune everything but the best few shoots. This funnels all the nutrients into one spot.

Protect

Ensure your shoots are protected from livestock and wildlife as they grow.

Grow

Continue to monitor and prune your tree as it grows.

Utilise

Harvest edible fruits and leaves and use pruned stems and branches for animal fodder, building poles and firewood.

The Benefits

Climate change mitigation

Increases capture and storage of carbon dioxide by trees, plants and soil, removing greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere.

Bigger, better crops

Improves soil fertility for crop production so farmers can grow more food for their children.

More firewood, timber and wild foods

Forest products such as firewood, timber and edible fruits become more available that families can use or sell for income.

Better incomes and quality of life

Farmers can develop new income streams and better provide for their children.

More food for livestock

Increased tree and shrub cover and better grass growth mean healthier animals and more valuable assets for families.

Increase resilience

Restoring the natural environment reduces the severity and impacts of disasters like droughts and floods.

“I have trained many farmers in the neighborhood and they have been successfully applying the techniques I showed them. Most of the farmers that I shared my experience are now producing more than they used to.”
Semah

Listening to Nature – From a Respected Judge to a Farming Enthusiast

62-year-old Semah had a happy childhood growing up in Abalashoya Kebele, a small village located in the Humbo district of Wolayita, in the southern part of Ethiopia. “It was very hard for me to see that dense and beautiful forest disappearing before my eyes”, Semah says. Semah left his hometown later and travelled to the capital city, Addis Ababa to pursue his education. After completing his studies, he returned to Wolayita and embarked on a career as a lawyer, eventually becoming a respected judge in the area. Despite the success in his work life, Semah's heart still longed for the restoration of the natural environment he once knew and loved so much.

Semah returned to Abalashoya Kebele with a newfound purpose eight years ago. “My friends and family thought I was a fool for leaving my stable job and going back to where I grew up. But for me it was a calling”, Semah said.

Semah's decision was not about personal gain or livelihood; it was a genuine love for the environment and his desire to contribute to it’s restoration. He understood the importance of sustainable land management practices and recognised that he could make a difference by implementing it on his own land.

Drawing on lessons learned from World Vision’s FMNR approach, Semah began to rehabilitate his own land. He carefully selected tree species that were indigenous to the area which were suited to the local climate and started growing trees, crops, vegetables, and spices. His dedication and hard work paid off as he witnessed the gradual transformation of his land. The once unfertile and degraded soil started to regain its fertility, and patches of greenery emerged. Now he grows more than 30 species of plants on his land, rears cattle, and keeps bees on his five hectares of land. “I have trained many farmers in the neighborhood and they have been successfully applying the techniques I showed them. Most of the farmers that shared my experience are now producing more than they used to”, Semah said.

Addis Haile is the Climate Change and Environmental Project Coordinator who has been with World Vision Ethiopia for the last 16 years. “Farmers in the area used to suffer a lot because the mountain was devoid of trees which caused soil erosion, leading to landslides and flooding that has further exacerbated the devastation for the already impoverished community,” he recalled.

Hope seemed distant for the communities in Humbo until World Vision stepped in 17 years ago with FMNR, restoring the natural habitat by the regrowth and management of trees and vegetation by the farmers in the area.

“We have formed seven farmers’ cooperatives because they play a crucial role in promoting and implementing FMNR practices. We equipped the members with an awareness, which later they themselves use to educate other farmers. We also gave them several capacity-building training, which included pruning techniques, soil conservation, and water management among others. The cooperatives now act like catalysts for change, empowering farmers to restore and sustainably manage their land through FMNR techniques,” said Addis. Through the project, more than 2,800 hectares of land have been regenerated to date.

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