A few days after my blog post on the impact of climate change on coffee harvests in Guatemala, Elizabeth Rosenthal of the NYT published an article about the impact of climate change on coffee in Colombia. Here’s an excerpt:

TIMBÍO, Colombia — Like most of the small landowners in Colombia’s lush mountainous Cauca region, Luis Garzón, 80, and his family have thrived for decades by supplying shade-grown, rainforest-friendly Arabica coffee for top foreign brands.

In the last few years, coffee yields have plummeted here and in many of Latin America’s other premier coffee regions as a result of rising temperatures and more intense and unpredictable rains, phenomena that many scientists link partly to global warming.

Climate Change and the Drop in Coffee Harvests
	Coffee plants require the right mix of temperature, rainfall and spells of dryness for beans to ripen properly and maintain their taste. Coffee pests thrive in the warmer, wetter weather. Bean production at the Garzóns’ farm is down 70 percent from five years ago, leaving the family little money.

“Coffee production is under threat from global warming, and the outlook for Arabica in particular is not good,” said Peter Baker, a coffee specialist, noting that climate changes, including heavy rains and droughts, have harmed crops across many parts of Central and South America.

A top coffee scientist, he has rattled trade forums by warning of the possibility of “peak coffee,” meaning that, like oil supplies, coffee supplies might be headed for an inexorable decline.

A 2009 report from the International Coffee Organization that concluded, “Climatic variability is the main factor responsible for changes in coffee yields all over the world.”

Average temperatures in Colombia’s coffee regions have risen nearly one degree in 30 years, and in some mountain areas the increase has been double that. Rain in this area was more than 25 percent above average in the last few years.

At the new, higher temperatures, the plants’ buds abort or their fruit ripens too quickly for optimum quality. Heat also brings pests like coffee rust, a devastating fungus that could not survive the previously cool mountain weather. The heavy rains damage the fragile Arabica blossoms, and the two-week dry spells that prompt the plant to flower and produce beans occur less often, farmers say.

“Half a degree can make a big difference for coffee — it is adapted to a very specific zone,” said Néstor Riaño, a specialist in agroclimatology. “If temperature rises even a bit, the growth is affected, and the plagues and diseases rise.”

The Coffee Growers Federation has advised farmers to switch to a newer, hardier strain of Arabica that has been developed by plant breeders at Cenicafé over the last two decades.

For decades, said Luis Garzón, it was dry from June 1 to Sept. 8 in Timbío. Several years ago, the perplexing weather arrived. “It can start raining at 6 a.m. and go on for 24 hours,” he said.

First, yields declined. Then last year, the coffee rust fungus arrived at the Garzón farm, killing entire fields. “We learned our lesson,” he said, stroking the mottled yellowed leaves of some damaged plants. Now, the family is planting the new, hardier Arabica variant, called castillo.

Read the full article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/science/earth/10coffee.html

How do you feel about climate change and agriculture: myth or reality?

What’s happening in the region where you live?
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Planning for Impact
Why plan for impact? Because development isn’t keeping pace with growing need. Part of that is because the projects that we design and implement haven’t traditionally been designed to achieve long term impact.

Why our focus on impact?
	Escalating energy and food prices, shifting weather patterns, and increasing population pressures have led donors and INGOs to realize that we must use research to identify what has impact in development—and act with urgency. We need to shift from activity and output-based development to outcome and impact-based development.

• “It is time to take stock, admit that business-as-usual hasn’t worked, agree to change mind-sets, and really change the way that everyone works.” Vanessa Rubin, CARE International.
• “What is important today is to realize that the time for talking is long past. Now is the time for action.” Jacques Diouf, Director General FAO. A recent FAO study estimates that 1.2 billion people go hungry every day.
• “The stakes for increasing the effectiveness of philanthropy are very high. If we’re going to solve complex problems like climate change or AIDS, we must become much more serious about getting resources where they can have the most impact.” Jacob Harold, Hewlett Foundation.

What is impact? What are outcomes?
World Bank definitions:

• Impact is the long-term, sustainable changes in the conditions of people and the state of the environment that structurally reduce poverty, improve human well-being and protect and conserve natural resources.
• Outcomes are behavior changes in partners – changes that contribute to the long-term sustainable improvement in people’s lives.

We write impact statements for our Partner Projects that represent the very long-term goal that we’re hoping to achieve, and outcome statements for each one of our sub-goals which represent mid-term achievements that let us know that we are progressing towards our long-term impact.

A very important point:

Projects can only influence communities in making positive behavioral changes. For example, we can introduce the concept of hand washing, but it is ultimately their decision to incorporate it into their daily lives. We can’t force them, only influence their decision. Since we can only hope to influence our community, the outcomes and impacts are happening on a new level of development that depends on sustained behavioral change.

And how do we insure sustainability? How do we insure our communities will incorporate these behavioral changes? Through community buy-in. Through the community’s sense of ownership of the project.

How do you feel about influencing communities to make behavioral changes?

What’s happening in the region where you live?
Please send your stories either here to our blog, our Facebook page, or to our Development Community.

Be sure to join CSDi’s Development Community. Join 400 colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.

Learn how to develop a community centered, impact oriented project.

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Partners Helena Wright (UK), Annie Wallace (US) and Stephen Oluoch (Kenya) have been developing a project over the past six months on the Kenyan coast near Mombasa with a community of fishermen and subsistence farmers.

Indigenous Knowledge
	The process began with a participatory needs assessment with community members and has continued with a series of community meetings as the project has developed.

Last week, Stephen met again with the community to gain a better understanding of their knowledge of climate change, challenges that they are experiencing attributable to climate change, and activities that they have begun on their own using indigenous knowledge to adapt to their changing situation.

The results of the meeting were summarized in vulnerability matrices identifying hazards and livelihood challenges the community faces in the light of a changing climate.

Vulnerability Matrix 1: What is a prioritization of the community’s greatest hazards they face?

• Unpredictable rainfall during the rainy season makes it difficult for farmers to plan cropping
• Drought has caused livestock deaths and crop failures or low crop yields
• Intense sunshine coupled with decreased rainfall causes crops to wilt or ripen early (coconut, banana, and cashew nut)
• High temperatures causes people to sleep out in the open or with windows opened which increases malaria incidences
• Unusually heavy rainfall causes pit latrines to overflow and contaminate drinking water increasing diarrhea
• Shortage of household water

Vulnerability Matrix 2: What parts of their lives (livelihood resources) are the most vulnerable?

• Income-livelihood security
• Health & Nutrition
• Water resources
• Food security

Marry Scientific Knowledge to Indigenous Knowledge
	On their own, the community members have come up with coping strategies which include crop substitution for more drought tolerant crops. However, without scientific knowledge supporting their decisions several of their coping strategies are not sustainable. For example, the substitution of water intensive corn for drought tolerant cassava robs the family of a major source of income.

Adaptation to Climate Change:
The community members realize that water shortages and changing weather patterns are a major threat to their survival and believe that coupling their indigenous coping strategies with sound agricultural extension can create a winning solution.

Here is a simple project outline that Helena, Annie, and Stephen have developed with the community to adapt to their climate change related agricultural challenges.

Community-Based Adaptation program related to climate change:
[Problem]. Climate variability, extreme weather, and unpredictable rainy season have reduced crop harvests

Farmer Soil Conservation, and Water Conservation and Management Program
[Activity 1]. Farmer workshop on soil restoration and conservation techniques
[Activity 2]. Farmer workshop on water conservation and management techniques

Farmer Extension Program
[Activity 1]. Farmer workshop and follow-up on early maturing and/or drought resistant crops/varieties for adapting to climate variability
[Activity 2]. Farmer workshop and follow-up on buffering against the late arrival of rain and/or an early end to the rainy season

Stevens NGO, Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean (CORDIO) was started in 1999 in direct response to the El-Niño related mass bleaching of coral in the Indian Ocean in 1998. CORDIO goals are to conduct research on coastal and ocean ecosystems relevant to conserving, sustaining and restoring healthy and productive marine environments, and to participate in poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

Would you like to learn how to develop Community Based Adaptation Projects?