Ecosystem Services projects preserve biodiversity and ecosystems, significantly contributing to climate change mitigation. Here are some interesting facts on what IFAD is doing to support rural farmers in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Lesotho.
Read here the full statement:
1. Rural people make an essential contribution to the preservation of ecosystems. Their strategic contribution in low- and middle-income countries to improving food security and preserving vital environmental resources for future generations is unmatchable.
2. IFAD is to remunerate rural communities as well as small-scale producers for this work through Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) projects. Germany has contributed 15 million Euros to IFAD’s Enhanced Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP+).
3. Three PES pilot projects will be advanced in Ethiopia, Lesotho, as well as Brazil, to help small-scale producers build their resilience to climate change, enhance food production, better participate in markets, as well as improve their access to nutritious diets.
4. In Brazil, marginalised local communities will be paid to preserve forests by developing as well as marketing a wide array of non-timber forest products.
5. In Lesotho PES scheme will incentivise better water resource management in the Orange River Basin, which spans Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, and rural communities will be able to help restore degraded soils and landscapes.
6. In Lesotho and Ethiopia, small-scale farmers will be connected to the voluntary carbon credit market as a means of boosting their incomes.
