Zambia for Agroforestry, Biodiversity and Climate (Z4ABC)


Zambia for Agroforestry, Biodiversity and Climate (Z4ABC) (2022-2026)

Project Webpage: https://www.cifor-icraf.org/z4abc/

Project Period: 1/4/2022 – 31/3/2026

Total Budget: 4,240,730 €

University of Helsinki’s Role – Project Partner

University of Helsinki Team: Dr. Nicholas Hogarth, Dr. Maarit Kallio and Emeritus prof. Markku Kanninen

Objectives

The overall objective of Z4ABC is to contribute to the development of climate-relevant, productive, and sustainable transformation of agriculture, forestry, and food systems in Zambia to help achieve the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). More specifically, the action aims at (1) improving livelihoods and climate change resilience of specific agricultural, agroforestry, forestry, and food systems in the Lower Zambezi – Luangwa – Nyika (ZLN) corridor; and (2) increasing the climate relevance of Agriculture and Knowledge Innovation Systems (AKIS) in the ZLN corridor.

Background

The Republic of Zambia is a land-locked, low-middle income country in southern Africa, with a population of 18.3 million (2020). Despite fast economic growth, Zambia faces serious socioeconomic and environmental development challenges, with widespread and extreme rural poverty, high unemployment, and land and forest degradation. In rural areas, poverty rates are close to 80%.

Approximately 80% of the population is directly dependent on natural resources for fuel, food, income, raw materials, and medicines, with agriculture providing the main source of livelihoods for 60% of all households. Climate change is therefore recognized as a significant threat to sustainable development, with droughts and floods increasing in frequency, intensity and magnitude over the past decades, adversely impacting food and water security, water quality, energy, and the livelihoods of rural communities. Deforestation, land degradation, biodiversity loss, and restricted access of local communities to natural resources further increasing rural people’s vulnerability to climate change.

Despite a long history of developing various community-based natural resource management approaches, critical institutional and governance barriers limits community rights and access to the benefits coming from natural resource management. Rural people face multiple challenges that hinder the productivity and sustainability of their farming systems and prevent applying climate-smart practices, with women and other vulnerable groups being inadequately involved in climate change-related decision-making and implementation.

Figure 1. Participatory mapping exercise as part of the women’s focus group discussion at the Vizimumba bamboo pilot site in Nyimba District, Eastern Province, February 2023. Photo: Nicholas Hogarth.

The theory of change to achieve the objectives

The high-level expected impact of the Z4ABC action is the transformation of selected agriculture, forestry-, and wildlife- based value chains (VCs) in the Lower Zambezi – Luangwa – Nyika (ZLN) corridor to become more sustainable, climate-resilient, and productive while supporting local livelihoods, food security and biodiversity. The strategy is to use a socially inclusive multi-actor approach to support the sustainable transformation of selected value chains through research and development activities in the ZLN area. Strong engagement of local actors and practical pilots with them will foster livelihoods and support the use of innovations. Stakeholders will be engaged to co-identify, co-develop, and pilot selected innovations that are sustainable, biodiversity- and climate-smart, socially inclusive, safe for consumers, and economically viable. Business and policy innovations will be implemented to maintain ecosystem services, supply-chain sustainability, REDD+ and carbon markets, and to facilitate smallholders’ and community’s access to markets, finance, and improved business models.

New knowledge will be generated and made available to local and national actors to inform policymaking, strategy development, cooperation programming, and programme implementation. The action will address the specific challenges faced by local communities – particularly the most
vulnerable groups, women and youth – in national parks and protected areas’ buffer zones, which often display conflicting interests between different actors and objectives. To gain high and long-term impact, awareness-raising at all levels, participatory policy processes, policy dialogue and reform, cooperation programming, communication and dissemination activities will be used throughout the project. Capacity of both local actors and Agricultural Knowledge Innovation Systems (AKIS) will be supported to boost livelihoods and scale-up the improved practices and VCs.

Main activities

The activities are grouped under four outputs as shown in Figure 2. The action uses multi-disciplinary and participative R&D activities to co-identify, co-develop, implement, and improve selected VCs from primary production to the markets. The main research activities include base-line studies, co-identification and assessment of improvement potential of the VCs, participatory mapping and carbon modelling in selected landscapes. Pre-and post-pilot data collection will facilitate performance assessments of selected VCs and piloted innovations. Furthermore, trade-offs and synergies of the different ecosystem services and livelihood outcomes of the VCs will be assessed, and pathways to scale-up the improved VCs supported.

Business and technical pilots within selected VCs are major activities of the action. These will ensure practical application of innovations and scaling-up and developing the VCs. Co-learning and capacity building through multi-actor platforms, training, awareness rising campaigns, farmer field schools,
business incubation centres will be supported. Learning events at schools, universities and communities, as well as participatory mapping and multi-governance workshops, targeted dissemination, policy dialogue, and cooperation programming will also be supported. Capacity building and awareness-raising activities will be tailored to meet the local, as well as territorial and landscape level needs identified during the inception phase of the action and to support the local AKIS.

Figure 2. Z4ABC Concept and innovation chain.

Organization

CIFOR will lead the action and be responsible for the daily and overall project management. Eight implementing partners involved in the action will form a technical implementation team. The action steering committee will comprise representatives from the Government Republic of Zambia (GRZ), the EU delegation in Lusaka and the implementing partners.

Implementing organizations

The Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) will be the main implementing partner of the action. CIFOR will lead the action and contribute technical and methodological expertise to the activities of Z4ABC.

Partners of the project

The partners include three Finnish research and higher education institutions, namely the Natural Resource Institute Finland (Luke), Viikki Tropical Resources Institute of the University of Helsinki (VITRI), and Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK). These partners will contribute expertise,
facilitation, capacity building support, data collection and data analysis, and support for identifying and implementing relevant pilot actions.

The action is partnering with two Zambian universities, the University of Zambia (UNZA) and Mulungushi University (MU). Both universities will contribute to VC pilots, setting up and operating business incubation centers, capacity building, training, and awareness-raising activities at universities, colleges, schools, AKIS, and identification of policy gaps. In the private sector, the action will include two social enterprises – for example COMACO and BioCarbon Partners Ltd. (BCP). They will help in facilitating field pilots and farmers’ adoption of sustainable agriculture and forestry practices, as well as capacity building and up-scaling of innovations in VCs.

Other main stakeholders

The action will seek opportunities to collaborate with several local businesses and VC organisations operating in the ZLN area, including e.g., female farmer organisations, Zambian and European NGOs; The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment (which is the lead institution overseeing the implementation of Zambia’s NDCs), and the Ministry of Finance and National Planning. Collaboration will be sought with municipalities, district councils, city councils, overseeing coordination of climate change programmes and projects, as well as villages and chiefdoms.

Localisation

The Z4ABC action will be implemented in the Lower Zambezi – Luangwa – Nyika (ZLN) corridor, stretching across central and eastern Zambia.

Funding and co-funding

Project Budget EUR 4,240,730 EUR 4,150,000 funded by the European Union and Co-funding from Finnish partners (LUKE, HAMK and VITRI).

Duration

48 months: April 2022 – March 2026

Contact:

Dr. Nicholas Hogarth, nicholas.hogarth@helsinki.fi