Food Security and Conservation in the African Context

Joint collaboration between the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Conservation International (CI), and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has led to the formation of the ABCG FS Working Group. The primary objective of this working group is to develop foundation year activities that promote understanding of the conditions necessary for conservation agriculture to improve food security and the uptake of biodiversity-sensitive intensification practices. The working group builds on previous ABCG FS-related work, including the October 2004 Workshop entitled "Food Security and Conservation in Africa: Addressing Hunger Issues and Farming Issues to Conserve Wildlife." The group's focus is on smallholder producers as the target agricultural sector and beneficiary group. Emphasis is placed on the capacity of approaches to facilitate better management of tradeoffs and synergies between food security and conservation across the landscape. Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a key concept in this context, encompassing environmentally integrated agricultural approaches such as Conservation Farming, Organic Agriculture, Ecoagriculture, and Sustainable Agriculture Intensification. The working group identifies three categories of spatial planning and community engagement approaches that can better support decisions to increase the uptake of CA: broad-scale spatial planning approaches, localized mapping approaches, and non-spatial participatory natural resource management (NRM) tools. Broad-scale spatial planning approaches involve using tools such as vulnerability indices, matching crops to agroecological zones, and remote sensing as a compliance tool. Localized spatial approaches include mapping of farmer practices, ground mapping, and participatory 3D modeling. Non-spatial participatory approaches involve constructing food calendars, community agreements, and participatory NRM. The working group seeks to identify tools that can be used to increase the uptake of these approaches and promote the adoption of conservation agriculture practices among smallholder farmers in Africa.