The Herding for Health (H4H) program is participating in the 13th international conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA13) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. CBA13 brings together practitioners, grassroots representatives, local and national government planners, policymakers and donors working at all levels and scales to discuss how to drive ambition for a climate-resilient future.
The H4H team brings into the CBA13 a viable business case that supports communities in adopting climate-smart livestock systems, in restoring degraded rangelands and improving socio-economic status through facilitated livestock auction markets. The applied practices improve farmers’ and ecosystems’ resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change, and at the same time, restored rangelands can stock more carbon. The model uses conservation agreements to incentivize adoption and compliance. The H4H model has been piloted in South Africa for close to ten years now. The model has demonstrated its viability. For example, in the 2017/2018 livestock season, over $ 980,000 worth of livestock was sold through the auctions in two landscapes in South Africa.
H4H partners are now looking to replicate the model in trans-frontier conservation areas of Mozambique, Lesotho, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. However, to successfully reach this scaling up ambition, the H4H partners are looking for technical and financial resources (public, development and private). CBA13 offers a unique opportunity to engage like-minded institutions and explore opportunities for co-investment.
The program has attracted huge interest at the CBA13 market-place. “Climate change adaptation in the pastoral rangelands is so difficult. I am impressed with the H4H model and the results it has achieved in South Africa. We can learn multiple lessons here in Ethiopia” said Yosef from Trocaire Ethiopia.
The H4H program is jointly implemented by Conservation International and Peace Parks Foundation. Meat Naturally Pty, a social enterprise, organizes the livestock auctions. The H4H project a climate proofing approach in Southern Africa’s rangelands is supported by the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) through its Southern African Development Community (SADC)/ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) programme Adaptation to Climate Change in Rural Areas in Southern Africa (ACCRA), implemented on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
