The Gran Chaco Foundation and Argentina 1.5 organised a workshop in Resistencia to present and discuss the regional testing of the Belém Adaptation Indicators, with the participation of key stakeholders from the livestock sector, public policy and the climate agenda. The initiative was supported by the Avina Foundation, IIFA and the Government of Chaco.
On 30 September, more than 50 people took part in the workshop ‘Climate Solutions for Regenerative Livestock Farming’ in Resistencia, a forum for discussion aimed at analysing the challenges facing livestock production in Chaco in the face of increasing climate variability, as well as opportunities to strengthen its resilience.
The event was organised by the Gran Chaco Foundation and Argentina 1.5, with the support of the Avina Foundation, IIFA and the Government of the Province of Chaco, and brought together representatives from public bodies, scientific and academic institutions, civil society organisations, businesses, professionals and producers.
Key figures from the Ministry of Production and Sustainable Economic Development, the Under-Secretariat for the Environment, the Directorate of Forests and the Directorate of Rural Soil and Water took part, alongside representatives from INTA, CONICET, UNNE, IIFA, ACDI, Proyungas, Aves Argentinas and Alianza del Pastizal, amongst other institutions. Also present were farmers, livestock producers, livestock farms, consultants, advisers and members of educational institutions.
The diversity of stakeholders enabled the sharing of different perspectives on the impacts of climate change in the region and on the measures needed to strengthen production systems.
A workshop to gather information from the field
The event combined presentations and discussions with a participatory working methodology. After addressing the climate emergency and adaptation measures for livestock systems, participants split into three working groups to identify the main climate risks and their impacts on production, as well as to analyse adaptation measures, their outcomes and the ways in which they are currently monitored.
The working groups focused on early warning systems, REDD+, water, grassland management and Integrated Forest and Livestock Management (MBGI). The aim was to recognise both the progress made and the gaps and difficulties that exist in implementing and monitoring these measures on the ground.
This approach enabled participants to draw on the knowledge and experience of those working directly on these processes and, building on this, to move towards a discussion on what information is needed to measure the outcomes of adaptation actions.
Testing the Belém Adaptation Indicators
The workshop took place as part of a pilot project led by Argentina 1.5 and the Gran Chaco Foundation to test the Belém Adaptation Indicators at a local level within the livestock sector in the Chaco region.
The indicators form part of the tools developed to monitor the Global Adaptation Goal of the Paris Agreement. The process aims to analyse the extent to which these metrics can reflect the risks, impacts and progress in adaptation based on the specific realities of the territories.
The project takes the draft Provincial Climate Change Response Plan as its reference and prioritises six interventions: integrated forest and livestock management, sustainable grassland management, water harvesting systems, participatory early warning systems, land title regularisation and the jurisdictional REDD+ programme.
The methodology applied seeks to generate a bottom-up exchange: starting from local risks and experiences, identifying how the impacts of adaptation measures are observed and measured, and subsequently analysing the relevance of international indicators to that context.
Adaptation and production in the face of a challenging climate scenario
The need to strengthen these tools is linked to the growing impact of climate events on the Chaco region. Over the last two decades, the province has incurred losses totalling more than USD 994 million as a result of climate-related emergencies, affecting the productive assets of rural households and local value chains.
At the same time, adaptation measures can create opportunities to improve productivity. Regional analyses indicate that optimising the management of grasslands and livestock systems could increase the reproductive efficiency of cattle herds, with the potential to produce 725,650 additional calves per year, without the need to expand the agricultural frontier through land clearing.
In this context, strengthening the capacity to measure the progress and outcomes of adaptation measures is a key component in improving planning and decision-making.
The workshop enabled progress to be made in this process through dialogue between stakeholders with different knowledge, experiences and responsibilities within the region, generating new inputs to continue testing the indicators and further developing an agenda for climate adaptation and regenerative livestock farming in the Chaco.
