Working Paper 98
Jacob Mbua Ngeve, Abdulai Jalloh and Michel Ndjatsana
This report is the result of a review carried out to synthesise research and policies related to the adaptation of agriculture to climate change in the Central African region. Climate change poses serious challenges to the agriculture sector in the Central African region. Africa has generally been considered among the most highly vulnerable regions to climate change because of extremes of drought, flooding, inappropriate land tenure systems, over-dependence on rain-fed agriculture and widespread poverty.
All the countries of the region are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); participate in regional institutions including the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) with its Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM); have created structures for climate change issues (a National Climate Change Unit in Cameroon, a National Climate Council in Gabon and an Industrial Afforestation Unit in the Congo Republic); have ongoing policies, instruments and initiatives for climate change adaptation; and exhibit some awareness among stakeholders of the serious climate change impacts on agriculture, livestock, pastoralism and fisheries. However, many countries are yet to establish field research activities on adaptation. Also, governments appear to lack firm funding commitments on adaptation, arguing that financing of climate change adaptation should be carried by external donors or developed country partners.
This review was undertaken under the auspices of the AfricaInteract project funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
