Paragominas, the first municipality classed as "Green" in the Amazon, which has put a complete stop to deforestation © R. Poccard, CIRAD
CIRAD will be participating in COP30, as it has every year since COP21. Some 15 of its scientists will be sharing their knowledge via conferences, roundtables and side events, to call for a transformation in agrifood systems in response to climate change. This topic is a growing part of the talks at successive COPs: at COP27 in 2022, the Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security was approved by all the countries present, and the following year, at COP28 in Dubai, 152 countries (out of 197) signed the Declaration on sustainable agriculture, resilient food systems, and climate action.
While agriculture and food systems are major GHG emitters, they are also victims of the effects of climate change (droughts, flooding, fires, etc). According to IPCC forecasts, between 8 and 30% of agricultural land will be unsuitable for production by 2100.
Tropical forests face the same problem: they have the capacity to capture carbon, but they have reached a tipping point beyond which they could emit it. Moreover, in addition to zones that were deforested long ago to enable agricultural activities, forests also face an increase in illegal activities, which have been the main source of deforestation in recent years.
There is an urgent need to transform farming systems and forest farms sustainably, in response to these issues.
Decisions about farming and food systems are complex, as they encompass several fields, but they are vital, as in addition to mitigating climate change, those systems play a key role in food security, health, poverty alleviation and the rural economy in the vast majority of countries worldwide.
CIRAD scientists are working on numerous projects, and have shown that agriculture and forestry can and must be part of the solution to climate change.
The intensification of flooding and droughts is threatening agricultural production in the Amazon, which is already poorly connected to global markets, exacerbating food insecurity among Amazonian communities. Although those communities bear little responsibility for global crises, they are hard hit by the consequences. What initiatives are there to denounce this climate injustice and redesign the future?
The people who are contributing least to climate change are those who suffer the most from it. This is the observation on which the concept of climate justice is based. In Brazil, social movements are using the concept to support alternative development approaches, primarily for rural communities. Research is backing these movements by documenting operations and building forums for exchanges within territories.
The forests of the Amazon are home to an exceptional wealth of biodiversity, and contribute to the health and subsistence of millions of people. However, they face an uncertain future as a result of climate change. How are carbon stocks and biodiversity affected by climate change? How can we adapt forestry methods to the resulting issues?
Les forêts amazoniennes sont menacées par les changements climatiques, la déforestation et la dégradation, et le développement des monocultures. Pour préserver à la fois ces territoires, les humains et les forêts qui les peuplent, et l’équilibre climatique mondial qui en dépend, il est nécessaire de comprendre les transformations en cours et de (re)penser des imaginaires et des gouvernances nouvelles qui prennent en compte les attentes locales et les dynamiques globales, fondés sur des principes de justice sociale et écologique. Le Cirad, en collaboration avec ses partenaires institutionnels et des communautés locales, explore les transformations socioécologiques et tente de repenser les usages et la gouvernance des territoires pour répondre aux défis d’un monde en transition. Foresterie innovante basée sur la plantation d'espèces natives, prospective participative et gouvernance régénérative, les pistes à étudier sont nombreuses.
Community forestry concessions allow indigenous peoples and local communities to manage forest territories. Conservation has had extraordinary results in the areas concerned: deforestation rates are close to zero, while allowing local people to exploit natural resources and farm for their own consumption.
CIRAD is coordinating the ConForMa project, in partnership with the forest community association Acofop. The project, funded by the Fonds français pour l’environnement mondial (FFEM), aims to secure the future of community forest management in Guatemala and promote it on the global stage. CIRAD CEO Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin was in Guatemala from 16 to 20 September for the project launch.
CIRAD scientists will be involved in the IARAÇU river caravan, which will be travelling along the Amazon from Manaus to Belém to promote dialogue on climate issues between science, society and policymakers.
Programme (in French).
The challenge is huge: to reduce GHG emissions linked to food production while increasing yields, so as to guarantee global food security for an expected 10 billion people by 2100.
Research is playing a central role in tackling climate change issues, notably to make scientific knowledge as widely accessible as possible.
To mark COP30, a book entitled Climate Impacts and Challenges on Agriculture, Forests, and Food Systems: A global Perspective, coordinated by CIRAD researchers, is due to be published by Springer.
This book shines the spotlight on the specificities of countries in the global South, which are often overlooked in scientific work, despite the fact that they are among the most vulnerable to climate change. At a time when international solidarity is in doubt and multilateralism is being rediscussed, the scientific world has a duty to resist.
A new book by almost 150 scientists from the global North and South, coordinated by CIRAD, looks at the range of strategies for transforming the world's farming, food and forestry systems sustainably in reponse to climate change. It is published in French by Editions Quae, and will be available in English, published by Springer, by Climate COP30 in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025. The book is intended for policymakers and civil society.
The French version of the book was presented to journalists at an online press briefing on 23 September.
CIRAD has been following climate talks actively since COP21, where the Paris Agreement was signed. It is a member of the French interministerial group for food security on Climate, and participates in the climate COPs as an observer. It is also regularly asked to revise IPCC reports, and contributes to the Koronivia joint work, in association with its partners in the global North and South.
Farming and food systems have long been missing from COP talks. They are now an increasing part of the discussions, which resulted in the Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security that was unanimously approved at COP27 in 2022, followed the next year by the Dubai Declaration on sustainable agriculture, resilient food systems, and climate action at COP28 (read the debrief on COP28).
