Giving nature breathing room builds climate resilience

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The 55th anniversary of Earth Day comes at a perilous time for the planet. The world faces a series of environmental threats unprecedented in the six decades since the event began.

From extreme weather to species decline, deforestation to water insecurity, these risks are growing in scale and severity as the planet heats up and the climate changes. 

Many of these threats are related and the need to tackle them together is widely recognised by scientists and policymakers. Increasing forest cover, for example, can support stable rainfall and reduce carbon emissions.

There are multiple examples around the world of people putting these ideas into practice. More and more communities are looking to “nature-based solutions” to tackle new threats to their livelihood and local environment.

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Restoring the land

One such story of resilience is taking place in the South Ahuachapán region of El Salvador. 

El Salvador is a small and densely populated country in Central America, equivalent to the size of the US state of New Jersey. Its small area belies a wide range of climatic conditions with droughts, floods, and soil erosion commonplace. Its two mountain ranges mean much of the agricultural land exists on slopes prone to landslides.

South Ahuachapán is a dry, coastal territory around 90 kilometres from the capital, San Salvador. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is implementing a project in this region – financed by the Adaptation Fund – to reduce the vulnerability of local communities to climate shocks. It is seeking to achieve this through land restoration, efficient water management, and climate-smart agriculture practices.

The project has a target to restore 3,865 hectares of degraded land, in large part by introducing agroforestry techniques. This includes integrating essential crops such as maize with native tree-planting. Doing so provides shade to the crops, improves soil health, and protects against landslides.  

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“Many of the beneficiaries are smallholder farmers with limited formal education and few prior opportunities for technical training,” Ryna Ávila, a UNDP development specialist based in El Salvador, told Climate Home News.

“Through the project, they received sustained specialised technical assistance, field-based training, and direct support in the adoption of agro-ecological practices.”

She explained that communities have also been equipped with water reservoirs, soil conservation structures, and early warning capacities, which protects against climate shocks such as El Niño-induced droughts and unseasonal storms.

‘They told me I was crazy’

“I used to live on day labour. It was desolate; there was nothing on my plot. I felt depressed because I didn’t know what to do,” Ricardo García, a subsistence farmer in the San Francisco Menendez municipality, told project partners. “The drought would come, and I would lose everything.”

His plot is one which has benefited from sustainable practices – and he now cultivates 12 different crops that can withstand harsh weather conditions and offers him options should some crops fail.

“I never thought about how I was working the soil, and look where I am now. When I planted these coconuts, they told me I was crazy,” he said. 

Ávila explains that through the project, “the introduction of diversified livelihoods, such as climate-resilient crops and improved pasture systems, is reducing dependence on traditional monocultures.”

“These shifts are not only climate-smart but economically beneficial, helping families generate income while preserving ecosystem services,” she added. As a result of these interventions, the local population is becoming more prepared to face climate stresses while quality of life has improved.

Root cause

One of the main aims of the project is to promote efficient water use during times of drought, primarily through improved climate and hydrological data collection. Closely monitoring the quantity and quality of water availability – through local means and satellite data – has provided farmers with more options on how to adapt.

Data was also collected on the effectiveness of these interventions. One climate-smart technique used was drip irrigation – a method designed to drastically reduce water consumption by directly targeting a plant’s “root zone” with small amounts of water.

The results impressed Mevin Pérez, a local farmer in the area. “We have irrigation systems that help us maintain water and give life to the plants,” he told UNDP.

“As a family, we feel grateful because we all work to take care of the plants. It used to be difficult for us to fetch water; now we no longer spend half an hour fetching a jug of water,” he added.

Increasing local knowledge of these techniques – and the data sitting behind it – was seen by project managers as crucial to building climate resilience.

Paying dividends

Over 30,000 people living in rural San Francisco Menendez could benefit from conservation techniques which work with nature instead of against it.

The project – now in its final stages – could have a lasting impact in the region and provide a model for other parts of El Salvador experiencing climate stress. Researchers believe examples like this could be replicated on a much wider scale, providing useful data on how to implement nature-based solutions in agricultural settings elsewhere in the world. And these themes are expected to be discussed and promoted at the UN climate conference – COP30 – in Belem, Brazil later this year.  

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“The model of ecosystem-based adaptation paired with livelihood diversification offers a replicable strategy for other regions facing climate-related risks,” said Ávila.

“The project has shown that restoring degraded landscapes, when combined with empowerment, training, and inclusive partnerships, can yield durable resilience – especially for those most often left behind in climate action,” she added.

The answer seems simple enough: use nature to tackle nature gone haywire. If climate and nature are seen as two sides of the same coin, then using forests and water systems as a defense strategy against global warming could well pay dividends for the Earth and the people whose well-being depends on it.