Land Belongs to the Future - Let’s Climate Proof It

Today marks World Day to Combat Desertification, and this year’s theme focuses on climate-proofing land for future generations.

Irish Aid works with our key partner countries to do just that – climate proof land. As we rely on land to produce the food that sustains us, protecting land from degradation is essential for ensuring small holder farmers are able to produce enough food for themselves and their family season after season.

This is becoming an increasingly important task, as the changing climate is impacting on weather patterns, which impact on growing and harvesting seasons. Irish Aid supports a variety of programmes which aim to improve families’ ability to cope with the changing climate, and in turn protect their land from degradation.

In Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, Irish Aid has supported a project which helps to improve the water table and moisture in the soil through building dams, terraces and water collectors. Trees are planted to help the process, and local communities have noticed a real difference in the productivity of the soil.

These programmes also prevent the land from erosion, and research in new technologies is helping communities to plant and farm more effectively.

These programmes not only help improve the productivity of the land, and protect it for future generations, it also is improving food and nutrition security in the region.