Photo: UNEP/Lisa Murray
26 Oct 2022 Story Climate Action

Farmers adapt to climate crisis on Burundi’s precarious hillsides

Photo: UNEP/Lisa Murray

It was a late evening in April 2018 when Philbert Ntaciyica, exhausted from the non-stop heavy rain battering his roof, wondered if his farm would survive this latest storm.

When the 12-hour downpour finally eased in Nzove, a village perched on a hillside in north-eastern Burundi, Ntaciyica emerged from his home to find no crops or topsoil. All had been washed downhill by the deluge, and along with them, his livelihood. 

“We had nothing left,” said Ntaciyica. “We were forced to sell our livestock. Our children couldn’t eat well. They went from two meals a day to one.”

Along with most other men in the village, the father-of-six was forced to leave his wife and young children behind and travel to neighbouring Rwanda for work.

“The consequences for the community were enormous. Some children abandoned schools,” the 35-year-old said. “We had to stay strong.”

The storm that ravaged Ntaciyica's village is part of a wave of extreme weather that has struck Burundi in recent years, a product of climate change, scientists say. Although the nation releases fewer greenhouse gas emissions per capita than almost any other country on Earth, it bears a disproportionately heavy burden from the climate crisis.

A man cuts crops with a machete
Philbert Ntaciyica tends to his farm in Burundi’s Nzove village. Like many farmers in the area, increasingly erratic outbursts of heavy rain are washing his crops and topsoil downhill into the lake below. Photo: UNEP/Lisa Murray

Adapting to the climate crisis

The situation is only set to deteriorate. Temperatures are expected to rise between 1.5 -2.5 degrees in the country by 2050, while rainfall patterns are projected to become more extreme, leading to protracted dry seasons, more flooding and increased erosion. This will put a mounting strain on agriculture, food security and access to safe water across the country.

In the years to come, Burundi, like much of Africa, will face the monumental challenge of adapting to these changes. Countries will need solutions, like developing drought-resilient agriculture, building seawalls to protect coastal cities, improving water security to withstand droughts, and a whole lot more. Recent studies have predicted African countries, on average, may have to spend up to five times more on climate adaptation than they do on healthcare.

Small steps taken on the ground, underpinned by a coherent adaptation strategy, can significantly enhance people’s lives and livelihoods.

Jessica Troni, Head of UNEP’s Climate Change Adaptation Unit

Yet the gap in financing for adaptation is both stark and widening. The estimated adaptation costs in the developing world are five to 10 times greater than the finance currently provided. The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP27, will take place in Egypt this month, and is expected to be dominated by adaptation-related issues.

Delegates will likely explore pledges for funding adaptation and aim to make progress on establishing a Global Goal On Adaptation, which will be crucial for helping countries track their adaptation progress. The negotiators will also broach the critical question of whom should be paying for damages from climate impacts, particularly in poorer countries that have historically produced fewer of the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving the climate crisis.

People tilling a field
Farmers tend to their land on the slopes surrounding Lake Rweru in Burundi’s Giteranyi commune. Photo: UNEP/Lisa Murray

Nature-based solutions

A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) project funded by the Adaptation Fund is helping Ntaciyica and 2,000 farmers like him to adopt nature-based solutions to adapt to less predictable weather in Burundi.

In partnership with Burundi’s Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, the project, called the Adapting to Climate Change in the Lake Victoria Basin initiative, has provided funding and training for farming cooperatives to plant 230,000 trees, including avocado and grevillea, to help prevent soil erosion. Not only do the trees absorb carbon, their roots keep the soil in place and their leaves provide shade from the equatorial sun, slowing evaporation and locking moisture in the soil.

We had to stay strong.

Philbert Ntaciyica, farmer

In this region, farmers tend to till the soil vertically along the slope, which makes the topsoil even more susceptible to erosion from increasingly extreme rainfall. To stop soil from sliding down the hillside, the project is helping farmers to construct terraces along the contours of 240 hectares of farmland, and subsequently stabilizing the terraces by planting elephant grass along their fringes

The good news for Ntaciyica is that heavy rains no longer wash away his best soil. His harvests of beans and cassava have increased, his goats have extra food from the elephant grass and he has more money to invest in his children’s education.

“The contours help us to prevent soil erosion and landslides,” he said, gazing up the hill at his farm. “Because the water remains in those contours, it keeps the land moist and we get better harvests. Where we used to harvest one sack, now we get two.”

Having seen the positive results, Ntaciyica’s neighbours are now constructing their own terraces lined with soil-binding grasses.

Food insecurity

Further downhill, Lake Rweru fisher Ezechiel Bizimana blames increased erosion and landslides upstream on declining fish stocks. He has seen his catch gradually fall over his lifetime and says that the lake has already lost three species of fish. Climate change is making things worse, he says, as the reduced rainfall has lowered the water level in the lake.

“I started fishing when I was 10 years old,” Bizimana recalls. “We used to get 50kg a day, but now we rarely get more than 25kg.”

An aerial shot of a lake surrounded by hills
A wave of extreme weather has struck Burundi in recent years, a product of climate change, say scientists. Photo: UNEP/Lisa Murray

Nutrient-rich soil particles carried by floods from deforested upland areas can upset lake ecosystems, lowering the oxygen level in the water. The silt also clogs fish gills and spoils their spawning grounds. In parts of the lake near where the terraces have been constructed, Bizimana said he has observed an improvement in water quality, hinting at a potential reversal in fortunes for the depleted fish stocks.

Like the farmers, Bizimana and around 30 other fishers have received support from the project. They are among some of the first in East Africa to try out a new fish-drying kiln constructed by the project, which creates a better-tasting, longer-lasting smoked fish.

Not only does less fish go to waste but the end product can fetch a 50 per cent mark-up at the market. Crucially, the dryer uses almost 97 per cent less firewood than traditional smokers, reducing deforestation and providing further protection for the lake’s ecosystem.

Two men cooking fish.
Fishers Claude Nsengiyumva (left) and Ezechiel Bizimana (right) cook their catch on a new and improved kiln in Nzove village, Burundi. Photo: UNEP/Lisa Murray

A regional push for adaptation

As Ntaciyica’s and Bizimana’s experiences show, protecting and harnessing nature upstream pays dividends for people downstream. In all, the livelihoods of 45 million people across Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya rely on the natural resources of the Lake Victoria Basin, which climate change is putting under ever-greater pressure.

The UNEP-supported project in Nzove is building the capacity of the five governments to establish a regional framework to guide adaptation actions and provide a platform for countries to share best practices. Regional policy frameworks, informed by experiences on the ground, are vital for adapting to transboundary climate impacts, say those involved.

“The project is demonstrating how small steps taken on the ground, underpinned by a coherent adaptation strategy, can significantly enhance people’s lives and livelihoods,” says Jessica Troni, Head of UNEP’s Climate Change Adaptation Unit.

“Scaling-up such initiatives across the five countries that rely on the Lake Victoria Basin ecosystem has the potential to help millions of farmers and fishermen become more resilient to climate change.”

 

UNEP is at the front in support of the Paris Agreement goal of keeping the global temperature rise well below 2°C and aiming - to be safe - for 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To do this, UNEP has developed a Six-Sector Solution roadmap to reducing emissions across sectors in line with the Paris Agreement commitments and in pursuit of climate stability. The six sectors are Energy; Industry; Agriculture and Food; Forests and Land Use; Transport, and Buildings and Cities. The UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in November 2022 will focus on adaptation, finance and a just transition – and you can do your part by acting now on your own consumption or speaking up to voice your concerns.