GHG Emissions

Livestock-related emissions accounts for up to 96% of the sector’s total emissions in Kenya, and 92% in Ethiopia. There is a great potential to reduce these emissions through improved management of pasture and grazing systems which are recommended for the agro-pastoral sector in Kenya for promoting soil and water conservation and combating climate change (World Bank; CIAT 2015; CIAT; BFS/USAID 2017a) and subsequently being better adapted to climate change. We will assess the environmental footprints (greenhouse gas emissions) at the system scale (pastoral rangelands) and of the dominant components contributing to GHG emissions (livestock and manure). The specific questions answered are:

1. What is the carbon balance of pastoral rangeland ecosystems in East Africa?
2. What are the differences in methane emissions from enteric fermentation in livestock kept by pastoral farmers in comparison to current Tier 1 GHG emission estimates? and
3. How much do GHG emissions from manure management in pastoral systems differ from currently available Tier 1 estimates?

Given a conceptual framework of semi-arid agro-pastoral systems that are linked hydrologically to upland forest systems, a number of tasks have been developed to:

1. Study these linkages and relationships to water and land use,
2. Assess the drivers behind the main changes observed in the recent past;
3. Evaluate the observed and foreseen impacts on water quality; and
4. evaluate adaptive land and water management practices to compensate for hydrological changes including water quality, and
5. assess the water balance of rangeland systems.