With shifting weather patterns, deteriorating soils, and unsustainable farming methods compounding pressures, the Western Balkans (WB) countries (viz., Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Serbia) confront significant challenges in sustaining food production and achieving long-term food and nutrition security. Furthermore, climate change is expected to exacerbate droughts, floods, and severe weather events, threatening agricultural output across the region. Nature-based solutions (NbS), such as sustainable land management, agroforestry, and conservation agriculture, have emerged as promising approaches to increase climate resilience and food production by combining traditional practices with modern scientific knowledge. This chapter aims to examine the potential of NbS to sustain food production in the Western Balkans. It presents an overview of the region’s agriculture and food security status, then analyzes significant climate threats, and investigates how NbS could contribute to building resilience. Case studies of successful NbS initiatives from across the region are examined. The chapter explores policy incentives, governance structures, and community involvement initiatives to expand the implementation of NbS as well as upscaling and out-scaling barriers. It concludes by stressing the substantial underutilized potential of NbS to foster climate resilience and long-term food production throughout the different agricultural landscapes of the Western Balkans area.

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Leveraging Ecosystem Services to Strengthen Food Production in the Western Balkans: The Promise of and Barriers to Nature-Based Solutions amid a Changing Climate

  • Sinisa Berjan,
  • Tarek Ben Hassen,
  • Hamid El Bilali

摘要

With shifting weather patterns, deteriorating soils, and unsustainable farming methods compounding pressures, the Western Balkans (WB) countries (viz., Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Serbia) confront significant challenges in sustaining food production and achieving long-term food and nutrition security. Furthermore, climate change is expected to exacerbate droughts, floods, and severe weather events, threatening agricultural output across the region. Nature-based solutions (NbS), such as sustainable land management, agroforestry, and conservation agriculture, have emerged as promising approaches to increase climate resilience and food production by combining traditional practices with modern scientific knowledge. This chapter aims to examine the potential of NbS to sustain food production in the Western Balkans. It presents an overview of the region’s agriculture and food security status, then analyzes significant climate threats, and investigates how NbS could contribute to building resilience. Case studies of successful NbS initiatives from across the region are examined. The chapter explores policy incentives, governance structures, and community involvement initiatives to expand the implementation of NbS as well as upscaling and out-scaling barriers. It concludes by stressing the substantial underutilized potential of NbS to foster climate resilience and long-term food production throughout the different agricultural landscapes of the Western Balkans area.