Glossary Building Climate Resilience in the Agriculture Sector of Asia and the Pacific

Kyoto Protocol: A protocol to the international GHG may be unintentionally released into the Framework Convention on Climate Change, it atmosphere if a sink is damaged or destroyed aims to reduce greenhouse gases in an effort (UNFCCC 2008a). to prevent human-induced climate change. The treaty entered into force in February 2005, and Leakage: See carbon leakage. as of October 2008, 182 countries had ratified the Protocol (IFPRI 2009). Least Developed Country Fund (LDCF): LDCF was established to support work programs La Niña: See El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). for the Least Developed Country Parties of the UNFCCC to carry out, inter alia, the preparation Land degradation: Human-induced processes and implementation of National Adaptation acting upon the land that reduce its value, Program of Action (NAPAs). health, and productivity. Causes include deforestation, agricultural depletion of soil Low-carbon technology: A technology that

nutrients, overgrazing, and irrigation. The over its life cycle causes less CO2-eq. emissions impacts, including desertification, can be than other technological options. See also intensified by climate change (IFPRI 2009). environmentally sustainable technologies (IPCC 2007b). Land use: Human modification of the earth’s land surface (IFPRI 2009). Maladaptation: An action or process that increases vulnerability to climate change-related Land use and land use change: Land use refers hazards. Maladaptation often includes planned to the total of arrangements, activities, and development policies and measures that deliver inputs undertaken in a certain land cover type. short-term gains or economic benefits but lead (It is also used in the social and economic to exacerbated vulnerability in the medium to purposes for which land is managed e.g., long-term (UNDP 2006). grazing, timber extraction and conservation.) Land use change refers to a change in the use Meeting of the Parties (to the Kyoto Protocol) or management of land by humans, which (MOP): The Conference of the Parties (COP) may lead to a change in land cover (IPCC of the UNFCCC serves as the Meeting of the 2007c). Parties (MOP), the supreme body of the Kyoto Protocol, since the latter entered into force on Land use, land use change and forestry 16 February 2005. Only parties to the Kyoto (LULUCF): Activities that can provide relatively Protocol may participate in deliberations and cost-effective ways of offsetting emissions, make decisions (IPCC 2007b). either by increasing the removal of GHG from

the atmosphere or by reducing emissions. Methane (CH4): One of the six GHG to be However, drawbacks include the difficulty mitigated under the Kyoto Protocol. It is the of estimating GHG removals and emissions major component of natural gas and associated resulting from activities of LULUCF. In addition, with all hydrocarbon fuels, animal husbandry,

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