Climate-smart practices provide a framework to operationalise actions aimed at understanding synergies among productivity, adaptation and mitigation. A significant amount of evidence supports the potential for climate-smart-practice technologies to produce such triple wins as natural pastoral systems in the southern region of SA. Such systems allow for the combination of food production and environmental sustainability. The production of meat based on native grasslands with grazing management that optimises forage allowance can achieve high production levels while providing multiple ecosystem benefits. Optimal forage allowance means offering animals enough forage in order to meet requirements while avoiding overgrazing. This management practice simultaneously increases productivity, reduces GHG emissions while improving soil carbon sequestration and minimises other environmental impacts such as excess of nutrients, fossil-based energy use and biodiversity loss. Pastoral farming systems that manage grazing and feeding efficiently are an example of the integration of food security, environmental conservation and nature-based adaptation to climate change.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report