Lessons from the past, policies for the future: resilience and sustainability in past crises

Haldon, John; Eisenberg, Merle; Mordechai, Lee; Izdebski, Adam; White, Sam

doi:10.1007/s10669-020-09778-9

Cited by 27 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The resiliency of such farms (measured by robustness and recovery of system productivity) was also observed during the Great Earthquake of 2015 when Nepal was hit by 7-rector scale earthquake causing over 9000 deaths and widespread damage of infrastructures ( Epstein et al, 2017 ). Resilience can also play a major role in the survival and expansion of many agricultural systems and great empires and strengthen the resilience of nations against future pandemics and other shocks ( Haldon et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Farming Systems Resilience and Impacts On Farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 impacts on agriculture and food systems in Nepal: Implications for SDGs

Adhikari

Timsina²,

Khadka

et al. 2021

Agricultural Systems

137

111

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The objective of this study was to understand the impacts of COVID-19 crisis in agriculture and food systems in Nepal and assess the effectiveness of measures to deal with this crisis. The study draws policy implications, especially for farming systems resilience and the achievement of SDGs 1 and 2. The findings are based on (i) three panel discussions over six months with policy makers and experts working at grassroots to understand and manage the crisis, (ii) key informants' interviews, and (iii) an extensive literature review. Results revealed that the lockdown and transport restrictions have had severe consequences, raising questions on the achievement of SDGs 1 and 2, especially in the already vulnerable regions dependent on food-aid. This crisis has also exposed the strengths and limitations of both subsistence and commercial farming systems in terms of resiliency, offering important lessons for policy makers. Traditional subsistence farming appears to be somewhat resilient, with a potential to contribute to key pillars of food security, especially access and stability, though with limited contributions to food availability because of low productivity. On the other hand, commercial farming - limited to the periphery of market centres, cities, and emerging towns and in the accessible areas - was more impacted due to the lack of resilient supply networks to reach even the local market. Lower resiliency of commercial farming was also evident because of its growing dependence on inputs (mainly seeds and fertilizer) on distant markets located in foreign countries. The observation of crisis over eight months unleashed by the pandemic clearly revealed that wage labourers, indigenous people, and women from marginalized groups and regions already vulnerable in food security and malnutrition suffered more due to COVID-19 as they lost both external support and the coping mechanisms. The findings have implications for policies to improve both subsistence and commercial farming systems – in particular the former by improving the productivity through quality inputs and by diversifying, promoting and protecting the indigenous food system, while the latter through sustainable intensification by building reliant supply network linking farming with markets and guarantying the supply of inputs.

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Section: Farming Systems Resilience and Impacts On Farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 impacts on agriculture and food systems in Nepal: Implications for SDGs

Adhikari

Timsina²,

Khadka

et al. 2021

Agricultural Systems

137

111

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite the vulnerabilities exposed by the pandemic, resilience of the FFSs emerged as one key finding of the study; and a key question is how to reinforce such resilience against future pandemics or other agricultural shocks. Historically, resilience of agriculture underpinned survival of empires (Haldon et al, 2020). Analytical approaches to resilience and their applications have developed during recent decades, such as numerous frameworks (IISD, 2013;UNESCAP, 2018;OECD, 2020), analytical metrics (Constas et al, 2020) and incorporations in policy design (Capano and Woo, 2016;Grafton et al, 2019;UNESCAP, 2021).…”

Section: Resilience During Recovery and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response and resilience of Asian agrifood systems to COVID-19: An assessment across twenty-five countries and four regional farming and food systems

Dixon

Weerahewa

Hellin

et al. 2021

Agricultural Systems

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This regional synthesis addresses a major gap in knowledge about the effects of COVID-19 on agriculture and food across Asia • Key informants from 20 Asian countries assessed early direct and indirect effects on each of four major regional farming and food systems • The analysis showed Asian farming and food systems were moderately resilient to the pandemic, especially the hill mixed system • System resilience, food and labour markets, and farm and food chain economic benefits are key priorities for recovery policies and programmes • This study highlights COVID-19 effects and informs recovery policies and precautionary strategies against future pandemics in Asia and globally

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“…The governments of island refuges should understand the relationship between risks, critical systems, and spread mechanisms as this will help identify policy levers and other opportunities for mitigation (Beard & Torres, 2020). It will be important for risk mitigation activities to look across sectors and preparations should not be weakened by risk‐mitigating arrangements that favor the vested interests of elites, as this has been a problem in the past (Haldon, Eisenberg, Mordechal, Izdebski, & White, 2020). Ongoing research and understanding will be important and our Supporting Information Table SIII should be regarded as preliminary work in progress.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimizing Island Refuges against global Catastrophic and Existential Biological Threats: Priorities and Preparations

Boyd¹,

Wilson

2021

Risk Analysis

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Human civilization is vulnerable to global catastrophic biological threats and existential threats. Policy to mitigate the impact of major biological threats should consider worst‐case scenarios. We aimed to strengthen existing research on island refuges as a mitigating mechanism against such threats by considering five additional factors as well as recent literature on catastrophic risks and resilience. We also analyzed the performance of potential refuge islands during early phases the COVID‐19 pandemic. Using a composite indicator (scored from 0–1) based on 14 global macroindices, we present analysis supporting Australia (0.71), New Zealand (0.64), and Iceland (0.58) as the leading candidate island nation refuges to safeguard the survival of humanity and a flourishing technological civilization from the threat of a catastrophic pandemic. Data from the COVID‐19 pandemic supports this finding where islands have performed relatively well. We discuss the persisting weaknesses of even the best candidate refuges and the growing literature describing what preparations such a refuge should ensure to enhance resilience. Refuge preparations by Australia and New Zealand, in particular, may additionally provide some immunity against winter‐inducing catastrophes such as global nuclear war. Existing disaster resilience frameworks such as the Sendai framework could be worded to mandate preventive measures against global catastrophic and existential threats. The issue of island refuges against certain global catastrophic risks should be raised at relevant international political summits.

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Lessons from the past, policies for the future: resilience and sustainability in past crises

Cited by 27 publications

References 34 publications

COVID-19 impacts on agriculture and food systems in Nepal: Implications for SDGs

COVID-19 impacts on agriculture and food systems in Nepal: Implications for SDGs

Response and resilience of Asian agrifood systems to COVID-19: An assessment across twenty-five countries and four regional farming and food systems

Optimizing Island Refuges against global Catastrophic and Existential Biological Threats: Priorities and Preparations

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