Climate change and food security: risks and responses

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A range of adaptation options is available for livestock production
at different scales: animals, 
feeding/housing system, production system and institutions. They differ between small-scale 
livestock production with low market integration and large-scale production with high market 
integration. In particular, breeding livestock but also feed crops and forages is a major component 
of building resilience to climate change. Many livestock breeds are already well adapted to high 
temperatures and harsh environments, but their wider diffusion is restricted by the limited extent 
to which they have been characterized and improved in structured breeding programmes and 
by trade constraints. Adaptation-related traits are more difficult to study and to record than 
production traits, have lower heritability, higher levels of non-additive genetic variation and 
phenotypic variance, and are more susceptible to genotype-by-environment interaction. 
Healthy, diversified forest ecosystems are more resilient
: they are better able to cope 
with stress, recover from damage and adapt autonomously to change. Healthy ecosystems 
are more resilient to negative biotic and abiotic influences than are ecosystems under stress 
whose ecological processes are impaired. Best practices include integrated pest management, 
disease control, forest fire management, employment of reduced impact logging in production 
forests, limitation of gathering of non-wood forest products or livestock grazing in forests at 
sustainable levels, and forest law enforcement. Restoring degraded forests to healthy states, 
thereby re-establishing ecosystem functions, is a major strategy for increasing resilience.
Fishing and fish-farming practices and management
will need to adapt to changing species 
composition and location and increased risks at sea. Changes in the distribution of fish, will 
require to adapt fishing effort, with flexible allocation and access schemes. Adaptation options 
to declining or variable yields in terms of fisheries technologies and management will need 
to be carefully assessed, to avoid exacerbating the overexploitation of fisheries or impacting 
habitats. For aquaculture, a set of adaptive practices has been identified, such as diversified and 
integrated aquaculture systems, water quality monitoring, species selection, selective breeding, 
genetic improvement, site selection, and improved cage and pond construction.