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The Leafy Communities Network (LCN) is a regional network of practitioners and experts responding to the growing and urgent need for climate change adaptation. LCN is part of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global Adaptation Network. Together with local and international organisations, development agencies and other partners across the region, LCN serves to equip government officials and other key actors with critical knowledge management tools to design climate change adaptation measures, access needed finance and technologies, and build capacity to integrate climate change adaptation into local and national development policies. As a ‘network of networks,’ LCN functions collaboratively, effectively managing and disseminating diverse climate change adaptation knowledge and meeting the on-the-ground demands of climate change practitioners and grassroot communities.
The LCN Knowledge Platform increasingly depends on quality scientific, socio-economic and technical knowledge, and recognises a need to further strengthen and facilitate its networking and the institutionalisation of its activities.
In addition to internal advice, the initiative will seek guidance from external representatives from academia, policy makers, media, financial and the business sector on a variety of implementing activities. To this end, the LCN Knowledge Platform has constituted an Advisory Panel to provide science, technical and management advice relevant to integrating climate change adaptation into development planning in Kenya. More information on the Advisory Panel members can be found on the pitch deck.
The immediate beneficiaries are grassroots communities, researchers and development workers who will be equipped with the knowledge, tools and opportunities to promote climate change adaptation strategies in their work, as well as a limited number of local communities with whom research and pilot activities are undertaken. Eventually, the beneficiary pool will be very wide as climate change adaptation knowledge is applied and capacities to integrate adaptation into development planning are enhanced for the public good in diverse areas of work.
This initiative supports knowledge management, research and capacity building on climate change adaptation, policy-making and information sharing to help local/grassroot communities adapt to the challenges of climate change. It will also seek to facilitate climate change adaptation at local, national and regional levels and to strengthen the adaptive capacity of counties in the region while working with existing and emerging networks and initiatives.
A number of international initiatives have been launched to help countries build their national capacity to respond to the changing climate, but many of these initiatives are being undertaken independently of one another, leaving an unsolved need for enhanced sharing of information, knowledge and lessons learned within and across borders. A key function of the LCN Knowledge Platform is to meet this need.
The LCN Knowledge Platform is working toward building bridges between current knowledge on adaptation to climate change and the governments, agencies and communities that need this knowledge to inform their responses to the challenges that climate change presents them. This is reflected in the Platform Goal, which is to strengthen adaptive capacity and facilitate climate change adaptation in Asia at local, national and regional levels.
The specific Purpose of the programme is to establish a regionally and nationally owned mechanism that facilitates the integration of climate change adaptation into national and regional economic and development policies, processes and plans, strengthen linkages between adaptation and the sustainable development agenda in the region, and enhance institutional and research capacity, in collaboration with a wide range of national and regional partners.
In order to achieve this purpose, the LCN Knowledge Platform will bring together adaptation researchers, practitioners, and grassroot leaders and will work through a range of activities to achieve three components:
Local knowledge sharing system: a locally and community-owned mechanism to promote dialogue and improve the exchange of knowledge, information and methods within and between communities on climate change adaptation, and to link existing and emerging networks and initiatives.
Generation of new knowledge: to facilitate the generation of new climate change adaptation knowledge promoting understanding and providing guidance relevant to the development and implementation of national and regional climate change adaptation policy, plans and processes.
Application of existing and new knowledge: synthesis of existing and new climate change adaptation knowledge to facilitate its application in sustainable development practices at the local, national and regional levels.
The LCN Knowledge Platform is supported by the Bivisioneers: Mercedes Benz Fellowship. Initial partners in this initiative are the Kericho County, the National Environment Management Agency (NEMA), Karatina Municipality, the World Bank, the Swedish Environmental Secretariat for Kenya, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Kenyatta University. Where appropriate, the LCN Knowledge Platform will work with national partners to assist in the specific implementation of activities in the counties of engagement.
In its first phase (2023-2026), the LCN Knowledge Platform will cover the Greater Rift Valley Sub-Region (Kericho, Nandi, Bomet, Narok and Baringo), Central Kenya (Nyeri, Kiambu, and Thika), South Eastern Kenya (Machakos and Makueni) and Nairobi.
OUR Teams
Meet a few of our team.
One of the great things about working in the space we do is getting to meet and collaborate with a whole range of amazing people! We really wouldn’t be able to pull off half the things we do without this help. Here we showcase our awesome core-contributors and share with you some of what makes them tick.
Kipyegon Sigey
Project Manager - 1
Daphne Randall
Project Manager - 2
Kiprono Collins
Project Editor & Publisher
Karen Wambui
Project Lead + Annex 1 coordinator
Barton Kiuma
Annex 1 ( Karatina ) Chairperson
Winnie Wambui
Annex 1 ( Karatina) Secretary
About the team/network
Together with local agencies and other partners across the region, LC serves to equip key actors with critical knowledge management tools for adaptation measures, access to needed support, experts and information that build capacity to integrate sustainability into local and national development. As a ‘network of networks,’ LC functions collaboratively, effectively managing and disseminating diverse knowledge and meeting the on-the-ground demands of grassroot communities.
Advisory Panel
The LC Knowledge Platform increasingly depends on quality experts, both scientific, socio-economic and technical and we recognises a need to further strengthen and facilitate its networking and the institutionalisation of its activities.In addition to internal advice, the initiative seek guidance from external representatives from the communities we impact, academia, policy makers, media, financial and the business sector on a variety of implementing activities.
To this end, the LC Knowledge Platform has constituted an Advisory Panel to provide science, technical and management advice relevant to integrating knowledge management and access on adaptation into agriculture, development planning and environmental conversation in Kenya.
UNFCCC
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992. The objective of the treaty is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
The treaty itself set no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms. In that sense, the treaty is considered legally non-binding. Instead, the treaty provides a framework for negotiating specific international treaties (called “protocols”) that may set binding limits on greenhouse gases.
The UNFCCC was opened for signature on May 9, 1992, after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report following its meeting in New York from April 30 to May 9, 1992. It entered into force on March 21, 1994. As of May 2011, UNFCCC has 194 parties.
The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 °C (3.6 °F) relative to the pre-industrial level.
One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions. Updated inventories must be regularly submitted by Annex I countries.
The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention, with offices in Bonn, Germany.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change
The Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sets binding obligations on industrialised countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
The Protocol was adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, and entered into force on 16 February 2005. As of September 2011, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol.
Under the Protocol, 37 industrialized countries and the then European Community (the European Union-15, made up of 15 states at the time of the Kyoto negotiations) (“Annex I Parties”) commit themselves to limit or reduce their emissions of four greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride) and two groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons). All member countries give general commitments.
At negotiations, Annex I countries collectively agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% on average for the period 2008-2012, relative to their annual emissions in a base year, usually 1990. Since the US has not ratified the treaty, the collective emissions reduction of Annex I Kyoto countries falls from 5.2% to 4.2% below base year.
Emission limits do not include emissions by international aviation and shipping.
The Protocol allows for several “flexible mechanisms”, such as emissions trading, the clean development mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation to allow Annex I countries to meet their GHG emission limitations by purchasing GHG emission reductions credits from elsewhere, through financial exchanges, projects that reduce emissions in non-Annex I countries, from other Annex I countries, or from annex I countries with excess allowances.
Each Annex I country is required to submit an annual report of inventories of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals from sinks under UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. These countries nominate a person (called a “designated national authority”) to create and manage its greenhouse gas inventory. Virtually all of the non-Annex I countries have also established a designated national authority to manage its Kyoto obligations, specifically the “CDM process” that determines which GHG projects they wish to propose for accreditation by the CDM Executive Board.
At the 2012 Doha climate change talks, Parties to the Kyoto Protocol agreed to a second commitment period of emissions reductions from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020.
OUR CORE
We are a leader in creating sustainability communities
01
Participation
We encourage and promote strong and flourishing communities, by giving people a chance to participate in creative projects that shape the places around them. Communities are strongest when members are working together.
02
Collaboration
Collaboration unlocks creative potential. We believe in seeking out partners to implement ideas together, as well as cooperating to realise others’ ideas.
03
Experimentation
We value trying out new things and not repeating ourselves, taking calculated risks to lead by example. We challenge ourselves to keep stretching boundaries, and innovating in new ways to grow community in any context.
04
Resourcefulness
Resourcefulness to us means a commitment to all R’s and full lifecycle thinking in everything we do. It also means valuing people’s time and energy (often beyond project budgets), and constantly searching for ways to develop community resources.
04
Creativity
We esteem the spirit of innovation, exploring new ways of engaging, creating and realising ideas, honouring and promoting creative practice and process. Playfulness is our niche: we use surprise and delight in abundance, and try to merge optimism and critical thinking.
04
Leadership
We are leaders, expressing our values through fearless implementation. Whether blazing a new trail, keeping it in good order, motivating people to follow it, or telling stories along the way – we lead from the front, middle or back with clear purpose and intent.
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Let’s create sustainable communities.
