Promoting Sustainable Agriculture, Boosting Productivity, and Enhancing Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Through the RIO RURAL Program, Brazil

The Brazilian agricultural sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, but climate-smart practices combined with degraded land restoration can result in a more resilient landscape contributing to integrated climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The Sustainable Rural Development Program of Rio de Janeiro (RIO RURAL) has been supporting the transition of degraded rural areas to sustainable productive systems by providing technical assistance and incentives to small-scale family farmers. RIO RURAL promotes reforestation and sustainable agriculture practices, which can boost productivity as well as carbon stocks in the agricultural landscape. Using estimates of carbon mitigation potential for such practices, we identified methodologies eligible for certification in the voluntary markets. We estimated transaction, implementation, and certification costs and calculated potential revenues associated with RIO RURAL’s activities. This did not only allow us to discuss the constraints and identify opportunities and co-benefits from RIO RURAL’s contribution to climate mitigation, adaptation, and environmental integrity but also to food security as it targets family farms. We propose a bundling approach to carbon, where multiple benefits are measured and certified including water, food systems, as well as social and cultural benefits. This would allow accessing resources from both mitigation and adaptation programs in addition to markets that value ecosystem integrity as well as water and food security.