The Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystem Services and Food Security in Eastern Africa (CHIESA) is a four-year research and development project aimed at increasing knowledge on the impacts of climate change on ecosystem services in the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot (EABH).
CHIESA is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, and coordinated by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Nairobi, Kenya.
Through research and training, CHIESA will build the capacity of research communities, extension officers and decision makers in environmental research, as well as disseminate adaptation strategies in regard to climate change. The general areas for environmental research are in agriculture, hydrology, ecology and geoinformatics.
CHIESA's implementing agency is icipe, with coordination among four universities in Africa and Europe. Together, these institutions carry out activities within eight distinct work packages, and oversee participation of 22 stakeholder institutions.
CHIESA activities focus on three mountain ecosystems in Eastern Africa, namely Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the Taita Hills in Kenya and Jimma Highlands in Ethiopia. The project consortium monitors weather, detects land use/land cover change, and studies biophysical and socio-economical factors affecting crop yields and food security.
The project also builds the climate change adaptation capacity of East African research institutions, stakeholder organizations and decision-makers through research collaboration and training. Together with local communities, the project will develop, test and disseminate climate change adaptation tools, options and strategies at the farm level.
Further, CHIESA provides researcher training for staff members of the stakeholder organizations, enhances monitoring and prediction facilities by installing Automatic Weather Stations, and disseminates scientific outputs to various actors from farmers to policy-makers.
