Dr. Constance Neely - Part 1 of 4 part series.

Presentations from the Quivira Coalition's 9th Annual Conference, November 10-12, 2010, in Albuquerque, NM
The Carbon Ranch: Using Food and Stewardship to Build Soil and Fight Climate Change

Right now, the only possibility of large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere is through plant photosynthesis and other land-based carbon sequestration activities. Strategies include: enriching soil carbon, farming with perennials, employing climate-friendly livestock practices, conserving natural habitat, restoring degraded watersheds and rangelands, and producing local food. Over the past decade, many of these strategies have been demonstrated to be both practical and profitable. A carbon ranch bundles them into an economic whole with the aim of creating climate-friendly landscapes that are both healthy ecologically and the source of healthy food. In this conference we explored this exciting new frontier and heard from carbon pioneers from around the world.

About the speaker:

Constance L. Neely is a senior consultant on land, livestock, livelihoods and climate change with a focus on small-holder, pastoral and sylvopastoral systems. In mid-2010, she also joins the CGIAR World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi part time as a program development facilitator. She has served as a facilitator for sustainable development, sustainable agriculture and rural development, and holistic, people-centred and multi-stakeholder approaches for the last 20 years. She holds a Ph.D. in agroecology, with an emphasis on conservation agriculture, and is a Certified International Facilitator and Holistic Management Educator. She served as the Vice President for Advocacy at Heifer International with an emphasis on food systems, gender and climate change. Before joining Heifer staff, she worked with Holistic Management International and Heifer International focusing on the nexus of land-livestock-livelihoods in light of climate change. Constance has served as a visiting expert and senior consultant to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome over the last 12 years in participatory sustainable land management, sustainable agriculture and rural development, sustainable livelihoods, and a facilitator of electronic and face-to-face multi-stakeholder dialogues and global, regional and national strategic planning and training efforts on sustainable agriculture, land and water related topics. She has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, IFAD and the OECD. From 1992 until 2003, she was the Deputy Director of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP) funded through the USAID and working in Asia, Africa and Latin America. She is the past president and a current board member of the International Farming Systems Association and has served on the International Landcare Committee. She co-chairs the Global Livestock Working Group and the Grasslands Carbon Working Group. Constance is from Atlanta, Georgia and is a co-founder of Kalani Organica Coffees and Teas in Seattle, Washington and Hallowed Hawk Farms in Watkinsville, Georgia, USA.