The Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture (SCALA) programme, co-led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Development Programme, has already achieved significant milestones since its inception in 2020.
The programme has provided expertise to 12 programme countries on their national adaptation plans (NAPs) – helping identify climate risks, strengthen adaptation planning and implementation, and develop robust monitoring and evaluation capacities. It has guided these countries in bolstering the agrifood component of their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). It has used system-level assessments to identify gaps and opportunities and build climate resilience in priority agrifood value chains. And, through its Private Sector Engagement Facility, it has supported a further 11 affiliate countries with seed funding for investment-ready climate and biodiversity solutions in the agrifood sector.
This attests to one of the unique features of SCALA – its ability to break traditional development silos and operate on multiple themes across international, national and local domains. SCALA uses the complementary expertise of two leading UN agencies; harnesses multi-ministerial cooperation of national governments on topics related to food and agriculture, climate, environment, finance and planning; and taps into local knowledge to help design bespoke agrifood approaches at district level.
From 2021, as SCALA began working more closely with national and local stakeholders, it became apparent that in many countries climate solutions in agriculture are inseparable from biodiversity solutions ‒ and from the real custodians of both: local and Indigenous communities.
That is why, as SCALA enters a new phase until 2028, the programme is placing an even greater emphasis on supporting countries in aligning agrifood commitments in climate plans with those in national biodiversity strategies and action plans.
SCALA adaptation approach already supporting biodiversity conservation in countries
Examples of how SCALA is already supporting countries align multiple development objectives in Africa, Asia‒Pacific, and Latin America, include:
Senegal: SCALA is promoting nature-based solutions (NbS) to strengthen climate resilience in agriculture in Senegal, with a focus on millet, groundnut and market gardening value chains. One key solution that emerged from the country’s system-level assessment was the use of composting units and training farmers to produce compost at different scales. For example, small-scale composting supports women farmers, while large-scale systems can support agribusiness. This helps reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers and aligns with Senegal’s climate goals to expand compost use to 20,000 hectares. Another NbS is the use of climate-shock-tolerant varieties of millet and groundnuts to help farmers better cope with changing weather.
Nepal: SCALA supports adaptation by promoting climate-smart agriculture in rice, livestock, and horticulture value chains, aligned with Nepal’s NDC and NAP priorities. The programme encourages climate-resilient practices such as alternate wetting and drying for rice and silvopastoral systems for livestock, which help conserve biodiversity and enhance ecosystem health. Capacity-building for provincial agricultural and veterinary centres strengthens local advisory services, enabling smallholder farmers to adopt climate-smart, biodiversity-friendly practices that improve resilience and food security.
Colombia: SCALA is supportingthe Wayuu people in Guajira, Colombia – in the face of increasingly harsh climate impacts related to drought and flooding – to rediscover traditional knowledge, embrace innovation and become more climate resilient and food secure. This is exemplified by a focus on cultivating nutritious and agrobiodiverse species such as the drought- and flood-resistant Guajiro bean, a potent cultural symbol of food security and resilience for the Wayuu people.
SCALA has also established four Community Laboratories for Climate Action in the Sumapaz region of Colombia to implement and scale up adaptation and conservation models specific to the biodiversity of the landscapes they operate in. The laboratories have worked to rescue community knowledge of 15 traditional agricultural practices that are crucial to strengthening climate change adaptation across the region.
Adaptation, mitigation and biodiversity as one
With proposed new adaptation indicators to achieve the Paris Agreement’s global goal on adaptation discussed at the June 2025 meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s subsidiary bodies (SB62), SCALA is well placed to help countries take more concrete actions on adaptation. Indeed, as part of its NAP support, the programme is already working with Egypt and other countries in aligning their NAP planning with these proposed new indicators.
Julia Wolf, FAO global coordinator of SCALA, sums up SCALA’s approach by saying: “For FAO and UNDP, adaptation to climate change and protection of nature and biodiversity are fundamental to achieving food security and resilient livelihoods. Strengthening agrifood systems is not only key to withstanding climate impacts ‒ it is central to building a more sustainable and equitable future for all.”
The SCALA programme is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety through IKI.