Strengthening the Climate-Nature-Food Nexus

This book highlights the interdependencies, trade-offs, and competing demands of climate, nature, and food (C-N-F) constitute a nexus. Managing this nexus ensures the integrity of ecosystem services and sustains natural capital. Before elaborating on the process of nexus, it would come in handy to explain how the terms ‘climate’, ‘nature’, and ‘food’ are used in the present context. ‘Climate’ is mainly used in terms of rainfall and temperature. Extreme events of rainfall and temperatures result in floods and droughts. Here, the terms 'climate' and 'climate change' are used interchangeably as synonyms. ‘Nature’ includes both use values (natural resources) and non-use values (biodiversity), which include soil, water, forests, habitat, biodiversity, etc. While natural resources like soil, water, forests, biodiversity, etc. (use values of nature) impact food production directly, non-use values (preference, existence, esoteric, etc.) impact indirectly. However, non-use values are not considered in the present analysis, as assessing non-use values is more complex than evaluating the use values. ‘Food’ production systems primarily include agriculture, forestry, and water-based production systems (such as marine aquaculture). All three production systems are critically linked to nature and are affected by climate change.