The new Forests, Trees and Agroforestry Partnership
Harnessing forests, trees and agroforestry to address major development demands.
Our planet and its people are currently suffering a tremendous set of major challenges —environmental degradation, climate change, biodiversity loss, unsustainable agricultural practices, persisting poverty and more.
Can we change the current trajectory, avoid a doomsday scenario and progress towards sustainable development?
The members of the new Forests, Trees and Agroforestry Partnership (FTAP) believe the answer is “yes.”
Built upon the experience and legacy of the FTA CRP
The FTA Partnership builds upon the knowledge and experience developed by the CRP FTA2 and its partners from 2011 to 2021 and follows the recommendations of its external review in 2020.
CLICK HERE to access the website of the 2011-2021 CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, where all the CRP and legacy products can be found, including the publication database and the volumes of the “FTA highlights of a decade” series.
After 10 years of collaborative work under the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), the historic FTA partners are enlarging the partnership and renewing its mission in a new form, to create the Forests, Trees and Agroforestry Partnership (FTAP). FTAP will support all actors — public and private (including farmers, foresters, Indigenous Peoples and local communities) — to harness the power of forests, trees and agroforestry for sustainable development. It will do so by co-generating knowledge, linking scientific, indigenous, and local knowledge, co-elaborating adapted solutions and innovations, and advising on how to scale up and out for greater impact.
Such work will benefit people and the planet – especially in countries where there is a demand for improved enabling environments in the agricultural and forestry sectors. The Partnership’s work will particularly target those who depend on farms and forests for their livelihoods including smallholders, indigenous peoples and local communities.
The vision
FTA envisions a world where forests, trees and agroforestry play a vibrant and fundamental role for sustainable development that benefits people and the planet. Trees are indispensable for resilient, inclusive, healthy and productive landscapes. When properly governed and managed, they can help address the key challenges of climate change, deforestation, land degradation, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty and inequality.
Objectives
To move towards its vision, the Partnership will focus on enhancing the contributions of forests, trees and agroforestry to six of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while recognizing synergies and trade-offs with all other goals. It aims for transformational change that results in:
- Reduced deforestation, increased forest areas under protection and restoration.
- Increased farm and forest areas under sustainable management.
- Tree-product value chains more sustainably and equitably managed and governed.
- Increased and optimized substitution of fossil or non-renewable resources with sustainably produced bio-based products.
- Reduced net greenhouse gas emissions from land-use and land-use change
- Improved livelihoods, agency and rights for farmers and foresters in landscapes
- Improved inclusion, gender and social equity in landscapes and along value chains, including with respect to indigenous peoples and local communities.
- Improved diets and nutrition worldwide with a diversity of forest and tree-based products.
- Biodiversity restored in landscapes from farm to forests.
- Increased adaptive capacity to climate change, from farms and forests to cities.
Key functions
To achieve these objectives, the new FTA Partnership has adopted three key functions:
Knowledge and solutions generation and sharing. FTA will compile, analyze and synthetize knowledge - both locally and across geographies - through context-relevant means that involve the participation of different genders and indigenous peoples.
Evidence-based advocacy, communication and engagement. FTA initiatives will make forests, trees and agroforestry more visible in global, regional and national dialogues surrounding the SDGs.
Operational engagement with stakeholders. FTA will facilitate exchanges and synergies with and between stakeholders that are engaged in projects on the ground.
How the FTA Partnership works
Partners
FTA brings together complementary partners:
- Core partners participate in the work of FTA and also to its governance as members of the Strategic Group. They determine the partnership’s strategic orientation, in consultation with associated partners. They also coopt new partners.
- Associated partners join FTA with a focus on a sub-set of issues, themes or geographies. They are kept regularly informed of developments and opportunities to collaborate and provide feedback and input.
Governance
A Secretariat supports the partnership’s work by facilitating fluid circulation of information between all partners and external audiences..
Activities
To fulfill these functions, the partnership will pursue two main categories of activities
- cross-cutting research and integrative activities and
- thematic, transformative research for development projects with operational engagement on the ground.
Into the future
As of September 2023, 18 organizations have signed the partnership’s charter.
Core and Associated Partners
- Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
- World Agroforestry (ICRAF)
- Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (ABC)
- Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE)
- French Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre (CIRAD)
- International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR)
- Tropenbos International
- Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF)
- Brazilian Agricultural Research Cooperation (EMBRAPA)
- International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)
- International Rubber Study Group (IRSG)
- Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG)
- Swedish International Agricultre Network Initiative (SIANI)
- Forest, Climate, and Livelihood Research Network (Focali)
- European Forest Institute (EFI)
- Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF)
- Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO), associated partner
- Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG)