Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • From governments down to local realities: Sentinel communities in the Congo Basin

From governments down to local realities: Sentinel communities in the Congo Basin


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Aerial view of a Transition Forest area in Bokito, Cameroon. Photo by Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR
Posted by

FTA communications

If it wasn’t for mankind chopping down trees, you get the sense that tropical rainforests around the world would be doing quite well.

According to the recent Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, deforestation is decreasing – but is still an inconceivable 4.7M hectares per year. Global Forest Watch reports that in 2019 we lost enough tropical primary forest to cover an area nearly the size of Switzerland.

This is disastrous news – but it’s not like we humans are chopping down trees for fun. Yes, standing forests absorb our carbon emissions and regulate our weather – but for hundreds of millions of people around the world, felled forests are our factories and our farms.

Nowhere are the competing human needs to both expand and exploit forests more apparent than in the Congo Basin.

Sprawling over no fewer than ten countries in Central Africa, the Congo Basin is an almost unimaginably enormous area. It’s bigger than India. 80 million people depend on its woodlands and wetlands for their livelihoods. Imagine the entire population of Germany living in a forest: that’s the Congo Basin.

It’s a wonder that any trees are still standing in the Congo Basin at all. The pressure on these forests is immense, from supporting those growing local communities, to supplying timber and cocoa for national and international markets, while keeping up with the rapacious demand for the precious minerals buried deep in the soil: essential components for the device on which you’re reading this story.

Yet stand those trees must. A recent study published in Nature estimates that the Congo Basin rainforests absorb 370 million metric tons of the planet’s carbon emissions every year – making them a more important sequester of carbon than even the Amazon.

That’s why, when an international collaboration of scientists launched an urgent health check of the world’s forests, they made sure to come to the Congo Basin. The Congo Basin, with its ancient forests butting up against twenty-first century development, is the very definition of a Sentinel Landscape. The third for which the CGIAR Research program on Forests Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) has produced a report after a 10-year research, the other two being the Nicaragua-Honduras site and the Borneo site.

A closer look at the Congo Basin

The CAFHUT Report [PDF]
Located in Cameroon, the scientific partners of the Central Africa Humid Tropics Transect Sentinel Landscape (CAFHUT) carefully analyzed four sites where the pressures of urban development, population growth and forest commercialization are rapidly changing the landscape.

Denis Sonwa was the coordinator of the CAFHUT Sentinel Landscape and lead author on the recently published stocktaking report: “The CAFHUT area was chosen to represent the different ecosystems and socioeconomic conditions in the Congo Basin in such a way that we can learn what are the drivers of deforestation, what forest models could be developed and what institutions could be useful as we develop responses to reduce/stop/reverse the anthropological ecology footprint on forest and natural ecosystems.”

The four sentinel study sites were chosen to represent different points along the forest transition curve:

  1. Mintom: a transition zone between mature old growth forest and logged-over forest, with a mixture of forest concessions, including community forests, but also the largest expanse of undisturbed tropical rainforest in Cameroon. The opening of a major road in the area has brought access to markets and promises more radical change in the near future.
  2. Lomie-Kongo: an area composed of degraded mature forests, where concessions, community forestry and timber exploitation are influencing the forest structure. Lomie-Kongo is very sparsely populated and the inhabitants are primarily subsistence farmers without easy access to markets.
  3. Ayos: a more degraded peri-urban landscape, where vegetation is characterized by gallery forests surrounded by swamp forests of raffia. A well-established road network provides access to large markets and ensures economic investment in cocoa, coffee and oil palm plantations.
  4. Bokito: a forest-savanna or deforested landscape, where successful reforestation means farmers can grow cash and subsistence crops, including cocoa and oil palm. Good road access means that locals can sell their produce more profitably at larger markets.
Position of the four sites along the forest transition curve

From soil to satellite: Why Sentinel Landscapes matter

All eight of the world’s Sentinel Landscapes, from the Amazon to the Mekong, use the same underlying methodology. Land health data collection, for example, uses the respected Land Degradation Surveillance Framework and, in Cameroon, 1280 soil samples from 640 plots were taken and sent for analysis to the Soil-Plant Spectral Diagnostics Laboratory at World Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Socioeconomic information is gathered using a combination of primary and secondary research. This means boots on the ground: in the CAFHUT Sentinel Landscape, researchers held focus group discussions and surveyed 927 households in 38 villages across all four sites. The granularity and consistency of the research means that the results are comparable across the world and the data can be exploited by everyone from farmers to politicians.

Soil analyses and advances in tree domestication are evidently vital for individual farmers looking to increase yields of their cocoa plantations today. Meanwhile, socioeconomic research into the value chains of non-timber forest products (NTFP) and crops such as bush mango kola nuts or safou can help farmers diversify their income for tomorrow.

But the significance of the Sentinel Landscape goes far beyond the concerns of local farmers. “It’s a multi-strata system,” Sonwa says, “from the national arenas considerations down to the local realities. The Sentinel Landscapes project is a good opportunity to bring science and policy together. The data provides an overview of the situation before they can move ahead.”

Cameroon is signed up to the United Nations REDD+ programme, which pays governments for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. This funding is increasingly urgent. According to a 2020 study published in Nature, the world’s rainforests are absorbing less carbon than they were in the 1990s. Rising global temperatures and harsher and more frequent droughts hamper the forests’ carbon absorption capacity and, by 2030, the trees of the Congo will soak up 14 percent less carbon than they did in the early 2000s.

At a certain point – perhaps as soon as the next decade – our tropical forests could become carbon sources instead of sinks. At the moment, projections of the disastrous impact of climate breakdown are predicated on the world’s forests continuing to mop up our excess carbon emissions. If that assumption proves false, then… It’s fair to say that research like the Sentinel Landscapes becomes an existential necessity.

“The Congo rainforest is the most important on the African continent,” Sonwa adds, “so the Sentinel Landscape data is important for the international community as well.”

“Substantial contributions”

Peter Minang is Principal Science Advisor for the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and one of FTA’s Flagship leaders. He’s been working on the landscapes of the Congo Basin for 25 years.

“Although it was building on work we were already doing,” Minang says, “the CAFHUT Sentinel Landscape was about developing databases and learning whether we were making progress in the sites on a landscape scale. It was extremely important.”

Minang continues: “I think there is enough evidence in CAFHUT that our partners were able to make substantial contributions, collect data and advance knowledge and awareness – and to some extent make an impact on those landscapes.”

Ten years of CAFHUT research has identified three key land management issues in the Congo Basin:

  1. reducing deforestation and forest degradation;
  2. raising people out of poverty; and
  3. improving cocoa and other tree commodity agroforestry systems.

Poverty, as Denis Sonwa says, is one of the “key drivers” of deforestation. This means that any attempt to curb the logging rights of farmers and smallholders must simultaneously offer them an alternative livelihood.

At one of the sentinel sites, Bokito, the sustainable conversion of savanna grasslands to cocoa agroforestry helps resolve all three land management issues – at least partially.

Anything but timber: routes out of poverty

Bokito lies 150km from Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. The landscape is forest-savanna or totally deforested. Poverty is a problem for local communities and contributes to drive deforestation, as farmers seek more fertile lands. Deforestation is itself a problem for local biodiversity as well as being one driver of the global catastrophe we all share: climate breakdown.

One of the problems with forests is that they aren’t directly profitable for local communities, whereas, as Peter Minang says, cutting down trees to plant cocoa is. “That automatically makes standing forests less competitive,” Minang says. “Outside timber, which is itself a forest degradation activity, there is a big question about how to make the forest directly productive.”

Aside from cocoa, one solution is for farmers to harvest non-timber forest products (NTFP), including fruit trees, nuts, medicinal plants and even insects such as maggots. But it’s not always easy to cash in on NTFPs as ICRAF scientist Divine Foundjem Tita explains: “Non-timber forest products are now more valuable for farmers, but the farmers are not always connected to the markets.”

That’s why, eight years ago, the CAFHUT partners helped link farmers to traders so that they could sell their NTFPs. The impact on communities has been “significant” according to Foundjem Tita, especially for women.

“During the school term, women take advantage to collect products and sell them,” Foundjem Tita says. “They can earn $100-1000 USD per year. This is significant.” In a country where GDP is only $3206 USD per capita, it certainly is.

“It’s about building connections, trust and relationships between collectors and traders,” Foundjem Tita says. “The money helps send their children to school, buy books for the kids—or participate in festivals like Christmas. It is very significant.”

Muscling in on ‘women’s cocoa’

As communities find alternative solutions, the economic landscape is changing. Historically, harvesting and selling NTFPs was women’s work. “They even call NTFPs ‘women’s cocoa’,” Foundjem Tita says. “But once the market starts increasing, more men start competing.”

Men are muscling in on the business. “Some men buy at a low price from women and sell high to traders,” Foundjem Tita says. “In one area, men now control 30 percent of the NTFP market.” As profitable as they have become, NTFPs will never be the whole solution. “They won’t completely eradicate poverty,” Foundjem Tita says. “But they will help farmers and have become a major income source for some.”

Nevertheless, Foundjem Tita believes that NTFPs could be more of a success story. In Cameroon, the sale of all forests products is regulated by a system of permits. These permits were designed to help preserve forests and regulate the supply of timber, but the authors of the report state that the procedures to obtain such permits for NTFPs are “complex, costly and beyond the capacity of most traders in agroforestry tree products, who are often operating at a small scale.”

“There are a lot of transaction costs in selling NTFPs, especially for communities who have to travel to the city,” Foundjem Tita says. “The consequences are high: it means that they end up selling locally without permits for a lower price.”

However, these legal roadblocks are well known and Foundjem Tita is optimistic that they will be corrected, as the government concludes its decade-long review of the law.

Driving deforestation

The most infamous causes of deforestation and forest degradation in the public imagination is logging, particularly illegal logging done without permits or accountability. But, as Peter Minang explains, it’s not so simple.

“Legal and illegal logging go together,” Minang says. “Once concessions are given, the people doing the logging don’t keep to the area where the legal concession was granted. A lot of the logging is not compliant with any traceability or accountability mechanism, so you have a lot of illegal logging.”

But the problem is not limited to logging companies overreaching their authorization. “Once a logging company opens the road,” Minang says, “illegal loggers can walk in with their chainsaws and take what they want. If there was no road, they wouldn’t have access.”

Illegal logging might loom large in the headlines, but Minang explains that the biggest driver of deforestation “by far” in the CAFHUT Sentinel Landscape is actually agriculture: cocoa, oil palm and, to some extent, rubber. Indeed, the stocktaking results found that the total area dedicated to the cultivation of palm oil is expected to double by 2030 compared to baseline of 2010. Meanwhile, cassava, groundnuts and maize were discovered to be the main drivers of cropland expansion.

This growth can only mean further deforestation. For example, the CoForTips project led by Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) found that deforested areas in Mindourou and Guéfigué in the Bokito subdistrict are predicted to increase twofold over the next decade, compared to 2000–2010. And, recently, that deforestation is being pushed from a surprising direction.

Middle class guilt

Historically, there have been two types of agricultural foresters in the Congo Basin: local smallholders who manage 1-2 hectares for subsistence and national or international companies who open up 100 hectares of forest. But there’s a new game in town.

“In the last ten years, there has been a new trend of middle level local investors,” Minang says. “Imagine Peter sitting here realises that oil palm is good business. Instead of having 1-2 hectares as a local farmer, I come back as an elite and open up 20 hectares.”

These middle class investors have made their money in the city and club together to buy medium-sized plots of primary forest to turn into cocoa and oil palm plantations.

“If it was only smallholders, there wouldn’t be a problem,” Minang says. “They can’t expand too much: 1-2 hectares, maybe 3-4 hectares if you’re a really great family man,” he explains. “There is some evidence that this middle level is a growing driver of deforestation compared to the past.”

Power to the people

One obvious way to stop deforestation is to pay people to protect the forests. In conservation terms this is called ‘payment for ecosystem services’ and Cameroon has trialled carbon payments on a small scale.

“The pilot studies have had very mixed results,” Minang explains. “One of the big problems with payments is that they can dis-incentivize conservation in nearby places. Unless you do it at scale, payments can be counterproductive and this means that you can’t draw conclusions from pilot studies.”

But Minang is optimistic: “I think payments for ecosystem services is the future and it is important to scale up those payments to see whether they would actually work.”

One solution that has been tried at scale is community forestry. The 1994 Community Forest law was introduced in Cameroon to help local communities become financially sustainable while also conserving the forest.

“Community forestry is a key feature in this landscape,” Minang says. “It’s still thin, but there is some emerging evidence that community forestry can improve livelihoods and support the forests so that they are not susceptible to logging or intrusive farming.”

The benefits are clear. “Some communities have been able to get drinkable water,” Minang says. “Some are using the proceeds from community forestry to put roofs on schools, build football pitches and equip health centres.”

Help needed!

But community forestry isn’t working as well as it could be. Critics argue that most of these community forests are in secondary forests, which means that there isn’t much timber to be harvested and the community have to peddle in the much less profitable NTFPs – made even less profitable by the expenses of the permit system.

According to Peter Minang, communities need a lot more help. “On top of the list is improving the enterprise abilities of farmers: marketing, cooperatives and financing for the improvement of cocoa, food crops and NTFP – that’s one major part,” he says.

“The other part is the sustainable intensification and diversification of agriculture,” Minang continues. “Once you get farmers to produce more on a smaller piece of land, hypothetically you won’t get people clearing forest. People are clearing because they are going for more fertile lands.”

 “The third part is enabling forest practise, making sure there are better policies for forest conservation, payments for ecosystem services and community-based management for forests. These are big areas for solutions to conservation of the landscape.”

The cocoa agroforestry solution?

Could cocoa agroforestry be the solution? As well as being a valuable cash crop, according to ICRAF’s Alternatives to Slash and Burn report, well managed cocoa plantations can maintain up to 60 percent of the carbon stock of primary forest. This is an improvement on the carbon capture of other food crops and represents hope for the heavily degraded savannah.

In a 2017 study published in Agroforestry, Denis Sonwa and his co-authors also found that the amount of carbon captured by cocoa agroforestry varies hugely depending on how the plantation is managed. For example: a cocoa plantation mixed with timber and NTFPs tree species stores more than twice the carbon of either an intensively-managed cocoa plantation, or even a cocoa plantation mixed with high densities of banana or plantain and oil palm.

Cocoa agroforestry is one of the dominant land uses throughout the Congo Basin. That means that advances in cultivation have the potential for huge knock-on benefits for both farmers and forests. Six projects in the CAFHUT Sentinel Landscape were focussed on improving cocoa agroforestry in terms of both yield and farmer incomes, while also reducing forest clearance for agriculture.

So are these projects delivering results for the three key land management issues in CAFHUT?

Peter Minang runs through his end of term report for the cocoa agroforestry interventions in Bokito: “Improving the livelihoods of the cocoa farmers by increasing cocoa productivity and helping communities in terms of NTFP? Excellent,” he says. “Reducing the carbon emissions of the cocoa farms? Of course – because of tree planting and the trees that are being kept.”

“However, we cannot 100 percent say that the project hasn’t increased deforestation in any way,” Minang concludes. “To get the results you want, you have to improve cocoa production and stop illegal logging. We think there is a weakness on the enforcement side.”

Two out of three ain’t bad?

Unfortunately, Bokito’s two out of three is about as good as it gets in the CAFHUT Sentinel Landscape. “I don’t think there are any places where they are getting it right,” Minang says. “Standards of living are still low and deforestation is increasing.”

“There has been some improvement in the productivity of cocoa, but because there are few alternative jobs in the city, people will always need to cut down trees to survive,” Minang continues. “I can guarantee you now with Covid-19 that there are people leaving the cities and going back to the countryside because there are more opportunities in the forests than in the city.”

Foundjem Tita agrees. “A more holistic approach needs to be developed to deal with deforestation and degradation, logging, cocoa agroforestry and other programmes like NTFPs.” he says. “In order to improve farmers’ livelihoods we will need a basket of solutions.”

Denis Sonwa is looking ahead to how the Sentinel Landscape data can be used for the good of both farmers and forests. “The information needs to be presented in a format that is understandable and digestible to those who are taking the decisions,” he says.

Despite the Congo Basin’s prominence as a global carbon sink, a 2019 CIFOR study found that over 2008–2017, Congo Basin forests received the least funding (USD 1.7 million) of the tropical zones, compared with the Amazon Basin (USD 5.1 million) and Southeast Asia (USD 8.1 million). There is scope and opportunity for donors to increase funding in the region: by mapping out the scale of the problems of poverty and deforestation in the cocoa-rich agroforestry of the Congo Basin, the data of the CAFHUT Sentinel Landscape can make a real difference by helping to source private funding for research.

“Take the chocolate companies, for example,” Sonwa says, “they’re now moving to what we call a zero deforested value chain.” Since 2017, investment from some of the world’s biggest chocolate and cocoa companies, including Mars, Guittard and Mondelēz, has been helping to fund both conservation and livelihoods in the forests of the Congo Basin.

It’s exactly this kind of international cooperation that our global forests need, as Denis Sonwa says: “from national arenas considerations down to the local realities”.

 


By David Charles. This article was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with ICRAF, The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.

 


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • Sustainability of Brazilian forest concessions

Sustainability of Brazilian forest concessions


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Madre de Dios, Peru. Photo by Marco Simola/CIFOR
Posted by

FTA communications

In 2006, the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB) started an ambitious program to establish forest concessions so as to provide a legal framework for long-term sustainable timber production in Amazonian forests. Forest concessions in the Brazilian Amazon currently cover only 1.6 million ha (Mha) but we estimate the area of all potential concessions as 35 Mha.

This paper assessed the conditions under which the present and potential concession system can ensure an annual production of 11 Mm3. yr−1 to meet the estimated present timber demand. For this we used the volume dynamics with differential equations model (VDDE) calibrated for the Amazon Basin with a Bayesian framework with data from 3500 ha of forest plots monitored for as long as 30 years after selective logging.

Predictions of commercial volume recovery rates vary with location. We tested 27 different scenarios by using combinations of initial proportion of commercial volume, logging intensity and cutting cycle length. These scenarios were then applied to the current area of concessions and to the area of all potential concessions (35 Mha). Under current logging regulations and the current concession area (mean logging intensity of 15–20 m3.ha−1, a harvest cycle of 35 years and an initial commercial timber volume proportion of 20%), timber production can be maintained only for a single cutting cycle (35 years). Only the scenario with a logging intensity of 10 m3ha−1 every 60 years with a 90% initial proportion of commercial timber species can be considered as sustainable. Under this scenario, the maximum annual production with the present concession areas is 159,000 m3 (157–159), or less than 2% of the present annual production of 11 Mm3. When considering all potential concession areas (35 Mha), under current rules, the total annual production is 10 Mm3yr−1 (2–17 Mm3yr−1, 95% credibility interval) but is not maintained after the first logging cycle.

Under the most sustainable scenario (see above) and a concession area of 35 Mha, the long-term sustainable annual production of timber reaches only 3.4 Mm3yr−1. Based on these results we argue that the concession system will not be able to supply the timber demand without substantial reforms in natural forest management practices and in the wood industry sector. We argue that alternative sources of timber, including plantations linked with forest restoration initiatives, must be promoted.


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • Webinar Report - Innovations to overcome barriers to access to finance for smallholders, SMEs and women

Webinar Report – Innovations to overcome barriers to access to finance for smallholders, SMEs and women


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Posted by

FTA communications

Innovations to overcome barriers to access to finance for smallholders, SMEs and women

On September 14-18 and 21-25, 2020 the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) held Forest, trees and agroforestry science for transformational change, a 10-day online event. The decadal event exclusive to the FTA community, gathered over 600 registered participants: researchers involved in FTA from its 7 managing partners (The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CATIE, CIFOR, CIRAD, World Agroforestry, INBAR, and Tropenbos International), as well as invited keynotes from external organizations. The conference showcased 179 abstracts (60% of which is in collaboration with FTA’s external partners), 14 keynote presentations, 54 live presentations, 62 asynchronous presentations, and 40 technical posters.

The FTA researchers from all over the world convened online to present the most exciting research results in the programme, exchange experiences and lessons learned, and reflect on the way forward for transformative change in the fields of forestry and agroforestry science.

All the material from the conference can be found on the dedicated portal

As a follow up from the FTA 2020 Science Conference, FTA and its managing partners are now releasing knowledge products, extracting the highlights from the conference and bringing them to the public. The aim is to inform and support concrete action on the ground, focusing on transformative science derived from FTA’s most innovative research lines.

From Science to Action!

One of the first products deriving from the FTA 2020 Science Conference is the new webinar series “From Science to Action”. Open to the public, these events offer a way to showcase the best outcomes from the research discussed and presented in the various themes of the conference, bring together perspectives from different stakeholders and donors, and gather feedback from the audience. Most importantly, these webinars are also an occasion to present concrete actions that derive from FTA’s research: tools, publications, results that can be used by a wide variety of stakeholders in their activities. On the 26th of November 2020 the webinar series proudly opened its season with a first one on “Innovations to overcome barriers to access to finance for smallholders, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and women”, developed in coordination with Tropenbos International, who leads the FTA Priority 17 on Innovating finance for sustainable landscapes. The event can be replayed fully at this link.

Innovations to overcome barriers to access to finance for smallholders, SMEs and women

Over the years, the landscape approach has gained momentum and popularity in advancing interdisciplinary and holistic environmental management interventions. It has taken the center spot in discussions in international workshops, academic circles, and scientific debates as the go-to integrated approach in working towards sustainable use of forests, land, and other natural resources.

Much has been said about the landscape approach’s  merits, but scaling up its implementation is lagging. One of the reasons is the lack of access to finance. To address this, FTA works with Tropenbos International (TBI) on innovative finance for sustainable landscapes, focusing on ways to overcome existing barriers for smallholders, SMEs, and women, important landscape actors that are often missed in existing landscape investments. Bringing finance to vulnerable groups and understanding the flows of finance to and from a landscape is crucial to fully realize the sustainability of landscapes.

Michael Allen Brady, FTA’s flagship leader for sustainable value chains and investments, moderated the first webinar, which convened a mix of researchers, financial experts, and government representatives, and attracted around 200 participants, to tackle innovative financial schemes for sustainable land uses with smallholder involvement. The webinar was highly successful and it included 2 polls for further interaction and a lively debate through a Q&A panel chatbox. A number questions from the audience unfortunately went unanswered and thus the panel took on board them after the event and can be read in this document.

A product of an intensive 2-and-a-half-year consultative process, the latest report on ‘Innovative Finance for Sustainable Landscapes’ was launched at the webinar. The lead author of the report, Bas Louman of Tropenbos International (TBI), discussed common barriers that hinder large scale implementation of finance initiatives to transform landscapes. “Funds flow towards landscapes, but, in reality, only a small proportion reaches the field, and even less of that reaches communities and local farmers in small- and medium-sized farms,” Louman said. “We need to learn how to use finance better to transform and upscale our practices to become more sustainable,” he added.

Timeline for the production of the report, which included panel discussions at events, interviews, open consultations and a peer review.

FTA’s Working Paper #7  “Innovative finance for sustainable landscapes” developed with Tropenbos International [PDF]
The report digs deep into three relatively new financial instruments:

  1. Blended financethe strategic use of public or philanthropic development capital to mobilize additional external private commercial finance and can support SDG-related investment (pg. 19);
  2. Green bondsform of debt that links the generated funds to climate goals or environmentally friendly investments (pg. viii); and
  3. Crowdfunding pooling of small amounts of capital from a potentially large number of interested funders (pg. 44).

These innovative financial structures have potential to increase landscapes investments. However, challenges remain for smallholders for tapping into these financial sources. As manifested by the audience reaction to the first poll, more than 80% of them stated that these financial instruments alone are not sufficient or will only partially help overcome the current barriers. The equation is more complex.

Before initiating the discussions, the audience was treated to a poll for the following question: To what extent do you think that the discussed innovative finance structures (green bonds, blended finance, crowd funding) address the barriers for local farm and forest producer organizations to access finance? These were the results:

Participants of the webinar voted on the extent of the effectivity of the three financial instruments (green bonds, blended finance, and crowdfunding) in addressing the barriers encountered by smallholders in accessing finance.

Risk – both on the investors and investees side – is clearly one of the greater barriers in allowing financial flows in landscape management. How big are these risks, who should bare them, and as Felix Hoogveld of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands asked: “If you blend public and private finance, how do you share the risks? How do you come to a reasonable and fair balance of risks?” “It is a negotiation,” Louman said. “Together, different actors should have a mutual understanding of each other’s business, what are reasonable business risks, what are additional risks due to entering into a relatively unknown business, and how much risks is each party willing to take,” he replied.

Another obstacle for smallholder groups is the literacy of farmers and SMEs about these financial instruments. “(It is a) challenge for a lot of investors and banks to finance farmer producer groups who do not have a credit history or are too risky for a traditional credit perspective,” said Ivo Mulder, head of the Climate Finance Unit of UN Environment Programme. There is a need to support farmers in strengthening their financial literacy in order to improve their presentation of business cases to financial institutions.

Financial regulations and capital requirements are also barring smallholders. “The longer-term investment loans, which all tie to sustainable landscapes, are extremely unattractive for financial institutions to look at,” Eelko Bronkhorst of Financial Access commented. “Simply because they are multi-year and therefore the capital allocation is risky,” he added.

Currently, there are pilot initiatives on innovative risk strategies such as the interventions illustrated in the report of Guatemala’s Association of Forest Communities of Petén (ACOFOP) and the forest company Komaza in Kenya, which both yielded positive results. But more need to be documented and promoted.

A second poll was then conducted to understand the audience’s point of view on the important steps for effective sustainable landscapes.

Most of the participants to the webinar thought that designing locally appropriate financial instruments, similar to what ACOFOP did in Guatemala, is the most important step to follow through for sustainable landscapes finance.

Designing a mechanism of blended finance, which incentivizes behavior change, and looks at the gender lens to modify investors’ perceptions and assessing opportunities, has been at the center of Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) work. “Instead of regarding women as a risky investment, we are actually able to show that their involvement in economic activities invested in mitigates risks. And we do this through data,” Chien said. By changing investors and companies’ perspectives and practices, IIX can tap financial opportunities and make them more inclusive to smallholders. “We connect the back streets to the wall streets,” Chien added.

Developing diverse investment portfolios with different levels of risk was also suggested. “(Usually) we look at only one crop, such as oil palm, rubber, rather than investing in a series of crops in the same area,” Louman suggested. “(Considering multiple crops) could spread the risks of investments and different asset forms.”

Presenting agroforestry as a ‘business’ case is reflective of this diverse portfolio. But for this to be successful, other mechanisms should be looked into, such as payment for ecosystem services (PES). “When you combine agriculture with planting trees, then actually those farmers are also producing public goods. When there is no PES, it would be even harder to achieve a kind of rate of return.”, said Busink.

The crucial role of governments in facilitating finance for sustainable landscapes was also highlighted in the conversation. “One thing the governments could think of is to ask for a percentage of the capital be directed to farmer producer groups,” Mulder said. Governments are integral in addressing fundamental issues in the landscapes, such as tenure insecurity, which implicates financing. “What is the long-term prospect for them (the farmers) to make investments, if you’re not sure that the land is yours after five years,” Busink said.

“Speaking the same language” is one of the recommendations. “So much gets lost in translation,” Bronkhorst said. “If we can find a way to translate our work into a simple business case to start… that could be a very practical approach,” he added. Collaborations with existing institutions that could act as intermediaries are seen to fill this gap. Farmers and SMEs should be put in a position to understand precisely what investors have to offer, with all the implications, while financers should take into consideration the culture, expectations, needs and methods of their future investees.

The momentum and the drive to unlock capital and investments for sustainable landscapes are getting stronger. With a new GEF project – Green Finance for Sustainable Landscapes, Mulder presented an opportunity to tap private capital from banks and financial institutions. “The finance case is (still) weak” Mulder said. “But we aim to increase financial, time-bound commitments,” he added.

In 2021, FTA will be bringing its technical expertise into consolidating its partnerships with UNEP, IIX and Financial Access, amongst other institutions, to accelerate the financing of landscape initiatives for sustainability. “We have an issue of urgency here,” Vincent Gitz, Director of FTA, underlined. “There is plenty of money for investments. Now is an opportunity to find how that could reach the bottom of the pyramid”, he said.

FTA and Tropenbos’ newly launched report Innovative finance for sustainable landscapes “is a wonderful way to set the stage for future collaborations,” Chien concluded.

 


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • Cómo abordar la silvicultura y la agroforestería en los Planes Nacionales de Adaptación

Cómo abordar la silvicultura y la agroforestería en los Planes Nacionales de Adaptación


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Posted by

FTA communications

* Nota del editor: Esta es una traducción del artículo en inglés Forests and agroforestry taking its place for climate adaptation, publicado originalmente en Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA)*

El potencial de los bosques y los árboles para mitigar el calentamiento global ha estado por mucho tiempo en el centro de las discusiones sobre el cambio climático. Pero hoy, los bosques –y los medios de vida de 1,6 mil millones de personas que dependen de ellos– están gravemente amenazados por los cambios en la temperatura y las precipitaciones, las tormentas,  plagas e incendios cada vez más frecuentes e intensos. Y es un hecho que la habilidad de los bosques y los árboles para adaptarse a estos impactos influirá también en su capacidad para mitigar el cambio climático.

Pero además, los bosques y los árboles ofrecen las llamadas soluciones basadas en la naturaleza para la adaptación, que pueden ayudar a la resiliencia de otros sectores. Gracias a sus importantes servicios ecosistémicos, los bosques sustentan los cultivos, la ganadería y la pesca, y también previenen las inundaciones y la erosión que pueden amenazar la infraestructura, las economías y a las personas.

Cómo abordar la silvicultura y la agroforestería en los Planes Nacionales de Adaptación: directrices complementarias [PDF]
Dada la importancia de estas contribuciones, el Programa de Investigación del CGIAR sobre Bosques, Árboles y Agroforestería (FTA) y la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO) unieron esfuerzos para poner a disposición el documento Cómo abordar la silvicultura y la agroforestería en los Planes Nacionales de Adaptación: directrices complementarias, para apoyar a los países a integrar estas consideraciones en la planificación de la adaptación al cambio climático.

Esta nueva publicación complementa las Directrices técnicas para el proceso del Plan Nacional de Adaptación, preparadas en 2012 por el Grupo de Expertos de los Países Menos Adelantados (GEPMA) de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC), así como el documento de la FAO Abordar la agricultura, la silvicultura y la pesca en los Planes Nacionales de Adaptación – Directrices complementarias, el cual introduce la perspectiva del sector y las oportunidades en los Planes Nacionales de Adaptación (PNA).

Todas las directrices se desarrollaron a partir de las lecciones aprendidas en los países y por medio del Programa de Integración de la Agricultura en los Planes Nacionales de Adaptación (NAP-Ag, por sus siglas en inglés), liderado de forma conjunta por la FAO y el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD), y financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Medio Ambiente, Conservación de la Naturaleza, Construcción y Seguridad Nuclear de Alemania, por medio de la Iniciativa Internacional para el Clima (IKI, por sus siglas en alemán), cuyo objetivo es atender las preocupaciones de adaptación al cambio climático relacionadas con el sector agrícola en los procesos de planificación nacional y de elaboración de presupuesto implementados entre 2015 y 2020 por 11 países socios.

Las nuevas directrices destacan la importancia de la silvicultura y la agroforestería para la adaptación.

“Dado que el cambio climático afecta a los bosques, se requiere de medidas de adaptación para reducir los impactos negativos y mantener las funciones del ecosistema y su biodiversidad. Asimismo, los ecosistemas forestales contribuyen a la adaptación al proveer servicios ecosistémicos locales que reducen la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático tanto de las comunidades locales e indígenas, como de la sociedad en su conjunto. El potencial de los bosques y los árboles pasa desapercibido en las áreas rurales y urbanas. La adaptación del bosque será crucial, como parte de la recuperación verde ante la pandemia de COVID-19, y para un futuro más resiliente y sostenible”, aseguró Julia Wolf, coautora y Oficial de Recursos Naturales de la FAO.

Contribuciones potenciales de los bosques, árboles y la agroforestería a la adaptación de otros sectores o sistemas

Planificar la adaptación

Al reconocer los múltiples vínculos que tienen los bosques, los árboles y la agroforestería con otras actividades y sectores, y sus contribuciones a los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), las directrices adoptan un enfoque sistémico que se basa en el Marco Integrativo para los PNA y los ODS definidos por el GEPMA, lo cual permite una consideración más explícita sobre cómo abordar los ODS por medio de los PNA.

La CMNUCC estableció los procesos de los PNA para los Países Menos Adelantados (PMA) y para otros países en desarrollo, para identificar y abordar sus necesidades de adaptación a mediano y largo plazo. Este es el instrumento principal para que los países logren sus prioridades de adaptación y sus contribuciones nacionalmente determinadas (NDC, por sus siglas en inglés) bajo el Acuerdo de París, así como medidas alineadas de resiliencia climática y de manejo del riesgo de desastre bajo el Marco de Sendai para la Reducción del Riesgo de Desastres. Al tomar en cuenta las interacciones entre todos los sectores de una forma coordinada, los procesos de los PNA pueden favorecer un enfoque más holístico sobre el uso de la tierra y sobre los paisajes.

Proceso Modelo para la formulación e implementación de los PNA. Nota: Se muestran los pasos (en cuadros) y sus productos que actúan como entradas para los pasos posteriores.
Abreviaturas: M&E = monitoreo y evaluación, PAN = plan nacional de adaptación.

Estas directrices surgieron en respuesta a un llamado en 2018 del Comité Forestal de la FAO para alentar a los países a incorporar a los bosques en sus PNA, desarrollar políticas para la adaptación que incluyeran a los bosques, llevar a cabo acciones para mejorar la salud de los bosques y restaurar los paisajes y bosques degradados.

Posible flujo del proceso para abordar los sectores agrícolas en los PNA (para su adaptación). Fuente: Adoptado de las directrices técnicas PNA de la CMNUCC (UNFCCC, 2012)

La publicación se fundamenta en conocimiento existente relacionado con el manejo del bosque, evaluaciones de vulnerabilidad y adaptación al cambio climático, aprovechando las enseñanzas obtenidas al abordar la adaptación al cambio climático en los sectores agrícolas. Su objetivo es ofrecer orientación para las políticas y los responsables de la toma de decisiones sobre planificación para la adaptación y el financiamiento climático, así como a los múltiples actores en los sectores forestal y agrícola.

Para abordar las necesidades de los países de una forma más eficaz, las directrices se basan en un análisis de los PNA publicados, junto con documentos relacionados preparados por los países desarrollados o autoridades subnacionales. También se basan en consultas con expertos técnicos y partes interesadas clave de organizaciones de la sociedad civil, de organizaciones no gubernamentales, del sector privado y de organizaciones internacionales, así como en las directrices PNA-Ag y las recomendaciones del Grupo de Expertos de los Países Menos Adelantados de la CMNUCC.

La adaptación del bosque será crucial, como parte de la recuperación verde ante la pandemia de COVID-19, y para un futuro más resiliente y sostenible”

 Julia Wolf, Oficial de Recursos Naturales de la FAO

Enfoque integral

Las directrices invitan a los países a examinar las vulnerabilidades de los bosques y de las personas que dependen de ellos. Para ello, pueden utilizar este otro documento publicado de forma conjunta por la FAO- CGIAR FTA, Climate change vulnerability assessment of forests and forest-dependent people: A framework methodology (documento solo disponible en inglés), dado a conocer durante la COP 25 en Madrid, en 2019, en respuesta a los llamados para contar con enfoques sencillos y eficaces para llevar a cabo evaluaciones de vulnerabilidad. El documento ofrece una orientación flexible y detallada sobre cómo llevar a cabo estas evaluaciones, con la finalidad de acelerar los esfuerzos para mejorar las condiciones de las personas y de los bosques.

Con la aprobación de la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible y el Acuerdo de París, la comunidad internacional se ha comprometido con objetivos colectivos ambiciosos. Y el uso de la tierra es clave para todas estas aspiraciones, especialmente para los compromisos hechos por los países, establecidos en sus NDC. Debido a su destacado papel en la mitigación, para la adaptación, para el manejo sostenible de los recursos naturales y para la seguridad alimentaria, los bosques y los árboles están en el centro de este enfoque integrado.


Este artículo fue elaborado por el Programa de Investigación del CGIAR sobre Bosques, Árboles y Agroforestería (FTA). FTA es el programa de investigación para el desarrollo más grande del mundo. Busca fortalecer el papel de los bosques, los árboles y la agroforestería en el desarrollo sostenible y la seguridad alimentaria, y en la lucha contra el cambio climático. CIFOR lidera el FTA en asociación con Bioversity International, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR, ICRAF, y TBI. El trabajo del FTA es apoyado por el CGIAR Trust Fund.


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • Two key UN policy processes are now more gender responsive

Two key UN policy processes are now more gender responsive


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Scenes from UN Headquarters during the opening of the 74th General Debate at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on Tuesday 24 September 2019. Photo: UN Women/Amanda Voisard
Posted by

FTA communications

FTA research and engagement inform biodiversity and climate change policies

Each year, reports on declining biodiversity and the accelerating impacts of global change become more alarming. But what is often not emphasized is how differently these global challenges affect women and men and how women and men can differently address them.

For example, studies suggest large-scale gender differences in mortality rates associated with natural disasters, particularly where women are socioeconomically disadvantaged and where disasters exacerbate existing patterns of discrimination. But in 2015, only 0.01% of worldwide grant dollars addressed both climate change and gender inequalities.

Gender-blind policies and actions risk increasing and exacerbating inequalities within households, decreasing women’s well-being and creating disincentives for women’s participation, as shown in an FTA study on perceptions of well-being in communities that have taken part in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) projects.

There is also evidence that gender-equitable policies and projects can lead to better institutional and environmental performance. FTA research has helped contribute to more gender-responsive global policy processes, for example through gender research that influenced the design of policy documents used to inform the negotiation processes in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

“This is a critical juncture,” said Marlène Elias, FTA Gender Research Coordinator. “We have to seize this moment as CBD develops its new strategy (the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework) for the coming decade.”

FTA scientists are collaborating with a network of organizations that have been pushing for more gender-responsive policies for years. Among this constellation of actors, the role of FTA scientists is to bring empirical evidence to the table.

Read publication  Women’s participation in forest management: A cross-country analysis

Evolution of engagement

In 2018, based on their submission on gender mainstreaming to the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UNFCCC secretariat invited FTA scientists to present empirical evidence on the links between gender and climate change at an in-session workshop at the 48th session of the SBI. Concurrently, FTA scientists were invited to join the For All Coalition, which aims to inform gender integration under the United Nations Rio Conventions. FTA was thus one of few research initiatives represented in the coalition, which brings together parties to the Conventions, members of the Conventions’ secretariats, and key gender non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to inform gender integration and negotiations under the Conventions.

Also in 2018, FTA and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) jointly developed a paper on gender issues under the CBD that served as a background document to the CBD’s 14th Conference of the Parties (COP14). The paper was later submitted as a note by the executive secretary and considered as an agenda item at COP18.

FTA also contributed to a workshop on 1 July 2018 that was co-led by UN Women and the CBD Secretariat, held on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the Convention’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-22) and the second meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI-2). Its aim was to strengthen the capacities of Convention delegates to integrate gender into intergovernmental deliberations and the implementation of the Convention, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs).

A big win at CBD COP14 was the agreement among Parties to a gender-responsive process to develop the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, by systematically integrating gender considerations and ensuring that women and girls are adequately represented in the process. This gave way to renewed efforts among FTA and partners to influence the process, including through an expert workshop held in 2019 in New York, in which FTA participated along with representatives from national governments, civil society organizations and movements, UN agencies and other international organizations. The workshop was one in a series to build consensus around the key elements for a gender-responsive Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

Iliana Monterroso, a scientist and co-coordinator of Gender and Social Inclusion Research at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR, the FTA lead partner), presented FTA’s research-based recommendations, which were included in the forestry section of the workshop report. Drawing on lessons from gender-responsive forest landscape restoration work, these recommendations were to: recognize land rights, knowledge, and natural resources; build capacity among women through economic empowerment initiatives and green entrepreneurship opportunities and training; create gender parity quotas, including quotas for socially excluded groups; audit women’s contribution to the forest sector; and map existing and pending claims around resources.

“During the presentation, we drew from previous research around REDD+ issues to highlight lessons learned and synergies in order to incorporate gender in the discussion of the upcoming strategy. We highlighted how some of these challenges are not unique to the implementation of restoration or biodiversity agendas but are partly the result of structural gender inequalities that need to be addressed in order to derive the expected outcomes,” said Monterroso.

As the dynamic engagement with the CBD secretariat and expert group evolved, FTA contributed to joint submissions with other participating organizations to inform the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, including during the Regional Consultation of the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean in Montevideo.

FTA and UN Women also co-hosted an expert workshop on the ICRAF campus in Nairobi to formulate key messages for the First Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. The meeting resulted in recommendations to the OEWG for gender-responsive goals, indicators and targets; an accountability framework; and enabling conditions, including capacity-building and finance, for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, which is currently under revision.

As a result of its strong reputation for gender research and active engagement with the Rio Conventions processes (see Box), FTA has been invited to contribute to several global initiatives to establish and track progress towards gender equality targets. For instance, in the drafting of the Equal Measures 2030 global report, FTA has provided recommendations on gender indicators for the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on climate change. The report referenced FTA’s submission to the UNFCCC SBI and two FTA studies,[1] and underlined the importance of the inclusion of women in national decision making on climate policies. FTA’s submission was also widely cited in a recent synthesis report on gender and climate change developed by the UNFCCC secretariat. In 2019, FTA scientists also participated in designing and delivering a capacity-building workshop on gender mainstreaming with the UNFCCC Least Developed Countries Expert Group (LEG).

“One thing we have learned from our engagement in the UNFCCC processes is that there has been a disconnect between the growing body of research on gender and climate change, on one hand, and the really strong demand by Parties and other stakeholders for data to support evidence-based, gender-responsive climate policy and practice, on the other,” said Markus Ihalainen, a senior research officer and co-coordinator of Gender and Social Inclusion Research at CIFOR. “There are many topics that merit further investigation, but we know enough to say that lack of evidence cannot be an excuse for gender-blind climate policy making. FTA has done so much work on this topic, and when we can help it reach the right people and processes, we see that there is a whole lot of interest in taking it up.”

The power of language

One important way of influencing a more gender-responsive agenda is through advocating for more progressive language in policy texts. Since language frames content and approaches, having a common and meaningful language around gender across global policies, such as the Rio Conventions, would facilitate more harmonized and synergistic implementation and monitoring and lead to more positive, impactful changes towards gender equality.

FTA gender experts engage with a wide range of stakeholders to both support evidence-based, gender-responsive policy-making, as well as to provide guidance and tools for effective and equitable implementation and monitoring on the ground.

“We want to make sure that appropriate language – which has been developed through a range of consultations with gender specialists and gender equality advocates and across global policy processes, such as the UNFCCC and the SDGs – is retained and imported into every new effort,” said Elias. “For example, there is an agreed way to refer to the participation of women and marginalized groups as ‘full, effective and meaningful’. Such language has been hard fought for and vetted by gender equity groups.”

Weaving this iteratively developed language on gender throughout global policies that affect rural women – and ensuring that it guides implementation and action on the ground – is a worthwhile effort. To support this effort, FTA gender experts continue to bring the latest science to the discussions among global networks of gender-focused organizations.


[1] CIFOR-FTA (2013). E. Coleman and E. Mwangi, “Women’s Participation in Forest Management: A Cross-country

Analysis,” Global Environmental Change 23 (no. 1): 193-205, February, 2013. 

Pham TT and Brockhaus M. (2015). Gender Mainstreaming and REDD+ and PES. CIFOR Gender Climate Brief no. 5. Bogor: CIFOR.


This article was written by Erin O’Connell.

This article was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with ICRAF, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • The COVID-19 pandemic and agroecosystem resilience: early insights for building better futures

The COVID-19 pandemic and agroecosystem resilience: early insights for building better futures


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
John Rono harvests coriander on his farm in western Kenya for sale at an urban centre. Photo World Agroforestry
Posted by

FTA communications

Originally posted on ICRAF’s website.

Researchers have studied the impact on natural and managed landscapes and call for wiser and transformative solutions.

As part of socio-ecological systems, agroecosystems provide livelihoods for millions. The ecosystem services generated from agroecosystems provide the basic substances that we need to exist. Hence, the resilience of societies is dependent on well-functioning ecosystems, which is not a given in many developing nations.

As the world marks one year since the global spread of COVID-19, rupturing life as it used to be, it is time to take stock of the impacts beyond the direct medical aspects: on people, forests and agroforestry. A research team from World Agroforestry (ICRAF) studied in depth the wider effects and published their results in the journal, Sustainability.

They found that the impacts have been substantial. So much so that there will be a cesure between research done before, and research results obtained after, 2020.

‘As the reported impacts were both positive and negative,’ said Lalisa Duguma, ICRAF senior scientist researching sustainable landscapes and integrated climate actions and lead author of the article, ‘we started a systematic review of the emerging peer-reviewed literature, realizing that these still are snapshots that need to be interpreted in their local contexts.’

Owing to the disease, countries have closed land borders, ports and even their airspaces except for emergencies or medical goods and equipment supplies. With the planet more globalised than at any other time in human history, these measures, adopted to safeguard populations and contain the virus, created shocks to the broader economy, livelihoods and societal networks. This resulted in significant social effects that created further stress to the prevailing climate-change challenges, environmental degradation and increasing inequity.

Though COVID effects were global, developing countries were the most affected owing to disruptions to economic activities, including production and trade. The pandemic exposed faults in the highly advocated export market, revealing the weak readiness countries have when global issues arise.

In particular, in Sub-Saharan Africa, countries experienced a significant rural-to-urban movement over the last few decades, leading to expansion of urban areas that are strongly dependent on rural agroecosystems. Employment opportunities mainly drove the migration, either as casual or other forms of employment. Most rural households have one or more family members who have moved to urban areas seeking employment.

With the emergence of COVID-19, and measures taken to curb its spread, many employers laid off and reduced staff and casual labourers. Since they lost their jobs and had no other income sources, urban dwellers who were formerly remitters turned for help to their family members in rural areas. Others who lost their jobs returned to their rural areas, increasing demand for consumables. This may increase demand for agricultural land, which is often gained at the expense of forests and woodlands, especially by those living on the margins of forests.

 

A woman watering vegetables in Burkina Faso. Photo: World Agroforestry/Sophie Mbugua
A woman watering vegetables in Burkina Faso. Photo: World Agroforestry/Sophie Mbugua

In the agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors, most interventions are time-sensitive, that is, seasonal, and if the schedule is missed, then farmers have to wait for the next year to implement similar tasks.

Owing to movement restrictions, field inventories, surveys, data collection and other field activities were slowed or discontinued completely to avoid risks to personnel and communities within which activities were to take place. Manenti and others, using responses from managers of protected areas, found that the managers were challenged to implement activities. The lockdowns led to the flourishing of invasive species that were usually managed when access was not restricted.

At farmers’ level, the impacts have been far-reaching. For instance, owing to the non-essential travel and movement restrictions and lack of prior preparation, farmers could not access input supplies, such as fertilisers, disease and pest control inputs and improved seeds.

One vital sector that usually generates substantial revenue for natural resource management in many countries is tourism. In many African countries, the tourism sector is strongly dependent on ecosystems. With the movement restrictions, tourists have temporarily abandoned the region and revenue from the sector has shrunk significantly. It is important to note that the sector supports most wildlife reserves, sanctuaries and private parks in Africa. For example, the United Nations World Tourism Agency indicated that, as of April 2020, almost half of global tourist destinations had closed their borders either totally or partially.

With the shrunken revenue owing to the pandemic, most of the natural resources (wildlife, landscapes and other natural habitats) that the sector relied on have received limited management investment owing to resource scarcity. Unless there are new support schemes, these resources may face significant degradation owing to lack of effective management. Unfortunately, the countries where such resources are located are also facing financial constraints, forcing them to channel available resources to priority and urgent interventions to control COVID-19.

Net impacts varied across continents and within countries, with global chains most at risk and some local supply chains actually flourishing. Diverse agroforestry landscapes with multiple options had ways to cope with the stress while overspecialized landscapes locked into, and dependent on, global supply chains were the most vulnerable. At least, that’s how it appears to be so far, write the team. Further compilations and analysis will be needed.

Overall, whether mitigative, adaptive, transformational or re-imaginative, all actions would need to be backed up by massive investments, policies and incentives. Investments will have to be justified by meeting the current and future generations’ expectations. Above all, leadership, collaboration and joint action will be needed if impacts from COVID-19 like stresses on socio-ecological systems would be minimised in the future.

‘In looking for a suitable “framing” for understanding the cascading effects in socio-ecological systems,’ said Meine van Noordwijk, ICRAF distinguished research fellow and part of the team, ‘we tried to combine the adaptive learning cycle of a resilience analysis scheme, with its breakdown of existing linkages and stored capitals, before the buds of new solutions can be identified among the rubble, with the various types of decisions in the driver–pressure–system–impacts–responses scheme.’

The SARS-CoV2 virus, the source of COVID-19, has had an impact on all Sustainable Development Goals and generated new visions of how humans should interact with nature. Source: Image 1: SARS-CoV2 virus: cdc.gov/covid19; Image 2: United Nations (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/news/communications-material/; Image 3: World Agroforestry/Meine van Noordwijk
The SARS-CoV2 virus, the source of COVID-19, has had an impact on all Sustainable Development Goals and generated new visions of how humans should interact with nature. Source: Image 1: SARS-CoV2 virus: cdc.gov/covid19; Image 2: United Nations (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/news/communications-material/; Image 3: World Agroforestry/Meine van Noordwijk

The pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of broader agroecosystems and related sectors and the livelihoods they support. Addressing these vulnerabilities needs measures that cascade from the national level to landscape and household levels. It needs a concerted effort across scales with decentralised roles and responsibilities at the various levels. It would be essential to design and focus on building back better actions around adaptive, transformational and re-imaginative approaches that target systemic changes over the long term. Adaptive, integrated approaches need to focus on adjusting socio-ecological system dynamics to be sufficiently responsive to COVID-19 types of stresses.

‘The most immediate responses of people minimize the damage of a newly emerging threat, before adaptation can occur,’ said Peter Minang, leader of ICRAF’s landscape research and a member of the team, ‘but building back better requires decisions at the transformative and re-imaginative levels, otherwise we may repeat the fragility that we have now observed.’

Specific to the zoonotic starting point of the coronavirus that triggers the COVID-19 disease, there is a debate on the degree of ‘segregation’ that is needed between human activities and the rest of the living world, write the team.

‘Some plead for a strict hygienic corridor, minimizing human interactions with potential sources of further zoonotic diseases,’ said van Noordwijk, ‘while others argue for accepting that humans are part of Nature and that no single wall can prevent human vulnerability, rather, resilience will have to be based on defences at multiple scales, including diversified livelihoods’ options and avoiding “lock-ins” that become a risk during “lock-downs”.’

The debate will continue, write the team, but it would be a missed opportunity if existing ‘engagement landscapes’, where researchers can understand the contexts, are not used to describe and analyse the cascading impacts and the bottlenecks to, and opportunities for, new solutions to emerge.

Read the journal article

Duguma LA, van Noordwijk M, Minang PA, Muthee K. COVID-19 Pandemic and Agroecosystem Resilience: Early Insights for Building Better FuturesSustainability. 2021; 13(3):1278. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031278


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • 2021 International Day of Forests - interviews to Julia Wolf and Alexandre Meybeck

2021 International Day of Forests – interviews to Julia Wolf and Alexandre Meybeck


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Posted by

FTA communications

On 21 March 2021 we celebrate the International Day of Forests!

Co-publication between FAO and FTA [PDF]
For this occasion we interviewed Julia Wolf (FAO) and Alexandre Meybeck (FTA), lead authors of the recently published co-publication “Addressing forestry and agroforestry in National Adaptation Plans: Supplementary guidelines”, a report that provides specific guidance for national adaptation planning in the forestry sector. These guidelines are intended to be used by national planners and decision–makers working on climate change issues in developing countries and authorities and experts who are contributing to climate change adaptation and NAP formulation and implementation. From the introduction of the report:

These supplementary guidelines therefore aim to:

    1. show the need for adaptation of forests and trees;
    2. show the importance of forests and trees for adaptation; show the need to appropriately integrate forest and trees in the NAP process;
    3. support NAP practitioners in integrating the management of forest and trees in NAPs;
    4. support actors in the forestry and agriculture sectors in their engagement and contribution to the process, at national, economy wide level, and both locally and in their sector/value chain; and
    5. trigger and facilitate a forward-looking intersectoral policy dialogue that fully integrates forests and trees in adaptation planning of all sectors.

The interviews touch upon the reasons why FAO and FTA decided to issue these guidelines, whom they are addressing, while also discussing some of the examples in the report. The potential of trees and forests to adapt to climate change and at the same time help other sectors, especially vulnerable systems, is one of the core elements of this publication.

This report was also recently presented at the 7th Asia-Pacific Adaptation Forum (APAN) and is now also available in Spanish. French and Arabic are forthcoming.

A full transcript of the interviews will be available in the next days.

Julia Wolf’s interview

Alexandre Meybeck’s interview



This article was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with ICRAF, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • Launching "From Tree to Fork" – an FTA Campaign

Launching “From Tree to Fork” – an FTA Campaign


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Posted by

FTA communications

Did you know that the fruit from the Baobab tree (Adansonia digitata L.) can contain up to six times more vitamin C than the same serving size of oranges and twice as much calcium as milk? Or that tamarind fruits are rich in protein and antioxidants, containing 40 percent more protein than the same serving size of avocado?

Though often unstated, forests and trees are much more than greenhouse gas banks (GHG) and ecosystem service providers; they are some of the world’s most valuable food producers. Their fruits and vegetables provide essential nutrition, dietary diversity, medicine and sources of income to people everywhere. When sustainably managed in agroforestry systems, increasing evidence shows that food trees are also primary engines of sustainable agricultural transformation, limiting deforestation while enriching the soil and generating valuable crops and wood products.

Both the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV) and the start of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration make 2021 an especially relevant time to reflect on the essential role of tree foods for human health, nutrition and food security. Several FTA events this year have already spotlighted these benefits. For example, during an event that was co-hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization last February, FTA’s FP1 Leader, Ramni Jamnadass, presented on the challenges of conserving fruit tree species and sharing genetic resources to make food systems more resilient. The UN Food Systems Pre-Summit last month also featured sessions in which FTA scientists such as Fergus Sinclair, Amy Ickowitz and Stepha McMullin championed agroecology and food trees conservation.

In this context, the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) is launching “From Tree to Fork”a communication campaign to raise awareness about some of the most unrecognized and underappreciated fruits and vegetables that come from trees.

With its captivating graphics and scientist-reviewed information, “From Tree to Fork” is aligned with the current global agenda to celebrate these benefits. Many of the tree foods compiled here supply key nutrients in local and indigenous diets around the world. Other parts of these trees including their leaves and bark are often used for medicine, carpentry, cultural traditions and in agroforestry systems where they can enhance soil fertility and improve crop survival rates. Together, the nutritional and livelihood functions of food-tree species contribute to community stability, income generation and dietary diversity.

New fruits and vegetables with colourful infographics to download will be released one-by-one over the rest of 2021 on a weekly basis, so stay tuned to never miss out on the updates. In the meantime, here are some quick facts to snack on!

  • The leaves of Jacote trees have been shown to exhibit anti-bacterial properties. A single 100 g edible portion of Jacote contains 63% of the potassium requirements for children aged 4-6 years old!
  • Rich in antioxidants and high in vitamin C, bitter beans are also enjoyed by hornbills, monkeys, squirrels, deer, elephants and wild pigs. The wood of the tree is used for pulp to manufacture paper and in carpentry.
  • The productivity life-time of a Palmyra Palm is over 100 years! The tree in India is said to have “800 uses” and it is considered a cultural symbol in many Asian countries.
  • The seeds of the African Breadfruit contain more protein than soybeans!

 


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • FTA Kunming Conference - Results

FTA Kunming Conference – Results


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
In person participants to the FTA Kunming Scientific Conference. Photo: World Agroforestry/Austin Smith
Posted by

FTA communications

On 22–24 June 2021, the CGIAR research program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) organized the FTA Kunming International Conference 2021, which explored the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in enhancing diverse and sustainable landscapes.

All videos from the conference can be accessed here:

“Conserving and managing biodiversity is indispensable to the future of the planet, and conserving and planting trees is a concrete investment for future generations,” said Vincent Gitz, Director of FTA and a facilitator at the conference.

The FTA Kunming Scientific Conference was a hybrid event, with scientists either gathering in Kunming or connecting via Zoom. In the picture, Vincent Gitz, the FTA Director, speaking through Zoom to the plenary. Photo: World Agroforestry/Austin Smith

“Forestry and agroforestry exemplify the contributions of biodiversity and agrobiodiversity to sustainable and resilient landscapes, to a green and circular economy, and to sustainable agriculture and food systems for healthy diets.”

Hosted both virtually and in Kunming, China in cooperation with the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Research Institute for Resource Insects, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), the event provided an extensive set of recommendations for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, as well as the upcoming 15th Conference of Parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 15), which will also be held in Kunming in October 2021.

Xu Jianchu, principal scientist at ICRAF and professor at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, speaking live in plenary and being broadcast via Zoom to all the participants. Photo: World Agroforestry/Austin Smith

Featuring a diverse lineup of speakers including scientists, practitioners, policymakers and members of civil society, the conference covered six main themes: trees for agroecology and circular agriculture, tree diversity, trees in the framework of the CBD, mountain ecosystems and food security, assessing benefits of landscape restoration, and trees for a circular green economy.

“Plants are the green wedge between plenty and poverty, between enlightenment and stagnation,” said Razan Al Mubarak, Managing Director of the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund. “They provide the building material, the charcoal, the forage, the food and the medicine – and as such, their conservation, restoration and rehabilitation is existential to our survival.”

Climate change, environmental degradation and resource depletion have triggered the collapse of advanced civilizations in the past – and ours could be next unless we urgently change our trajectory, warned CIFOR Director General Robert Nasi.

“The average lifespan of a civilization is about 340 years,” said Nasi, “and if we consider that our current civilization started during the Industrial Revolution, we are probably not far from our expiry date unless we do something.”

Across more than 100 scientific sessions and poster presentations, speakers proposed a series of headline recommendations to conserve the world’s plants and forests and harness their benefits:

  1. Protect forests and acknowledge their contributions to biodiversity conservation, climate action and sustainable food systems
  2. Support forest and landscape restoration
  3. Promote the transition to agroecology
  4. Recognize and promote the benefits of biodiversity
  5. Leverage the full potential of trees on farms
  6. Mainstream orphan crops into cultivation
  7. Support innovations in knowledge, technology and institutions for resilient mountains
  8. Mainstream biodiversity in climate discussions and policy
  9. Promote the production and consumption of fruits, nuts, vegetables and mushrooms, and leverage the potential of insects as a resource
  10. Understand, recognize, support and draw lessons from Indigenous and traditional culture and food systems
  11. Harness the potential of forests, trees and agroforestry in the transition to a circular bioeconomy
  12. Promote instruments that facilitate the joint consideration of landscapes and value chains

 

Speakers emphasized the critical need to forge strong partnerships across sectors and disciplines to address the multifaceted ecological crisis. “What we really need are bridge-builders,” said Ranjit Barthakur, founder of the Balipara Foundation in India.

Ranjit Barthakur speaking via Zoom to the plenary. Photo: World Agroforestry/Austin Smith

“We need people in the funding world who understand enough about technology – and who understand enough about conservation to get two groups to work together.”

A prime example is ecolabelling, according to ICRAF Director General Tony Simons.

“Likely within two years’ time, many food manufacturers will be putting labels with CO2 data on their food packets,” Simons predicted, “and all of the datasets, methods, approaches, protocols and standards that scientists and development partners are working on will enable them to report that in a meaningful way.”

“Countries, companies, civil society groups and even individuals need a lot of guidance when it comes specifically to biodiversity and the way that we manage land use and resources and connect them to our prosperous societies and habitats.”

Barthakur also pointed to the important role of technology in facilitating conservation, from genomics and remote sensing to satellite navigation and artificial intelligence, though he warned that humans must continue to take the lead.

“Technology can help us tremendously by focusing on what we save and how well we’re doing,” he said, “but it can never take the place of the courageous action of all of us to try and save humanity. Politicians and businesses have to finally wake up to the biodiversity challenge.”


By Ming Chun Tang. This article was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with ICRAF, The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • Adapting to a changing climate with forests and agroforestry

Adapting to a changing climate with forests and agroforestry


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Posted by

FTA communications

Article originally posted on Forest News.

The impact of a forest reaches far beyond its perimeter

 

Over the years, the climate crisis has demonstrated an inevitable impact on humanity. The rising temperature brings consequences such as rising sea levels, more frequent extreme weather and severe heatwaves, with for instance 1.6 billion people at risk of flood in 2050 around the globe, according to the United Nations.

It is widely known that forests and trees, while greatly impacted by climate change, also provide solutions to this ever-challenging problem. In a recent publication titled Addressing forestry and agroforestry in national adaptation plans, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), provide a guideline for countries to involve forests, trees and agroforestry in their National Adaptation Plan (NAP) to deal with climate change.

National adaptation plans are the main vehicle for a country to identify vulnerabilities and construct policies and measures to address these vulnerabilities to climate change in the middle and long term, according to Alexandre Meybeck from FTA, a co-author of the publication.

The potential for forests and trees to mitigate climate change has long been acknowledged.

“When people talk about forests and climate change, we very spontaneously think about mitigation and the role that forests play to reduce climate change impacts, like by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere,” Meybeck said. However, not many discuss their adapting ability to the changing climate and increasing human pressure. This adaptation dimension not only determines trees’ mitigation potential, it also has positive spillover effects, enhancing other sectors’ adaptation to climate change, according to the publication, which is also available in Spanish, and

The ability of forest ecosystems and trees to mitigate and adapt to climate change also depends on numerous policies related to land planning, water management, energy, development and agriculture, often under the authority of different institutions. It is also important to acknowledge the role of forests and trees both in urban settings as well as rural, since the impact of forests expands far beyond its perimeter, for example, because of its water-regulation function. Therefore, the inclusion of the forest and agroforestry sector in NAP is crucial.

In 2019, FAO and FTA co-published a framework that assessed the vulnerability of forests and forest-dependent people to climate change, a natural companion to the recent NAP publication.

“In fact, National Adaptation Plans are the main vehicle for a country to identify vulnerabilities, and construct policies and measures to address the vulnerabilities to climate change in the middle and long term,” Meybeck said. “The publication is very much about how to support these processes of involvement of different sectors, different stakeholders, different value chains into the whole national process.”

It is, of course, no simple business, said Julia Wolf, natural resources officer at FAO, who is also a co-author of the publication.

Adapting forestry, agroforestry and trees in the NAP requires a long-term perspective from the actors involved, legal frameworks and enabling environment.

Making matters more complex, adding forests and agroforestry may conflict with numerous national interests and the allocation of resources in the countries.

“There’s a lot of technical guidance out there; we have a lot of climate data, but I think the principal matters we need to look at are really climate finance and governance, because ultimately, the ownership question and the possibility of a country to go beyond business-as-usual is linked very strongly to power relations and governance questions in countries,” Wolf said.

Listen to the in-depth discussion with Alexandre Maybeck and Julia Wolf in this episode of Let’s Talk Trees podcast.

Related publications:

By Anggrita Cahyaningtyas and Fabio Ricci. FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with Bioversity International, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR, ICRAF and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • A new partnership for more sustainable and equitable food systems

A new partnership for more sustainable and equitable food systems


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Posted by

FTA communications

Agroecology Transformative Partnership Platform just launched at a side event at the 48th Plenary of the Committee on World Food Security

Food production is the world’s leading cause of biodiversity loss. It also accounts for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and causes widespread degradation of the land and water resources upon which it depends.

But could we redesign our food systems to work with nature, rather than against it?

Enter agroecology, a science that applies the principles and concepts of ecology to farming, making the most of nature’s resources without damaging or depleting them. It includes adopting practices that mitigate climate change, limit impacts on wildlife, and hand a key role to farmers and local communities.

A new initiative aims to spearhead the transition to agroecology. On 3 June, the Agroecology Transformative Partnership Platform (TPP) was launched at a side event of the 48th Plenary of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS 48). More than 460 people followed the discussions from 56 countries and posed questions to representatives from some of the nations implementing agroecological transitions.

Replay full event here

Initiated by the CGIAR research programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) and the French Republic via research institutions CIRAD, IRD and INRAE, and with its secretariat at ICRAF, the Agroecology TPP will accelerate uptake of agroecology by addressing knowledge and implementation gaps, coordinating the work of key partners, and providing evidence to inform policymakers, practitioners and donors.

“If we are to preserve the health of our planet and ensure human sustainability, governments the world over must not hesitate to adopt bold policies,” said His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa, one of several high-level speakers at the launch. “Such policies should support ecological conservation, help combat the loss of biodiversity and enable people to achieve their economic aspirations in more sustainable ways.”

Sri Lanka recently banned imports of artificial fertilizer and agrochemicals as part of a “long-needed national transition to a healthier and more ecologically sound system of organic agriculture,” said President Rajapaksa, adding that the Sri Lankan government will be supporting farmers and agribusinesses in the agroecological transition through subsidies and the purchases of paddy at guaranteed prices.

Listen to the full statement of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka

CFS chair Thanawat Tiensin initiated the CFS48 plenary the day after by thanking the President of Sri Lanka for his statement at the Agroecology TPP side event. President Rajapaksa’s statement was replayed in full at the plenary to kick off the country statements following the adoption of the policy recommendations around the HLPE report. IFAD vice president Dominik Ziller, speaking on behalf of the IFAD president, described the HLPE (2019) report as “an essential reference to those seeking to meet the SDGs”.

France, meanwhile, is supporting countries in the Global South in adopting agroecological practices. Prior to funding the TPP, it contributed EUR 600 million at the launch of the Great Green Wall accelerator, which it hosted in Paris, to combat desertification in the African Sahel. In November 2020, France also hosted the Finance in Common summit, which launched a new coalition of public development banks led by IFAD to improve access to finance for smallholders and small-scale agribusinesses.

“For France, it is urgent to transform our current systems towards sustainable and resilient food systems that allow everyone access to quality, healthy, safe, diversified and sustainably produced food,” said Ambassador Céline Jurgensen, France’s permanent representative to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“France calls for a paradigm shift so that an agroecological approach can replace the Green Revolution of recent decades to meet the climatic, environmental and social challenges that we all face today in both the North and the South.”

Other panelists included representatives from Switzerland and Senegal, who highlighted the role of international institutions and projects in facilitating the transition to agroecology in the buildup to the U.N. Food Systems Summit (26–28 July).

“Thirty years ago, organic products had hardly any access to the market,” said Pio Wennubst, Ambassador for the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the U.N. in Rome. “Now 20% of the food consumption in Switzerland is organic-based production.”

“All the knowledge we developed in Switzerland cannot be simply transferred the way we did in the past with positive intentions. We need another connectivity, another way to discuss and connect with the world on these issues.”

Senegal, for example, is working with FAO to reduce chemical pesticide use through the Integrated Production and Pest Management Programme, which has also increased yields by around 40%.

“Senegal encourages all participants because it is not easy to promote new technologies, said Papa Abdoulaye Seck, Senegal’s ambassador to Italy, in a statement delivered by advisor Madiagne Tall. “But by raising each other’s awareness, we will all become aware of the need to deepen such approaches.”

Civil society actors also featured at the launch, including representatives of indigenous people’s organisations and social entrepreneurs from Paraguay and Kenya, who presented initiatives on farming practices, local and indigenous knowledge and voting on pesticide bans.

The TPP builds on a series of major dialogues and reports, in line with the 13 agroecological principles and policy recommendations from the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the CFS. It works across eight domains in partnership with a core group of institutions including FAO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Biovision, CGIAR, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), AFA, AFSA and the governments of France and Switzerland.

The TPP’s approach consists of four steps, said Elisabeth Claverie de Saint-Martin, director general for research and strategy at CIRAD. “To tackle knowledge gaps, first gather the best scientists around an unsolved issue. Second, define a common methodology. Third, apply to a wide diversity of situations and contexts; and fourth, try to generate useful knowledge, both specific to the contexts and generic.”

This approach has already been applied to a growing portfolio of projects across Asia, Africa and Latin America, she added, referring to a France-funded TPP project that aims to evaluate the socioeconomic viability of agroecological practices across Africa.

“As it goes forward, the TPP will contribute to creating a level playing field for agroecological approaches to be taken up,” said Fergus Sinclair, chief scientist at CIFORICRAF and co-convener of the TPP and project team leader of the HLPE report.

“The TPP will embrace the complexity needed to transition to co-created locally relevant agriculture and food systems, and enable the horizontal integration across sectors and vertical integration across scales required to translate national and international commitments under the UNFCCC, CBD, UNCCD and AFR100 into meaningful action on the ground.”

“The contribution of agroecological approaches to achieving the 2030 agenda by applying locally adapted solutions for agri-food systems that are environmentally sustainable and economically fair and socially acceptable is increasingly recognized. That is why the FAO conference requested the further integration of sustainable agriculture approaches, including agroecology, in FAO’s work,” said Ismahane Elouafi, Chief Scientist at FAO. She then concluded the event with these inspiring words: “Through the newly established transformative partnership platform that you presented on agroecology, FAO will actively engage in inclusive collaboration with different stakeholders to transform agri-food systems for better production better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, and leave no one behind.”

Get involved by joining the TPP Community of Practice on GLFx.


By Ming Chun Tang. This article was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with ICRAF, The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • Forests and trees, mushrooms, bamboos, lichens, insects: empowering biodiversity in our landscapes

Forests and trees, mushrooms, bamboos, lichens, insects: empowering biodiversity in our landscapes


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Posted by

FTA communications

The FTA Kunming Science Conference 2021 will take place on 22–24 June 2021. Registrations are now OPEN!

Forests, trees and agroforestry exemplify the contributions of biodiversity and agrobiodiversity to sustainable and resilient landscapes, to green and circular economy and to sustainable agriculture and food systems for healthy diets.

On 22–24 June 2021, the CGIAR research program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) will organize an international conference to discuss the role of forests, trees and agroforestry to enhance diverse and sustainable landscapes for the implementation of the SDGs. Hosted in cooperation with the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Research Institute for Resource Insects, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), the FTA Kunming International Conference 2021 will showcase solutions that can be mobilized to promote healthy diets, agricultural biodiversity, resilient landscapes, and a circular green economy.

Featuring a diverse line-up of renowned speakers including (full agenda forthcoming!), it will bring together scientists, practitioners, NGOs, policymakers and more, covering a wide range of themes including agroecology, tree diversity, landscape restoration, and circular agriculture.

The FTA Kunming Science Conference 2021 will adopt a hybrid format gathering world participants online, joining up with a set of speakers and audience live from the Kunming Institute of Botany.

The conference will devote sessions to 6 themes:

  1. Trees for agroecology and circular agriculture
  2. Tree diversity: realizing economic and ecological value from tree genetic resources to bridge production gaps and promote resilience
  3. Trees in the framework of the CBD
  4. Mountain ecosystems and food security
  5. Assessing benefits of landscape restoration
  6. Trees for a circular green economy

The event ties in with a range of FTA’s operational priorities: agroecology, biodiversity conservation, forest and landscape restoration, biomaterials and circular economy, and enhanced nutrition and food security. The event is part of the road towards the 15th Conference of the Parties of the UN convention on Biological Diversity (CBD 15) also to be organized in Kunming, 11-24 October 2021. It will also be relevant to solutions for the UN Food Systems Summit and the Climate Change UNFCCC COP 26 in Glasgow.

Register here to attend the FTA Kunming Science Conference 2021


By Ming Chun Tang. This article was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with ICRAF, The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • The importance of human-centered ecological restoration

The importance of human-centered ecological restoration


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Photo by Georgina Smith/CIAT
Posted by

FTA communications

Originally posted on IFPRI’s blog

The launch of the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) will direct a lot of attention to the biophysical sciences. A new special issue of the journal Ecological Restoration highlights the need for more focus on human considerations: Equity, inclusion, and justice. The issue— guest-edited by Ruth Meinzen-Dick of IFPRI, Marlène Elias of the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, and Deepa Joshi of the International Water Management Institute—poses the question: Ecological restoration, by whom and for whom?

The Earth’s ecological resilience is inextricably linked to the well-being of its people. Thus, social inclusion must be at the heart of the ecological restoration agenda, not on the periphery or as an add-on. For researchers, policymakers, and non-governmental organizations, this means striving for balance between the biophysical and social sciences, breaking down siloes between fields of science, and pursuing interdisciplinary research.

The COVID-19 pandemic energized the One Health approach, which focuses on interconnections between human health, animal health, and ecosystem health to prevent zoonotic disease outbreaks. Efforts to address the climate crisis need a similar interdisciplinary focus, or else projects to restore ecosystems will end up deepening existing power imbalances in the communities and societies that depend on them.

But how do we go about centering equity and inclusion in ecological restoration? The 11 papers in the special issue shed light on this question, with perspectives from academics and practitioners, NGOs, and government actors working across disciplines. The overarching guidance is to focus research and attention on three pillars: Power relations, historical awareness, and scale integration.

Power relations

Power relations between various actors—research institutions and communities, governments and local communities, community members and households—mediate struggles over natural resources and control over labor. They also determine what is counted as legitimate knowledge, which has enormous implications for ecological restoration processes. Scientists and policymakers often dismiss or ignore locally-produced environmental knowledge, which leads to failures and inefficiencies in restoration projects. The promotion of a singular, universal knowledge base about nature closes the door to potential solutions and approaches that come out of a plurality of local or indigenous knowledges about ecosystems.

In addition, access to and control over land is extremely gendered, and power imbalances in this sphere dictate how land can be used for restoration purposes. When land gains economic value as it is transformed from “wasted” to “regenerated,” women (and other marginalized groups) lacking secure tenure can be evicted or dispossessed as that land is claimed by those with more power.

Historical awareness

Many restoration efforts begin with mapping lands potentially suitable for projects like tree plantings, but often the history of how such lands are used, contested, or governed by local people goes unexamined. Categorizing land as “marginalized”, “wasted” or “barren” based only on biophysical markers can hide the ways that people use it, especially if they do not have formal land titles. Assuming that lands without lush vegetation are “degraded” from some romanticized past can lead to narratives of local people as “forest destroyers,” pitting environmentalists against the very communities that could be their most effective partners. These narratives assume that local people destroy ecosystems when in fact, in some cases, their practices sustain or enhance them.

The absence of historical awareness can also play a role in the commodification of nature. Preserved or restored lands are sometimes turned into recreational sites that charge entry fees—privileging the values of tourists over the values of local people who use that land for agriculture, fishing, pasture, or forest livelihoods. Ahistorical understandings of landscapes can lead to ecological restoration efforts that exclude local populations, or even criminalize their livelihoods.

Scale integration

Scale integration means considering how policies and practices at all scales affect the realities of natural resource users, their environmental management decisions, and their livelihoods. Environmental agendas such as the International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration created by the Society for Ecological Restoration often focus on large-scale actions at the regional or watershed level scales. However, top-down policies and interventions at large scales can prevent democratic engagement in natural resource governance and can be non-inclusive.

The larger the scale of policies and programs, the more actors will be involved and affected. This means there will be trade-offs among many different goals and priorities (e.g., those between the creation of protected areas with entry fees and efforts to support the livelihoods of local people depending on such land as a commons). Understanding these tradeoffs at all scales—individual, household, community, country, region, etc.—is key to avoiding the exploitation and further marginalization of vulnerable populations, especially rural women.

Measuring the success of ecological restoration projects using principally biophysical standards will lead to an incomplete understanding of these trade-offs, and a deepening of inequalities. For example, we should be skeptical of measuring success in reforestation efforts by the number of fast-growing commercial tree species being seeded into landscapes with a complex history of political and economic dispossession of local communities. That might be restoration—but by whom and for whom?

For more perspectives on how to center inclusion, equity and justice in ecological restoration agendas, please read the special issue of Ecological Restoration and view a session on restoration in the June Global Landscapes Forum. In addition, please stay tuned for a publication on the 10 People-Centered Rules for Socially Sustainable Restoration from the authors of this special issue.

Jessica Wallach is an IFPRI Communications Intern and a Master’s student in International Agricultural Development at the University of California, Davis.

The editors would like to thank the CGIAR Research Programs on Policies, Institutions and Markets (led by IFPRI), Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, and Water, Land and Ecosystems for funding this special issue.


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • From fields to landscapes: establishing the resilient productivity of Andhra Pradesh community-managed natural farming

From fields to landscapes: establishing the resilient productivity of Andhra Pradesh community-managed natural farming


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Posted by

FTA communications

Building resilient landscapes in India is a participatory process with farmers, say scientists.

By Ann Wavinya, Sabrina Chesterman, Leigh Winowiecki and Sonia Sharma

Originally posted in World Agroforestry’s blog

World Agroforestry (ICRAF) with Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS)/Farmer’s Empowerment Organisation) of the Government of the State of Andhra Pradesh, India are engaged in an ambitious, novel ‘landscape approach’ that addresses the loss of farming resilience and productivity owing to widespread land degradation in the State.

This complex development challenge presents an opportunity to establish ‘engagement landscapes’ as participatory living laboratories for agroecological transformation in Andhra Pradesh, based on the Community-Managed Natural Farming model. This novel approach, with continuous participatory engagement, aims to increase the scale of climate-resilient forms of agriculture that result in improved resilience, including enhanced soil health and greater water-use efficiency, while having a positive impact on rural livelihoods.

Why we need to build resilience in Andhra Pradesh

The work is a collaboration with ClimateWorks Foundation to build robust scientific evidence showing where and how climate and livelihoods’ resilience can be achieved.

Through such a partnership, the project team aims influence extensive uptake of climate-resilient, community-managed, natural farming in Andhra Pradesh through landscape scale work and learning.

To launch the project, a one-day virtual workshop was held on 25 March 2021, jointly facilitated by RySS and ICRAF and attended by 86 people from India, Africa, Europe, the UK and USA, representing multiple sectors and backgrounds, including research, government, non-governmental and community-based organisations.

The purpose of the workshop was to introduce the landscape approach, draw from others’ experience and share knowledge, to link with the many ongoing efforts and initiatives, and identify additional partners to co-develop an engagement action plan.

 

Facilitator Swati Renduchintala
Lead facilitator of the workshop, Swati Renduchintala (centre, small screen) from RySS, introducing participants

 

‘The current and future success of climate-resilient, community-managed, natural farming lies in its adoption by innovative farmers,’ said Vijay Kumar, executive vice-chairman of RySS. ‘The farmers who have adapted natural farming practices to their needs and contexts across the State are the ones that are and will thrive.’

The scientific rationale of the project builds on baseline studies conducted by ICRAF. One study, using the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework, showed alarmingly low levels of soil organic carbon, aboveground biomass and plant diversity. This was indicative of the biophysical constraints experienced by the then-current agricultural systems that adversely affected the resilience of ecosystems and the livelihoods of the individuals and communities who depended upon them.

During the workshop, Ravi Prabhu, director of Innovation, Investment and Impact at CIFOR-ICRAF, defined the scale of work at landscape scale, noting the importance of exemplar landscapes, which are smaller geographic areas within engagement landscapes where focused work can take place.

Engagement landscapes
Ravi Prabhu from CIFOR-ICRAF introduced the concept of engagement and exemplar landscapes. Source: Workshop Report

 

“Our focus is on assessing and strengthening the resilience of the system to climate and other shocks through taking a broader landscape scale and organisational frame for our work” – Vijay Kumar

Prabhu explained that in order to develop solutions, we need to consider the complexity of real life; that nothing exists in isolation. Through the landscape approach, we can observe the broader system in which villages exist. This broader approach seeks systemic, sustainable change by challenging us to think about where the problems and opportunities lie.

Leigh Ann Winowiecki, leader of ICRAF’s Land Health Decisions research group and project head, outlined the project’s objectives and expected outcomes.

‘There is an urgent need to rethink our approach to agriculture,’ reiterated Winowiecki. ‘This project aims to build a robust scientific evidence base showing where and how climate and livelihood resilience can be achieved, ensuring context-specific adaptation and innovation through co-learning with multiple stakeholders.’

The project team proposed three exemplar landscapes in Anantapur, West Godavari and Vishakhapatnam districts. Low biodiversity conservation, scarce rainfall, tribal land and high intensity farming are some of the factors that informed their proposal. The issues in each of these landscapes are different and related to other issues — such as social, health, livelihoods and migration — within these landscapes.

During the plenary and the break-out sessions, participants were given the opportunity to share what they would want to achieve from working at a landscape level. They discussed they key considerations, opportunities and challenges for developing exemplar landscapes, as well as increasing scale and measuring resilient productivity. The workshop introduced a proposed framework for establishing the exemplar landscapes.

 

Establishment process

Process for establishing the exemplar landscapes and key steps for working in them. Source: Workshop Report

 

The project team seeks to strengthen the existing natural farming ecosystem, as well as increase its scale from the current 600,000 farmers to over 1.5 million in the next two years.

‘We will engage at multiple levels of management, partnership and governance to support the scaling out of practices, innovations, technologies and policies across the State and beyond, giving meaning to the term “engagement landscape for natural farming,”’ concluded Winowiecki.

The project team are now actively working on training and recruitment of local facilitators and district workshop plans. Stay tuned for our next story on the district workshops.

Read more


Notice: Undefined index: id in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 3
  • Home
  • Towards Natural Rubber as a Response to Climate Change - Proceedings of the workshop

Towards Natural Rubber as a Response to Climate Change – Proceedings of the workshop


Notice: Undefined variable: id_overview in /home/ft2025user/foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/themes/FTA/template-parts/content.php on line 64
Posted by

FTA communications

FTA, together with the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG), the International Rubber Research and Development Board (IRRDB), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), just released the proceedings and extended abstracts of the digital workshop on natural rubber systems and climate change organized on 23-25th June 2020. Video recordings of all the sessions from the workshop can be streamed below.

Download the [PDF]

Natural rubber is a key global commodity, above 85% produced by small-holder farmers. As recalled by Datuk Dr Abdul Aziz S.A. Kadir, Secretary General of the IRRDB, “Natural rubber sustains 13 million small holders and 40 million people including their families”. It has a great potential to contribute to sustainable development, both poverty alleviation and rural development, and to the bio-economy. However, as emphasized by Jerome Sainte Beuve, Rubber Value Chain Correspondent, CIRAD “climate change is already impacting rubber production”. As stated by Dr Vincent Gitz, Director of FTA, “Natural rubber has a key role to play for both adaptation and mitigation of climate change”. There is an urgent need to understand how global natural rubber production can be safeguarded and sustainably increased on a lasting basis under climate change, while contributing to climate mitigation goals.

Salvatore Pinizzotto, Secretary General of the IRSG emphasized that “Climate action needs to be grounded on science, on a common understanding of issues and means to address them”.

This is why the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG), with the International Rubber Research and Development Board (IRRDB), the CGIAR research program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), organized an open digital workshop on natural rubber systems and climate change on 23-25th June 2020.

The workshop reviewed recent research results on impacts of climate change on natural rubber production, potential means of adaptation and contribution to mitigation of climate change, to identify knowledge and research gaps as well as recommendations for action.

The workshop considered:

  • the impact of climate change on natural rubber systems and potential changes in the geography of production (session 1)
  • the role of natural rubber systems for climate mitigation and adaptation (session 2)
  • the integration of natural rubber systems in the broad perspective of climate change and sustainability policies (session 3) and in the international discussions on climate change (session 4)

and reflected on a way forward for the sector (session 5).

Natural rubber is a strategic raw material essential for human being mobility, welfare and safety. Furthermore, it is a resource of economic prosperity for many countries and communities worldwide. IRSG, together with CIFOR/FTA, CIRAD and IRRDB believes that there is no time to wait for the rubber sector and industry to initiate actions, together. This workshop, by reviewing existing knowledge, identifying gaps and bringing relevant information to the climate change community and to decision makers can play a major role in raising the visibility of natural rubber and its responses to climate change challenges.

Rubber tree plantation in Indonesia. Photo by Ryan Woo/CIFOR

The first session (divided in 3 sub-sessions) reviewed the state of knowledge about climate change impacts on natural rubber production systems, now and in the future. Rubber production is already impacted by increased variability, droughts, changes in rain patterns, extreme events. Little is known on potential effects of higher average temperatures on the physiology of rubber trees and thus on latex flows. Of particular concern are also increased risks of fungal attacks. The impacts of climate change are different in the different natural rubber producing regions, with potential effects on geographical distribution.  There are a lot of useful results from the research conducted these last 10-15 years with important findings for adaptation through management and breeding for traditional as well as marginal areas.

Session 2 (divided in 2 sub-sessions) considered how can rubber contribute to climate change mitigation and the role of rubber systems for adaptation. Two types of complementary strategies are available for adaptation of rubber cultivation to climate change: improved Hevea genetic resources, and climate-resilient agronomic practices.  Regarding breeding, the use of modern technologies and new genomic selection methods, such as genomic marker assisted selection, can fast forward the development of climate-resilient, high yielding clones, with an optimized use of the germplasm (looking especially to other Hevea species). International cooperation is key, for multinational clone exchanges and for testing. Going forward, this also raises many R&D avenues on improved land management through optimized agricultural practices including agroforestry, integrating carbon offsets into the rubber plantation economy, as well as new downstream applications of natural rubber as a green substitute to synthetic rubber.

Session 3 considered the Opportunities for better integrating natural rubber in broad Climate Change and Sustainability Policies, including Economic and Social Dimensions. Natural rubber, as a renewable material, and because of its contribution to the livelihoods of millions of small holders has a considerable potential to contribute to sustainable development in its three dimensions, economic, social and environmental.  It offers a good opportunity to be part of future economic development trends towards a circular, forest-products based bioeconomy. It is a natural product with many positive characteristics which make it an essential part of plastic substitution and future uses in industry, textiles/footwear, and construction. Mechanims in place in other tree-commodity sectors, reviewed at the workshop, can provide starting points to develop similar initiatives for the rubber sector to strengthen sustainable production and consumption.

Session 4, titled “Rubber and Climate Change in the International Fora” explored the possible pathways to raise the importance of the rubber sector at international level in relation to Climate Change. A strong partnership among stakeholders in the natural rubber value chain can bring discussion on integration of rubber in mitigation policies, measures, and adaptation policies in the wider climate dialogues.

In session 5, the final panel, building upon the findings of the previous sessions, discussed a way forward for the sector to fully tackle climate-change related challenges. Natural rubber has a key role to play for both adaptation and mitigation of climate change. It is an important land user, a producer of renewable materials (rubber and wood), a major economic activity in many countries, supporting the livelihoods of millions of small holders. However, this role is not properly accounted for. The participating organizations are calling to build upon the workshop to construct a follow-up agenda on natural rubber systems and climate change. They are now bringing the related issues to the awareness of a greater range of stakeholders, including climate policy makers. Part of this goes by bringing rubber as a discussion topic to the UNFCCC.


The document:

Pinizzotto S, Aziz A, Gitz V, Sainte-Beuve J, Nair L, Gohet E, Penot E and Meybeck A. 2021. Natural rubber systems and climate change: Proceedings and extended abstracts from the online workshop, 23–25 June 2020. Working Paper 9. Bogor, Indonesia: The CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA).


This article was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with ICRAF, The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.


Back to top

Sign up to our monthly newsletter

Connect with us