FTA event coverage: Developing strategies to operationalize integrated landscape approaches
FTA event coverage: Developing strategies to operationalize integrated landscape approaches
24 November, 2016
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At the 2016 Global Landscapes Forum on the sidelines of the UNFCCC COP22 in Marrakesh, Morocco, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) together with the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), hosted a session on landscape approaches, a key concept of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. This video shows the full discussion forum including presentations. Many of the presentationswill be available here
For ICRAF participated Dennis Garrity, Senior Fellow and former Director General of ICRAF, and Peter Minang, Leader, Environmental Services & Global Coordinator, World Agroforestry Centre and ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins.
CIFOR was represented by James Reed, Associate Professional Officer.
UNEP’s Erik Solheim: ‘Climate no longer a cost, but an opportunity’
UNEP’s Erik Solheim: ‘Climate no longer a cost, but an opportunity’
22 November, 2016
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By Leona Liu, originally posted at CIFOR’s Forests News
At the 2016 Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) in Marrakesh, held on the sidelines of COP22, Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), spoke to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) about embracing the landscape approach.
UNEP hosted a discussion forum on Unlocking private finance in forests, sustainable land use and restorationat the event, which addressed the current finance gap i.e. the fact that the demand for capital to restore landscapes is bigger than the supply, and asked how new products and mechanisms can help leverage public funding with private finance.
“The most exciting development at COP22 is the new role of business,” said Solheim. “The transformation of climate from being seen as a cost to an enormous opportunity for new green jobs and business profits is so hopeful.”
Hear more from Solheim in the video below:
What do “landscapes” mean to you, and how do you think UNEP is approaching “landscapes”?
First of all, landscapes mean beauty. There are so many fantastic beautiful landscapes all over the planet. In political terms, to me, it means the big picture. Not just focusing on agriculture or on the forests, just on biodiversity, or just on climate, but you take all this into one discussion so that you can ‘kill two birds with one stone.’
What does the Global Landscapes Forum provide as a platform or audience?
An enormous opportunity to resolve these problems. How can we protect the forests of the world, which are fantastically beautiful and home to orangutans and gorillas in Africa? And protect biodiversity, which is enormous and critical for climate?
You can only do that if the farmers also see the opportunity for themselves to prosper. The landscape focus is a way of bringing together the two biggest issues of our time: How to rapidly develop and bring people out of poverty, but at the same time protect the beauty of the planet.
What have you observed at COP22 that shows signs of progress following COP21?
The most exciting thing is the new role of business because up until recently, business always thought climate was costly. It was about pushing the bill to others. Now we see this as an enormous opportunity to create new jobs.
With solar prices coming down, we can invest largely in renewable energy. We have the biggest solar plant anywhere in the world right here in Morocco. Also, you see mass transit systems, new metros every year, that the Chinese are building in Shanghai and Beijing and many other cities. You see tourism which can benefit from the beauty of the elephants, gorillas or the orangutans that can both be environmentally friendly and can provide millions of jobs globally.
The transformation of climate from being seen as a cost to an enormous opportunity for new green jobs and business profits is so hopeful.
FTA event coverage: Germany will host Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn
FTA event coverage: Germany will host Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn
21 November, 2016
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The German Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Economic Cooperation have joined forces to support the Global Landscapes Forum for the next four years. The platform for global action will meet in Bonn for the first time in 2017. Read more
On behalf of the German Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Economic Cooperation, State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth pledges support to the long-term future of GLF – and explains why he sees the Forum at the center of efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
FTA event coverage: 2016 Global Landscapes Forum will go big
FTA event coverage: 2016 Global Landscapes Forum will go big
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Capturing the spirit of the 2016 Global Landscapes Forum. Photo: Pilar Valbuena/CIFOR
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Capturing the spirit of the 2016 Global Landscapes Forum. Photo: Pilar Valbuena/CIFOR
Under the motto “Climate Action for Sustainable Development”, this year’s Global Landscapes Forum again positioned itself as the key event of the land use and development community. The GLF is also the biggest event that is co-funded by the the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
Coordinating partners are the Center for International Forestry Research, CIAT, UNEP, the World Bank, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and Credit Suisse, more than 40 partners contributed in other ways.
The big news this year came from the German government that announced their commitment to the Global Landscapes Forum by hosting the event in the UN city of Bonn. The German Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Economic Cooperation have joined forces to support the GLF for the next four years. The platform for global action will meet in Bonn for the first time in 2017.
“GLF is doubtlessly THE global platform leading the debate on sustainable land use & forestry.” Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary
The vision of the GLF is to reach one billion people with the vision of sustainable landscapes and the message that everything is connected. The event unites business, government, civil society and indigenous leaders engaged in sustainable development solutions.
Some 600 people participated in this year’s Forum in Marrakesh, on the sidelines of the UNFCCC COP22. More than 5000 followed the event online. Participants and viewers came from 95 countries.
The sessions most closely related to the CGIAR FTA were (more videos to follow)
The Discussion Forum addressed, based on research under the CGIAR FTA, in interaction with partners, the challenges and opportunities that come up when non-state actors such as the private sector and subnational government actors such as provinces engage in efforts to tackle climate change on the ground.
The presentations were based on
comparative research from 54 sites of land-use change in 11 subnational landscapes in Peru, Indonesia, Mexico, Vietnam and Tanzania;
in-depth studies of the design of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems in Peru and Mexico; and
research on private sector commitments e.g. through the NAZCA platform.
Anne Larson: What we know about global climate goals and local realities – GLF 2016 Marrakesh
Trees on farms: Unexplored big wins for climate change through landscape restoration
Trees on farms: Unexplored big wins for climate change through landscape restoration
18 November, 2016
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Presentation by Henry Neufeldt, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) at the 2016 Global Landscapes Forum in Marrakesh, Morroco, a key FTA event on the sidelines of the UNFCCC COP22. This research forms part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
FTA event coverage: Credit Suisse, CIAT and IFPRI endorse Global Landscapes Forum
FTA event coverage: Credit Suisse, CIAT and IFPRI endorse Global Landscapes Forum
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Mark Burrows, Vice Chairman at Credit Suisse, IFPRI’s Director General Shenggen Fan and CIAT’s Director General Ruben Echeverria give their endorsement to the long-term future of the Global Landscapes Forum.
Through scientific input, capacity-building programs, online engagement, thematic symposiums and global events, GLF aspires to introduce one billion people by 2020 to the landscape approach – and connect them in embracing it. The GLF is more than just a series of events: it is a dynamic platform with which diverse stakeholders can collaborate to create a more sustainable world.
Four unexplored big wins in agriculture: tackling climate change through landscape restoration
Four unexplored big wins in agriculture: tackling climate change through landscape restoration
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Photo: CIAT
By Georgina Smith, originally published at CIAT’s blog
Four solutions lie in how we farm our food and treat our landscapes: this session aims to throw light on some of the tools that can tackle climate change head-on.
During this session, we call on the audience at the on-going 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Morocco to consider these:
Yet while carbon stored and sequestered by forests is widely recognized and land cover changes well monitored, carbon stored by trees on agricultural land needs to be measured better. Growing more trees on farm land could be a fast and easy route to increasing carbon sequestration, above and below ground, with a myriad of other benefits.
That entails mapping landscapes to guide decision makers about where to invest in certain management practices over others, and policies that enhance carbon sequestration on agricultural land to benefit farmers and society as a whole.
Data and maps show the most up-to-date soil properties from World Soil Information and Food and Agriculture Organization and illustrate where carbon could be sequestered if practices to enhance soil organic matter were widely adopted.
Since agricultural soils, already managed actively, have lost significant amounts of carbon, they could also re-absorb carbon based on soil type and climate. What’s needed are site-specific tools for decision makers presenting the bigger picture on where soils are degraded, and where to invest to improve soil carbon stocks.
These ecosystems contain around 20% of global soil organic carbon stocks. But tropical peat fires are a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, producing transboundary “hazes” impacting human health, regional economies and ecosystems.
Huge opportunities to mitigate climate change lie in protecting these lands. But they are often under threat from commercial and development interests. Combined with contemporary agricultural practices on peatlands – land clearance, burning, drainage and fertilization – these landscapes and the carbon they store are at risk. How can they be climate-proofed?
The fourth big win shows how improving grasslands can provide a triple-climate-win. Brachiaria grasses sequester significant amounts of soil organic carbon – conservative estimates indicate a 2-3 fold higher annual sequestration rate than in other annual cropping systems.
Wider adoption of brachiaria grasses to improve grasslands has a tremendous potential to mitigate climate – especially in sub-Saharan Africa. But further research is needed to investigate commercial-quality seed in Africa, and tackle climate-related challenges like new pests and diseases.
“Unexplored big wins for climate change through landscape restoration,” is a side event at the Global Landscape Forum, on Wednesday November 16th, Ourika room, Kenzi Club Agdal Medina, Marrakesh, 11.00 – 12.30. The session is co-hosted by CIAT and the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems.
For more information and next steps on action read our four briefs:
If we are to find sustainable solutions to climate change, we have to look at the bigger picture.
And in that picture climate change – and carbon emissions – aren’t everything. Neither are biodiversity, water, forests, agriculture or coastal habitats and oceans, gender or communities, education, poverty and inequality or energy. In the big picture, the picture that counts, they are all important.
Saying this doesn’t make me a climate sceptic or a climate denier, or even a climate cynic. Far from it. But as the world gathers for COP22 in Marrakesh, a year after the Paris Agreement, it is clear to me that if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and meet our climate targets, we have to find a new way of doing things.
The overwhelming tendency, the modus operandi of development, is to operate in silos, or compartments, of our own disciplines, our own organisations, our own ministries and our own sectors, all of us working toward our own targets of success.
Focus on the landscape…Photo: Louis Putzel/CIFOR
An agricultural ministry is told to increase production of a certain crop, and if they have to clear 25 percent of the nation’s forests and all the biodiversity within, roll over indigenous groups, so be it. Climate change – let’s leave that to the Environment Ministry. Campaigners and non-governmental organisations often tend to stay in their own silo too – focusing on a single issue with little regard for the relevance of any others. That has to change.
We have to look at each SDG in context with the others, and approach them as a whole. We have to tear down the walls that separate sectors, because they do not represent the situation on the ground anywhere. In the real world, there are broad landscapes within which different interests, demands, objectives and targets compete.
Approaching solutions holistically is at the heart of what is known as the landscapes approach and the global movement that is arising around it. The term is not known beyond development circles but it should be, because every stretch of land or sea touched by mankind makes up the millions of landscapes on this planet.
The approach is neither prescriptive nor inflexible. It is not top-down. It embraces compromise. It accepts that in any dispute about how to manage resources there will be a need for arbitration between different demands – small-scale farmers, big agro-business, international agreements, national and local governments, conservationists.
…and on the people in it. Photo: Aulia Erlangga/CIFOR
The objective is to seek multiple measurable benefits from every action and investment in a landscape – more food, more income, greater equality, and a healthy environment. It assumes there will be trade-offs with no absolute winners and no absolute losers.
Enter the Global Landscapes Forum, the biggest event under the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
Three years ago, a small group of organisations including the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Programme, together with my organisation, the Centre for International Forestry Research, created a platform on the margins of the UN’s climate change meetings where every sector and discipline could connect, through the lens of the landscapes approach, the climate agenda and the 2015 SDGs.
Today GLF is taking on a life of its own. Last year, more than 3,000 people from 105 countries – everyone from California Governor Jerry Brown to a tribal leader from Borneo – joined us in Paris. Its sixth gathering is being held in Marrakesh on November 16.
It has grown into a global community of several hundred organisations, with tens of thousands of people from every continent, including scientists, lawyers, bankers, indigenous and community leaders, farmers and foresters, NGO personnel, journalists and policy makers, actively sharing their experiences, research, initiatives and knowledge. In short, we have created a global conversation on building sustainable landscapes that is changing the way we think, connect and act.
Already we have received pledges to restore 148 million hectares of degraded land from countries all over the world. The next target is to increase that to 400 million hectares – and to devise the action plans needed to implement and measure them.
Our vision is to reach far beyond expert communities and connect and inspire a billion people to join us by 2020. We believe this is vital not just for reshaping the climate and development agenda, but for building a world that is sustainable, more prosperous and more equitable.
Reaching 1 billion people by 2020 via #ThinkLandscape
Reaching 1 billion people by 2020 via #ThinkLandscape
13 November, 2016
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The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), is a unique forum addressing the urgent challenges of environment, health and poverty, as well as meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is a key event related to the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
This year’s event in Marrakesh, Morocco, to be held on 16 November, will be the leading side event of the COP22 talks, the successor to Paris. Last year, the GLF – a two-day event within the Paris talks – attracted 3,200 people from 110 countries.
As GLF looks to the future, CIFOR envisions the Forum going beyond expert communities to connecting one billion people in embracing the landscapes approach by 2020.
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Focus group discussion in Forish Forestry Enterprise, Jizzakh Province, Uzbekistan. Photo: N. Muhsimov/Uzbek Republican Scientific and Production Centre of Ornamental Gardening and Forestry
Climate change is severely affecting Yunnan Province. Photo: Louis Putzel/CIFOR
ICRAF
Gender and climate change in China’s Yunnan Province
In 2016, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) East and Central Asia office (ECA) has made significant progress on gender and climate change research to inform policy makers in China’s Yunnan Province.
First, ICRAF-ECA has recently been investigating how gender affects climate change adaptation throughout Yunnan. This Poverty and Vulnerability Analysis China Gender Report will be published as a working paper before the end of this year.
It is a part of a wider initiative investigating how gender has influenced climate change adaptation throughout the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region, conducted by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which includes Nepal, Pakistan and India. All research teams involved in this initiative used the Livelihood Vulnerability Index, developed by Hahn in 2009.
Preliminary results show that climate change has severely affected Yunnan Province and that few interventions have tried to better prepare local communities for future changes in livelihoods, water availability and natural disasters. It seems that most households are extremely vulnerable and have few resources to support short or long-term mitigation efforts in response to climate change. In this context, gender is one of the factors in predicting adaptation and vulnerability.
Additionally a paper on gender-specific responses to drought in Yunnan Province is currently being revised in line with comments received from journal reviewers. This paper reveals that during the period of record-breaking drought from 2009-2012, women’s changing role in agriculture and household resource management had important consequences for individual and community responses to water resource stresses.
Perceptions of drought impacts and of responses to the drought differed significantly according to gender. However, government policies and practices which aim to support adaptation and adaptive capacity have so far failed to take this gender differentiation into account, and as a result may be out of step with local drought responses, and may even serve to further marginalize mountain women in water resource management.
Finally two Chinese language book chapters about gender and climate change adaptation will be included in the book “Gender analysis of climate change impacts and adaptation” (in Chinese), also to be published this year.
A workshop is planned before the end of the year in Yunnan to disseminate the book among government officers and discuss relevant research findings and policy options.
For more information please contact Yufang Su at y.su@cgiar.org
Focus group discussion in Forish Forestry Enterprise, Jizzakh Province, Uzbekistan. Photo: N. Muhsimov/Uzbek Republican Scientific and Production Centre of Ornamental Gardening and Forestry
Bioversity International
Project: Conservation for diversified and sustainable use of fruit tree genetic resources in Central Asia
The project ‘Conservation for diversified and sustainable use of fruit tree genetic resources in Central Asia’ aims to improve the prospects for long-term food security and livelihoods of farmers in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Its focus is on generating and disseminating knowledge about fruit and nut tree species, including traits that are important for adaptation and nutrition, their patterns of genetic diversity and how to effectively conserve them.
As primary users and custodians of fruit trees, both women and men play a key role in the management, conservation and transfer of fruit tree resources to future generations. Understanding gender-specific practices, knowledge and perceptions related to forests and trees as well as associated gender-based constraints in their management is essential to co-develop, with local forest managers, equitable innovations in the management of fruit tree genetic resources.
In September, national research partners in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan havecompleted a set of participatory research activities and interviews in project sites to explore gender-specific forest and fruit-tree-related knowledge, practices and interests.
Semi-structured interviews focused on the state’s role in forest management have been conducted with staff from 20 Forestry Enterprises (national forest management units). In parallel, 390 semi-structured interviews have been held with local men and women who manage fruit trees in their home gardens to understand resource management decisions and sourcing of planting material. The focus was on varieties of apple (Malus spp.), apricot (Prunus armeniaca) and walnut (Juglans regia) grown. Finally, 26 focus group discussions on local fruit tree management practices have been held with forest dwellers in separate women’s and men’s groups. Data are currently being cleaned and translated into English.
Results will provide guidance on how to foster the equitable participation of men and women in the management of fruit tree genetic resources in home gardens and forests. They will also help identify strategies for promoting the use of ‘wild’ (forest-based) fruit and nut tree genetic resources in home gardens; for addressing threats to wild populations of fruit and nut species; and for capturing opportunities for sustainable use and conservation of wild fruit and nut tree populations.
National research partners are :
Uzbek Republican Scientific and Production Center of Ornamental Gardening and Forestry
Kyrgyz National Agrarian University
Institute of Horticulture of Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
The project is coordinated by Bioversity International with financing from the Government of Luxembourg and with co-funding from the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
Looking at gender in coffee agroforestry in Nicaragua
The research on gender, tree uses, and decision-making patterns among shade coffee producers in Tuma la Dalia, Nicaragua has made some progress.
Research suggests that coffee agroforestry producers in Latin American countries derive significant commercial and subsistence value from the non-coffee products of the agroforestry system, for example, timber, fuelwood, and fruits. However, there is a lack of consideration of gender aspects within the research, for example, how uses derived from the agroforestry system may vary between men and women producers.
The objectives are:
Analyze how men and women value and use trees on farms.
Understand the role of men and women in the decision-making process on the use and management of trees.
The research results shall support the development of gender-sensitive climate change interventions focused on high value tree crops. CIAT partners with the Fundación para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Agropecuario y Forestal de Nicaragua (FUNICA).
Findings suggest that women perceive more household uses of farm trees than men. Furthermore, women may be more prone to giving more importance than men to fruit trees than those used for timber. Results also demonstrate that although men tend to dominate decision-making processes, women and men both participate in decision-making on harvest sales and how to use income.
Gendered dimensions of agricultural land investments
The social and environmental effects of large-scale agricultural investments in forested landscapes have been extensively documented and debated in public and scholarly spheres, compelling a reassessment of investment policies and rural development plans, agrarian reforms, and regulatory safeguards on the part of host governments and the donor community.
While land deals come with promises of economic prosperity, studies suggest that their negative externalities have disproportionately impacted resource-poor groups, including women and landless farmers.
Within the vast literature on large-scale land acquisitions, or “land grabs”, there has been relatively little research systematically documenting mediating factors that affect rural women and men in the process of agribusiness investments or how different outcomes might be realized under more smallholder-inclusive investment models.
This research contributes to CIFOR’s gendered research agenda by examining the ways in which women and men are differently affected by agribusiness expansion into forested landscapes of Tanzania.
How do factors such as tenure regimes, institutional context and norms, market conditions, financial and other types of capital, intra-household relations, or other social practices mediate the ways in which women and men are differentially integrated into investor supply chains?
How are feminine and masculine domains reinforced, restructured, or renegotiated as a result of inclusion or exclusion into different investment modalities?
Gender Café at previous Global Landscapes Forum. Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT
Upcoming events: Panel discussion and side events at GLF and COP
Concerns over gender equality and women’s empowerment are increasingly considered in climate change policy at the global level.
There are currently over 50 UNFCCC decisions that support gender integration in climate policy, including the two-year Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWPG). The LWPG was initated at COP20 in Lima 2014 with a two-fold objective: enhancing the gender balance of the UNFCCC negotiations; and achieving gender-responsive climate policy.
However, while there now is a clear global mandate to develop and implement gender-responsive climate policy and action, these commitments are often not evident in national climate policies. For instance, only 40% of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted to the secretariat before COP21 in Paris made any references to women or gender. In the instances such references were made, they often served to paint a rather generalized picture of women as ‘vulnerable populations’.
The focus of COP22 will be on the implementation of the Paris Agreement: How are the Parties to the Agreement going to deliver on the promises made in Paris? This year’s COP also marks the end of the two-year LWPG. Parties and observer organizations have thus been urged by the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) to share experiences and views to guide the possible continuation and enhancement of the program.
Given the gap between the global commitments to gender-responsive climate policy and their systematic implementation on a national level, it is of crucial importance to highlight and assess some of the existing attempts to address gender issues in climate policies.
Towards this end, the gender integration team is partnering with a wide range of organizations to bring together a high-level panel at the Global Landscapes Forum 2016 in Marrakesh on Wednesday November 16th. The focus will be on translating these global commitments into national and local actions. Partners are UN Women, UNDP–UNEP Poverty Environment Initiative, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Global Gender Climate Alliance (GGCA), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Women’s Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests (REFACOF).
Together with the same partners, we are also convening a skills share session at the GGCA Innovation Forum on Saturday November 12th, as well as a side-event at the UNFCCC COP22 (green zone) on Monday November 14th.
The above sessions will delve into the national processes of drafting and implementing gender-responsive climate policy. Particularly, the panelists will explore the role of multiple stakeholders – ranging from advocates and practitioners to researchers and donors – in supporting such processes.
The sessions will further investigate if, how and when ‘gender-responsive policies’ actually enhance gender equality and women’s empowerment on the ground. Participants will be invited to share achievements and challenges of drafting and implementing gender-responsive climate policy and action thus far, thereby fostering South–South learning of good practices.
The sessions will also provide an opportunity to deliberate over a minimum set of standards that countries could follow to ensure that commitment towards addressing gender equality are firmly rooted in national climate policy and action and that mechanisms for accountability, monitoring and continuous learning are in place.
FTA events recap: From farmers’ fields to landscapes -- food security in a new climate regime?
FTA events recap: From farmers’ fields to landscapes — food security in a new climate regime?
05 September, 2016
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“From farmers’ fields to landscapes” was a side event at the 2015 Global Landscapes Forum hosted by CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). The event consisted of three interrelated sessions on ensuring food security under climate change through policies, integrated land use, new technologies and practices, and empowering women and youth. The four videos below capture the full session. The Global Landscapes Forum is a key event under the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. Find out more about the side event here, visit the Global Landscapes Forum here.
Zwide Jere is the Managing Director of Total LandCare, improving access to finance and technology for smallholders in Southern and Eastern Africa. Zwide has 30 years of experience working with rural communities in partnership with government, non-governmental and private sector organizations. This gives him a unique privilege in handling issues that cut across these sectors. His strong capability is assessing and analyzing issues/problems of watersheds and resolving conflicts arising from resource uses by the different groups will add value to the planned program.
It has been almost six months, yet my participation at Global Landscape Forum and the Youth in Landscapes Initiative mentoring program continues to inspire me – even now. The sheer scale of it – the number of passionate people enthusiastically debating options, of solutions being proposed and of the principle of the very forum – acted as a remarkable reminder that I was not alone in my hope and determination to make our world a more sustainable place, and a friendlier place to everyone. It has given me the strength I direly need.
Having Edward Millard, the Director of Strategic Partnerships, Rainforest Alliance, by my side as a mentor only made the experience even more invaluable. His calm demeanor, patience and in-depth knowledge about environmental issues, accumulated through decades of experience in the field, was what I immediately recognised as something I aspire towards.
I was yet to find a job, and was not even entirely sure which roles (of thousands of possibilities) I would like to actively take in the field of development and sustainability. Despite that, Edward has still been able to give me valuable guidance.
I am grateful for the opportunity to see how he approaches a problem, to see what an experienced environmental professional is like in person, and what kind of lifestyle they have created. It was then I actually recognized how little I know about this field, particularly about the prospective careers and how you can build your life around this passion.
I have always longed to make a difference, and Edward has helped me figure out the path I can take to achieve that very broad goal. We have been able to talk about our struggles, career development, and the job market at present. His insights made it a more valuable career consultation than the countless sessions I have had in my university years.
I have always felt like a loner fighting for an environmental issue. For the first time in a very long time, GLF and my mentor Edward helped me affirm my aspiration, my goal and my path. I am no longer lost.
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Storage of gum for export. Photo: Ollivier Girard/CIFOR
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Market in the village of Minwoho, Lekié, Center Region, Cameroon. Photo: Ollivier Girard/CIFOR
By Michael Casey, originally published at CIFOR’s Forests News
For centuries, life for smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia was relatively simple. They grew crops, kept the necessary amount to feed their families and then sold the rest at the local market.
But these days, the value chain is much more complicated.
Multinational conglomerates, development agencies, conservationists and even certification groups often play a role in what is grown, which can influence the price a farmer fetches for products like cocoa and palm oil.
Now, a new study has found that these value chain collaborations can be a force for good for smallholder farmers, who produce 80 percent of the food in Africa and Asia.
“These partnerships potentially give farmers benefits in terms of addressing poverty, food security and sustainable production,” said Mirjam Ros-Tonen of the University of Amsterdam and a former visiting scholar at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
“There is also some evidence that these farmers are better off when they are integrated in the value chain,” said Ros-Tonen, who is the study’s lead author.
She noted that multinational companies embark on these kinds of partnerships because it is in their own interest.
“They have an interest in sustainable supplies and they have an interest in their suppliers doing well,” she said. “That’s why they invest in food production and farmers’ livelihoods.”
FARMING WATCHDOG
Smallholders face challenges… Photo: Ollivier Girard/CIFOR
But such relationships have to be monitored, as farmers are often at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to working with multinational companies or government agencies.
“There is evidence that farmers lose autonomy in certain types of partnerships,” Ros-Tonen said.
Pointing to palm oil in Africa as an example, Ros-Tonen cites reports of companies coming into a region and convincing growers to combine their plots into larger ones. Although that might be good for production, this could expose communities to shortages of other food crops that they depend on to survive.
“Farmers are losing their say over what happens with their land because oil palm is going to be planted on it,” she said.
“That might jeopardize their access to food because they might have less land available for food production. It might not be sustainable at all because the production system implemented is monoculture.”
…when they enter the supply chain. Photo: Murdani Usman/CIFOR
Commodity and agriculture companies can also make matters worse by failing to distribute the benefits of these value chain collaborations to all farmers, including women.
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A ‘landscape approach’, which recognizes that land is used in multiple ways and considers both the environment and human systems that depend on such land, can contribute to resolving these issues.
Terry Sunderland, a co-author of the study and a principal scientist at CIFOR, said that such an approach could help people who usually don’t have a seat at the table.
“With stakeholders in landscapes, people will only engage if they feel they have some influence on the process. If they feel that the process has a trajectory already, they’ll just turn their backs. They’ve got other things to do, like feed their children,” he said.
“Having strong facilitation, whether it’s individual or institutional, is key to these kind of relationships. You can’t just have farmers talking to a company. There has to be some kind of process of facilitation.”
In the study, the authors call for all parties to work together more closely and share knowledge.
Storage of gum for export. Photo: Ollivier Girard/CIFOR
That might sound simple enough, but often this does not happen because of traditional barriers that exist between government agencies, the private sector and NGOs.
“We need new methods and new institutional arrangements to get diverse stakeholders together and have joint knowledge exchanges,” Ros-Tonen said.
Ros-Tonen and her co-authors dismissed concerns that farmers opt out of value chain collaborations because market integration “unfolds through a number of crises across different scales, which include the steady erosion of local farming knowledge, a narrowing of choices for producers and consumers, and an increased incapacity of food systems to feed the world in a sustainable and healthy manner.”
While they said those concerns weren’t completely unfounded, they said it should be up to farmers how they proceed – many of whom told the researchers that they want to be part of the global economy.
“There is an ideological stand in rejecting value chain integration, and proponents of food sovereignty and those who reject value chain integration claim to speak on behalf of the farmers,” Ros-Tonen said.
“But when we speak to cocoa farmers in Ghana, they say: ‘We want to be part of this market. It improves our lives. We have bigger income because cocoa has a fixed price.’”
Striking the right balance is essential, and at the 2016 Global Landscapes Forum: The Investment Case, discussions between the finance, corporate, government and NGO sectors took place with the objective to improve investments in sustainable landscapes.
Such work can help bridge the gap between private finance and sustainable landscapes, working toward enhancing the livelihoods of smallholders and the environment, and is an example of the facilitation and knowledge exchange that the study’s authors call for.
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The Director of the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, Marco Albani, speaks on the sidelines of the Global Landscapes Forum: The Investment Case, held on 6 June 2016 in London, a key event under the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
Restoration 
Plantations and tree crop commodities 
Enhanced nutrition and food security 
Biodiversity, safeguarding and conservation 
Nationally determined contributions 
Bioenergy and biomaterials 
Blue carbon and peatlands 
Climate change adaptation 
Landscape governance 
Gender 
Silvopastoral systems 
Market-based agroforestry-forestry 
Farm-forest policy interface 
Agroecology 
Livelihood trajectory modelling and assessment 
Inclusive finance and business models 
Innovating finance for sustainable landscapes 
Public and private commitments to zero deforestation 
Orphan tree crops 
Effectiveness of approaches to sustainable supply 
Quality of FTA research for development 
Sentinel landscapes 
Foresight 
Seeds and seedlings delivery systems 
Smallholder tree-crop commodities 
By Leona Liu, originally posted at CIFOR’s 
