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Making landscape finance more inclusive

A dwelling sits in the middle of an oil palm plantations in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by N. Sujana/CIFOR
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A dwelling sits in the middle of an oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by N. Sujana/CIFOR

A new initiative aims to share issues and best practice for increasing inclusive, responsible finance that promotes sustainable landscape restoration and management. 

To this end, the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), along with two of its strategic partner institutions, Tropenbos International (TBI) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), are launching a new article series and online platform on inclusive finance.

Forests and farmland, land use and landscapes are the basis of much of the global economy. And they are even more important to those who live in them and live off them. But ever-increasing levels of external investment are making huge impacts — positive and negative.

So to shift the balance in favor of beneficial outcomes, global attention is now focusing on sustainable business models that include more responsible finance, and that is inclusive of men, women and youth in local communities and indigenous peoples.

This complex topic needs to be addressed urgently, and strategically. Different actors and sectors hold pieces of the puzzle, but many are not automatically connected to each other or to wider networks. The overriding question is “How can investing in sustainable land use and land management be made more inclusive of smallholder and community needs while remaining attractive to investors?”

Whether public or private – governments, corporates, banks, smallholders, communities, NGOs – all see the need for common understanding and collaboration, and there are many valuable and innovative experiences and insights that others would do well to learn from.

But broad debate appears constrained by a lack of mutually respected platforms for presenting and discussing key issues leading to shared strategies and sustainable solutions at the scales needed, available to all.

The past few years have seen a number of high-level discussion forums, and the relevant players are learning from international to grassroots levels. A new online initiative on foreststreesagroforestry.org and tropenbos.org will contribute to sharing innovative thinking and joint learning, facilitating and strengthening networks and bridge-building between actors beyond the usual sectoral boundaries.

Beginning in June 2018, it will comprise a six-month series of interviews with thought-leaders in different sectors. Along with parallel reviews and studies, these interviews will guide the development of a global online consultation on inclusive landscape finance in early 2019.

Key individuals will be invited to contribute to the article series, but the platform is also open to receiving contributions from those involved in inclusive finance, in one of the four main sectors: public, finance, corporate and community. For more information, download the flyer for this initiative.

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  • Getting down to business: Seminar promotes shift toward inclusive investment

Getting down to business: Seminar promotes shift toward inclusive investment

Carpenter Hervé Bougar makes a living from doors and furniture in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Photo by O. Girard/CIFOR
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Tropenbos International Director Rene Boot speaks during the seminar on inclusive investments and business models. Photo by Nguyen Phuong Ha/Tropenbos International

A growing number of investors want to have a greater positive impact on people’s rights and livelihoods in areas where they do business. 

Tropenbos International (TBI), one of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry’s (FTA) partner institutions, held on Sept. 14 a workshop titled Towards inclusive investment and business models for improved land governance and livelihoods: Are we on the right track? in Ede, the Netherlands.

Part of a broader series of annual seminars on sustainable forest management in the tropics, the event brought together finance, business, land use and development experts to address how to work with smallholders and learn from existing business cases.

Amid cases in which large-scale agricultural investments have damaged local livelihoods and ignored biodiversity and traditions, international organizations have established guidelines to help mitigate the adverse effects of investments. However, a growing number of businesses and investors want to exceed such guidelines, aiming for a positive impact on local communities’ livelihoods and tenure rights through their investments.

Carpenter Hervé Bougar earns a living from making doors and furniture in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Photo by O. Girard/CIFOR

“A growing number of investors aspire to make the transition from ‘doing no harm’ toward ‘doing good’,” TBI director René Boot said in opening the seminar. “The positive news is that this can be done.”

The discussions not only raised awareness on the importance of moving from the do-no-harm to the do-good approach in investing in smallholder land management, but also provided evidence of the feasibility and scaling-up opportunities from such an approach.

Participants shared experiences on best practices and made recommendations on strategies, mechanisms and follow-up actions to enhance investment in inclusive business models that improve the livelihoods, land security and entrepreneurial potential of smallholders.

Read more: Attention to detail is necessary for zero deforestation intentions to succeed, say scientists

Furthermore, the seminar contributed to the improvement of a working paper titled “Improving the positive impacts of investments on smallholder livelihoods and the landscapes they live in.”

Discussions on the paper covered ways for investors to improve the positive benefits of their investments, namely recognizing rights, effectively engaging, and the need to “think landscape.”

The findings of the seminar indicated that by recognizing local practices, as well as working with local communities, investors can benefit from greater local support. The findings also stated that understanding on a landscape scale could lead to production diversification and improved local food security.

The seminar, which was organized by TBI and other organizations working in the Netherlands, can be seen as a precursor to future work that TBI will carry out as part of FTA’s research theme on sustainable value chains and investments to support forest conservation and equitable development.

Timber is piled outside a building as part of the Kanoppi Project in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Photo by A. Erlangga/CIFOR

Key scientists intend to build upon the body of work under FTA in order to make explicit the connections between responsible financing schemes and the development of inclusive business models, as part of the conditions needed to support more sustainable landscapes.

“The approach undertaken by TBI constitutes a key piece in building financing schemes that can contribute more positively to business models that work for the environment and smallholders, supporting broader agendas on sustainability and inclusivity,” said FTA Flagship 3 leader Pablo Pacheco.

“The research on value chains and finance in FTA will continue building in these innovative approaches,” he added.

Read more: Sustainable value chains and investments

“At TBI, we see the report and the seminar – and all the preliminary work – as an important contribution to FTA research and engagement work, in advancing the agenda for it, and on which to base further collaborative activities, particularly in the field of inclusive business and finance,” said TBI program coordinator Herman Savenije.

“We see this topic of inclusive finance and business as an important one in which we can learn a lot by actively engaging with those worlds. In the Netherlands I feel the thinking in the finance and business worlds on inclusiveness has advanced somewhat, though still with some frontrunners, and we have started building networks with them,” he added.

The day of presentations from nine speakers yielded numerous insights and ideas – including that scaling up is easier if one can show clear profits; that there is a clear ‘missing middle’ between small and large investments; and that transparency is vital – many of which are contained in the summary report.

Evidently, research on investments for improved land governance and livelihoods, which will be built upon by TBI and other institutions as part of FTA, is indeed on the right track.

By Hannah Maddison-Harris, FTA Editorial and Communication Coordinator

This work is linked to the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, which is supported by CGIAR Fund Donors.

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  • Tropenbos International: Putting research results to good use

Tropenbos International: Putting research results to good use

Tropenbos International works with national partners for example in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: TBI
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Tropenbos International works with national partners for example in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: TBI

In 2017, Tropenbos International (TBI) will start working as a managing partner of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). TBI was invited to become a partner as a boundary organization with the special responsibility to link the high-level research from FTA research with policy making at the national level and practice at the landscape level.

Who is Tropenbos International:

Tropenbos International is an international non-governmental and non-profit organization based in the Netherlands. We aim to improve the management and the protection of forest for the benefit of local inhabitants and for sustainable development in the tropics.

By making knowledge work for forests and people, Tropenbos International contributes to well-informed decision making so that tropical forests are better managed. Its longstanding local presence and ability to bring together local, national and international partners make Tropenbos International a trusted partner in sustainable development.

Tropenbos International wants to bring cutting-edge research to practitioners like here in Vietnam. Photo: TBI

What does Tropenbos International:

TBI positions itself as a boundary organization and knowledge broker. It links policy with knowledge, policy makers with corporate and community practitioners, and northern with southern actors and agendas. TBI’s theory of change emphasizes the role of evidence-based multi-stakeholder dialogue in putting knowledge to good use for sustainable and equitable governance and management of forested landscapes in the global South.

TBI’s contribution to FTA:

TBI specializes in building bridges, creating spaces for dialogue between policy makers, local businesses, civil society organizations and scientists in order to support the uptake of the cutting-edge research of FTA.

This applies especially for flagship 3: Sustainable value chains and investments for supporting forest conservation and equitable development and flagship 4: Landscapes dynamics, productivity and resilience.

TBI will contribute to FTA by articulating the needs, wishes and demands from a wide range of actors at the national level. These questions, when channeled to FTA, will help in shaping FTA research agendas that respond to the country needs and that research results have an impact at national and local level.

 

 

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  • Connecting with countries: Tropenbos International to join CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

Connecting with countries: Tropenbos International to join CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

Tropenbos International sees its strength in making connections at country level. Photo: Tropenbos International
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Photo: Tropenbos International
Photo: Tropenbos International

Next year, with the start of Phase 2 of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), two new managing partners will come on board. One of them is Tropenbos International, a non-governmental organization, based in Wageningen, Netherlands. Its mission is to improve tropical forest governance and management in order to support conservation and sustainable development. We asked René Boot, Director of Tropenbos International since 2002, what joining FTA means for his organization. See more partnerships stories here.

How did you become involved with FTA?

Our relationship with the CGIAR started many years ago, both with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), and it developed as we found ever more common ground. Contacts became friendships, collaboration turned into partnership.

The FTA had already involved two organizations from outside the CGIAR, CIRAD and CATIE, in its first phase, and we were invited to become a partner, which acknowledges our work as a ‘boundary organization’.

Also read: Bringing in the development expertise: INBAR to join CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

We found this a fascinating challenge. More than 200 scientists around the world that need to get knowledge to where it is wanted – and they need to hear research questions from the country level. Tropenbos International could help fill that gap, putting scientists in touch with CSOs, ministries, local businesses, we could help to translate messages, transmit knowledge.

We had early discussions with Meine van Noordwijk, Coordinator of the landscapes Flagship of FTA, which led to more detailed talks with then Director Robert Nasi. Finally, in December 2015, we were invited to a meeting in Paris.

In a small room, we presented our interests, our role and theory of change. And we found a clear and common understanding of problems – and possible solutions. More meetings followed in Nairobi and Rome. The final proposal was submitted at the end of July this year, when Tropenbos International was proud to become a managing partner.

Photo: Tropenbos International
Photo: Tropenbos International

What role can a small organization like Tropenbos International play in such a huge program?

Through our country programs and networks built over the past 30 years, Tropenbos International has its feet firmly on the ground, especially in tropical forest countries. We first developed our position as providers of research-based evidence, before we also became knowledge brokers.

One of our roles is to make connections. To link high-level research as in the FTA Research Program with national-level policies and landscape-level practices.

We aim to ensure that the FTA Program makes an impact at the country level—so that research results can be translated into solid outcomes. But also, and very importantly, we will act as a conduit in the other direction. We are in close and regular contact with a range of actors. They talk to us. And we listen.

We have for example, successfully established multi-stakeholder dialogues in a number of countries. And we can share our experiences in how we have adapted such processes to the different social and political environments we work in.

Multi-stakeholder dialogues are another speciality of Tropenbos International. Photo: Tropenbos International
Multi-stakeholder dialogues are another speciality of Tropenbos International. Photo: Tropenbos International

At the level of national governments, Tropenbos International has very good relationships in half a dozen countries, and good connections in half a dozen more, built on trust and respect over many years.

And our role in a new partnership program with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs adds another dimension to our work. This program aims to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations to lobby and advocate for inclusive governance and sustainable management of forested landscapes. In this five-year program we work together with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) NL and Friends of the Earth NL.

We articulate the needs, wishes and demands from a wide range of actors at the national level. These are related to gaps in knowledge, and honed into research questions. These questions, when channelled to FTA, will help in setting a demand-led agenda for action, and that is highly relevant to country needs, which it must be if it is to have any real chance of having an impact. This we see as one of our crucial roles.

Tropenbos International sees its strength in making connections at country level. Photo: Tropenbos International
Tropenbos International sees its strength in making connections at country level. Photo: Tropenbos International

What do you expect of the next phase of FTA research?

Phase 2 is due to start in January 2017, and we are ready to begin in our role as a knowledge broker—an honest knowledge broker.”

I very much appreciate the scope of the second phase, including livelihoods and landscapes, trade and value chains, climate change and genetic resources. All of them are key issues. The elements are there and we have to combine them.

In the first phase, CGIAR institutes worked with CATIE and CIRAD, and now adding Tropenbos International and the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR). The partnership is growing. And we have a joint responsibility for a major program.

I see much more interaction, more integration, and a very strong interest in working together—and in making this work!

Our goal now, for the next five years, is to contribute to resolving some of the perennial challenges the world faces. And we can only do that together.

As a global network of international organizations, the CGIAR and its research programs undertake excellent research, is well respected and has much influence in the international forest and development arena. But real impacts on the ground also require influence at the level of governments and ministries responsible for national policy and practice. And that’s where we come in.

More partnerships stories:

Long-term relationships and mutual trust—partnerships and research on climate change

The best science is nothing without local voices: Partnerships and landscapes

Influence flows both ways: Partnerships are key to research on Livelihood systems

Partnership increases number of academically trained foresters in DR Congo from 6 to 160 in just ten years

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  • Robert Nasi: Partnerships make forests, trees and agroforestry program work

Robert Nasi: Partnerships make forests, trees and agroforestry program work
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Robert Nasi. Photo: CIFOR
Robert Nasi. Photo: CIFOR

The CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) is entering its next phase in 2017; this is an opportunity to take stock of the partnerships that made this research program a success and to look at the new partners who will come on board. In several upcoming blog posts and interviews, we are showcasing partnerships that can serve as examples, in the knowledge that it took hundreds of partners to make it work: donor agencies, research institutes and universities, government bodies, nongovernmental organizations and farmers on the ground. For our first blog, we asked the previous FTA Director Robert Nasi about the FTA partnership model and what worked well. You can find more stories on partnerships here.

Partnerships are key to the delivery pathways of FTA; also we have many different levels and types of partnerships within the program, spanning research, capacity development, outreach, implementation, and more.

The core management partnership is between the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD), Bioversity International, Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center [Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza], (CATIE), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

This partnership has been effective although we had a rather difficult starting point in 2011 when centers were essentially competing for leadership of the different Research Programs.

Also read: CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry has new Director

Developing and implementing FTA research gave us the opportunity to sit and plan together, to exchange knowledge and ideas and to learn to value each other. And now, after five years, we can see an increased level of solidarity between partners in developing and getting over the various hurdles during the joint preparation of the proposal for the next phase.

In South Sulawesi, the two FTA partners CIFOR and ICRAF collaborate in the successful AgFor project. Photo: Tri Saputro/CIFOR
In South Sulawesi, the two FTA partners CIFOR and ICRAF collaborate in the successful AgFor project. Photo: Tri Saputro/CIFOR

We can honestly say that we have moved from a competitive to a more collaborative approach. Of course there still is and will be some level of competition because of the nature of the work and the funding context but we are becoming more and more collaborative in our fundraising efforts.

We now have a mature partnership so we can address hard issues up front and solve them together. For me, this is real success and proof of a real partnership.

New partners joining

The fact that new partners, such as Tropenbos International and the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) want to join us demonstrates the value and reputation of the FTA as a partnership. They want to come on board as core partners for the new phase because they are interested in the research agenda and because FTA as a program adds value to their work. Partners are interested because of the things we do and because of the added value of being part of an integrated effort more than for the prospect of getting a huge amount of money.

Bigger than the sum of its parts

The Tropical managed Forest Observatory is a product of partnerships within FTA.
The Tropical managed Forest Observatory is a product of partnerships within FTA.

We have developed specific partnerships within FTA that are bigger than the program, for example the Tropical managed Forests Observatory (TmFO), led by CIRAD which has 22 institutions working in it. The Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins (ASB) and the Sentinel Landscapes project are other partnerships within FTA.

Working through the difficulties

During the last 24 months, we have had some issues with commitment to our partners because of unplanned budget cuts but thanks to the maturity of the partnership we have managed to overcome these and keep people on board (even after cutting their budget by more than 50% in some cases).

There is still some room for improvement. It is not always easy for people in one institution to understand what is happening in another in terms of budget management or internal procedures. It is often challenging for non-CGIAR partners to respond to specific CGIAR requests.

This has created some practical issues, but we’ve always managed to sort it out. So, all in all, FTA in a short number of years and in a difficult budget environment, has managed to gather up six competitive organizations at the top of their field in forest, trees, agroforestry and land use research, to work together in a real collaborative way. And the decision by the CGIAR System Council to continue this vast integrated program for another six years confirms that FTA phase 1 was a real success story.

More partnerships stories:

Long-term relationships and mutual trust—partnerships and research on climate change

The best science is nothing without local voices: Partnerships and landscapes

Influence flows both ways: Partnerships are key to research on Livelihood systems

Connecting with countries: Tropenbos International to join CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

Partnership increases number of academically trained foresters in DR Congo from 6 to 160 in just ten years

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