I am pleased to see the two leading international consortia on forests and agriculture and rural development coming together at the Global Landscapes Forum to tackle pressing development and climate change issues from a wider perspective. It is well known that the fate of forests and food is bound. Because deforestation, climate change and food security are so closely connected, it’s vital that we start getting the farm and forest folks together to develop a shared agenda. The Forum should be celebrated as a big step in the right direction.
The fact that Poland’s Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the University of Warsaw joined forces to support the Global Landscapes Forum as Host Country Partners highlights the shared aspiration of looking beyond sectors and bringing policy, practice and research together to identify combined solutions.
The agenda before us is exciting: How do we manage land uses to secure jobs, livelihoods, biodiversity, food and nutrition? Do we have enough scientific evidence and political power to promote integrated forestry and agricultural solutions that build up carbon matter, retain soil and water, increase the effectiveness of fertilizer and boost crop yields? Can we design business models that bring these solutions to scale and benefit millions and millions of people? Watch this space.
At the Global Landscapes Forum, we are going to look into a wide array of landscape solutions and jointly develop policy recommendations.
To just give you two examples: Strategies for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) have been among the agenda items that made most progress during previous UN climate change talks, and were also discussed intensively at past Forest Days. This year, we are going to scrutinize the implications of REDD across landscapes and focus more on how economic and political incentives drive deforestation from outside the forestry sector. Human needs for agriculture, mining, transportation and energy are shaping the future of forests arguably much more than Sustainable Forest Management practices. Let’s address that reality.
Food Security was discussed during Agriculture and Rural Development Days in the past. This year, we will be looking more closely at linkages and trade-offs surrounding agricultural intensification. How can we build resilience to more extreme temperatures and weather events, conserve ecosystems that support production and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Tree-based systems may hold an answer. Let’s rethink fertilization, pollination, pest management, germplasm; let’s prioritize action on degraded lands. There’s a huge and exciting tool box we can draw from to build climate-smart productive systems that will last beyond our own generation. Like you, I look forward to brainstorming with some of the world’s most creative minds on this topic. See you in Warsaw.
