Discussion forums

IFOAM; Research Institute of Organic

Agriculture (FiBL); Biovision; Millennium Institute

Read a full session summary here.

Consensus is growing that there is a need for a global transformation of agriculture. The enhancement of natural resources, land, biodiversity, ecosystems and their functions are pre-requisites for landscape approaches that aim to meet the needs of a growing world population while keeping emissions in check and building resilience to global environmental change.

Against this backdrop, IFOAM the global umbrella organization for organic agriculture together with FiBL, the world’s leading organic research institute and the Biovision Foundation, founded by World Food Prize Winner Hans Herren, will explore the practices and policies required to achieve the required social, environmental and economic outcomes from landscape approaches. To demonstrate the potential of organic agriculture, the event will outline a number of successful landscape scale, ecosystem and community based food security and livelihood initiatives based on resilient and affordable organic agriculture practices and systems – most notably the award-winning ‘Tigray Project’ in Ethiopia. Innovative international initiatives such as Biovision’s ‘Changing Course in Global Agriculture’ , which includes integrated national multi-stakeholder sustainable food systems, food security and nutrition assessments in three African nations will complement the case studies from the field with emphasis on global policy processes. The event will also be informed by FiBL’s participatory research project in Western and Central Africa on implementing, evaluating and disseminating diversified organic production systems to enhance food security, income, adaptation and natural resources and ecosystem functions.

Key questions the Forum will address

1. What practices and approaches can protect and restore land, ecosystems and landscapes while supporting food security, climate adaptation and mitigation and sustainable rural development in an equitable manner?
2. How can the food security, adaptation, ecosystem and livelihood benefits of landscape and community based approaches of organic agriculture be more broadly realized in a systematic manner on the ground?
3. What international, national and local policies and initiatives are required to enable equitable and resilient sustainable rural development and realize the right to food at the landscape and community levels – especially for vulnerable people?

Background reading

1.   Tigray Project: Ecological in Ethiopia – Farming with nature increases profitability and  reduces vulnerability (SSNC)

2.   Syprobio Project: Farmer-led innovation platforms to address food security, poverty alleviation and resilience to climate change in West African cotton-growing communities

3.   Changing Course in Global Agriculture – Implementation of Sustainable Agriculture at Policy Level

4.   SDGs & Post-2015: Goals on Food Security and Nutrition, and Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems

5.  IAASTD: Agriculture at a Crossroads

Speakers

• Andre Frederick Leu

  President of International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM) and Chair of the Organic Federation of Australia (OFA),

• Gian L. Nicolay

  Africa coordinator, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FIBL), Switzerland

• Hans Rudolf Herren

  President of Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development and the Millennium Institute

Panelists

• Alexandre Meybeck

  Senior Policy Officer on Agriculture, Environment and Climate Change, FAO

• Vicky Tauli-Corpuz

  Executive Director, Tebtebba (Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education), and Convenor, Asian Indigenous Women's Network

• Dejen Zewdu

  Food security and climate change focal person, Ethiopian Red Cross Society

• Anika Schroeder

  Climate Change and Development Officer, MISEREOR

• Robert Jordan

  Independent consultant specializing in ecological and people-centered approaches to food security, climate change and sustainable development; background in horticulture

• Gian L. Nicolay

  Africa coordinator, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FIBL), Switzerland

• Andre Frederick Leu

  President of International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM) and Chair of the Organic Federation of Australia (OFA),

• Hans Rudolf Herren

  President of Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development and the Millennium Institute

• Sergio A. Zelaya-Bonilla

  Head of Policy Advocacy on Global Issues (PAGI) unit, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification – UNCCD

Moderator

• Edmund Barrow

  Head, Global Ecosystem Management Programme, IUCN