Evento 2014 » Global Landscapes Forum 2014 – Summary Statement

Global Landscapes Forum 2014 – Summary Statement

Following is a compilation of key messages, quotes and recommendations from sessions and discussion forums, as captured by rapporteurs appointed by session hosts. Use the list on the right to navigate to a particular session.

Side event: Youth session

Key messages

  1. Youth can increase public awareness, create demand for greener products and influence governments to implement more sustainable regulations.
  2. Engaging with multi-stakeholder youth platforms at all levels will lead to stronger youth capacity and involvement.
  3. There is a need to better understand why young farmers feel the way they do.
  4. Youth who show leadership have the responsibility to support their peers and engage in development, both individually and collectively.

Key quotes

If you are in this room today, you are by definition a leader. You have a responsibility to get others on board, find and implement solutions together.

Rachel Kyte - Vice President, World Bank

Rural Youth, be proud of your origins - you have so much to teach to others.

Paola Agostino - Coordinator TerrAfrica

Key recommendations

  1. Youth should be considered core stakeholders in the development of new alternatives for managing landscapes and creating new approaches to rural development that focus on equity.
  2. International organizations should include ethical, fair and environmentally and socially sustainable standards in their funding criteria and mechanisms, instead of focusing only on the economic feasibility of projects.
  3. Stimulate the investment in rural areas through better education systems and a diversified training offer to foster local economies.

Civil Society Sessions

The Africa Climate-Smart Agriculture Alliance – a unique partnership and systemic approach to food insecurity and climate change in Africa

World Vision International

Key messages

  1. It is critical to the Alliance’s success that it engages broadly and is designed in a manner that’s very inclusive.
  2. There is a need for greater clarity as to how external stakeholders are engaged, and begin participating, in a manner that ensures timely progress of the Alliance.
  3. The Africa Climate-Smart Agriculture Alliance can be the most effective platform to scale up CSA across Africa.
  4. A lot of controversy and criticism currently exists around CSA and needs to be dispelled, e.g. CSA being a ’green wash‘ approach benefiting industrial agriculture, big corporates and industrialized countries.

Key quotes

The flexibility of CSA is not a weakness: it's a prerequisite.

Rachel Kyte - Vice President, World Bank

Key recommendations

  1. CSA practices should be assessed according to contextual needs, and packaged together in response to farmers’ needs to ensure the most effective outcomes are achieved.
  2. A triple win in packaging CSA practices should be prioritized so that mitigation occurs concurrently with improvements in the food security (improved productivity, reliability and profitability of agricultural livelihoods) and adaptation/resilience dimensions of smallholder farmers also.
  3. Mitigation measures should not be at the expense of food security and adaptation, because that is not CSA and will not deliver benefits to smallholder farmers.

How indigenous peoples use landscapes approaches to conserve forests: Good practices and challenges for food security and livelihoods

Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP)

Key messages

  1. Shifting cultivation is not a driver of deforestation. Shifting cultivation and pastoralism play an important role in providing livelihood and food security in many indigenous communities.
  2. Land scarcity is making shifting cultivation difficult to sustain. However, this scarcity is often the result not of increasing populations, but of outright dispossession of indigenous peoples' territories for plantations or resource extraction.
  3. Despite various internal and external challenges, indigenous communities are still practicing shifting cultivation, which is their way of life. This agricultural system is ecologically sound and meets a variety of human needs with great efficiency.

Key recommendations

  1. Respect indigenous peoples’ customary, collective land rights and their right to free, prior and informed consent.
  2. Stop demonizing shifting cultivators.
  3. Recognize, respect and promote shifting cultivation as the only agricultural system with proven long-term compatibility with tropical forests and biodiversity.
  4. Raise awareness that indigenous knowledge and traditional practices are assets rather than barriers to efforts to achieve universal food security.
  5. Ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals.

How international finance and socio-environmental standards in infrastructure projects in Latin America impact Amazon rainforests

FUNDAR, Centro de Análisis e Investigación (Mexico), Fundación para el Desarrollo de Políticas Sustentables – FUNDEPS (Argentina), Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad – AAS (Colombia)

Key messages

  1. The biggest gaps in the implementation of safeguards are manifested mainly in the deficiencies of access to information during the project cycle.
  2. Social and environmental safeguards are essential for achieving effective mitigation processes.
  3. It is imperative that the biological integrity of the Amazon is protected because its alteration can cause irreversible damage.
  4. International NGOs have relaxed their pressure on banks, and some – working with banks and companies – have lost their independence. Therefore the local people in the Amazon must build their own pressure.
  5. The two main values of the Amazon are its genetic heritage and environmental services. A radical change is necessary and must come from South America.

Key quotes

Amazonian Protocol for investments: You must know the geographical particularities and socio-environmental impacts caused by intervening in this area. It is necessary to study more technical and specific environmental impacts and understand the consequences of development projects in the Amazon.

Paul E. Little - International Consultant

The China Banking Corporation and the BNDES are not development banks, but banks that are promoting the export of national services.

Pedro Bara - International Consultant

Key recommendations

  1. Civil society must get closer to the judiciary and the parliaments of each country to generate effective legislation around climate change and to ensure their implementation.
  2. International financial institutions must adopt processes of public consultation, participation, transparency and access to information in the project cycle.
  3. Amazonian countries should embrace long-term budget planning.

Ensuring free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) in REDD+

Global Environmental Forum, Japan; Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto

Key messages

  1. As REDD+ covers complicated matters such as land tenure, carbon rights and non-carbon benefits, FPIC processes are important to help avoid unexpected outcomes from implementation of REDD+.
  2. FPIC is essential as a social safeguard for REDD+, as recognized by the Cancun Agreement.
  3. Despite several guidelines and guidebooks on FPIC there is confusion around implementation.
  4. Consent is better than consultation, because it is not a one-off event, but an ongoing process.

Key recommendations

  1. There should be more guidelines on how to link safeguards with FPIC requirements.
  2. FPIC should be required for any development projects in order to make sure the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities are respected.

Making the case for organic farming and for a low external input sustainable agriculture as climate-smart landscape solutions

International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries (HIVOS)

Key messages

  1. In many cases, agro-ecological practices show better results and have a higher potential to increase food security in a sustainable manner.
  2. Ecological and social intensification is the key to achieve the transformation to sustainable and resilient agriculture and food systems that conserve natural resources and ecosystems while countering climate change.
  3. Rural women clearly show a higher participation in agro-ecological households than in those based on conventional farming. This includes stronger influence on decisions regarding family expenditures.
  4. Investing in low-carbon agricultural initiatives at the early stages makes good business sense for private companies along their value chain.

Key quotes

Initiatives based on organic agriculture can be the most attractive ones for the voluntary carbon market.

Christian Dannecker - Director Forestry and Land Use Practice, South Pole Group

We need to change the behavior of private capital going into agriculture.

Pieter van Midwoud - Director Business Development for Land Use & Forests, Gold Standard Foundation

When it comes to accessible funds, the farmer is the best optimizer.

Richie Ahuja - Regional Director Asia, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)

Key recommendations

  1. After 20 years that left land and agriculture issues out of the climate change negotiations, parties need to act now.
  2. Landscape approaches based on organic agriculture mitigate emissions – and generate carbon credits - in various ways: aerial biomass, soil carbon biomass and avoided emissions are only some examples. This should all be taken into account when discussing agriculture in the UNFCCC framework.
  3. We need a strong global policy framework to assist a global transformation of agriculture. The design and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals regarding food systems should follow the principles of ecological intensification rather than the aggressive marketing of chemical farm inputs by multinational companies.

Assessment of options for land use in a post-2020 world

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)

Key messages

  1. The land-use sector can address both adaptation and mitigation simultaneously.
  2. There is an opportunity in the ADP Framework for Parties to frame their contributions from the land-use sector in a way that facilitates transparency and simplicity, while still allowing for differentiation according to national circumstances. To accomplish this, Parties need to create a pathway for bringing the best components of existing mechanisms into the ADP discussion.

Key quotes

Other sectors, such as energy and transport, are entirely human constructs, but we need to acknowledge that the land sector is a natural construct that we engage with, and we don't have complete control over it. Therefore, as we think about mitigation in the land sector, we may need to have specific principles for this sector.

Jason Funk - Senior Climate Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists

Key recommendations

  1. At COP20, Parties should explicitly outline the specific principles (or elements) necessary to facilitate transparent, comparable, and consistent inclusion of the land sector in INDCs. Then, during 2015, Parties can negotiate a path forward to harmonize those principles under an approach to the land-use sector that can contribute to an ambitious deal at COP 21.
  2. Parties should be working within the UNFCCC on mitigation in the land-use sector, based on existing mechanisms wherever possible, and should apply this understanding to the development of their proposals for INDCs.
  3. The ADP Framework should harmonize Parties’ contributions under land use under existing land-use mechanisms.

A rights-based approach to comprehensive land use planning

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)

Key messages

  1. Climate change undermines human rights. Conversely, upholding and respecting human rights through, for example, land tenure reform and agroecological approaches to farming, strengthens responses to climate change.
  2. In a rights-based approach to comprehensive land use, “rights” are integrated and positioned as enabling conditions rather than as co-benefits.
  3. A rights-based approach focuses on both the mitigation and adaptation aspects of climate change.
  4. The singular focus on carbon ignores the potentially significant impact of mitigation policies on people and their rights to food, health, and land, among others.
  5. Forests and land have a crucial role to play in a future climate agreement and forest protection can help avoid future emissions, but there is no scientific credibility in the idea that it can offset or compensate for continued fossil fuel use. Sequestration in land (soil and forests) is limited by historical depletion of the land carbon stock and competing demands for land.

Key quotes

Many indigenous peoples have been victims of national park ideologies that criminalize their lives, and exclude indigenous peoples from the lands they own, while also facing the threat of other drivers of deforestation.

Mina Setra - Deputy Secretary General, AMAN, Indonesia

People's livelihoods depend on their land. Without land you have nothing. So land is not just about mitigation; adaptation is a critical tool to safeguard the rights of people.

Azeb Girmai - Climate Change Advocacy and Campaign Advisor, LDC Watch International

Key recommendations

  1. Parties must adopt principles that uphold and protect human rights in the land sector to provide a conceptual framework for further technical negotiations under a new agreement.
  2. Now is the time to include a rights-based approach and to integrate mitigation and adaption into the negotiations, as the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) offers a critical opportunity to do so.
  3. Small-scale farmers have the right to ensure the resilience of their agricultural activities (through adaptation funding) but should not be forced to engage in mitigation activities that may threaten their food security.
  4. Given the complexities and uncertainties associated with emissions from the terrestrial sector, simplified reporting formats should be pursued, particularly for developing countries. Simple, cost-effective reporting for emissions in land use can uphold environmental integrity, while focusing limited resources on undertaking actions that will deliver real, permanent emission reductions from the land-use sector.

Discussion Forums

Securing rights as a climate change mitigation strategy

World Resources Institute, Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), Governance Environment and Markets Initiative at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (GEM)

Key messages

  1. Securing rights for equitable and fair land tenure for indigenous peoples and forest-based local communities is a cornerstone of any solution to mitigating deforestation and climate change.
  2. The critical role that women play in securing land titling for indigenous peoples and local communities is often overlooked.

Key quotes

We need to look at the implementation gaps in human rights laws and international treaties in domestic settings to reinforce the land rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz - UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Key recommendations

  1. Before the implementation of any land-based mechanism for forest preservation such as REDD+, the UNFCCC must reinforce the rights of indigenous peoples and ensure their right of FPIC is exercised.
  2. The Sustainable Development Goals must be aligned with secure land rights and tenure in order to be effective. Before mechanisms like REDD+ can be both equitable and durable, land tenure rights must be ensured and enforced to prevent an emerging trend of land grabbing and governmental default on lands rights promises.

Knowledge products and tools for sustainable landscape management in a post-2015 development agenda

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Program on Forests (PROFOR), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

Key messages

  1. Good data and a demand-based approach to the development of knowledge products are crucial.

Key quotes

It is extremely risky to promote livelihood changes [from shifting agricultural production] without considering the complex effects climate will have on land-use based activities.

Erick Fernandes - Agriculture Advisor, World Bank Group

It's not just about convincing the forest minister [about knowledge products]; the evidence is needed to persuade other decision makers, e.g. in the agriculture and finance sectors. Because this means not just tons of carbon, but jobs and GDP.

Patrick Wylie - Senior Forest Policy Officer, IUCN

Key recommendations

  1. Use knowledge tools because they have the potential and scope to provide climate change decision makers, particularly at the national and subnational/landscape levels, with the information they need to support the implementation of climate mitigation and adaptation measures.
  2. Use the existing tools and methods to provide evidence in support of shaping the indicators under the SDGs.

Strengthening forest landscapes to score Sustainable Development Goals

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

Key messages

  1. Indicators are in need of much more exploration, development and testing. Indicators need to reflect the diversity of local settings.
  2. SDG implementation should follow an integrated/modular approach, also considering enabling conditions like social justice and good governance, fair and responsible market systems, well managed multi-functional landscapes and metrics.
  3. There is a need for contextualization, given the diversity of local conditions. Landscapes act as 'living theatre' where environment and development can be integrated to produce sustainable development outcomes.

Key quotes

We should stop using the term co-benefits but rather inter-dependent benefits or inter-supporting benefits.

Heru Prasetyo - Head, REDD+ Management Agency, Indonesia

If we keep trying to make the SDGs just a little bit better, the perfect becomes the enemy of the good. We need to gear towards implementation.

Paula Caballero - Senior Director, Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice, World Bank

Key recommendations

  1. The climate and SDG processes should be integrated to ensure that definition and measurement of REDD benefits and safeguards are consistent with SDG targets and indicators.
  2. The work of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group should not be reopened for negotiation, and efforts should be focused on making them amenable to implementation in different contexts.
  3. Further work is needed to prepare and pilot guidance on integrated implementation of the SDGs at different levels. Higher level metrics need to be developed to capture the integrated essence of SDG agenda.

Climate change, supply change – the future of sustainable commodities

Global Environment Facility

Key messages

  1. The private sector needs to see sustainable development as an opportunity and not a risk in order to become interested in changing the way they do business.
  2. There is a need to enhance levels of cooperation and coordination to have a transformational effect on world-spanning, multi-player supply chains. Bringing these different players together to constructively and collaboratively discuss options is crucial to identify solutions.

Key quotes

Projections indicate that global demand for soy, palm oil, and beef could increase by 50% in the next decade or two. We simply must find a way to meet this demand without having to remove the world’s remaining forests.

Naoko Ishii - CEO, Global Environment Facility

Key recommendations

  1. Aim for a holistic approach where a range of benefits are pursued and secured rather than simply focus on a single goal. The value and incorporation of co-benefits are essential in REDD+ discussions.
  2. Production of commodities that avoids deforestation can be mainstreamed and highlighted.
  3. Take into consideration the necessary contributions of the many different players involved, including ways in which governments, private sector, civil society, and donors can jointly accelerate change toward low-carbon sustainable development.

Using spatial information to support decision making in national REDD+ strategies

UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) on behalf of the UN-REDD Programme and the REDD-PAC project, Government of Peru

Key messages

  1. Using spatial information is fundamental to developing national REDD+ strategies and can help to plan and implement REDD+ in ways that deliver multiple social and environmental benefits.
  2. Spatial information is also a good basis for stakeholder engagement, and can be used to build consensus.
  3. Spatial information can help to identify and mitigate potential risks of REDD+ action.

Key recommendations

  1. Make use of mapping to define priorities and sequencing for REDD+ action, but the data used must be carefully validated.
  2. Make use of spatial analyses that can be helpful in identifying social and environmental trade-offs associated with different development options and trajectories.

The role of genetic diversity, traditional knowledge and restoration of native plants in climate adaptation and resilience

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Bioversity International, International Potato Center (CIP), CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Asociación Andes

Key messages

  1. Working with farmers as equal collaborative research partners is very empowering for the farmers, and has given CIP access to 200 new varieties of potatoes.
  2. Genetic resources found in situ (i.e. landraces or native varieties) are vital for adaptation. They provide genetically diverse and locally adapted genetic materials needed for effective restoration of forests and native crops for adaptation, mitigation and food security. Landraces are often more resilient than modern varieties, and planting different varieties reduces risk and increases adaptation options.
  3. Agriculture and food security goals should focus not only on increasing productivity but also on increasing access to resilient landraces for smallholder farmers (e.g. through crop repatriation from gene banks), and on addressing the drivers of landrace loss in risk prone environments. Participatory plant breeding is critical for enhancing both yield and resilience to climate change.

Key quotes

We conduct collaborative research with the farmers in the Potato Park. Knowledge exchange is two ways – we learn from the farmers too.

Dave Ellis - Head of CIP Gene Bank

Working with CIP and other institutions is the best life insurance we could hope for.

Lino Mamani - Potato Park farmer

We would like to meet with all the scientists here to explain our knowledge system. The whole rainbow of knowledge systems should be recognized and valued.

Ricardo Pacco Chipa - Potato Park farmer

Key recommendations

  1. The UNFCCC process should recognize the critical role of traditional farming systems that use biological processes/inputs instead of chemical inputs, in climate mitigation.
  2. Forest restoration for mitigation should use native species adapted to the local environment to ensure the establishment of viable, self-sustaining and adaptive ecosystems.
  3. Ensure that local communities derive economic benefits both from restoration projects and from the forest after projects end.

Improving livelihoods in the Andean Region: Scaling up innovations to integrate agriculture, forestry and other land uses in a changing climate

Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) with support of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Key messages

  1. It is necessary to integrate aspects of agriculture, forests, water and renewable energy in a landscape approach, in order to generate long-term policies and sustainable investments that contribute to mitigation and adaptation to climate change, ensuring food and livelihoods for rural people and society, without affecting natural resources. This requires moving toward a new paradigm, using collective knowledge and innovation to become more efficient and equitable.

Key quotes

Development based on rural areas should be seen as a production model in which forest, agricultural, livestock, aquaculture and energy ecosystems and society co-exist. Territories must be productive, sustainable and inclusive.

Victor Villalobos - Director General, IICA

In accordance to the Bolivian position, it is required that projects and initiatives integrate mitigation and adaptation to climate change as well as sustainable development.

Nigel Asquith - Scientific Advisor, Bolivia Nature Foundation

Key recommendations

  1. It is necessary to aim to generate binding agreements in order to achieve a more resilient agriculture to climate change, bearing in mind that there is no single solution. Innovations in agriculture, forestry, water and renewable energy will be crucial to generate robust scaling under public policies compatible with a green economy without compromising food safety or the natural resources that provide the basis for these economic activities.
  2. All land-use sectors should adopt landscape approaches, not only forestry and agriculture but also energy and water. This will ensure robust policies and a more integrated implementation of initiatives in rural territories, which will have a positive impact on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals such as poverty alleviation, food security, sustainable agriculture, access to energy, gender equality as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Building a global alliance for resilient landscapes

World Bank, TerrAfrica

Key messages

  1. The challenges and opportunities of managing the land and water resources of Africa are intrinsically tied to the development objectives of this continent. Achieving this objective requires sound management of natural resources.
  2. The Africa Union/NEPAD Agency is endeavoring to create a broad-based Alliance for Resilient Landscapes for Africa – in collaboration with the World Bank, TerrAfrica, African centers of excellence like the Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and other partners such as the World Resources Institute.
  3. Integrated landscape management (ILM) presents an opportunity to scale up and leverage sectorial interventions such that the whole is greater than the sum of individual interventions in terms of ecological and economic gains.

Key quotes

Linking natural resource management to efforts on tackling poverty and maintaining human dignity is key. There is therefore a need for multisectoral decisions with best possible information on integrated landscapes management – a cause that TerrAfrica is championing.

Paula Caballero - Senior Director, Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice, World Bank

Development needs to be inclusive of livelihoods and natural resource management with a focus on investing in restoration, land degradation and water management and other practices that impact on resilience in local communities in the face of climate change.

Martin Bwalya - Head of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, NEPAD

Key recommendations

  1. Support countries’ efforts for a climate-resilient, low-carbon and sustainable development path by promoting the use of an integrated landscape management approach that recognizes the importance of moving beyond single-sector interventions in order to take into account the resilience of both ecosystems and livelihoods.

Gender and resilience across the landscape: Lessons from Latin America, Africa and Asia

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), University of Missouri, International Potato Center (CIP), Ministry of Culture, Peru

Key messages

  1. Women’s participation is not enough: we need to build capacity and be aware of their time constraints due to many other roles in the family.
  2. We also need to conduct gender-responsive analyses to identify the different needs and interests of men and women and understand how these differences are relevant for both mitigation and adaptation policies and initiatives.
  3. There is very little gender language in the mitigation area. Out of 32 current decisions that mention gender, only three are on mitigation.
  4. Sustainable Development Goals and climate change negotiations are closely linked and need to benefit from each other. The SDG gender goal does not refer to climate change.

Key recommendations

  1. Negotiators need to be come gender smart, not just climate smart.
  2. Local knowledge needs to be considered for mitigation and adaptation to be effective and needs to be combined with new knowledge.
  3. Holistic approaches are needed to achieve climate change adaptation and sustainable development.
  4. We need to move from gender balance to equality and gender transformative approaches.

Considering biodiversity in REDD+ planning and implementation: Country experiences and future options

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBDS), Forest Carbon, Markets and Communities (FCMC)

Key messages

  1. REDD+ can generate biodiversity benefits and these benefits contribute to the sustainability of REDD+ and can support livelihoods. Even if we do not have tools to quantify these values precisely, we need to have the courage to invest in biodiversity benefits as they will pay off in the long term.
  2. Learning from countries’ experience in implementing REDD+ is extremely valuable to support implementation by other countries, and can be the basis for any further guidance that may be developed.
  3. REDD+ is increasingly seen as one of multiple mechanisms that can contribute to broader sustainable development.
  4. Once agreed, the UN post-2015 development agenda will help those working for different agencies and sectors at national level to coordinate their efforts and foster synergies..

Key quotes

Investing in restoration, reduction of deforestation, etc. is economically sound. The additional efforts to achieve the Aichi biodiversity targets by 2020 will put countries in a much better position to achieve the SDGs and related 2030 targets.

Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias - Executive Secretary, CBD

Key recommendations

  1. The role of biodiversity and landscapes in climate change mitigation and adaptation needs to be fully recognized in the 2015 climate agreement.
  2. Coordination between REDD+ agencies and the agencies responsible for CBD should be improved by creating space for exchange. This can be extremely simple and cheap.
  3. Make greater efforts at national and international levels to overcome silos. Sometimes the relationship between the various national ministries and “their” international agencies can further entrench a silo approach.
  4. Invest more in landscape restoration and explain the economic benefits.

Landscapes under pressure – reconciling the needs of conservation, food security and economic development

Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, Wageningen University, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Key messages

  1. Value chain and landscape approach go hand in hand.
  2. Governments play a crucial role in reconciling the needs of conservation, food security and economic development.
  3. Land tenure security is a precondition for any landscape approach.
  4. Cross-sectoral action can only be successful around a common concern.
  5. Stakeholder consensus is not realistic, conflicts are likely to occur: effective, financially viable negotiation mechanisms are crucial to balance the various interests.
  6. Value chain approaches have to be embedded in landscape concepts.
  7. Landscape approaches make sense especially where many different types of players or even cross-boundary issues are involved.

Key recommendations

  1. Urgently promote a radical behavioral change of all actors, including donors. Facilitation mechanisms are needed to achieve this.
  2. Include food loss reduction as a relevant mitigation activity of the agricultural sector.
  3. Mountain issues should be recognized in the UNFCCC processes, as they a have a significant impact.
  4. Engage the private sector.
  5. Include the implementation of landscape approaches as a relevant overarching topic in planning activities, instead of remaining trapped in thinking in stereotypes.

Resilience, vulnerability and climate-smart agriculture

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Key messages

  1. Agriculture, forestry and fishery systems must be transformed to be resilient to future changes in climate and environmental shocks, and to sustainably feed a growing global population, provide the basis for economic growth and ensure poverty reduction.
  2. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) seeks to address these multiple challenges, create the synergies and reduce the trade-offs between production systems, stakeholders and other processes within landscapes to ensure that production and incomes are increased through sustainable, climate-resilient agriculture, forestry and fishery systems.
  3. Appropriate financial, policy and institutional enabling environments, which include the transfer of knowledge, access of natural resources and provision of needed financial services and markets, have been created. These have allowed farmers to transition to systems that are more sustainable, productive, lucrative and resilient to shocks while also, in some cases, contributing to climate change mitigation.

Key recommendations

  1. Negotiators need to be come gender smart, not just climate smart.
  2. Local knowledge needs to be considered for mitigation and adaptation to be effective and needs to be combined with new knowledge.
  3. Holistic approaches are needed to achieve climate change adaptation and sustainable development.
  4. We need to move from gender balance to equality and gender transformative approaches.

Key quotes

The primary goal is food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable. Increased adaptive capacity, improved ecosystem health, and reduced inequities, especially gender inequities, should all be benefits of CSA.

Milo Stanojevich - Director, CARE Peru

Climate-smart agriculture started out as a biophysical goal, but is now seen as a smart way to also address social, economic and wider environmental issues.

Tony Simons -Director General, World Agroforestry Centre

Climate-smart agriculture should be intensive, not in inputs but in knowledge.

H.E. Felipe Arauz Cavallini - Minister of Agriculture, Costa Rica

Key recommendations

  1. Governments should o sharing knowledge on practices and farming systems to minimize inputs to production
    • supporting biodiversity and resilience through diversification at the field and landscape levels
    • improving post-harvest practices to reduce food losses
    • empowering consumers to reduce food waste
    • providing financial incentives to support transition costs and increase ecosystem services
    • improving weather and climate monitoring and early warning systems
    • supporting enabling markets to enable change
    • improving targeted research.

Minding the research-practitioner gap: The implementation of integrated landscape approaches

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

Key messages

  1. There is no shortage of interested capital to invest in environmental projects but there is a shortage of projects that are conceived in ways that are attractive to investors.
  2. Short-term political interests (i.e. elections) at national level go against landscape approaches that need long-term planning.
  3. Ecosystem approaches come close to landscape approaches in the sense of negotiated land use, based on the awareness that multiple claims on land require negotiation of the trade-offs.
  4. No sector – be it farmers, companies, indigenous people, foresters or conservationists – can implement a landscape approach alone. It requires partnerships and negotiation.
  5. Landscape approaches as negotiation processes are not a level playing field.
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  6. Those who have the financial means can take a seat on the negotiation table; for poor stakeholders this is not possible without external support. Power differences should be acknowledged.
  7. The call for a landscape approach is urgent and implementation is needed now: there is no time to lose.
  8. Landscape approaches are not silver bullets.

Key quotes

We don’t call it integrated landscape thinking. Instead, we call it diversification of revenue streams. We speak about robustness of diversified revenue streams.

Jane Feehan - Natural Resources Specialist, European Investment bank

We have competing demands for food production and conservation, so we have to negotiate.

David Cooper -Director, Science, Assessments and Monitoring Branch, Convention on Biological Diversity

Landscape approaches resonate well with indigenous people, It is how they conserve land, water and resources. So the landscape approach is very compatible. It is not a surprise that there is not much research on indigenous views of landscapes. The indigenous people practicing this approach don’t publish about it.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz - UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Key recommendations

  1. One of the hindrances to effective implementation of landscape approaches is the mismatch between landscape and administrative boundaries. New institutions and a complementary legal and regulatory framework are needed.
  2. The discussion on landscape approaches tends to be biased toward forests. Other ecosystems (e.g. savannah) should also be taken into account. But above all it should consider the landscape in a holistic way, breaking away silos that focus on agriculture, forests, conservation, food security or climate separately. These issues and sectors need to be considered in an integrated way

Financial forces in the landscape: Can fiscal and trade policies reduce deforestation?

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Key messages

  1. Fiscal instruments often target yesterday’s priorities, but are not always entirely aligned with tomorrow’s problems.
  2. Against a backdrop of both population and economic growth, private profit from land use should not come at the price of social and environmental damage, for which the public sector often has to pay.
  3. The classical economic response to activities that cause damaging externalities such as biodiversity loss and climate change is to tax them. Success stories come from Paraguay and Ethiopia. However, practical considerations can make reform difficult.
  4. There is potential for well-designed fiscal measures – taxes and subsidies – to play a significant role in addressing deforestation and forest degradation in a landscape context.
  5. REDD+ provides a robust framework through which fiscal instruments can be assessed and potentially aligned.

A new climate agenda? Moving forward with adaptation-based mitigation

Profor

Key messages

  1. Landscape restoration serves as a bridge between adaptation and mitigation.
  2. Private money will be key to making financing accessible to smallholders.
  3. Adaptation-based mitigation is imperative for developing countries.
  4. As adaptation-based mitigation could make accessing finance and protecting rights more complex, sophisticated benefit-sharing mechanisms may be needed.

Key quotes

Adaptation-based mitigation, where feasible, is not just a no-regrets option – it is a no brainer.

Bianca Jagger - Director and Founder,The Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation

Key recommendations

  1. The original structure of the UNFCCC creates an artificial division between adaptation and mitigation. Given the information we have now, these need to be considered two sides of the same coin and looked at in a more integrated manner.
  2. Mitigation funds could be used for payment for ecosystem services (PES)
  3. Basic human rights, including in land issues, must be respected in programming for sustainable development.
  4. The conceptualization of carbon as a commodity should explicitly include the integration of carbon in the sustainability of natural and agroecosystems, as these systems are needed for food, energy and water security.

Using climate-smart technologies to scale up climate-smart agriculture practices

World Agroforestry Centre

Key messages

  1. CSA should be viewed as a system at different scales.
  2. CSA is shaped by context, place, and time: Different solutions apply for different places at different times.
  3. There will be trade-offs between the triple wins (sustainable improvements in productivity, improving resilience, and reducing & removing GHGs). It is important to recognize and account for these trade-offs as CSA programs are designed and implemented. Recognize the temporal elements and be flexible and adapt.
  4. It is essential to have a strong enabling environment, i.e. the right policy, to help catalyze wider adoption of CSA systems.
  5. Not a lot of data and comprehensive research are available on the triple win aspects of agriculture in tropical regions.

Key quotes

One of the key missing pieces in climate-smart agriculture is the enabling environment. There is a lot of experience on the ground but this is disconnected from policy.

Hlami Ngwenya - Manager for Communications and Knowledge, FANARPANbank

More coordination and cooperation is needed among all types of actors – researchers, economists, lawyers, farmers – to develop and implement good CSA policies.

Fabiola Muñoz-Dodero -Director, National Forest and Wildlife Service, Peru

Key recommendations

  1. Policy actors, researchers, economists, farmers, and others need to communicate better to create a more usable pool of information for all stakeholders.
  2. Strive for a more coordinated and comprehensive assessment of options for mitigation and adaptation with regard to land-use emissions.
  3. SDGs that deal with landscapes are well aligned with many elements of CSA such as food security, adaptation, mitigation, and resilience. Stakeholders in both processes should cooperate as they invest valuable resources to achieve their respective objectives.

Large-scale land restoration – creating the conditions for success

CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Key messages

  1. Climate change and REDD+ are part of the landscape approach.
  2. Commitment and trust are essential for large-scale landscape restoration approaches to succeed. To get political, social and financial backing, high levels of commitment and trust are needed from all actors and from the bottom up. It cannot be forced on governments, communities or even the private sector.
  3. Landscape initiatives are becoming more inclusive of the private sector. Businesspeople feel that they are part of the discussion.
  4. It is difficult to implement large-scale initiatives without impacting the poorest in detrimental ways.
  5. The cost of land restoration has to be taken into account in the decision whether to focus on land restoration or on maintaining good land that has not yet been degraded.

Key quotes

Climate-smart agriculture and REDD+ are all about sustainable landscapes.

Leslie Durschinger -CEO, TERRA Global Capital

Successful landscape restoration requires local commitment. In the 20x20 initiative, governments have fully committed because they see how important landscape restoration is to livelihood development, maintaining biodiversity values and sustaining other development efforts.

Walter Vergara -Senior Fellow, World Resources Institute

Key recommendations

  1. Find new ways of raising capital and create the new governance structures that are necessary so that sectors can work together and address local problems in an integrated way to help achieve the SDGs.

Factoring climate change into local development strategies: Lessons from CATIE’s concept of Climate Smart Territories in Latin America, the Carribean and Africa

Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE)

Key messages

  1. A climate-smart territorial approach should address the need for collective action, effective and inclusive governance and continuous learning across scales and disciplines. It should also strengthen local capacities to analyze preparedness for climate change and to develop and implement local adaptation strategies that consider mitigation as additional benefits. Such strategies should be locally driven in the context of national frameworks for development and conservation.
  2. New technology can increase efficiency of resource use, as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of communication and knowledge management. However, exchange of experiences within territories and with other territories (South–South cooperation for example) may be more effective when dealing with the selection and adoption of innovative practices.
  3. Dialogue on major land-use and environmental issues in a territory may reveal that local actors are willing to use their economic resources to invest in efforts to strengthen the capacity of local societies to face climate and other threats to their well-being.
  4. Communities and government may have different visions on certain mechanisms, but if both differences and similarities are recognized, collaboration can be strengthened. In some parts of Asia, for example, communities are prepared to participate in REDD+, not because of its carbon benefits, but because they see its corresponding activities as adaptation measures.

Key quotes

We all need to make changes in how we work; for example move from project work to programmatic work, oriented to support selected territories for a long time.

José Campos -Director General, CATIE

Invest in strengthening local capacities for evidence-based decision making in research and technical assistance.

Leida Mercado -Leader Mesoamerican Agroenvironmental Program, CATIE

Climate-smart territories are a generational process.

Sara Scherr -President and CEO, EcoAgriculture Partners

Key recommendations

  1. Do not give so much that it will be wasted, but do not give so little that people will go hungry. Tie new finance to leveraging local resources.
  2. Do not attempt to separate adaptation and mitigation. They show both synergies and trade-offs, which can be best dealt with at different levels, not dictated from above.
  3. The concept of climate-smart territories sees them as processes that can be used to implement national-level strategies on the ground.

Making Forest Information Systems work for REDD+ and beyond

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Key messages

  1. Robust national forest monitoring systems and data management systems are crucial for providing timely, accurate and relevant data, which are needed to enhance forests’ and trees’ roles in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
  2. Robust national forest monitoring systems and data management systems are crucial for providing timely, accurate and relevant data that will lead to better decision making for policy frameworks, policy implementation at country level and alignment with SDGs.
  3. Many countries will need to make efforts to strengthen their national forest monitoring systems and other data collection systems. Better systems will contribute to a more holistic approach to land-use planning and implementation, leading to better integration of forests into the wider socioeconomic context.

Key quotes

Zambias’s decentralized forest data collection system will provide up-to-date information for planning purposes at all levels and easy access to important information at local level means that don’t have to wait a long time for access to information. Involving local people in data collection will enforce their ownership and use of the information. …If countries build practical systems, they will achieve more.

Deuteronomy Kasaro -National REDD+ Coordinator, Forestry Department, Zambia

Key recommendations

  1. Forest monitoring systems need to be adapted to the administrative structure of the country, so that information systems can be centralized or decentralized accordingly.
  2. Forest monitoring and forest information systems should be built so as to serve multiple purposes and ensure their cost-effectiveness and long-term sustainability. They should link with other national information systems.
  3. Assessing forest information needs in the country and building upon existing national components and systems is important to ensure country ownership.

Learning from REDD Safeguards Information Systems (SIS): Voices from research, policy and practice

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), REDD+ Social and Environmental Standards (REDD+ SES) Initiative

Key messages

  1. Investing in Safeguards Information Systems is necessary to make REDD+ work – and the costs associated with safeguards information systems are only a fraction of the costs of an MRV system
  2. A mix of sources should be mobilized to finance Safeguards Information Systems.
  3. To implement Safeguards Information Systems, policy makers have to draw on international frameworks while building on national and subnational systems. A gap analysis of laws, policies and procedures supports successful implementation – this includes traditional and cultural laws.
  4. Complaints mechanisms are a key component of successful REDD+ Safeguards Systems Implementation.

Key quotes

REDD+ safeguards offer a way to ensure protection of indigenous populations

Cándido Mezúa Salazar - Chairman of the National Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples of Panama

There needs to be full and effective participation. If this does not occur, then safeguards systems have had no effect

Cándido Mezúa Salazar - Chairman of the National Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples of Panama

It will be necessary to work with what you already have to make an effective Safeguards Information System

Toby Gardner - Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute

Key recommendations

  1. Implementation of Safeguards Information Systems will need to happen through policies, laws, and regulations, with mechanisms to ensure compliance and redress. Such systems should be both reactive as well as proactive and preventive.
  2. Identification of relevant laws, regulations and datasets, along with gap analyses, will be important when putting safeguards systems in place. Undertaking these analyses in a planning stage ensures that adjustments are still possible, if needed (i.e. tiered approach).
  3. Multi-stakeholder processes are fundamental in the development of Safeguards Information Systems, especially incorporating the cultures and traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples.
  4. REDD+ can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. However, without full and effective participation of multiple stakeholders in safeguards implementation and collection of safeguards information, the potential of REDD+ to support sustainable development will be limited.

Advancing business engagement in a landscape approach

The Ministry of Economic Affairs of The Netherlands, The Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative (EcoAgriculture Partners), Rainforest Alliance, Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries (HIVOS)

Key messages

  1. Business participation in landscape initiatives has been low, but interest is growing.
  2. We need to increase business engagement in a landscape approach through new partnerships, investment platforms, greater alignment with REDD+, and other forms of collaborative action.
  3. Multi-stakeholder public–private partnerships are essential for achieving climate and sustainable development objectives in landscapes globally.
  4. A number of landscape risk and opportunity assessment tools have emerged to help businesses assess and act at landscape scale. However, practitioners in companies need additional support to make the benefits for businesses from landscape approaches clearer.
  5. Some companies are making unprecedented commitments around de-linking their supply chains from deforestation in major commodities (palm oil, beef, soy, pulp and paper, cocoa) and the UNFCCC is moving ahead with the REDD+ mechanism with donor countries committed to scaling up fast start finance.

Key quotes

Diversification of investment flows from public and private sources is essential for sustainable landscape finance.

Edit Kiss -Director of Business Development and Operations, Althelia Ecosphere

Landscape approaches are slowly starting to migrate into corporate thinking. Businesses are an essential actor; we need to accelerate this process.

Lee Gross -Senior Manager, EcoAgriculture Partners

Landscape approaches offer an operational framework for companies to achieve their zero-net deforestation commitments in critical tropical sourcing areas.

Edward Millard -Director of Strategic Partnerships, Rainforest Alliance

Key recommendations

  1. Include the following landscape target in the final language of the Sustainable Development Goals: “All landscapes are managed by their stakeholders, across sectorial and administrative boundaries, in a way that integrates food security, sustainable production, livelihood development and ecosystem services.”
  2. More cooperation is needed between stakeholders in REDD+ programming and in supply chain commodities to achieve the goal of no deforestation by 2030.
  3. Loan guarantees are key for scaling up private sector finance for integrated landscape management.
  4. Strategies that encourage collaboration and build coalitions across sectors are needed if the post-2015 sustainable development agenda is to be effective.
  5. The Open Working Group must formulate goals that reflect the clear
    6. interrelationships between the many aspects of the future we want.

New findings on the dynamics between forests, land use and food security

International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

Key messages

  1. It is important to distinguish between security of food and nutrition; forests are important for both, but especially critical for providing a diversity of nutrients and healthy diet.
  2. For some of the nourishment provided by forests, there is no viable alternative.
  3. There is increasing scientific evidence of the importance of forests and tree-based food systems for contributing to dietary diversity and quality and food and nutritional security.

Key quotes

The importance of trees is clear from the fact that as trees and forests get more scarce in the landscape, farmers start to incorporate them on-farm.

Susan Braatz -Senior Forestry Officer, FAO

The poorest members of society who live close to trees have better diets than those who have moved to cities

Terry Sunderland -Principal Scientist, CIFOR

Key recommendations

  1. Measures and incentives for mitigation of and/or adaptation to climate change need to include innovative approaches that help to secure rights of access to and use of the nutrition forests provide.Perverse incentives must be excluded.
  2. Modalities to address proposed SDG 2 on hunger and food security should take full account of the critical role of forests in the food and nutritional security of the world’s poor.

Forest economics: A synthesis of valuation studies in Zambia, Tanzania and Panama

UN-REDD

Key messages

  1. Direct and indirect values of forests considered as part of a study in Zambia make a direct contribution equivalent to GDP of about 4.7% (6.3% of GDP with multiplier effects), alongside providing over a million jobs.
  2. The study will be a key tool to engage various stakeholders in enhancing the understanding of the importance of forests to the national economy, as well as to the goods and services they supply.
  3. REDD+ results-based finance could enable Tanzania to transition to a green, more resource-efficient and low-carbon economy.
  4. Panama’s economy loses roughly US$ 300 million per year through deforestation.
  5. Forest ecosystem valuation studies are useful for the REDD+ policy process.

Will climate-smart agriculture help realize REDD+?

Wageningen University, Norwegian University of Life Sciences

Key messages

  1. Agriculture is a key driver of deforestation and can therefore also deliver key solutions.
  2. The mitigation potential varies between regions across the pan-tropics; approaches need to be tailored to their specific local and regional circumstances.
  3. CSA is an approach that is primarily focused on technology, and needs to be broadened to address the impacts it has on forests.
  4. It is dangerous to assume that higher agricultural yields or CSA will reduce pressure on forests.
  5. REDD+ and land grabbing happen simultaneously. Integration and safeguards are needed both for REDD+ and against land grabbing.
  6. CSA proponents should not assume a positive outcome for forests. We know that the impacts on land use depend on the type of technologies applied and on the local socioeconomic conditions. CSA recommendations should take this knowledge into account and not just consider on-site effects.
  7. Besides emissions from deforestation itself, we need to also consider the emissions from the follow-up land use (especially in the case of agriculture).
  8. The compatibility of the landscape approach (that includes REDD+ measures) and CSA is not all clear – since there are very few examples on how they can be addressed together.
  9. The impact of CSA on forests is not clear: there are few studies and little empirical evidence.

Key quotes

I see CSA as the sister of REDD+. They can both be seen as interlinked umbrella objectives.

Arild Angelsen -Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)

About 70% of deforestation in South America is followed by pasture. All agriculture together accounts for 90% of the deforestation. Is it also receiving 90% of the attention in REDD+?

Martin Herold -Wageningen University

Key recommendations

  1. If REDD+ is to be successful, agriculture as the key driver must be addressed specifically in cross-sectorial approaches.
  2. Knowledge of emissions hot spots from deforestation and agriculture should be used to prioritize decision making and to identify areas where land-based mitigation supported by CSA can be successful in reducing GHG emissions.
  3. Knowledge on emissions hot spots from deforestation and agriculture should also be used to prioritize and assess where sustainable development goals within and across sectors can be tackled.

Moving targets: Challenges and opportunities for sustainability in “frontier” landscapes

Swedish International Agricultural Network Initiative (SIANI), EcoAdapt

Key messages

  1. Frontier landscapes urgently need innovative institutions to create legitimate spaces for dialogue between diverse actors, including and especially the most marginalized. Such spaces are currently very rare and, given the rapid pace of change in frontier landscapes, the window of opportunity is small. The challenge is how to build social capital faster than natural capital is lost. This requires strong leadership and trust.
  2. Institutions and institution building can be the basis for legitimate strategies for sustainable landscapes. Local-level efforts to engage diverse actors for more sustainable land use cannot succeed in a vacuum; they need to be backed by political will and a clear sustainability framework.

Key recommendations

  1. Incentives will not work without strong institutions, and may even backfire. Focus first on building capacity on the ground, working with civil society to set up effective multi-actor participatory governance processes. It’s not enough to tailor measures to different actor groups; consider also how actors interact with one another.
  2. We need a systems approach that recognizes the ways in which different targets and goals – which may vary among actors – interact, so they do not unintentionally conflict. Also, it is crucial to focus not only on results, but also on the processes used to achieve them, which must be truly participatory.

Jurisdictional approaches to REDD+ and experiences with multi-level governance: Bringing together global data, Latin American case studies and views from the ground

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Governors’ Climate & Forests Task Force (GCF), The Nature Conservancy, National Forestry Commission of Mexico (CONAFOR)

Key messages

  1. Subnational governments play a key role, and the coalitions that they are building are critical. They face challenges related to problematic decentralization, budgetary constraints, territorial planning, and intersectorial coordination. Nevertheless, the opportunities for action at the subnational jurisdictional level justify concern and attention to this level of governance.
  2. Different subnational jurisdictions have in common a basic need for coordination across levels and sectors across the board. A strong coalition of actors in the environmental sector in multiple countries exists, but without enough involvement of producer groups and agriculture sector actors.
  3. At the same time, the specific division of powers and responsibilities across levels of government differs from place to place. Subnational governments need to work within their legal constraints to advance conservation commitments.

Key quotes

Climate change is not an environmental issue – it’s a development issue.

Ana Euler -Executive Director, Amapa Forestry Institute, Brazil

Key recommendations

  1. Consider the role of subnational governments carefully, and do not ignore the politics of decentralization within countries. REDD+ issues like MRV and benefit sharing will involve subnational governments in some capacity, and the framing of international agreements should anticipate this and be out in front of it.
  2. Subnational governments need to be key partners in achieving SDGs.