Partnering for stronger integrated forest and farming pathways 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Dutch Government launched today the joint initiative: Food, Forests and Farming for the Future, which will make a decisive contribution towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide a bridge between the Decade of Family Farming (2019-2029), and the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).

Key stakeholders in the forest and agriculture sector including the Ministry of Agriculture, Kenya Forest Service (KFS), Kenya Forest Research Institute (KEFRI), Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Kenya National Farmers Federation (KENAFF), Farm Forestry Smallholder Producers Association of Kenya (FFSPAK),  Tropenbos International, Hivos, Rabobank, FMO the Forest and Farm Facility, Agriterra, Form International and United Nations Environment Programme joined forces to celebrate the launch of this joint initiative.

“This launch is a great opportunity for exploring opportunities for collaboration and securing a common vision for an integrated approach that considers forests and farms together, with producer organizations and their enterprises as central actors.” said, Jeffrey Campbell. Manager of the Forest and Farm Facility at FAO.

The initiative was the result of discussions between Dutch public and private partners and the Forest and Farm Facility team (FAO, IUCN, IIED, AgriCord). It aims to collectively increase the potential synergy between food security, resilient livelihoods, the conservation and restoration of forests and to support small-scale farmers and forest users, social agri-entrepreneurs, communities and their Forest and Farm Producer Organizations (FFPOs), in order to develop and scale-up bankable businesses, involving all relevant participants in selected landscapes.

A roadmap will be developed, building on initiatives underway in the country and drawing from the broad experience of each partners’ know-how to integrate food, forests and farming and to upscale their investment in commercially viable forest and farm businesses, in partnership with other progressive value chain partners, and investors. Thus, immediate synergies of good practices will be generated across diverse landscapes in selected countries throughout Africa.

“Farmers increase food security by retaining trees on agricultural land, by encouraging natural regeneration and by planting trees and other plants. For most of the year, herders in arid and semi-arid lands depend on trees as a source of fodder for their livestock,” said Gabriel Rugalema, FAO Representative in Kenya.   

The initiative is taking place in three countries with collaborative activities, which include experience sharing and strategic planning in Kenya, Zambia and Ghana between March and May 2019.

Rugalema added, “this joint initiative, will provide practical solutions, bringing stakeholders together across sectors and projects and institutionalize the links between ministries, producers’ organizations and investors, to help countries resolve these often-conflicting agendas.”

A task force has been formed to engage actively in this initiative, which will build on the Dutch government’s new policy and commitment to unlock opportunities that integrate agriculture and nature towards the achievement of the SDGs with particular focus on food security, biodiversity, conservation and climate change.

The consolidated country plans will be discussed in June 2019 in the Netherlands in a single, joint document, in the presence of invited resource partners, including, among others, the European Union (EU), Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Forest and Farm Facility (FFF)

Eighty percent of food worldwide is produced by smallholder farmers (women and men) and their enterprises collectively represent a significant proportion of the small-scale private sector in rural areas. One of the most sustainable solutions to conserving natural environments lies in working closely with Forest and Farm Producer Organizations (FFPOs) to strengthen their capacity to link sustainable management of forests and farms to secure markets and enterprises that depend on maintaining diverse and complex mosaics of land use.

The Forest and Farm Facility, a partnership between FAO, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and AgriCord, facilitates the fulfilment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has proven itself to be a cost-effective, demand-driven delivery mechanism strengthening more than 950 Forest and Farm Producer Organizations (FFPOs) in 10 partner countries, regionally and globally, contributing directly to 30 significant policy changes.