Private sector expertise helps mountain communities to thrive (FAO and EcorNaturaSi)
Since 2002, the Mountain Partnership, a United Nations voluntary alliance of partners whose Secretariat is hosted by FAO, has worked to improve the lives of mountain peoples and protect mountain environments around the world. Now, with the support of EcorNaturaSi, the partnership is able to leverage private sector expertise to better address some of the challenges that mountain communities face.
EcorNaturSì has played a key role in improving the Mountain Partnership Products (MPP) initiative, a certification and labelling scheme based on environmentally and ethically sound approaches. The MPP initiative promotes conservation of agrobiodiversity and preservation of ancient techniques while bolstering short, domestic value chains, ensuring transparency and trust between producers and consumers, and guaranteeing fair compensation for the primary producers.
Drawing on EcorNaturaSì’s experience in marketing, logistics, sustainable packaging, products conservation and certification, the Mountain Partnership has been able to build more inclusive, sustainable and efficient mountain value chains, benefitting MPP producers’ groups located around the world. Since joining forces with FAO in 2020, EcorNaturaSì has provided expert advice to MPP producers in Bolivia, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Panama, Peru and the Philippines.
The company assists producers who are part of the MPP in selecting quality products that will appeal to consumers worldwide, and trains farmers in transitioning towards organic farming and improving their marketing skills. Through regional online trainings, EcorNaturSì also shares its expertise on equitable and inclusive farming techniques and distribution processes, and provides tailored assistance to the representatives of 13 producers’ organizations that represent about 10,000 farmers, 60% of whom are women.
As one of the main partners of the GROW Summer School, EcorNaturaSì also invests in helping the next generation to meet the challenges caused by climate change. The summer school, organized by Sapienza University of Rome, Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, addresses the issue of agrobiodiversity in a changing climate. In addition to providing financial support to the programme, which draws around 30 students from around the world each year, EcorNaturSì sponsors its “innovation contest” and leads lectures on organic farming approaches, effective and equitable farming techniques, distribution processes with low environmental impact, and the economic and social well-being of producers and their communities.
EcorNaturaSì, an Italian leader in the production, distribution and sale of organic and biodynamic products, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with FAO in 2020. The partnership aims to improve the livelihoods of populations living in rural areas and fragile ecosystems, such as mountain and island landscapes, and to ensure more inclusive and sustainable food and agriculture systems at local, national and international levels.
