A major meeting this week brought together farmers, bankers, governments and development partners from across Africa and beyond to discuss ways to ensure smallholder farmers, the backbone of the region’s food system, have access to the finance they need to improve and scale up sustainable forest and farm management practices.

The three day African Regional Exchange was organized by the Forest and Farm Facility – a partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and AgriCord – in collaboration with CIFOR-ICRAF, the Kenya Forestry Research Institute and the Kenya Forest Service, and within the framework of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests’ Sustainable Wood for a Sustainable World initiative.

The event brings together over 200 participants to share experiences and lessons about how to overcome the challenges in getting finance to smallholder producers living in remote areas and experiencing some of the worst effects of climate change.

“It is increasingly recognised that smallholder farmers are best placed to protect the world’s natural resources,” said Hamisi Williams Assistant FAO Representative (Programmes). He added that “To unlock private sector investment in farm forestry, we need to look at smallholder farmers as private sector actors and treat them as such.” “We hope this meeting will help build understanding across sectors and get funds flowing more effectively to front line of the climate crisis.” He said in conclusion.