PAS TERRA: Scaling up agroforestry and agroecology for food, climate and forests
Wednesday 30 September 2026 | 12.15–13.45 CEST | Ethiopia Room
Family farmers play a critical role in global agrifood systems, with an estimated 550 million family farms producing around 80 percent of the world's food. Yet they receive less than 1 percent of global climate finance, leaving smallholders among the most exposed and least supported actors in the climate crisis.
Against this backdrop, agroecology and agroforestry have demonstrated significant potential to simultaneously reduce emissions, sequester carbon, restore biodiversity, strengthen food and nutrition security, and generate decent rural incomes, particularly for marginalized communities in tropical and subtropical regions. However, persistent barriers have constrained their adoption at scale, including limited access to technology, finance and enabling policies.
This dialogue presents PAS TERRA — Together for the Expansion of Resilient and Restorative Agroecology and Agroforestry — a Plan to Accelerate Solutions (PAS) — anchored in Axis 3, Key Objective 9 of the COP 30 Action Agenda. The initiative is led by Brazil's Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Farming with an international coalition including the Forest and Farm Facility, International Fund for Agricultural Development, NOW Partners Foundation, the Agroecology Coalition, and the Alliance of Biodiversity International & CIAT (CGIAR).
The first panel of speakers will bring together country representatives, whose national initiatives and programmes are relevant to the objectives of TERRA, to identify synergies with the initiative and the Global Productive Forests Initiative. A second, more technical panel will then address options for mobilizing finance, drawing on the perspectives of donors, climate funds and financial institutions, the experience of forest and farm producer organizations, and relevant scientific evidence.
A dedicated segment will focus on the Global Productive Forests Initiative, launched under TERRA, to overcome the perceived dichotomy between food production and forest conservation.
Speakers
Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Farming
Brazil
Garo Batmanian
Director General
Brazilian Forest Service
Director
Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment
FAO
Advisor
Ministry of Agrarian Development
Brazil
George Tarus
Secretary for Forest Development
Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry
Kenya
Sergio Humberto Graf Montero
Director General
National Forestry Commission
Mexico
Senior Climate Change Specialist
Global Environmental Facility
Chief Community Officer
OMTSE Ventures
The Philippines
Vice Chairman
Viet Nam Farmers Union
Deputy Director
Forestry Division
FAO
Senior Technical Specialist
Environment, Climate, Gender and Social Inclusion
Division
International Fund for Agricultural Development