FAO calls for climate finance for forest and farm smallholders


12 October 2021, Rome - Scaling up assistance to forest and farm smallholders would provide benefits at a planetary scale in the face of climate change, according to a new FAO policy brief published today.

Smallholders produce as much as USD 1.5 trillion worth of food, fuel, timber and non-timber products each year, making them collectively by far the world’s largest private-sector player.

However, rural producers are on the frontline of climate change and face increasingly difficult conditions including variable rainfall and temperature, which affects food production, exacerbates the threats of hunger and poverty, and risks farmers making changes to land use that harm the environment.

Forest and farm producers – climate change sentinels argues that grassroots organizations – which represent millions of families who earn their living from smallholder forests and farms – already support rural producers to cope with climate-related threats but need greater support to increase their reach.

“Grassroots organizations bring smallholders together and support them in powerful, diverse ways, including helping their members overcome the challenges posed by climate change and reducing greenhouse gases through promoting sustainable forest and land management,” said Forest and Farm Facility Manager David Kaimowitz. “These organizations are effective, efficient and extraordinarily resourceful – but they need backing.”

Case studies presented in the policy brief illustrate the potential of forest and farm organizations in building the climate-resilience of smallholders. In Viet Nam, for example, such organizations are helping smallholder tree-growers earn money from honey and herb production while increasing the rotation lengths of their tree plantations, adding to the carbon sequestration role of plantations while enabling smallholders to diversify their incomes.

The policy brief calls for an immediate upsurge in climate finance for producer organizations, which it says would build vital resilience into smallholder livelihoods, landscapes and food systems while strengthening efforts to build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Helping any single smallholder cope with and combat climate change will have little impact at a global scale, but helping millions through their own representative organizations will be transformative,” said Duncan Macqueen, an author of the policy brief from Forest and Farm Facility partner the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

New publications on resilience

The FAO policy brief synthesizes two publications also launched today. The first, Forest and farm producer organizations building resilience – Strength in numbers and landscapes, is co-published by FAO and Forest and Farm Facility partner AgriCord. The report presents case studies for three domains in which forest and farm producer organizations are helping smallholders build climate resilience: increasing the viability of livelihoods, managing crises, and creating new opportunities from ecological restoration.

 “Making adaptive change requires resources, which is where the international community can provide crucial help,” said AgriCord’s Noora Simola, an editor of the publication.

 

The second, Diversification for climate resilience – Thirty options for forest and farm producer organisations, is published by IIED. The report reviews the global literature on climate resilience and outlines practical options for organizations to become more resilient - often also mitigating climate change, including what they do, how they farm, what they sell, and the technology and infrastructure they invest in.

The Forest and Farm Facility is a partnership between FAO, IIED, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and AgriCord. It provides direct financial support and technical assistance to strengthen forest and farm producer organizations representing smallholders, rural women’s groups, local communities and indigenous peoples’ institutions.


 

 

 

 

 

last updated:  Friday, October 8, 2021