Showcasing the multidimensions of sustainable agricultural solutions for reducing deforestation

Rome (Italy), Hybrid Event, 16/12/2025

FAO invites partners, colleagues and practitioners working across agriculture, forests and climate to join the event “Showcasing the multidimensions of sustainable agricultural solutions for reducing deforestation”. The session brings these sectors into the same conversation and highlights the multidimensions of agricultural solutions for halting deforestation. The event also introduces the Solutions-tree: Halting deforestation through sustainable agrifood systems transformation. The launch will show how countries can draw on practical, field-tested measures to curb forest loss while improving food systems and rural livelihoods.

The programme is designed for technical officers, policymakers, development partners and anyone shaping land-use decisions. Participants will learn about tested solutions to deforestation, receive information on the Solutions-tree and its functionalities, and hear examples from countries already applying the Solutions-tree to identify halting deforestation measures.

Why join?

Agriculture and forests are linked in many ways. Forests regulate water, protect soils, store carbon and support biodiversity. They also offer products that many rural families depend on for income and food. But pressures on land, rising commodity demand, weak land governance, and rural poverty continue to drive deforestation in many regions.

Most efforts have focused on direct (proximate) drivers such as agricultural expansion or logging. Yet the underlying drivers – such as market demand, insecure tenure, or limited options for rural producers – often set these pressures in motion. Addressing them requires a practical, cross-sectoral and systemic approach.

This event will highlight the multidimensional role of sustainable agriculture in halting deforestation by bringing together experts from agriculture, trade, and finance and others. Speakers will share practical, scalable solutions and explore how strengthening agriculture-forestry linkages and cross-sector collaboration can accelerate multi-sector approaches and impact.

The event will also feature the launch of FAO’s Solutions-tree toolkit, which aims to address the underlying drivers of deforestation through a systemic approach. Developed over two years with input from more than 60 cross-sectoral experts and external partners, and supported by the Government of Japan through the BiG-CHANCE project and the UN-REDD Programme, the tool helps countries identify solutions to address the underlying drivers of deforestation.

What the Event and Solutions-tree offers

A wide range of solutions already exists, and scaling them holistically is key to reducing deforestation while strengthening food security, climate action and livelihoods. The Solutions-tree is a toolkit for halting deforestation by promoting sustainable agriculture solutions – it serves two main functions:

An analytical framework linking solutions to underlying drivers of deforestation to guide national strategies, policy reviews and project design.
A gateway to existing tools, publications and initiatives, demonstrating the wide range of available knowledge and support that already exists on halting deforestation.

Who should attend

This event is for anyone working at the intersection of agriculture, forests and climate. It will be especially useful for government officers, technical staff and practitioners involved in land-use planning, REDD+, agrifood systems, or forest policy, looking for practical ways to tackle deforestation.

Tentative agenda

10:00 – 10:02 – Intro by the moderator

Serena Fortuna, Senior Forestry Officer and Team Leader, Halting Deforestation, Degradation and Emissions team, FAO Forestry Division

10:02 – 10:07 – Welcome remarks

Zhimin Wu, Director, FAO Forestry Division

10:07 – 10:15 – Opening remarks

Mr. KOCHI Kiyotaka, Forestry Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan

10:15 – 10:30 – Introducing the Solutions-tree

Naoko Takahashi, Forestry Officer, FAO Forestry Division
Bjorn Dupong, Halting Deforestation Specialist, FAO Forestry Division

10:30 – 10:35 – Country experience in using the Solutions-tree

Mr Awessou Kohomlan Beranger: Senior Officer of Water, Forests and Hunting, Ministry of Living Environment and Transport in charge of Sustainable Development of Benin

10:35 – 11:10 – Panel discussion (35’), moderated by Serena Fortuna, FAO Forestry Division

Panellists & thematic focus:

Mr Divine Nganje Njie, Deputy Director, Food Systems and Food Safety Division (ESF), FAO
Ms Annabelle Buhrow, Legume-based Systems Specialist, NSP, FAO
Mr Dominik Wisser, Livestock Policy Officer, NSA, FAO
Mr Josep Gari, Head – Climate, Forests & Land, UNDP
Ms Neus Escobar, Research Fellow, BC3 Basque Center for Climate Change
Ms Puninda Thind, Finance Nature Lead, UN Climate Champions team

11:10 – 11:20 – Q&A
11:20 – 11:25 – Solutions-tree: Next steps

Future country applications, e-learning, scientific publication, updates and expansion by Naoko Takahashi, FAO Forestry Division

11:25 – 11:30 – Closing remarks
- Chikelu Mba, Deputy Director, Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP), FAO

Meeting objectives

The meeting objectives include:

Highlight the cross-sectoral dimensions of sustainable agricultural solutions for forests and showcase real-world examples that contribute to systemic change.
Launch the “Solutions-tree: Solutions to halting deforestation – through sustainable agrifood systems transformation”.
Raise awareness of a diverse range of solutions and approaches to support countries in decoupling agriculture from deforestation and strengthening synergies between agriculture and forestry, in response to the COFO/COAG joint agenda item.

About the speakers

Serena Fortuna, Team Leader and Senior Forestry Officer, Halting Deforestation, Degradation, and Emissions Team, FAO Forestry Division

Ms. Serena Fortuna is the Team Leader for halting deforestation, degradation, and emissions in the FAO Forestry Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and a member of the UN-REDD Management Group. Ms. Fortuna has twenty-four years of working experience, spent between FAO and other international organizations (CGIAR, IUCN, UN Environment) in the field of climate change mitigation and adaptation, reducing deforestation and forest degradation, coastal ecosystem management, and disaster risk reduction. She joined FAO efforts supporting countries on the REDD+ process since 2012, with emphasis on aspects related to enhanced governance, integrated landscape approach, and synergies with agriculture. In her professional life, she has been based in Rome, Bangkok, and Panama, gaining experience in fieldwork, project management, and team coordination in Asia, Latin America, and at the global level.

Zhimin Wu, Director, FAO Forestry Division

Zhimin Wu, Director of the Forestry Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Chairperson of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), has an extensive background in the forestry sector, with decades of experience in national and international forestry roles. Before his appointment at FAO, Dr Wu served as Director-General of the Wetland Management Department of China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) since 2019. Among other roles at the national level, Dr. Wu served as Director General for International Cooperation, Director General for Wildlife Conservation, and NFGA of China. At the global level, he also served as Vice Chairperson of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), President of the COP 14 of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and Deputy Director General and Board Member of International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR).

Kochi Kiyotaka, Director, International Forestry Cooperation Office, Planning Division, Forestry Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan

Kochi Kiyotaka has led International Forestry Cooperation policies and programs at the Forestry Agency of Japan (FAJ) since April. He has almost 20 years of experience in forestry and the forest industry, such as national forest management, development of forestry technologies, promotion of wood utilization, international forestry cooperation, and climate change measures. During his career, he was also assigned to the Cabinet Office, overseas diplomatic missions, and a prefectural government. His past regional assignments include Hokkaido, Yamanashi, and Ishikawa.

Naoko Takahashi, FAO Forestry Officer, Halting Deforestation, Degradation, and Emissions Team, Forestry Division

Ms. Naoko Takahashi is a Forestry Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). She focuses on providing technical assistance on policy actions to halt deforestation and decouple agricultural supply chains from deforestation, including developing financial solutions and incentive mechanisms for sustainable supply chains while protecting forests. With over 18 years of experience across FAO, bilateral organization, her own fair trade company, and environmental think-tank consultancies, she has implemented on-the-ground actions on forestry, climate change, landscape approaches, sustainable agricultural production, and REDD+ projects - collaborating with agribusiness corporations and climate finance investors through public-private partnerships that seek to integrate natural resource conservation with sustainable business development, while enhancing local knowledge and livelihoods. 

Bjorn Dupong, FAO Halting Deforestation Specialist

Mr Bjorn Dupong is a Halting Deforestation Specialist in the Forestry Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Based in the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, he supports countries in decoupling agriculture from deforestation. Mr Dupong has more than 10 years of experience in supporting governments, the private sector and civil society in advancing sustainable supply chains and addressing deforestation. Before joining FAO, he worked with various organizations, including the European Forest Institute and the Tropical Forest Alliance/World Economic Forum, where he mobilized multi-stakeholder action to address commodity-linked deforestation.

Mr. Divine Nganje Njie, FAO Deputy Director, Agriood Systems and Food Safety Division (ESF)

Divine Njie is a national of Cameroon. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Engineering from the University of California, Davis, USA, specializing in Food and Agro-processing Engineering. He also holds B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He joined FAO in 2004 and currently heads the Agro-food Industry Group of FAO’s Rural Infrastructure and Agro-industries Division. The Group develops and implements programmes in FAO member countries in the areas of post-harvest handling, agro-industry development, agro-food processing, value addition technologies and other related domains. The Group serves as the global reference unit within FAO for knowledge in these areas, through generating, assembling and providing data and information, as well as diagnostic analysis and benchmarking. Before joining FAO, Mr Njie worked in the private sector in food manufacturing in the United States and taught agro-processing technologies at the University level in Cameroon and the United States.

Mr. Dominik Wisser, FAO Livestock Policy Officer (NSA)

Dominik Wisser is currently working as a livestock policy officer in the animal production and health division of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), where he is responsible for FAO’s work on environmental impacts of livestock agri-food systems with the Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM). Before joining FAO, he worked as a scientist at various research institutions and universities in the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States on interdisciplinary work at the intersection of climate change, water management, and agrifood systems, with a focus on global-scale modelling and policy implications.

Ms. Annabelle Buhrow, FAO Legume-based Systems Specialist (NSP)

Annabelle Buhrow is a specialist in legume-based agricultural systems at the Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As an agronomist, Annabelle has worked on projects focused on agroecology in drylands, soil conservation, and socio-ecological issues in food systems. In her current work, she focuses on agroecological transitions at the landscape level, looking particularly into farm-level behavioural barriers for the implementation of agroecological practices.

Mr Josep Gari, Head, Climate, Forests & Land, UNDP

Josep Garí is head of Climate, Forests & Land at the UN development agency (UNDP), based in Geneva, Switzerland. He coordinates a portfolio of policy initiatives, financial instruments and community programmes to support countries in implementing the Paris Agreement through sustainable and inclusive forest & land governance. Josep has also worked at the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and FAO. He has a D.Phil. in Political Ecology from the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Neus Escobar, Agricultural Engineer

Neus Escobar is an Agricultural Engineer by training, with a major in environmental and natural resource management. She holds a PhD in Food Science, Technology, and Management from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain). She is currently a Research Fellow at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) in Spain, where she works on the development of a global physical input-output database based on FAOSTAT data to trace agri-food supply chains and quantify land and calorie footprints of food consumption. Before joining BC3, Neus Escobar was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Food and Resource Economics (ILR) at the University of Bonn (Germany), and a Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. Her research focuses on the estimation of regional and global impacts and the mitigation potential of the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector. Her main expertise is the application of quantitative tools, mainly life cycle assessment (LCA), multi-regional input-output analysis, and economic modelling to assess environmental footprints (land, carbon, biodiversity) of food, feed, and bio-based products, considering deforestation and land use change. At BC3, Neus Escobar works on several Horizon EU projects and collaborates with FAO Livestock and Forestry Divisions as an agri-food trade expert.

Puninda Thind, Finance Nature Lead with the Climate Champions Team

Puninda Thind is Finance Nature Lead with the Climate Champions Team, focused on catalyzing and mobilizing finance sector action to address biodiversity loss and nature-related risks and opportunities. Puninda is deeply committed to building a sustainable, prosperous, equitable future. She has previously worked at the intersection of sustainable investing and climate resilience for 10+ years. She holds a Bachelor's of Environment and Business (Honours) from the University of Waterloo and an MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise, and Environment from the University of Oxford. She is also a member of the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. Puninda has been recognized as one of Canada’s top sustainability leaders and as a Clean50 honouree for her contribution to the advancement of climate action.

Mr Chikelu Mba, Deputy Director, Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP), FAO

Dr Mba is the Deputy Director of the Plant Production and Protection Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In this capacity, he provides strategic and thought leadership for the extensive global portfolio of normative and operational interventions that assist FAO’s Members to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals through the transition to more efficient, resilient, and inclusive crop production systems. Previously, he led the Seeds and Plant Genetic Resources Team of the Division, with responsibility for the genetic gains component of the work on sustainable crop production systems. Before the ongoing FAO tour of duty, he led the Plant Breeding and Genetics Laboratory of the Joint Centre of FAO and the International Atomic Energy Agency for Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Vienna and Seibersdorf, Austria. Earlier still, he was a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia (currently the Alliance Bioversity International – CIAT), where he worked on cassava molecular genetics and was Coordinator of the Cassava Biotechnology Network for Latin America and the Caribbean. Before this, he was a Cassava Breeder, Geneticist and Program Coordinator at the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Abia State, in his native Nigeria. Dr Mba had research sabbaticals in Switzerland, the United States of America and France and is an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Crop and Food Innovation, Murdoch University, Australia. He has published extensively on varied themes of crop improvement, is fluent in English, Igbo and Spanish and speaks conversational Italian. He holds the degrees of PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics, Postgraduate Diploma in Education and BSc in Botany – all from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.