World Agroforestry Centre - Transforming Lives and Landscapes

The Power of Partnership

Partnerships enable research institutions such as the World Agroforestry Centre to achieve much more than they ever would on their own. “With so much to do, and a relatively small number of scientists, the only way we can deliver our agenda is through partnerships,” explains August Temu, who runs the Centre’s Partnership Office in Nairobi. One of the most ambitious partnerships is guiding research activities in Latin America.

“We have invested five years of work helping to create the Amazon Initiative Consortium,” explains Roberto Porro, the World Agroforestry Centre’s Regional Representative for Latin America, “and this is now the framework under which we conduct all of our research.”

The Amazon Initiative, established in 2003, brings together six national agricultural research systems, four centres belonging to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and a host of other research institutes, universities, non-government organizations and civil society groups.

In 2008, the CGIAR approved the Amazon Eco-Regional Programme, which is hosted by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and includes a coordination unit in Belém, Brazil. This operates under the umbrella of the Amazon Initiative, and shares the same research priorities: mitigation and adaptation to climate change; the adoption of sustainable land-use systems in deforested and degraded areas; enhancing benefits from forests for both livelihoods and the environment; and adding value to Amazonian forest products.

“Our main activities during 2008 and 2009 involved the creation of the Amazon Livelihoods and Environment Network,” explains Porro. The network is analysing how forestry, agroforestry and agricultural activities contribute to the well-being of over 100 Amazonian communities, as well as to environmental conservation.

A series of 12 regional workshops, whose purpose was to strengthen partnerships among organizations working in agroforestry, were convened by the World Agroforestry Centre and its partners under the banner of ‘Amazon Agroforestry Alliances.’ Researchers and practitioners were able to share experiences about different agroforestry initiatives and develop work plans for future collaborative research.

Around 85 scientists, most working for institutions that are members of the Amazon Initiative, contributed to a landmark study of agroforestry, edited by Roberto Porro. Alternativa agroflorestal na Amazônia em transformação – or ‘The agroforestry alternative for an Amazon in transformation’ – is a collection of peer-reviewed articles that illustrate current scientific knowledge about agroforestry and the opportunities and challenges for increasing agroforestry adoption in the region.

Another World Agroforestry Centre publication which was well received was ‘A guide to carbon measurement for smallholders.’ Aimed mainly at extension workers, the book provides practical guidance about how to measure carbon stocks and take advantage of the emerging carbon market.

About 100 partnerships are covered by formal agreements

“With so much to do, the only way we can deliver our agenda is through partnerships.”
August Temu

Breaking into the carbon market

Partnerships come in many shapes and sizes. Many of the most important involve scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre working with scientists from universities, national agricultural research institutes and forestry research institutes. However, our scientists also work with civil society groups and local communities.s This is precisely what has happened with many of the projects which focus on Rewarding the Upland Poor for Environmental Services (RUPES).

A project in the Philippines, involving scientists and members of the Kalahan indigenous community, provides a good insight into the sort of partnerships established under RUPES. The main aim of the Philippines project has been to help communities develop small-scale agroforestry projects which will enable them to participate in carbon markets. The thinking is simple: in return for growing trees which sequester carbon, local communities could receive payments from companies that wish to offset their carbon emissions.

“We have provided assistance to the Kalahan in a number of ways,” explains Rodel Lasco of the World Agroforestry Centre. “We have helped them to prepare the documentation required to gain access to the carbon market. We have linked them up with possible buyers of carbon, such as Mitsubishi. And we have provided guidance on how to measure carbon stocks.” At present, the Kalahan are exploring ways of selling carbon both under voluntary agreements, and through the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.

But is this development or research? Both, says Lasco. On one hand, the Centre has provided practical guidance to the Kalahan. But there has also been a strong element of research, which has involved documenting the barriers which face community groups who are trying to gain access to carbon markets.

“At present, communities face a mountain of paperwork and bureaucracy and the transaction costs are prohibitively high,” explains Lasco. Findings such as these, he says, should be taken into account when climatechange negotiators consider measures to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). See page 8.