According to a 2011 IFAD report, approximately five million smallholder farmers provide over 80% of the food consumed in large parts of the developing world.
The importance of including smallholder farmers in the global climate change debate was a frequent topic of discussion at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), a parallel session to the 19th Conference of Parties (COP19), where 1,230 students, scientists, and participants from 122 countries combined their voices and stressed the multiple benefits of the landscape approach.
A core objective of the event was to develop the potential of the landscape approach to inform future UNFCCC agreements and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To this end, the GLF was organized along four main themes:
- Investing in sustainable landscapes in forests and on farms
- Landscape policy and governance for forestry, agriculture, and other land uses
- Synergies between adapting to and mitigating climate change in forest and agricultural landscapes
- Landscapes for food security and nutrition
In addition to various plenaries, sub-plenaries, and technical and networking sessions, a Gender Café and Youth Forum convened.
Chief among the key messages developed by the GLF was the need to consider smallholder famer interests, the importance of a landscape approach for climate change adaptation and mitigation benefits, the low-cost and financial gains of implementing sustainable forestry and agricultural practices, and the importance of addressing the engagement of women, youth, and other underrepresented groups (i.e. indigenous communities) when considering a landscape approach.
The Role of Smallholder Farmers
Strengthening the role of smallholder farmers in food production and natural resource stewardship is recognized as a quick way to lift over one billion people out of poverty and sustainably nourish a growing world population. To accomplish this, one option is for food companies to source their food directly from smallholder farms, and not from large-scale, mechanized plants, thereby allowing farmers to develop stronger links with agriculture supply chains and receive more of the benefits.
Another option for strengthening the role of smallholders is to encourage the widespread application of climate-smart agriculture (CSA). For this to be successful, two types of incentives are needed: direct and indirect. Direct incentives include free or subsidized seeds and seedlings, agriculture inputs, or cash grants. Indirect incentives branch out further and change the environment in which farmers operate such as creating market linkages, product promotions, lowering transaction costs, and extending payback periods on loans. The GLF made it clear that in order to provide these incentives, mechanisms, frameworks, and policy structures must be in place to support these changes.
Representatives at the GLF illustrated the growing support of public and private agencies to work towards these changes and international organizations, such as ICRAF, provide strong research evidence of the multiple benefits generated by practicing CSA technologies on smallholder farms.
ICRAF and the Landscape Approach
ICRAF has been a major player in promoting the landscape approach and CSA. Indeed, the Centre has led some important efforts in adopting a landscape approach for their projects, and in promoting CSA as a sustainable option for smallholder farmers to adapt to and mitigate climate change impacts.
Notably, the recent success with the Reducing Emissions from All Land Uses (REALU) project which is implemented by the ASB Partnership for Tropical Forest Margins based at ICRAF headquarters, showcases the benefits of adopting a landscape approach.
REALU combines REDD+ approaches with climate smart agriculture and the landscape approach, since many drivers of deforestation lie outside forest boundaries, to develop a set of approaches, methodologies, and national capacities to implement effective landscape-based strategies for REDD+. Among the many findings of the project, it is evident that landscape approaches would benefit from greater effectiveness and efficiency when synergy is obtained between greenhouse gas emissions reductions priorities and other environmental, social, and economic objectives including climate change adaptation.
ICRAF has also addressed CSA in depth, and developed policy recommendations on making climate-smart agriculture work for the poor, addressing gender in climate-smart agriculture, and climate finance for agriculture and livelihoods.
GLF: Final Thoughts
Sustainable rural landscapes are not just an environmentally sound and low cost option for mitigating and adapting to climate change, but they hold the potential to lift out of poverty over one billion people comprised of smallholder farmers and their families—while sustainably nourishing a growing world population. The GLF recognized that land use may become an important element of the post-2020 climate agreement and UNFCCC negotiators are seeking ways to link elements on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), REDD+, agriculture and other land uses. Thirteen actionable policy recommendations and incentives were articulated at the GLF for a multilateral climate agreement, the SDGs process and other actors. For more details, read the full list of recommendations from each session or the shorter executive summary of the recommendations.
With a resonating blow to the agricultural community, the UNFCCC opted to remove agriculture from its climate change negotiations at the COP19, due to a procedural error. This is particularly unfortunate given the important policy recommendations generated at the GLF, which had the potential to influence change in the agriculture sector under the climate change debate.
Despite this blow, efforts to improve the understanding of the international community on agriculture and forestry linkages remain strong. However, benefits from these efforts will remain limited in scope unless there is a behavioral change among farmers, foresters, and decision-makers to adopt new and improved technologies, thereby safeguarding natural resources and systems for future generations.
Learn More
Listen to what ICRAF scientists have to say about the landscape approach.
Read the Global Landscapes Forum Outcome Statement.
IISD Report on the first Global Landscapes Forum.
Download the 2011 IFAD report.
ICRAF Presentations from the GLF
Delia Catacutan, Senior Social Scientist, Country Representative and Coordinator of ICRAF Vietnam.
Blog on her discussion: For smallholders, an abundance of opportunities in climate-smart farming.
Lalisa Duguma, Postdoctoral Fellow with the ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins at ICRAF.
Presentation: Synergies between climate change mitigation and adaptation: a landscape perspective.
Henry Neufeldt, Head of the Climate Change unit, ICRAF
Presentation: Scaling up climate smart agriculture: policies, development, adaptation and mitigation
Tony Simons, Director General, ICRAF
Blog on his discussion: Resilient landscapes need the involvement of local people.
Session: Sub-plenary on building resilient landscapes for food security and sustainable livelihoods.
