A summary of the recently concluded Beating Famine Southern Africa Conference has been posted on the website of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

Held in Malawi from 14-17 April 2015, the conference looked at sustainable land management practices that can help smallholders boost productivity and build resilience to climate change. Such strategies include farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) which is the subject of a new study which analyses the different social, environmental and economic benefits stemming from the practice.

Dennis Garrity, Senior Fellow with the World Agroforestry Centre and UNCCD Drylands Ambassador, described the conference as “a launching pad for many new partnerships, initiatives, programs, projects, and action plans” to address land degradation in the region over the past 25 years.

Among these partnerships is the Building a Large Evergreen Agriculture Network for Southern Africa (BLEANSA) initiative. One of its goals is to develop an agroforestry information hub to promote awareness of climate-smart agriculture among policy makers, extension staff, farmers and other land users in the region, says Isaac Nyoko, World Agroforestry Centre Coordinator for Southern Africa.

BLEANSA is building research and development capacity in EverGreen agriculture for national institutions in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa, and intends to expand such support to the entire region in coming years.

The Beating Famine Conference was co-hosted by the World Agroforestry Centre and World Vision Australia.

Read the full story: Beating Famine Conference Discusses Upscaling of Evergreen Agriculture in African Drylands

For more information, visit the Beating Famine conference website