landscape approaches to achieve the sustainable development goals, sustainably
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LANDSCAPE APPROACHES TO ACHIEVE THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS, SUSTAINABLY Sara J. Scherr President, EcoAgriculture Partners
Global Soil Week Keynote April 21, 2015
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Thank you (excellencies, ministers, and ladies and gentlemen). Welcome to Global Soil Week. �Soil provides such an excellent opportunity to grow. It is a finite, invaluable natural resource, and yet we are wasting it. And no matter what we do to save it, we’ll need to involve other resources. Water, energy, biomass, wildlife, microorganisms, and perhaps our most valuable resource, PEOPLE! So, a celebration of healthy, living soil, is really a great opportunity to talk about sustainable development in general. What will we have to do, with soils, with water, with energy, with biodiversity, and with people, to achieve sustainability. What do we have to do with all these things Together!? And How?
THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
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All SDGs will require Natural Resources to achieve.
Photo by Neil Palmer/CIAT
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The SDGs represent the future we want: we cannot be satisfied with achieving some of the goals at the expense of others: can you imagine a world where we are happy with food and water, but no forests and dead oceans? Indeed, we cannot, because we realize we MUST HAVE biodiverse forests and living seas in order to have clean water and enough to eat. All the SDGs will require Natural Resources to achieve (directly or indirectly).
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THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
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• SDG 1 (end poverty) • SDG 2 (end hunger) • SDG 6 (water/sanitation) • SDG 7 (sustainable energy) • SDG 11 (resilient, sustainable cities) • SDG 14 (sustainable use of the oceans) • SDG 15 (sustainable use of terrestrial
ecosystems)
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But Natural Resources are finite and limited by time and space. In particular, SDG 1 (end poverty) SDG 2 (end hunger), SDG 6 (water/sanitation), SDG 7 (sustainable energy), SDG 11 (resilient sustainable cities and human settlements), SDG 14 (sustainable use of the oceans) SDG 15 (Sustainably use terrestrial ecosystems, reverse desertification and degradation, halt biodiversity loss) All present potentially competing natural resource demands. For example, Agriculture currently accounts for 71% of global fresh water withdrawals. Total water withdrawals for agriculture, to keep up with growing demand without efficiency improvements, will need to increase 45% by 2030. Water demands for energy and industry are also projected to increase. In 2010, already 36% of the world’s population (some 2.4 billion people), 39% of grain production, and 22% of global GDP were at risk because of water insecurity. Where will this additional water come from? With these constraints in mind, it is clear that negotiation at the appropriate scale and between the various “representatives” of each goal is critical to achieving any of the goals. So, the most important aspect of a plan to achieve the sustainable development goals is an approach to such negotiation that itself helps to achieve social goals: education, equality and empowerment of women and girls, well-being for all.
17 GOALS, ONE “SOIL-UTION”
Integrated Landscape Management Multi-objective, multi-stakeholder resource governance
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We call this approach Integrated Landscape Management. It is, at its core, about multi-stakeholder, multi-objective resource governance. About who makes decisions about how natural resources are used, and with what in mind. There are Five Key Elements of Integrated Landscape Management, as I see it: Shared or agreed management objectives encompass multiple benefits Natural resources management practices are designed to contribute to multiple objectives Ecological, social, and economic interactions are managed to realize synergies Collaborative, community-engaged processes for management are used Markets and public policies are actively shaped to achieve and support the above Perhaps this sounds too abstract to be of value. But I assure you, this model for action is working in the real world. At EcoAgriculture Partners, we’ve spent the last decade documenting and supporting these efforts around the world.
INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT Managing land for people, food, and nature
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What these five key elements often mean at the local landscape level is that landscapes are managed to deliver multiple benefits: As you can see here, in this example from near Turrialba, Costa Rica, where tourism, local incomes, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and increased agricultural productivity are all positive outcomes of management decisions. Additionally, and importantly, involving local people in natural resource management has the power to build stable, resilient and inclusive local institutions that are equipped to handle social or economic changes and natural disasters that may come.
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Back in 2011, we identified more than 80 communities of practice that are already hard at work employing their own “brand name” of integrated landscape management: busting silos, working across sectors and with many stakeholders, and finding synergies to achieve the myriad goals that are critical to local communities.
INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE INITIATIVES (ILIs) Africa Latin America Asia
Landscape Initiatives surveyed 87 104 174
Most reported motivations
Reduce degradation, sustainable land management, conserve biodiversity
Average # of objectives 8 7 6
Average # of stakeholder groups 9 11 11
Most common participants
Local & state govts, farmer associations. Local NGOS
Least common participants Private sector
Most frequent outcomes
Coordination between stakeholders improved, capacity for ILM improved
Continental Reviews of
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Then, in 2013, together with partners in the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative, we used a screening criteria to identify what we call Integrated Landscape Initiatives. No matter what they called their approach, if they: 1) explicitly seek to improve food production, biodiversity or ecosystem conservation, and rural livelihoods; 2) Work, with deliberate planning, policy, management, or support activities, at landscape scale; 3) involve inter-sectoral coordination or alignment of activities, policies, or investments; and 4) Are highly participatory, supporting adaptive, collaborative management within a social learning Framework; Then they made the list and we surveyed their leadership about what they were achieving, what they were struggling with, and why. We found 87 such initiatives in Africa, 104 in Latin America, and 174 in Asia. This is just a baseline. There are most certainly many more out there. But the studies provides the first comprehensive look at what this approach can achieve, and what barriers it faces, around the world.
ILM Tigray,
Ethiopia
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On the ground
Photos by Raffaela Kozar
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In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, a series of droughts, population pressure, and poor management created a crisis of degradation, hunger and poverty. After decades of conventional food aid keeping the population alive, in 2002, a massive program to rebuild the soils, and thus the agriculture and resilience, of the region began. There was a menu of more than 48 activities, with participatory planning of what, where and when by the community, who were now required to work on restoration in exchange for food aid. Most activities focused on erosion control, rehabilitation of degraded soils, tree planting, and water capture and control. IMPACTS Since 2002, this integrated program has made impressive impacts: 400,000 hectares of degraded land has been rehabilitated in 451 sub-watersheds 125,000 people have directly benefitted. Specifically, Irrigation & improved soil organic matter increased crop production 200-400% And so, food aid during droughts was reduced from 90% of households to 10% of households Re-vegetation, terracing, community/farm water harvesting all led to restored water services, groundwater, farm water, healthy streams. Good for people and wildlife. The project is also climate mitigation at landscape scale, thanks to the planting of thousands of trees and shrubs and the steady increase in soil organic matter.
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TRANSFORM LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE
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These two examples point to the more general need to transform natural resource governance from sector-led to integrated landscape governance (multistakeholder, inclusive, participatory, adaptive and collaborative), for coordination of and management of trade-offs and synergies. It is important to note that this will NOT eliminate the need for sector and sub-sector specialists, but rather necessitate specialists who can operate within multifunctional systems.
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TRANSFORM MARKETS & FINANCE
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We also need to determine the best levers, and find the right champions to help transform markets and finance to achieve the SDGs. This will require: Coordinating public sector funds for enabling investments (like capacity-building, governance platform support, etc.) Prioritize donor coordination with national government Define and enforce basic guidelines on foreign direct investments Develop innovative investment platforms and mechanisms (Moringa, Althelia, GCF, PES schemes)
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WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR DEVELOPING SDG STRATEGIES?
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As countries prepare to implement the sustainable development agenda, they must select implementation strategies that deliver on the widest array of goals. Integrated Landscape Management stands out as that strategy. Policies and programs that support ILM can occur at many scales: At the National level through target selection, integration between ministries, regulatory efforts, and more. And at the local or provincial level through efforts and resources to support inclusive participatory governance, local capacity-building. Public-private partnerships are a critical component of support at all scales.
ONE MAP INITIATIVE INDONESIA
Landscape approaches to achieve the SDGs, sustainably 12 Photo by Uray Endang Kusumjaya
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The Indonesia One Map Initiative is a good example of national level effort that creates an enabling environment conducive to Integrated Landscape Management. Without clear tenure and concession boundaries, identifying, let alone negotiating between, relevant stakeholders for natural resource governance, is very difficult. This has made it a serious challenge to stop illegal deforestation, agricultural expansion, and human rights violations, among many other issues, in Indonesia. Solving these problems requires getting all stakeholders “to play” on the same field. Enter the One Map — a proposed single, all-encompassing map of Indonesia that aims to contain all relevant information linked to forest licensing and land-use claims. Through this initiative, Indonesia is trying to reconcile multiple conflicting land-use maps — a common problem throughout Southeast Asia — that show numerous overlapping concession areas, many allotted to different companies for different purposes. This may not level the playing field between palm oil companies and conservationists or small holder farmers… but at least they’ll all be on the same field.
A GLOBAL COLLABORATION to create and sustain integrated agricultural landscapes worldwide.
Plus more than 60 strategic partners! peoplefoodandnature.org
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There is a major coalition of groups supporting this approach. It is called the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative. We’ve got strategic partners around the world, engaged in action on the ground and in discussions with policymakers and financial institutions. Learning Landscape Networks in countries around the world Tools, advocacy to support ILIs everywhere International engagement to shape the conversation
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Will you join us?
EcoAgriculture.org PeopleFoodandNature.org
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We need collaboration among the champions and implementers of the integrated landscape approach –join the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative working to articulate SDGs.