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Landscape Approaches for Sustainable Food and Agriculture
C H A P T E R
29
Landscape Approaches for Sustainable Food and Agriculture Landscape approaches include a “set of concepts, tools and methods deployed in a bid to achieve multiple economic, social, environmental objectives (multifunctionality) through processes that recognize, reconcile and synergize interests, attitudes and actions of multiple actors” (Minang et al., 2015). The mitigation of global environmental change requires change and cooperation across landscapes. This is also the scale at which work must integrate social, economic, and environmental objectives. Landscape approaches allow issues to be addressed in a multifaceted way, integrating domains, involving stakeholders, and working at different scales. They recognize that each locality or territory has a set of physical, environmental, human, financial, institutional, and cultural resources that jointly constitute its asset endowment and development potential. A recent FAO Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Expert Meeting (FAO and IPCC, 2017) concluded that food security under climate change requires integrated frameworks and approaches combining scientific findings with socioeconomic and institutional assessments. There is also need to manage production systems and natural resources across an area large enough to produce vital ecosystem services and small enough to be managed by the people using the land and producing those services (FAO, 2017). This requires long-term collaboration among different groups of land managers and stakeholders to achieve their multiple objectives and expectations (LPFN, 2016). Land use planning is central to successful landscape approaches. When conducted in a way that allows for the participation of all stakeholders, it helps in reducing conflicts over the use of resources, therefore leading to sustainable outcomes for the long-term resilience of populations in the face of unpredictable and extreme weather events (IPCC, 2014). Overall, the rationale for applying integrated approaches at the landscape scale is threefold: landscape approaches offer a comprehensive platform across sectors and increase the likelihood of successful and sustainable outcomes of development interventions by addressing and negotiating the externalities that occur beyond traditional interventions at the farm and community level. Also, these approaches contribute toward building resilience
Sustainable Food and Agriculture DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812134-4.00029-7
259
Copyright © 2019 The Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO) Co Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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29. LANDSCAPE APPROACHES FOR SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
in social ecological systems by enhancing their capacity to withstand stresses and shocks, including from the likely future impacts of climate change. Landscape approaches include, inter alia, watershed management and restoration, forest conservation, water resources management, marine and coastal management, and reversing land and soil degradation. All these approaches share common characteristics: they focus on the sustainable use, capacity, and resilience of natural resources, on the joint management of shared resources, and on addressing the needs of farmers, other resource managers, and local communities at large within a broader governance framework. Landscape governance can be defined as the interactions, decision-making, policies, and partnerships within or related to a landscape. It has a substantive element, which is the area and its nature human interaction, and a process element, which relates to the process of interacting and decision making (van Oosten et al., 2014). Governing at the landscape level requires an explicit unpacking of the relations between a landscape’s spatial features (rivers, slopes, forests, rural urban relations, value chains), the people living and producing within it, and the various levels at which spatial decisions are taken (individual land users, villages, sectors, districts, nations). Landscape governance aims to combine different objectives into one integrated framework based on spatial planning. When the right institutional mechanisms are in place, landscape governance can provide a basis for long-term collaboration and shared development targets among stakeholders (governments, private sector, communities, and civil society), and for reconciling conflicts between food security, productivity, landscape restoration, and socioeconomic development. To achieve successful outcomes, the people who have a stake in the landscape must be in a position to jointly plan and negotiate practices and management actions that they consider acceptable. Ensuring the participation of all stakeholders in the decision process is key to enhancing ownership and commitment to managing landscapes and scaling up sustainable agriculture. Enabling negotiation among stakeholders necessitates involving different actors with varying degrees of power, including local authorities, local leaders, landowners, land users, central government institutions, and private entrepreneurs. Often, stakeholders have dissimilar visions and understanding of landscape planning and goals, and diverse entry points and priorities (land use system, risk aversion, productivity increase, etc.). Setting up a successful negotiation process involves considering all stakeholders’ interests in the formulation of land use/resources management plans, solving conflicts, or addressing trade-offs. Such a negotiated process should follow procedures and rules that are agreed upon by the stakeholders and enforced by a credible and legitimized third party (FAO, 2012). The Green Negotiated Territorial Development (GreeNTD) approach, developed by FAO, is an example of multistakeholder engagement to foster a progressive consensus leading to a comprehensive, multiscale, and negotiated vision. It promotes a concerted decision-making method contributing to leveling the power asymmetries among different stakeholders, particularly women, minorities, youth, and other marginalized groups. Landscape interventions need to be supported by dedicated financial mechanisms. Farmers and land users play a key role in managing natural resources across the landscape. The adoption of more sustainable practices often requires additional effort from farmers. However, upfront financing, land, and labor during establishment, inputs, seeds,
II. CURRENT APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
LANDSCAPE APPROACHES FOR SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
261
technology, and risk of poor performance may all deter farmers from making long-term sustainable investments. Incentives can help certain categories of land users overcome the barriers that prevent them from adopting practices that benefit others in the landscape, or the environment as a whole. The spectrum of available incentive options range from policy driven to voluntary, sourced from existing public programs, private sector investment, or civil society initiatives (FAO, 2016b). These incentives can be financial or nonfinancial in nature. Financial incentives include payments for ecosystem services, which is a mechanism to compensate farmers and farming communities for the lost opportunity cost of maintaining ecosystem services. Payments for ecosystem services can be used as a market-based innovation to scale up sustainable land management practices or restoration activities. A wide range of nonfinancial incentives also exist, such as capacity development, knowledge building, provision of materials, and the development of alternative livelihoods. Improving access to higher value markets, such as through certification for specific commodities, provides additional incentives for investments in sustainable agricultural initiatives. Improved coordination of existing incentives across sectors can provide a package of actions to support short-term transitional needs and the long-term sustainability of agriculture systems. Examples of incentive mechanisms exist, such as the Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund (The Nature Conservancy) in Kenya; the Rio Rural Partnership in Brazil; the Pro-poor Rewards for Environmental Services in Africa program (World Agroforestry Centre— ICRAF); and the Rewards for, Use of and Shared Investment in Pro-poor Environmental Services (RUPES) in Asia. A combination of incentives can help rehabilitate or protect ecosystem services. Examples include helping farmers to get organized so as to facilitate their access to markets, or negotiate compensation for hydrological services that are provided at the landscape scale. As many of these sustainable practices have benefits beyond the farm, these linkages become clearer in a landscape approach and can capture funding from other sectors to support sustainable agriculture choices.
II. CURRENT APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
29
Landscape Approaches for Sustainable Food and Agriculture Landscape approaches include a “set of concepts, tools and methods deployed in a bid to achieve multiple economic, social, environmental objectives (multifunctionality) through processes that recognize, reconcile and synergize interests, attitudes and actions of multiple actors” (Minang et al., 2015). The mitigation of global environmental change requires change and cooperation across landscapes. This is also the scale at which work must integrate social, economic, and environmental objectives. Landscape approaches allow issues to be addressed in a multifaceted way, integrating domains, involving stakeholders, and working at different scales. They recognize that each locality or territory has a set of physical, environmental, human, financial, institutional, and cultural resources that jointly constitute its asset endowment and development potential. A recent FAO Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Expert Meeting (FAO and IPCC, 2017) concluded that food security under climate change requires integrated frameworks and approaches combining scientific findings with socioeconomic and institutional assessments. There is also need to manage production systems and natural resources across an area large enough to produce vital ecosystem services and small enough to be managed by the people using the land and producing those services (FAO, 2017). This requires long-term collaboration among different groups of land managers and stakeholders to achieve their multiple objectives and expectations (LPFN, 2016). Land use planning is central to successful landscape approaches. When conducted in a way that allows for the participation of all stakeholders, it helps in reducing conflicts over the use of resources, therefore leading to sustainable outcomes for the long-term resilience of populations in the face of unpredictable and extreme weather events (IPCC, 2014). Overall, the rationale for applying integrated approaches at the landscape scale is threefold: landscape approaches offer a comprehensive platform across sectors and increase the likelihood of successful and sustainable outcomes of development interventions by addressing and negotiating the externalities that occur beyond traditional interventions at the farm and community level. Also, these approaches contribute toward building resilience
Sustainable Food and Agriculture DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812134-4.00029-7
259
Copyright © 2019 The Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO) Co Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
260
29. LANDSCAPE APPROACHES FOR SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
in social ecological systems by enhancing their capacity to withstand stresses and shocks, including from the likely future impacts of climate change. Landscape approaches include, inter alia, watershed management and restoration, forest conservation, water resources management, marine and coastal management, and reversing land and soil degradation. All these approaches share common characteristics: they focus on the sustainable use, capacity, and resilience of natural resources, on the joint management of shared resources, and on addressing the needs of farmers, other resource managers, and local communities at large within a broader governance framework. Landscape governance can be defined as the interactions, decision-making, policies, and partnerships within or related to a landscape. It has a substantive element, which is the area and its nature human interaction, and a process element, which relates to the process of interacting and decision making (van Oosten et al., 2014). Governing at the landscape level requires an explicit unpacking of the relations between a landscape’s spatial features (rivers, slopes, forests, rural urban relations, value chains), the people living and producing within it, and the various levels at which spatial decisions are taken (individual land users, villages, sectors, districts, nations). Landscape governance aims to combine different objectives into one integrated framework based on spatial planning. When the right institutional mechanisms are in place, landscape governance can provide a basis for long-term collaboration and shared development targets among stakeholders (governments, private sector, communities, and civil society), and for reconciling conflicts between food security, productivity, landscape restoration, and socioeconomic development. To achieve successful outcomes, the people who have a stake in the landscape must be in a position to jointly plan and negotiate practices and management actions that they consider acceptable. Ensuring the participation of all stakeholders in the decision process is key to enhancing ownership and commitment to managing landscapes and scaling up sustainable agriculture. Enabling negotiation among stakeholders necessitates involving different actors with varying degrees of power, including local authorities, local leaders, landowners, land users, central government institutions, and private entrepreneurs. Often, stakeholders have dissimilar visions and understanding of landscape planning and goals, and diverse entry points and priorities (land use system, risk aversion, productivity increase, etc.). Setting up a successful negotiation process involves considering all stakeholders’ interests in the formulation of land use/resources management plans, solving conflicts, or addressing trade-offs. Such a negotiated process should follow procedures and rules that are agreed upon by the stakeholders and enforced by a credible and legitimized third party (FAO, 2012). The Green Negotiated Territorial Development (GreeNTD) approach, developed by FAO, is an example of multistakeholder engagement to foster a progressive consensus leading to a comprehensive, multiscale, and negotiated vision. It promotes a concerted decision-making method contributing to leveling the power asymmetries among different stakeholders, particularly women, minorities, youth, and other marginalized groups. Landscape interventions need to be supported by dedicated financial mechanisms. Farmers and land users play a key role in managing natural resources across the landscape. The adoption of more sustainable practices often requires additional effort from farmers. However, upfront financing, land, and labor during establishment, inputs, seeds,
II. CURRENT APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
LANDSCAPE APPROACHES FOR SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
261
technology, and risk of poor performance may all deter farmers from making long-term sustainable investments. Incentives can help certain categories of land users overcome the barriers that prevent them from adopting practices that benefit others in the landscape, or the environment as a whole. The spectrum of available incentive options range from policy driven to voluntary, sourced from existing public programs, private sector investment, or civil society initiatives (FAO, 2016b). These incentives can be financial or nonfinancial in nature. Financial incentives include payments for ecosystem services, which is a mechanism to compensate farmers and farming communities for the lost opportunity cost of maintaining ecosystem services. Payments for ecosystem services can be used as a market-based innovation to scale up sustainable land management practices or restoration activities. A wide range of nonfinancial incentives also exist, such as capacity development, knowledge building, provision of materials, and the development of alternative livelihoods. Improving access to higher value markets, such as through certification for specific commodities, provides additional incentives for investments in sustainable agricultural initiatives. Improved coordination of existing incentives across sectors can provide a package of actions to support short-term transitional needs and the long-term sustainability of agriculture systems. Examples of incentive mechanisms exist, such as the Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund (The Nature Conservancy) in Kenya; the Rio Rural Partnership in Brazil; the Pro-poor Rewards for Environmental Services in Africa program (World Agroforestry Centre— ICRAF); and the Rewards for, Use of and Shared Investment in Pro-poor Environmental Services (RUPES) in Asia. A combination of incentives can help rehabilitate or protect ecosystem services. Examples include helping farmers to get organized so as to facilitate their access to markets, or negotiate compensation for hydrological services that are provided at the landscape scale. As many of these sustainable practices have benefits beyond the farm, these linkages become clearer in a landscape approach and can capture funding from other sectors to support sustainable agriculture choices.
II. CURRENT APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE