- To influence climate policy trajectory, a clear and consistent message is needed. This toolkit from Farming First and the CGIAR provides resources for developing and disseminating these messages.
The past few weeks on the Landscapes Blog have focused on different elements of food security – from the human right to adequate and nutritious food to fostering farmer innovation in Africa – and have explored how integrated landscape frames can further these goals. One of the challenges we keep returning to is that of climate change, and how shifts in temperature, precipitation, and extreme events will (and in someplace already) impact the ability for agricultural landscapes to provide for people and nature. Approaching its 19th annual conference, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has served as the basis for international efforts to address the challenge. Yet, as we noted last year, agriculture and landscape approaches in particular have largely remained on the sidelines of discussion and action.
This year is a bit different – having built on the past year’s momentum of activities and discussions around landscape-level responses to climate change – there is an attempt to fully integrate individual communities of practice from forestry, agriculture, and rural development into a Global Landscapes Forum. Sandwiched between the two weeks of the UNFCCC COP19 held this year in Warsaw, Poland, the Forum is bringing together a range of stakeholders – from scientist and civil society to climate negotiators and the private sector – to develop the potential of a landscape approach to inform future UNFCCC agreements and the achievement of the proposed Sustainable Development Goals. Presentations and discussion will focus on four main themes: investment; policy and governance; synergies between climate change mitigation and adaptation; and food security and nutrition.
Such a move toward integrated and landscape-scale thinking over the past few years is a considerable feat, but the challenge from here is developing a common and consistent set of messages that policymakers and negotiators can take in hand. As Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda said last year at Agriculture, Landscapes, and Livelihoods Day, “let’s all speak with one voice.”
Stay tuned as the Landscapes Blog continues on the theme of climate-smart agricultural landscapes in the lead-up to COP19, and follow the broader activities on Twitter through the hashtag #GLFCOP19.
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