First Focal Landscape Dialogue Held in Lari-Kijabe Landscape in Kenya

In September, LPFN kicked off a series of on the ground capacity-building and knowledge-sharing workshops, known as Focal Landscape Dialogues, in the Lari-Kijabe landscape in Kenya. These dialogues, to be held at all five of the current focal landscapes over the remainder of 2013, are an opportunity for diverse stakeholders to share the ongoing activities and innovations in the site from a landscape perspective and to identify ways to scale-up and share the successes and opportunities that the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative could support. They also aimed to plan for future dialogue and collaboration between the focal landscapes and the Initiative.

The dialogue began with a tour of the landscape, giving working group members direct contact with the farmers and activities that their plans will aim to benefit. After their trip around the central Kenyan countryside, Raffaela Kozar of EcoAgriculture Partners introduced the participants to the goals of the LPFN Initiative and the integrated approach to landscape management. Led by Louise Buck of Cornell University and EcoAgriculture Partners, participants then filled out a scorecard evaluating the performance of the landscape in four key domains – production, conservation, livelihoods, and institutions. Participants compared the score of the landscape to that in 2009, and discussed reasons for any decreases or increases in domain scores. After this diagnostic, the dialogue moved forward to identify partners, put together an action plan, and listen to a variety of group presentations.

EcoAgriculture Partners and the Kijabe Environment Volunteers (KENVO) led the forum. KENVO is a local community trust with a long relationship with EcoAgriculture Partners and strong ties to the majority of stakeholders in the landscape. KENVO has been involved in landscape management in Lari-Kijabe for over 15 years, broadening the scope of its activities to include biodiversity conservation, watershed management, and agricultural and pastoral land development and marketing from its initial focus on forestry management.