Jurisdictional sustainability: connecting supply chains to landscapes

Jurisdictional approaches are emerging as a promising model of landscape partnership.

Landscape partnerships take many forms: regional watershed stewardship, private sector initiatives to generate shared value, indigenous traditional systems, etc. Jurisdictional sustainability approaches are distinct in that they specifically operate across an entire political geography such as a state or province. Earth Innovation Institute (EII) and its Forests, Farms & Finance Initiative (3FI) partners are advancing the concept through upcoming stakeholder dialogue and continuing efforts to pilot jurisdictional sustainability in places like Mato Grosso, Brazil.

The Pantanal region, the world’s largest tropical wetland, extends into Mato Grosso and is home to a diverse range of plants and animals. Photo Credit: Ana Raquel S. Hernandes.

New approaches to linking sustainable supply chains to landscapes

Jurisdictional sustainability approaches to mainstreaming sustainable development through public-private-civic partnerships across a political territory are advantageous among landscape partnership models in some cases. They have strong potential to maximize public policy and planning alignment with business, nongovernmental organization, and international community activities to achieve rural development, sustainable production, and conservation goals.

Key components of jurisdictional sustainability success include developing clear, time-bound goals that are supported by critical stakeholders, engaging in monitoring, reporting, and verification to assess progress and assist with adaptive management, aligning incentives for the adoption of sustainable practices, and building an effective overarching governance structure that engages stakeholders from all sectors.

Implementing jurisdictional approaches in Mato Grosso, Brazil

Cattle ranching in Brazil has been a challenge for deforestation reduction efforts. Mato Grosso produces the most cattle of any Brazilian state. Photo Credit: Scott Bauer.

One leading landscape partnership facilitated by EII in the jurisdictional sustainability space is an initiative in Mato Grosso, Brazil, the country’s third largest state and agricultural production leader. Conversion of Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado savannah into agricultural land, driven mainly by global demand  for soy and beef, has challenged leaders from across sectors to take a jurisdictional approach to integrated landscape management.

Across the entire state, partners from government, business, civil society, producers, communities, financial institutions, and commodity associations and roundtables have worked together to unify their individual efforts and align market and policy incentives to promote jurisdictional sustainability. Activities such as creating regional performance goals, designing incentives for improved sustainability performance, advancing pilot projects, and developing a transparent online monitoring platform, the Territorial Performance System, will allow EII and its partners to test and refine the jurisdictional sustainability landscape partnership approach while supporting rural development, successful agribusiness, good governance, and ecosystem conservation across the region.

Forests, Farms & Finance Initiative (3FI) to host jurisdictional sustainability workshop

On June 17, 3FI will convene stakeholders from companies, governments, commodity roundtables and agribusiness associations, and civil society in Oslo, Norway for a Tropical Forests, Climate Change, and Jurisdictional Sustainability conference to further explore this landscape partnership approach. These leaders will review case studies from Central Kalimantan, Indonesia and Mato Grosso, Brazil and develop a framework for successfully implementing jurisdictional sustainability. Framework components will include guidance on developing shared goals and milestones, monitoring and verification systems, governance structures, and incentive programs. Through this dialogue around these critical issues, attendees have the potential to advance jurisdictional sustainability approaches on a larger scale.

Catherine Rothacker is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where she is focusing on the intersection of corporate sustainability, conservation biology, food production, forest governance, and sustainable development. She works for the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, and is currently completing an internship with EcoAgriculture Partners in Washington, DC.