One goal of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative is to amass the evidence base for integrated agricultural landscapes from diverse disciplinary and sectoral perspectives. This Global Review will be oriented around a set of eight Key Questions, the answers to which will be critical to management, policy, and investment for rural landscapes in the coming decades. A diversity of contributors – from academic and research institutions to NGOs and international agencies – is involved in developing the research, analyses, and communications material that will result from the Review process.
Beyond highlighting specific landscapes and perspectives of practitioners, this blog will also be a place to report on different analyses as they develop and other research efforts in line with the eight Key Questions around landscape approaches:
Key Question 1: What is the current extent and future potential of integrated, multi-objective management of rural landscapes (ecoagriculture and related approaches) to meet global needs for food and fuel, achieve food security and good nutrition, conserve biodiversity, and ensure the provision of critical ecosystem services?
Key Question 2: What is the role of ecoagriculture in supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation, and in re-orienting agriculture to be a keystone of 21st century “green economy” development pathways that are low in carbon emissions and resilient to climate change?
Key Question 3: How can rural landscapes—and their component farm production systems and ecosystem management practices—be designed and managed to achieve greater synergies and greater benefits for food production, conservation, and human wellbeing?
Key Question 4: What are the most effective institutional structures, tools, and capacity-building approaches for supporting multi-stakeholder negotiation, planning, and action for ecoagriculture landscapes in different socioeconomic, agroecological, and political contexts?
Key Question 5: How can market mechanisms (e.g., green supply chains and business practices, eco-certification, payment for ecosystem services, risk management systems) be designed and implemented to support ecoagriculture landscape development at larger scales, and with greater benefits for farmers, private business, and the environment?
Key Question 6: What are the most promising public policies and governance structures for supporting sustainable landscape management, such as through improved cross-sectoral policy alignment, regulatory regimes, taxes and subsidies, and land and resource rights?
Key Question 7: What are the priority investments needed by the public sector, private sector, and civil society to support and expand the effective practice of ecoagriculture—including investments in farm production systems, institutions, human capital, infrastructure, and ecosystem health?
Key Question 8: What are the priority areas for research and innovation to sustain and increase the yields, profitability, and livelihood benefits of agricultural systems while conserving and restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services in rural landscapes?
Continue to check the Initiative website and the blog for updates on the progress of the Global Review. Participants and organizations wishing are welcome to provide input into the Key Questions by contributing relevant research. Further, the regional inventories of integrated landscape initiatives are now being built by Initiative partners; you may submit a recommendation of initiatives from your home landscapes to include in these inventories.
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