Unlocking Public Finance for Agroecology: Catalysing the potential of agriculture in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
Food and agricultural systems around the world are currently stuck at a crossroad. On the one hand, they are continuing to contribute a lion’s share to climate change, land degradation and the loss of biodiversity – on the other hand, the movement of people calling for a radical transformation of the way we relate to food and our environment is stronger than ever. An approach that is gaining attention worldwide among a wide range of actors as an answer to this call is agroecology.
Unfortunately, the funding for community-led initiatives or civil society organisations implementing agroecology at the grassroots level still remains insufficient. Given the potential of agroecology in achieving progress on several development objectives, this report is providing further evidence on the multiple benefits that agroecology comprises before presenting a set of recommendations for governments, (inter-)national development agencies and global financial mechanisms of how to actively support agroecology.
The eight case studies presented in this report show the successes behind a diverse range of agroecological practices in spatially and culturally diverse settings. By relating their grassroots work to the rather abstract SDGs, different civil society actors and community-led initiatives show how agroecology can constitute a pathway towards achieving sustainable development.
Cases in this publication:
Probioma, Bolivia: Microbial biocontrol agents as an agroecological contribution to
food security and sovereignty in Bolivia
Cenesta, Iran: Increasing plant genetic diversity in farmers' fields for resilient
communities and food sovereignty in Iran
Keystone Foundation, India: Mixed gains from cash and subsistence crops. Agroecology of indigenous people in the Indian' Nilgiri Mountains
Rainforest Rescue International, Sri Lanka: Analog forestry as an agroeological tool ensuring food security, biodiversity and climate resilience in Sri Lanka
Institute for Culture and Ecology, Kenya: Promoting agroforestry and indigenous seed varieties for healthy agroecosystems and livelihoods in Kenya
Enda Pronat, Senegal: Farmer-managed natural regeneration and other agroecological practices to restore soil fertility and improve agricultural production in Senegal
CAATINGA, Brazil: Coexisting with semiarid conditions: Combining agroecological practices to face climate change and desertification in Brazil’s drylands
Southern Roots Organics, UK: Productivity and resilience through a cooperative, agroecological, community-supported market garden in the United Kingdom
For more information
Themes
Read more about this subject
-
Dossier
The merits of community-based restoration
Globally, the area that is suffering desertification and land degradation is ever expanding. Unsustainable and often large-scale agricultural practices, including the copious use of pesticides and fertilisers, are a major driver of land degradation, aprocess that is further exacerbated by climate change, causing more erratic rainfall patterns, longer periods of drought and unpredictable growing seasons. This is very problematic not only for the hundreds of millions of people who directly depend on land and water for their livelihoods, but also for life on earth as a whole. It is clear that this process must be stopped and reversed, better sooner than later. But how to go about it?
-
News / 16 August 2019
Opinion: "Sustainable land use needs radical policy change"
Today, an op-ed by Nathalie van Haren and Stefan Schüller was published in the Dutch national newspaper De Volkskrant about the IPCC's latest report "Climate Change and Land". Below you find the English translation.
-
Alternative
Rich Forests
Rich Forests promotes a sustainable and future-proof production system and supports, among other things, the transformation of degraded land into food forests. With this, people provide for their livelihood, increase their income and at the same time restore soil and biodiversity.
-
Event / 6 September 2019, 13:00 - 15:00
UNCCD COP14: Communities regreen the Sahel
At the UNCCD COP14 in India, which is taking place from 2-13 September 2019, Both ENDS is co-organising a number of side events.
-
Publication / 14 January 2019
-
Alternative
Regreening
In various countries in the Sahel, vast tracts of land have been restored by the local population by nurturing what spontaneously springs from the soil and protecting the sprouts from cattle and hazards.
-
News / 30 August 2019
Dealing with drought: the UNCCD COP in India
Worldwide, hundreds of millions of people live in areas where the soil is depleted; often they are forced to, or the region they have been living in for generations has become increasingly arid over time. The desert is advancing and this is a global problem. Opinions about the causes of land degradation and desertification, but especially about the solutions, are very divided. To discuss this, the biennial global conference on desertification will take place from 2 to 14 September. This is where policymakers, scientists, NGOs, female and male farmers and pastoralist, herders and companies from all over the world come together. Our colleague Nathalie van Haren is present at the conference and explains why.
-
Alternative
Inclusive Land Governance
Both ENDS works with partners around the world to ensure that land is governed fairly and inclusively and managed sustainably with priority for the rights and interests of local communities.
-
Dossier
Improving soil health for farmers and ecosystems (iSQAPER)
Soil health is of great importance for both ecosystems and agricultural and food-production systems. Both ENDS promotes sustainable land use and fair land governance, this way contributing to better soil health.
-
News / 15 November 2018
All Eyes on the Amazon: the future of protecting forests in Brazil
On Wednesday, November 14, Dutch Newspaper De Volkskrant published a joint op-ed by Both ENDS, Hivos, Greenpeace Netherlands and Witness about the deforestation in the Amazon region which is still going on rapidly, having disastrous consequences for the indigenous people who live in the area, for biodiversity and for the climate. The Netherlands is one of the largest buyers of Brazilian agricultural products such as soy and beef, and should ensure that deforestation, land grabbing and human rights violations do not occur in these production chains. Unfortunately, this is not at all the case yet.
-
Publication / 28 January 2019
-
News / 2 August 2019
EU unveils 'Action Plan' on Deforestation
The EU is still one of the world’s largest importers of deforestation: EU demand for commodities like soy, palm oil, beef, coffee and cacao requires millions of hectares of tropical rainforest to be cleared. This deforestation has significant biodiversity and climate impacts, and is often linked to human rights violations and violence against local communities and indigenous peoples. Both ENDS and partners have been actively lobbying the EU Commission to adopt a robust action plan to address and prevent human rights violations and deforestation ‘embodied’ in EU imports of agricultural commodities.
-
Publication / 8 April 2019
-
Event / 12 September 2019, 08:00 - 10:00
UNCCD COP14: From global frameworks to local actions
At the UNCCD COP14 in India, which is taking place from 2-13 September 2019, Both ENDS is co-organising a number of side events.
-
Publication / 1 September 2017
-
Publication / 30 June 2016
-
Dossier
Small Grants Big Impacts
Small grants funds offer an effective, alternative way to channel big money from large donors and funds to local groups and organisations that are striving for a sustainable and just society everywhere around the world.
-
Event / 4 December 2019, 15:00 - 16:30
Side event Both ENDS at Climate COP in Madrid
On Wednesday December 4th 2019 Both ENDS together with Heinrich Böll Stiftung from he US organises a side event at the UNFCCC COP in Madrid: Can the GCF Catalyze Inclusive, Gender-Responsive Local Climate Action Globally and in Latin America?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
-
Event / 6 September 2017
UNCCD COP 2017 - CHINA
From 6-16 september, the 13th Conference of Parties' of the UNCCD (UN Convention to Combat Desertification) took place, this time in Ordos, China. The UNCCD is the global convention of the United Nations on combating desertification and drought. Every country in the world has signed this convention. Canada withdrew in 2012, but in 2016 - under the Trudeau administration - started a process to re-enter the convention. Both ENDS is a member of Drynet, a network of local organisations and communities in dry regions searching for ways to use land in a sustainable manner.
-
News / 23 November 2018
Yacouba Sawadogo receives Right Livelihood Award!
Today, the Right Livelihood Awards 2018 will be presented in Stockholm. One of the four people who will receive the prize this year is Yacouba Sawadogo, 'the man who stopped the desert'. Yacouba, a farmer from Yatenga, Burkina Faso, is one of the founders of so-called 'Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration' with which degenerated and dry areas are becoming green and fertile again. According to Both ENDS, Yacouba's award is very well-deserved!
