For agriculture to be part of the solution to slow the degradation and clearing of tropical forests and to enhance tree cover in agricultural and degraded landscapes, policies, incentives, and actions will be needed to transform value chains for commodities. This session will stimulate discussions on forward-looking lessons and recommendations derived from the World Bank PROFOR-funded study, “Leveraging agricultural value chains to enhance tropical tree cover and slow deforestation – LEAVES.” The study focused on six commodity production systems (coffee, cocoa, beef, soybean, oil palm, and shea butter) and their impacts on deforestation or restoration of tree cover in deforested landscapes.

The new “LEAVES” paradigm shifts the focus to those innovators among governments, farmers, rural communities, researchers, NGOs, and companies that are finding local solutions and opportunistically tapping into relevant international strategies and programs. The lessons the LEAVES study provides can help harness decades of experience and lessons-learned from East Asia and Latin America for guiding properly adapted best practice approaches to mitigate predictable and/or unintended tradeoffs of increasing agricultural productivity and conserving forests and woodlands in Africa.

Speakers

Tony Simons, Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Peter Minang, Leader, Greening Tree Crop Landscapes, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Emmanuel Ndorimana, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Burundi

Carol Mwape Zulu, Environmental and Social Inclusion Specialist, Zambia

Roberto Zolho, Sr. Natural Resources Management Specialist, National Sustainable Development Fund, Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER), Mozambique

Nora Berrahmouni, Sr. Forestry officer at FAO Regional Office for Africa

Frank Place, Director, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Salina Abraham, Youth Coordinator, GLF

Mi Hyun Miriam Bae, Sr. Social Development Specialist, IFC

William Kwende, Chairman, AgriTech, Burkina Faso

Florence Nkemakonam Anagbogu, NEWMAP, Nigeria

Philippe Dardel, Senior Natural Resource Management Specialist, World Bank

Irene Ojuok, National Technical Specialist, Environment and Climate change (FMNR expert), World Vision International

Focal Point: Ana Maria Paez-Valencia, ICRAF

Presentation: World Bank funded study: leveraging agricultural value chains to enhance tropical tree cover and slow