PEFC Stakeholder Dialogue to foster talks between land use competitors

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone who lives off the land just got along?

If farmers could grow crops without irreversibly damaging the soil or cutting down forests to grow monocultures?

If conservationists could ensure the biological diversity in the same area?

If the chocolate factory could purchase enough cocoa for the foreseeable future without depleting the natural resources?

And if the government could reach its goals of moving poor people out of poverty?

Well, that wouldn’t be just nice, that would be perfect. So it has to be unrealistic. Maybe for now, but it doesn’t hurt to be aspirational, says Terry Sunderland, Team Leader Sustainable Landscapes and Food Systems at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

The picture of the perfect scenario has a lot to do with CIFOR’s ongoing research on landscape approaches. He and many other scientists and development experts keep pushing for an integrated landscape approach to land use planning.

A landscape approach aims to reconcile competing interests and negotiate trade-offs instead of dealing with each sector separately. It requires everyone who is involved in land use planning or who uses natural resources or who wants to protect wildlife or who lives off the forest or a farm to negotiate their competing interests and share a collective vision. In theory, this should also lead to more sustainable land use and resource management.

In the light of the complexities of today’s world, sectoral thinking should a thing of the past. According to Sunderland, the practical side of multi-functional landscape models has been lagging behind, so he and his colleagues are increasingly impatient to show how integrated approaches are in fact working on the ground.

Therefore, he is determined to test the move from theory to practice. On 16 November, CIFOR will host a side event at the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) Stakeholder Dialogue in Bali, Indonesia.

The aim is to bring together people from as many land-use sectors as possible, ranging from government to the private sector, conservation and development agencies to local non-governmental organizations to share their experiences, both positive and negative.
http://pefc.org/news-a-media/general-sfm-news/2222-pefc-stakeholder-dialogue-to-foster-talks-between-land-use-competitors

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