| Abstract: |
Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a globally adopted program that broadly relates to human dignity, prosperity, protecting the biosphere, and promoting peace and security. Countries are now formulating indicators to track their progress towards the targets, while struggling against the impact of unpredictable socioeconomic and political shocks and present and future climate change. Overall, these changes are increasing the vulnerability of local populations to declining agricultural yields and food security, soil erosion, flash floods, and long-term freshwater shortages.
In addition, the planet’s agricultural land needs to achieve a 70% increase in production to meet the demand for food from a growing population. Meanwhile, smallholding farmers in Asia and the Pacific are exposed to financial and environmental risks from changes to the climate. Their vulnerability is further increased by weak capacity to adapt to changes. Yet these farmers are crucial for providing food for some of the world’s fastest-growing and largest populations.
Approximately 560 million people live in agricultural ecosystems with more than 10% tree cover, mitigating climate change by maintaining these production landscapes and adapting to changing conditions. Climatesmart, tree-based agriculture has the ability to maintain the environment’s capacity to provide ecosystem services and intensify production. These agricultural landscapes provide a diverse range of tree species; are important habitats for plant and animal biodiversity; help maintain connections between forest fragments; and support healthy watersheds by buffering variations in rainfall.
The Climate-smart, Tree-based, Co-investment in Adaptation and Mitigation in Asia (Smart Trees-Invest) program has been working towards improving the livelihoods and resilience of smallholding farmers by reducing their vulnerability to shocks, including climate change. Smart Trees-Invest has worked with smallholders, both female and male, in vulnerable
areas in Indonesia, Viet Nam and the Philippines to help create local solutions in collaboration with governments, development agencies and the private sectors. Smart Trees-Invest has paid special attention to developing benefits from external public and private funding through links with payment and co-investment for ecosystem services. |
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