Protecting and restoring landscapes and building sustainable agroforestry systems are powerful ways to build resilience to climate change while supporting livelihoods. As Forests News reported in a recent article, adaptation was a specific area of focus at the U.N. COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, where a work program was established to define specific global goals pertaining to it.

Several events on this theme took place at COP26, including Scaling and financing Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), a discussion including TMG's Serah Kiragu-Wissler, as well as Arjuna Srinidhi of partner organisation the Watershed Organisation Trust, and speakers from CIFOR-ICRAF, AuctusESG, Green Climate Fund, Ashoka Trust and UNEP. A wide-ranging discussion converged on the need to embed EbA in societies, governments, institutions and economies in a holistic way.

Scaling up EbA requires finance, but it also needs an enabling environment, including the provision of knowledge, skills and rights to smallholder farmers. As Serah Kiragu-Wissler noted by way of example, farmers will not feel secure in protecting and restoring landscapes and soils without the knowledge that their tenure to the land is secure for the long term: "land tenure rights are critical for soil protection."

Forests News' report on the discussion is available here, and a complete recording is visible via the event page on the TMG website.

Photo credit: Roel van Deursen