Participants discussed how key stakeholders (including governments, businesses and civil society) have advanced progress to achieve the Goals, as well as explore what could be done over the next year to move the agenda of landscapes forward within the context of the SDGs.
On October 25th, EcoAgriculture Partners, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), hosted the fourth policy for integrated agricultural landscape management roundtable of this year. Entitled Advancing Integrated Landscape Strategies for the SDGs, the roundtable discussion brought together professionals working across sectors of conservation, sustainable agriculture, and development to discuss the opportunities for furthering integrated landscape approaches through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal framework.
The roundtable opened with statements from EcoAgriculture Partners President Sara Scherr and FAO Senior Liaison officer Thomas Pesek. Following opening remarks, panelist presentations given by Ulrich Apel, Senior Environmental Specialist at the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and Lynn M. Wagner, Group Director at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), highlighted some of the progress made and challenges for implementation of integrated landscape strategies across sectors. The panelists underscored the many different ways in which the SDG framework can be useful for advocating integrated strategies, from expanding cooperation to un-silo efforts within organizations, to serving as a common language for encouraging private sector partnerships.
The insights of the panelists opened up the floor to lively discussion concerning the ways in which the SDGs inform the work of professionals in advocating integrated landscape approaches in conservation, restoration, and sustainable development. For some, the SDG framework proved useful in providing a monitoring framework for their own initiatives. Others saw the SDGs as valuable for contextualizing their initiatives within the realm of policy advocacy. Overall, the roundtable discussion demonstrated the variety of roles the Sustainable Development Goals take in informing the work of professionals advocating for integrated landscape strategies and served as an informative forum for the exchange of experiences.
EcoAgriculture Partners would like to thank all those who attended the event, as well as the FAO for hosting the event at their headquarters. This event was part of an on-going series of roundtable discussions focusing on climate change, agriculture, and landscapes. The series has been jointly organized by EcoAgriculture Partners and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations since 2009. The next roundtable discussion will be held on December 1st with the topic of “nutrition-sensitive landscapes.”