Working Landscapes

General

Working Landscapes

By promoting climate-smart landscapes, the Working Landscapes programme will contribute to climate change mitigation, adaptation, improved livelihoods and environmental integrity, which are crucial to achieving the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Forests and trees in well-managed landscapes have the potential to contribute significantly to climate change mitigation and adaptation, while supporting people’s livelihoods and sustaining agricultural value chains.

A climate-smart landscape maximises synergies between mitigation and adaptation objectives by combining climate-smart practices at the farm level, a diversity of land uses, and deliberate management of ecological, social and economic interactions among different parts of the landscape. Achieving climate-smart landscapes requires the active involvement of both small-scale and large-scale producers, inclusive and coordinated governance arrangements, and financial investments.

This programme focuses on the role and contribution of forests and trees in achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation. Through knowledge generation, capacity building and informed dialogue facilitation, we aim for impacts in terms of sustainable land use, inclusive governance and responsible finance and business, with an emphasis on local men and women foresters and farmers, communities, indigenous peoples and forest and farm producers’ organisations.

The Working Landscapes programme addresses climate change mitigation and adaptation goals, by contributing to the following interrelated conditions (strategic priorities) for climate-smart landscapes.

  1. More sustainable land-use practices by small-scale and large-scale producers of agricultural and forestry products.
  2. Inclusive landscape governance, ensuring that decisions reflect the interests of local communities.
  3. Responsible business and finance, leading to effective implementation of social and environmental standards and commitments, and equitable inclusion of smallholders in value chains.

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In the Working Landscapes programme we have defined three strategies to achieve the programme's objectives.

  1. Strengthening the role of forests and trees in the national formulation and implementation of NDCs.
  2. Implementing policies and practices towards climate-smart landscapes.
  3. Promoting international policies and partnerships.

The programme focus primarily on countries in: Indonesia, Vietnam, Ghana, DR Congo, Suriname, Colombia, Bolivia and Ethiopia.

Since 2021 the subprogramme ‘Fire-smart landscape governance: from opportunity to lasting change’ was approved and started as an addition to Working Landscapes. The Fire-Smart Landscape Governance Subprogramme promotes a landscape approach towards establishing fire-smart landscape management.

The working landscapes programme is financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. 

Duration

2019 - 2025