The landscape approach: Ten principles to apply at the nexus of

agriculture, conservation and other competing land-uses  

Terry Sunderland Tree Diversity Day

CBD COP, Hyderabad, India 11th October 2012

Shooting in the dark..?

•  Large body of literature on “landscape approaches” and “ecosystem approaches” but little consensus on applicability

•  General principles and guidelines have been largely missing

•  However, need to avoid “one size fits all” approach

•  Complex landscapes; complex challenges

Core challenge: different sites, different issues

New approaches •  Since  2008,  CIFOR  and  mul5ple  partners  working  on  defining  

and  refining  broad  “landscape  approaches”  building  on  previous  ini5a5ves  

•  How?  Review  of  published  literature,  mul5ple  workshops  for  consensus  building,  conferences/side  events,  e.g.  Diversitas,  IUFRO,  CBD  Bonn,  Nagoya    

•  Validated  by  survey  of  field  prac55oners  •  Based  on  this  on-­‐going  work,  SBSTTA  commissioned  a  report  

on  “sustainable  use  of  biodiversity  at  the  landscape  scale”  (see  hSp://www.cbd.int/doc/mee5ngs/sbsSa/sbsSa-­‐15/official/sbsSa-­‐15-­‐13-­‐en.pdf)    

So, what is new? •  The  landscape  approach  has  been  

re-­‐defined  to  include  societal  concerns  related  to  conserva5on  and  development  trade-­‐offs  and  nego5ate  for  them  

•  Increased  integra5on  of  poverty  allevia5on  goals  

•  Increased  integra5on  of  agricultural  produc5on  and  food  security  

•  Emphasis  is  on  adap5ve  management,  stakeholder  involvement  and  mul5ple  objec5ves  

The “Ten Commandments”...?

Ten principles for a landscape approach •  Con5nual  learning  and  adap5ve  management  •  Common  concern  entry  point  •  Mul5ple  scales  •  Mul5-­‐func5onality  •  Mul5-­‐stakeholder  •  Nego5ated  and  transparent  change  •  Clarifica5on  of  rights  and  principles  •  Par5cipatory  and  user-­‐friendly  monitoring  •  Resilience  •  Strengthened  stakeholder  capacity  

What impact? •  Recommenda5on  XV/6  

"sustainable  use"  from  SBSTTA  XV  (includes  work  on  bushmeat)  

•  Tabled  for  adop5on  at  this  COP  by  par5es  

•  Sayer  et  al:  The  landscape  approach:  ten  principles  to  apply  at  the  nexus  of  agriculture,  conserva5on  and  other  compe5ng  land  uses  [in  press]  Proceedings  of  the  Na2onal  Academy  of  Science  

THINKING beyond the canopy

Thanks!