Dear Members of the Community of Practice,

in one of our events it was suggested that it would be nice to have a common page where the members of the community could work together. For this purpose, we created this space. It can be used to share information, ask questions, discuss, give advice or ask for help, share success stories or also approaches that did not work out well ...

So, please feel free to engage and hit the edit button (little pencil at the right edge of the page)! You can also use the comment function!

If you have problems with the use of the site, please contact julia.klemme@ble.de or julia.klemme@4p1000.org



Member's topics and questions:



Input and questions to Community of Practice members from Calogero Schillaci of the European Commission:

I am working at the EC joint research centre on the land degradation assessment. We're testing and analysing the outcomes of the UNCCD methodology to assess land degradation, the indicator UN SDG 15.3.1.

I would like to share and discuss our findings or exchange on respective activities with EU and international experts on land degradation.

In particular, we are also interested in highlighting the role of soil and soil organic carbon stock in land degradation assessment and, therefore, to better understand the role of the SOC stocks in the UNCCD SDG 15.3.1 indicator calculation.

It would be great to debate on the platform and perhaps have a short presentation in the coming months.

If there are other people interested on the subject it would be great if we could gather.

I hope this information is enough to start discussing.

Kind regards and thanks for the reaction

Calogero


To find out who is already working on this topic or who/how many would be interested in an event on this topic: please fill out this very short survey. You can also use the comment function to respond.




Share your expertise at the 10th World Conference on Ecological Restoration

Dear Task Force Members,

The Society for Ecological Restoration invites proposals for the 10th World Conference on Ecological Restoration (SER2023) to be held in person on 26-30 September 2023 in Darwin, Australia with a separate opportunity for virtual participation and content delivery in the Western Hemisphere time zone during the week of 6 November 2023.

Join us at SER2023, in person or virtually, to present your restoration research and projects, make connections, and learn from a wide diversity of restorationists who are at the global forefront of scientific, technical, socio-economic, and policy dimensions of restoring damaged and degraded ecosystems. Conference participants will include scientists, practitioners, indigenous and traditional owners, resource managers, policymakers, and other restorationists.

SER2023 will focus on the connection between culture and nature, including the role of restoration in enhancing and rebuilding that connection, while also elevating the value of traditional and local ecological knowledge and practice. Recognizing the value of diversity not just in the natural, but also the human world, and consistent with SER's emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, SER not only welcomes, but strongly encourages a diversity of perspective and representation in all proposal submissions.

Proposal submission deadline extended to 30 October 2022

Learn more here: https://www.ser.org/news/613382/



Andrea Romero

Facilitator Task Force on Best Practices - UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism

Forestry Division

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 

Viale delle Terme di Caracalla

00153 Rome, Italy  

21st of February 2022: Invitation by the UN Decade Best Practices Task Force to UN Decade partners

Dear UN Decade partners,

 

As you know, in 2021 Task Force on Best Practices implemented a global capacity needs assessment that identified key gaps and capacity development priorities to support the UN Decade. The key findings were published in this summary report. We received 1331 responses from all around the world and overall, 50% of respondents had no capacity development or training to enhance their restoration work. 

This year, the survey information will be combined with a stock-taking effort to document existing (current and recent) knowledge products and capacity development initiatives with the goal of identifying: i) ways to replicate or extend existing programs; and ii) gaps where knowledge products or capacity development initiatives are needed. The final product will be a Capacity, Knowledge, and Learning Action Plan for the UN Decade. The scope includes all types of ecosystems, sectors and the four major categories of the restorative continuum.

Therefore, we are requiring your valuable support with this important effort. We invite you to contribute to this online spreadsheet created to take stock of Knowledge Products—defined as a collection of knowledge generated to enable action—as well as Capacity Development Initiatives (both from your own organization and other organizations/initiatives that you may know). We also invite you to disseminate this message across your networks focused on capacity /knowledge development.

Below are some examples within these two broad categories. We would greatly appreciate your collaboration to provide information on these aspects preferably by the end of this week. For questions or clarifications, do not hesitate to reach out to us (Robin Chazdon rchazdon@forestorationinternational.org; Andrea Romero Andrea.RomeroMontoya@fao.org).

Thanks so much in advance for your inputs!

Kind regards,

 

Andrea Romero

Facilitator Task Force on Best Practices - UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism

Forestry Division

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 

Viale delle Terme di Caracalla

00153 Rome, Italy  

http://www.fao.org/in-action/forest-landscape-restoration-mechanism/our-work/gl/tfbp/en/



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  1. I have been working with a team on developing a funding mechanism that would connect investors via carbon markets with regenerative farmers. Please take a look, interested to hear your thoughts. 

    Funding the Transition from Conventional to Regenerative

     Version 1.3, 01/15/2022


    Introduction

    The land and water resources farmers rely on are today stressed to "a breaking point" even as almost 10 percent of the eight billion people on earth are already undernourished with three billion lacking healthy diets. And by 2050 there will be two billion more mouths to feed, warns a new report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

    For now, farmers have been able to boost agricultural productivity by irrigating more land and applying heavier doses of fertilizer and pesticides. But the report says these practices are not sustainable: They have eroded and degraded soil while polluting and depleting water supplies and shrinking the world's forests.

    "Human-induced degradation affects 34 percent—1,660 million hectares—of agricultural land," the FAO reports. "The treatment of soils with inorganic fertilizers to increase or sustain yields has had significant adverse effects on soil health, and has contributed to freshwater pollution induced by run-off and drainage."

    This degradation is especially extensive on irrigated farmland. Irrigation has been critical for meeting food demand because it produces two to three times as much food per acre as does rain-fed farmland. But irrigation also increases runoff of fertilizers and pesticides that can contaminate soil and groundwater.

    The FAO reports also that globally, agriculture accounts for 72 percent of all surface and groundwater withdrawals, mainly for irrigation, which is depleting groundwater aquifers in many regions. Global groundwater withdrawals for irrigated agriculture increased by about 20 percent over the past decade alone.

    Common Dreams

    The Socioeconomic Impact of the Industrial Food System

    The industrialization of agriculture, using monoculture practices enabled by fossil fuel based fertilizers and pesticides, has resulted in the consolidation of farms into very large operations with thousands and tens of thousands of acres. It has forced many small and mid-sized farms out of business. 

    While there are significant efficiencies in producing high volumes of crops, the benefits have not been equally distributed across population groups. In particular the Base of Pyramid Economy has been disenfranchised, and food deserts in the inner cities and even in rural communities have become a familiar picture. 

    At the apex lie middle and upper class members of developed nations, and at the base, the four billion poorest people, with an annual per capita of less than $1500. What the “base of the pyramid” model proposes is to completely upend usual multinational business’ common practice, which is to ignore this market, due to the perception that it is not viable for most present business models. 

    Supporters of the base of the pyramid model have argued that this segment of the world represents an incubator for potentially disruptive technologies. Supporters have proposed utilizing the base of the pyramid markets to develop  springboard business models to reinvigorate communities, as well as potentially creating new revenue streams in non-traditional markets.

    The European Union has embraced the concept of ‘Farm to Fork Community Food Systems’ as an outcome of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, aiming to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly.

    Food systems cannot be resilient if they are not sustainable. We need to redesign our food systems which today account for nearly one-third of global GHG emissions, consume large amounts of natural resources, result in biodiversity loss and negative health impacts (due to both under- and over-nutrition) and do not allow fair economic returns and livelihoods for all actors, in particular for primary producers.

    Putting our food systems on a sustainable path also brings new opportunities for operators in the food value chain. New technologies and scientific discoveries, combined with increasing public awareness and demand for sustainable food, will benefit all stakeholders.

    The Farm to Fork Strategy aims to accelerate our transition to a sustainable food system that should:

    • have a neutral or positive environmental impact
    • help to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts
    • reverse the loss of biodiversity
    • ensure food security, nutrition and public health, making sure that everyone has access to sufficient, safe, nutritious, sustainable food
    • preserve affordability of food while generating fairer economic returns, fostering competitiveness of the EU supply sector and promoting fair trade



    The Environmental Impact of Agriculture

    Soil can function as a carbon ‘source’ - adding carbon to the atmosphere - or a carbon ‘sink’ - removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The dynamics of the source-sink equation are largely determined by land management.

    Over millennia a highly effective carbon cycle has evolved, in which the capture, storage, transfer, release and recapture of biochemical energy in the form of carbon compounds repeats over and over. The health of the soil - and the vitality of plants, animals and people - depends on the effective functioning of this cycle.

    The potential for reversing the net movement of CO2 to the atmosphere through improved plant and soil management is immense. Indeed, managing vegetative cover in ways that enhance the capacity of soil to sequester and store large volumes of atmospheric carbon in a stable form offers a practical and almost immediate solution to some of the most challenging issues currently facing humankind.

    Restoring Biodiversity to Agricultural Soils

    The use of fossil fuel based chemicals supporting monocrop practices have also caused significant harm to the soil microbiome resulting in the loss of topsoil, biodiversity, water pollution, disruption of the water cycle. It is not sustainable, and technology based ‘solutions’ to continue monoculture practices are unproven, costly, and neglect the socioeconomic impact they have on the entire food system. 


    Supporting a Transition to Regenerative Farming at Scale

    There are multiple  challenges for conventional farmers wanting to transition into regenerative practices. Access to markets for different types of crops, changing out equipment, storage, logistics, skill sets, a temporary loss of yields all combine to complicate the transition. 

    In this paper we want to focus on the upfront investment required to take the steps towards improving soil health. There are some interesting emerging models that bridge the financial gap between making the changes and when the farm productivity and profitability benefits take hold by aggregating available forms of compensation for linked ecosystem services. 

    A representative model of the approach suggested here has been developed for the  Great Plains Regenerative Grazing Project by Native which is a public benefits corporation to develop what could be referred to as a look ahead plan named Help Build™ Carbon Offsets. It is a comprehensive total systems change program as defined by this example from a partner organization Western Sustainability Exchange, but can be and should be customized for various applications. 

    The farming business in general is a business of skinny margins. Investments in regenerative improvements need to have immediate returns. However, it takes time for ecological changes to take hold, often outside the amount of time needed for farmers to receive a return on investment. The proposed process structure can be described as:

    1. Depending on size farmers dedicate their entire land or a plot of land situated within their farm as a demonstration site. 
    2. An expert design / process team models a transition path to regenerative practices customized to each farm that optimizes the sequestration of carbon in combination with the restoration of water, soil microbiome, nutrient density, biodiversity. Each farmer will control the final program, but in each case the design should conform to regenerative principles leading towards organic certification based on a statistical modeling process. 
    3. These programs will be implemented over a 3-5 year period, with specific actions required each year to advance towards regenerative organic status (suggested using the Rodale Institute certificate). An annual audit performed by an independent 3rd party will certify progress and compliance with the plan.
    4. Performance and valuation criteria is outcome based (f.e. Savory’s Land to Market TM program, https://bionutrient.org, Western Sustainability Exchange). Metrics to apply values based on statistical modeling need to be developed. 
    5. The plan/model committing the farmer to specific actions will be registered and submitted to potential funders.   
    6. Funds raised from investors (as outlined) will be paid annually starting with year 1 to each farmer, then annually upon certification by an independent audit. A final 25% of the funds will be released upon achieving organic certification. 

    This ‘build carbon’ model brings the upfront investment needed for ranchers and farmers to take the steps to accelerate and improve their soil’s health. This funding process bridges the financial gap between making the changes and when the productivity and profitability benefits take hold.

    Western Sustainability Exchange is one of the emerging non-profit groups which monitors and evaluates the practices as defined in the transition models for improved soil health and increased carbon sequestration into soil. The Sustainability Certification provided by the Rodale Institute is rigorous and focused on holistic ecosystem services that go beyond soil carbon, instead supporting the aggregation of benefits such as biodiversity, watershed repair, pollinator protection and other ecosystem services.

    Adaptations of the Model Based on Size, Capacity, Access to Resources

    The challenge will be to make these services available to different types of producers, in particular to smaller growers who are at this point not able to participate in established carbon markets. The model described above can be adjusted to less rigorous standards that still secure access to organically grown foods by and for local communities. 

    Funding can come from within the community in various forms, either directly supporting the farmer, or in the form of donations to a local currency empowering consumers to purchase local foods made by local farmers and processors. 


    Funding Sources

    USDA has issued RFPs to support farmers in the transition to regenerative practices focused on soil health, a host of ecosystem services such as watershed repair, biodiversity, pollinator protection, reduction in the use of chemicals. The announcements made this week are for funding requests in the $5-25 million range. 

    There are a number of sources connecting buyers interested to purchase carbon offsets with verified carbon credits, here are some examples:

    Carbon-smart Companies

    Terrapass

    Carbonfund

    Best Carbon Offset Funds

    Local Currencies

    Creating a science based, reliable, verifiable process structure can link investors with operators ready to engage in the transition to regenerative practices at scale.