CL174 Side Event: Scaling up Agroforestry: Special Joint Event on Agriculture-Forestry Linkages Opening Remarks

Excellencies, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleagues, 

Welcome to this special event which reflects the strong collaboration between the Committee on Forestry (COFO) and the Committee on Agriculture (COAG) - two of FAO’s technical committees, and key sectors of work.

This is the way of working together that I fully encourage, and that Members appreciate.

I am just back from COP28 in Dubai where countries are advocating for global climate action through multilateral efforts and the transformation of global agrifood systems.

At COP28 my message was clear: recognizing that agrifood system solutions ARE climate solutions. And FAO stands ready to support Members to upscale sustainable practices, improve strategic policies and actions, provide technical support and leverage financing.

Agroforestry is a key climate solution with huge potential to simultaneously improve food security and nutrition and alleviate poverty, while halting deforestation, conserving biodiversity, building resilience, and helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Agroforestry provides socio-economic opportunities, including by creating jobs.

Scaling up agroforestry requires concerted efforts that foster greater collaboration and knowledge-sharing between the forestry and agriculture sectors.

All relevant partners must work better together to develop appropriate policies and practices.

Farmers need access to training, technology, markets, and financial support to adopt agroforestry practices effectively.

Increased research and innovation will increase our understanding of agroforestry systems and their benefits along the value chain and make it an attractive integrated business model for investment.

As recommended in FAO’s State of the World’s Forests report in 2022, through agroforestry we can restore over 1 billion hectares of degraded agricultural land, to increase soil fertility and agricultural productivity, while enriching ecosystem services and livelihoods. 

Despite all this, the uptake of agroforestry is not widespread.

A key issue is the lack of an enabling environment for smallholder farmers. 

To address these gaps, FAO supports Members to achieve sustainable transitions to agroforestry to meet specific country priorities.

I look forward to hearing from our speakers abouttheir national experiences and perspectives, so that we can build from these lessons as we continue to work on scaling-up agroforestry and improving synergies between agriculture and forestry, for the transformation of agrifood systems and the Four Betters.

Thank you.