Incentives for Ecosystem Services

2nd Global Conference of the 10YFP Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) Programme

The 2nd Global Conference of the One Planet (10YFP) Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) Programme was held in San Jose, Costa Rica, 5-7 February 2019. The conference aimed to strengthen multi-stakeholder action for the transformation to sustainable food systems, and take stock of progress since the 1st Global Conference of the SFS Porgramme.

The Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES) Project, together with UNEP, the Sustainable Rice Platform, and GEF held a side event, Transitioning to eco-agri-food systems: how blending policies and incentives can change behaviour from farm to fork.

The side event shared examples of:

  • How blended packages of investment, combining governance readiness investments with market opportunities, can be achieved
  • The opportunities/ barriers to coordinate compatible public and private programmes, and bridge the closest gaps between them with new financing mechanisms

Key note address: Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Minister of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica

Panellist:

  • Manuel Guerrero (Fundecor - Fondo Agua Tica) Creating mechanisms to combine public and private funding and protect drinking water for San Jose city
  • Helga Hissa (Former coordinator of the 20-year long Rio Rural Programme) Aggregating public and private financing for sustainable  rural development in dairy systems
  • Luis Fernando Madrigal (Manager of Coopedota: Carbon neutral certification) A key incentive from consumers to stimulate sustainable coffee production
  • James Lomax (Sustainable Rice Platform/ UNEP) Leveraging new financing mechanisms to incentivize wide-scale adoption of climate-smart rice production

These messages were supported with the launch of the publication: Mainstreaming biodiversity in production landscapes at the closing of Agriculture Day. The publication highlights the importance of integrated partnerships to address the huge challenges for biodiversity mainstreaming. This supports the IES approach of improved coordination across sectors to work towards restoration and conservation of biodiversity and production landscapes, sustainable production practices from farm to landscapes, and development of value chains to support improved livelihoods.