Improving livelihoods, resilience and climate action

Alarming reports from FAO and IPCC this autumn have signalled increasing world hunger, steady but slow reduction in poverty prevalence and the immediate need for unprecedented shifts in all sectors to stay below 1.5 degrees global warming.

This calls for innovative solutions – addressing several challenges at the same time to improve livelihoods, increase food security and nutrition, strengthen resilience and take climate action.

One pathway is the award winning method Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). But is it really possible to turn barren land into forest – without planting a single tree seedling? How can farmers regenerate their soil with innovative use of indigenous and local knowledge? Why are land rights hindering uptake? Can these methods be scaled up? How can knowledge be captured and transferred?

And, if these simple, low cost and rapid methods of reforestation can have a very significant impact, why are they still little known to national governments, donors, or communities who need it the most?

Welcome to this armchair conversation with Right Livelihood Award Laureates Tony Rinnaudo and Yacouba Sawadogo. They will share their experiences of using Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration to improve the livelihoods of millions women and men.

On stage

• Tony Rinaudo, Right Livelihood Award Laureate and agronomist, Australia
• Yacouba Sawadogo, Right Livelihood Award Laureate and farmer, Burkina Faso
• Linda Andersson, Policy Officer Sustainable Agriculture and Agroforestry, Vi-skogen

Moderator: Matthew Fielding, SEI Research Fellow and Deputy Director of SIANI

This event is organised by the Right Livelihood Award and Agroforestry Network with partners Agroforestry Sverige, Focali, NIRAS, SIANI, SLU Global, SwedBio at Stockholm Resilience Centre and Vi-skogen.