Tropentag 2023, September 20 - 22, Berlin, Germany "Competing pathways for equitable food systems transformation: trade-offs and synergies."

Payments for ecosystem services: win-win solutions? (BMZ/GIZ session)

Session chair, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), United States

Abstract

Five out of six farms in the world are operated by smallholder farmers who produce around a third of the world’s food. These farms provide a wide range of additional ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, pollination as well as cultural and supporting services. However, smallholder farm families face continued and often growing challenges to eke out a living from their farms and tend to be the poorest and most food-insecure populations in low-and middle-income countries. There is evidence that payments for ecosystem services can diversify smallholder earnings and incentivize more sustainable farming and land management practices. While a number of such smallholder focused schemes have been implemented around the world, they have, by and large, not gained sufficient traction to make a difference for farm incomes or environmental outcomes.

This second seminar of the CGIAR Policy Seminar Series on Strengthening Food Systems Resilience (https://www.ifpri.org/spotlight/cgiar-seminar-series-food-systems-resilience)examines past and ongoing ecosystem service payment schemes targeted at smallholders, evaluates their effectiveness and impacts and explores how such schemes could be taken forward if they are to become a key building block in building greater resilience into food systems.

Speakers include:

• Johan Swinnen, IFPRI Director General, Managing Director of CGIAR Systems Transformation Science Group


• Felicitas Röhrig, Senior Policy Officer at BMZ, Division of Agriculture and Rural Development


• Marcela Quintero, Associate Director General, Research Strategy and Innovation for the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT; Senior Director Food Systems Transformation Science Group


• Claudia Ringler, IFPRI, Director of Natural Resources and Resilience

Contact Address: Claudia Ringler, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 1201 Eye Street NW, 20005 Washington, United States, e-mail: c.ringlercgiar.org