The Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development will hold the event “Regional Sharing Workshop Building our Agenda for Farmers in Forested Landscapes” on August 2-3, 2015 in Yangon, Myanmar. The event will be hosted by its member, the Agriculture and Farmer Federation Myanmar (AFFM) with support from the FAO-Forest and Farm Facility (FFF).
There will also be a launching of the Land Matrix, of which AFA is the Asia Focal Point, in the evening of August 3, and a visit to one of the areas of AFFM on August 4.
The AFA is a regional organization of small scale women and men farmers, fishers and indigenous peoples, currently with members in 13 countries. Many of its member organizations have affiliate groups who are living in forested landscapes. However, AFA has not yet consolidated its members who are forest and farm producers and consequently has not yet developed its policy and program agenda for this sub-sector. As forests are an important resource for food security, nutrition and climate resilience and adaptation, AFA has to build a policy and program agenda on farms-in-forest matters, according to the goals of food security and nutrition, sustainable livelihoods, climate change and poverty reduction.
AFA has a project entitled “Strengthening engagement of Asian small scale women and men forests and farm producers in global and regional processes” with the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), a unit within FAO. One of the aims of FAO is to link local voices and learning to global processes through communication and information dissemination. FFF supports forest and farm producers – these are women and men, smallholder families, indigenous peoples and local communities who have strong relations with forests and farms in forested landscapes. Such producers grow, manage, and harvest a wide range of natural-resource based goods and services for subsistence use, and for sale in local, national or international markets.
One of the main activities in this project is the conduct of a regional sharing session cum dialogue with regional intergovernmental institutions and NGO partners in the region. The regional workshop would be an opportunity to share experiences, initiatives and challenges faced by AFA members living in forested landscape. This will be also an opportunity to learn the experiences, initiatives, policy agenda and program support of other development partners to forest and farm producers. In so doing, we hope to strengthen coordination and communication towards the promotion of common agenda for forests and farm producers.
Objectives of regional consultation:
At the end of the consultation participants will be able to:
- Share and learn from and among AFA members’ experiences, initiatives as well as challenges and opportunities of farmers and producers’ organizations in forested landscapes, including initiatives on sustainable forest-based livelihoods
- Increase the awareness on regional and global policies and debates on forest and farm matters like VGGT, FPIC
- Craft the policy and program agenda of AFA to support our members who live in forested landscapes
- Identify advocacy moments at national , regional and global levels where this Agenda will articulated and pushed, and
- Establish regional level coordination and communication mechanism among members in forested landscapes.
Participants of the regional consultation cum dialogue
Representatives from:
- AFA members’ representatives in 13 countries
- Regional partners working in the forestry sectors in Asia particularly with the forests and farm producers
- Government related agencies such as Ministry of agriculture and forestry, ministry of environment and natural resources, ministry of trade and industry, etc. of the host country and
- INGOs ( FAO, other UN agencies, CGIAR centers or research institutes ) who have programs and projects supporting farmers in forested landscapes
- Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) who are working with/for/ in the forestry sector.
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