FTA @ GLF Bonn Digital Conference!

The World Food Programme is predicting famines of biblical proportions, because of Covid 19 and the impacts of the measures to address it, disruptions of value chains, economic crisis… At the same time the COVID-19 crisis has unveiled key vulnerabilities within our current food systems, locally and globally, north and south

What does the COVID 19 crisis shows us about the fragility of our food systems to global crisis? What are the factors that influence resilience of farming systems, value chains and livelihoods? And what can be the role of forests, trees and agroforestry to increase the resilience of landscapes, livelihoods and food systems to shocks and crisis?

The purpose of this part of the session is, starting from the current crisis, to nourish a broader reflection, mobilizing experts as well as testimonies and concrete experiences during previous crisis of various nature, natural disasters, economic crisis, political conflicts, in order to draw lessons that can be of use to make our food systems more resilient to current and future crisis, including climate change.

It will feature an initial discussion on the type of risks and shocks that can impact food systems and households and how forests, trees and agroforestry, essential longer-time components of those systems, can increase resilience. This discussion will be introduced by Vincent Gitz, FTA director and fed by the testimonies gathered during the pre-engagement phase as well as live (including during the first part of the session). Testimonies will be selected in order to represent a broad range of risks: natural, economic, politic, including early consequences of impacts of the covid crisis and of climate change; in a wide variety of contexts.

This initial discussion will be followed by focused discussions around particular ways by which forests, trees and agroforestry do build resilience of food systems and people. This will lead to examine what are the prerequisites and conditions to allow forests, trees and agroforestry to effectively contribute to resilience. Conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources is an essential component, including appropriate seed and seedling systems to make available the right tree for the right use in the right place. National Adaptation Plans can be a powerful instrument to increase resilience of food systems. A panel will draw from these experiences and the feed back from the audience to draw conclusions that can orient research, policy making and action on the ground.