FTA addresses key challenges associated with the need to reduce deforestation, forest degradation and conversion of species-rich agricultural and forest landscapes, while meeting a growing global demand for food, feed and fiber that originates from sustainable sources and integrates smallholders.

This entails improved public and private arrangements to enhance the governance of global value chains and their adherence to sustainability standards in order to reduce negative environmental impacts. This involves supporting more intensive, climate-smart and integrated management and production systems, with a greater participation of smallholders and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in value chains, while also emphasizing women, youth and other marginalized groups.

FTA’s work on value chains and investments embraces ambitious targets based on the assumption that much of the desired change needed to achieve them will be driven by new knowledge, as well as improved alignment between public and private actors’ views and interests.

However, FTA does not ignore the existence of strong, entrenched interests and incentives supporting non-inclusive and unsustainable business practices in commodity chains that have to be reversed. FTA expects to achieve its outcomes through three mutually reinforcing pathways.

Informing political decisionmakers and policy dialogues on improved policy options.
FTA engages governments and intergovernmental platforms to enable more informed policy decision-making processes. At the national level, FTA supports decision-making processes that build on well-established relationships with key government actors in the countries where the program works.

Engaging multistakeholder processes to improve implementation of standards.
FTA has actively contributed to global certification standards, mainly on timber and palm oil, and supports more integrated sustainability frameworks and standards. At the national level, FTA engages with multistakeholder initiatives on oil palm, cocoa and beef. FTA’s analysis on the governance approaches and instruments for enhancing sustainable supply chains and inclusive business models informs the actions of businesses and business platforms, and national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Supporting private sector initiatives and commitments to sustainability.
FTA contributes to private actors’ sustainability efforts by monitoring and evaluating progress and by informing practices that enable these actors to deliver on their commitments. In addition, FTA discusses progress, challenges and opportunities through global platforms, such as the Global Landscapes Forum. FTA also engages with global financial initiatives for responsible finance, as well as finance platforms for enhancing practices in the countries where the program works.

FTA engages with a select number of research partners for coproduction of knowledge, policy engagement and capacity building. Development or knowledge-sharing partners with complementary capacities are engaged to undertake work on research, field implementation, outreach, engagement and capacity building. Other linkages enable policy and out-scaling.

This work on value chains and investments is integrated with other research areas within FTA, specifically with tree genetic resources by exploring opportunities from improved tree-planting material in certain value chains; livelihood systems through assessing the performance of smallholder production systems that embrace high-value trees (e.g. cocoa, coconut, rubber, coffee, oil palm) under different business models; landscapes by exploring the impacts of value chains in environmental services in landscapes and initiatives to deal with them, such as certification; and climate change by providing analysis of the effectiveness of governance arrangements in supporting the transition to more sustainable supply chains and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, FTA’s work on value chains and investments links with other CGIAR Research Programs that work on value chains and sustainable supply, especially the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).