COFO25/7WFW side event: Food systems transformation, land use and deforestation

Join the virtual event “Food systems transformation, land use and deforestation” to get an exciting overview of opportunities, challenges and actions to halt deforestation through innovative transformation of food systems. Taking place alongside the 25th The Committee on Forestry, the event will be held as a part of the 7th World Forestry Week hosted around the topic of “Forests and the SDG Decade of Action: solutions for climate change, biodiversity and people”.

Date: Friday, 2 October 2020

Time: 12.00 – 13.00 CEST

Format: A series of presentations highlighting major reports and country perspectives will be followed by discussants who will reflect upon findings, highlight convergence or remaining areas to clarify, and present current initiatives to address the identified challenges – at country level, and with a view to the UN Food Systems Summit scheduled to take place in 2021.

Speakers:

Lightning talks:

• Tim Searchinger, Research Scholar at Princeton University's Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment and Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute
• Per Pharo, Co-director, International Climate and Forest Initiative, Ministry of Climate and Environment, Norway

Panellists:

• Jamie Morrison, Director, Food Systems and Food Safety Division, FAO
• Leslie Lipper, Visiting Fellow, Cornell University
• Saswati Bora, Head of Food Systems Innovation, World Economic Forum

Moderator:  Astrid Agostini, Coordinator – REDD+/National Forest Monitoring, FAO

Background

Increasing demand for food, population growth and shifting dietary preferences have caused intense pressure to expand agricultural land. The conversion of forestland for the production of commercial commodities such as beef, soy, palm oil, cocoa, coffee as well as subsistence food crops make up an estimated 73% of deforestation in tropical countries. This is a vicious cycle as forests provide essential ecosystem services that can ensure agricultural productivity and contribute to climate change resilience of production. Despite this interconnection, action on land use, land use change and deforestation has been largely secondary in the discourse surrounding transforming food system paradigms compared to other important aspects such as nutritional quality, food safety, and food waste.

Transforming food systems demands concerted efforts, thinking and acting beyond sectoral boundaries to address the main drivers of unsustainable practices and adopt cost-effective targeted interventions. Policy coherence – in particular across agriculture, forestry, climate, biodiversity and economic policies – is a critical lever to enable change at scale to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The event will present major insights and recommendations from World Resources Institute report: World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future and The Food and Land Use Coalition report: Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use. Further insights will be provided on country experiences related to food systems transformation and land use to identify trends, models, options and recommendations for action to halt deforestation through innovative transformation of food systems.

The session will also illustrate how key UN initiatives, including in FAO, can assist countries to tackle deforestation as part of food system transformation.

More information about COFO 26: http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/cofo/en/