General

Competing land use and resource claims by a wide variety of actors converge at the landscape level. Landscapes are therefore increasingly seen as the spatial scale on which many stakeholders, from global to local level, need to cooperate. Solidaridad's strategy is to develop and/or strengthen policy neutral platforms that bridge the intrinsic tensions between production, farmers’ livelihoods and the environment. The platforms form the basis of a new governance structure that aims to formulate management frameworks for production and natural resource management, based on pilot tested technological solutions. By bringing together regional government and sourcing companies to the negotiating table with those living in the landscape, who were previously not involved, win-win solutions can be found and tested that are supported by local people. Our Landscape Approach sees 5 major steps: Connect stakeholders and create a space for dialogue and planning: we bring together stakeholders in multi-stakeholder partnerships and platforms to enable alignment and cooperation. Build a collective body of landscape knowledge: together with the variety of stakeholders and local and international research institutions. This shared knowledge base is a critical foundation for analysis, decision making, action, monitoring and communication. Develop and test: Identified solutions need to be actionable, affordable and have to make business sense. We work with farmers, entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and downstream supply chain actors and we seek to develop business models which generate a viable income, support investment in improved practices, and contribute to protection and restoration of natural resources. Bridge the gap between policy and practice: There are many ways in which landscape governance can fall short: policies are either not in place, are weak or conflicting, or simply unknown, and institutions often lack the capacity, incentives or means to implement and enforce policies. We raise awareness on existing policy frameworks which affect land use planning and resource management, and we identify the requirements to improve governance in practice. Solidaridad fulfils a key role through linking community level issues to district and national level planning and policy dialogues. Unlock finance for sustainable landscapes: access to finance or capital investment is often required in order to change practices on the ground. Providing access to finance at producer level for replanting and enabling investment in renewable energy at municipal level require different means of financial support.