EcoAgriculture Partners

EcoAgriculture Partners is a non-profit organization that develops and implements integrated landscape management strategies for sustainable agriculture, food security, livelihood improvement, climate change mitigation and adaptation and biodiversity conservation.^[1][2][3] The organization is based in Washington D.C. and operates internationally.^[4][5][6]

History[edit]

EcoAgriculture International was founded in 2002 by Sara J. Scherr and Jeffrey McNeely after they coined the term “ecoagriculture” in their report "Common Ground, Common Future: How Ecoagriculture Can Help Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity".^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

It was established in 2002 as a joint initiative of Future Harvest and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) during the World Summit for Sustainable Development.^[12][13][14]

In 2004, EcoAgriculture published a study, "Ecoagriculture: A Review and Assessment of its Scientific Foundations," to further establish the scientific legitimacy of ecoagriculture.^[15]

In 2005, the organization became an independent non-profit under the name EcoAgriculture Partners and received its initial funding from the World Bank and TerrAfrica.^[16][17]

In 2010, EcoAgriculture Partners began working with the CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) program to develop climate-smart agricultural landscape and carbon projects in East Africa.^[18]

In 2011, EcoAgriculture Partners led the formation of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature (LPFN) initiative, a coalition of 80 partner organizations with the goal of promoting integrated landscape management worldwide.^{[19][20][21][22][23][24]}

In 2017, EcoAgriculture Partners collaborated with IUCN to publish a report on business engagement with sustainable landscape management initiatives.^[25]

In the years 2017–2020, EcoAgriculture Partners produced a comprehensive curriculum for local government leaders on planning Landscape - Climate Smart Agriculture.^[26] This was then tested with groups in Tanzania.^[27][28]

In 2018, EcoAgriculture Partners released the Biodiversity and Agriculture Production Practices Toolkit to guide users in aligning agricultural practices with conservation goals. The following year the organization collaborated with Wageningen University, IUCN Netherlands and Oxylus Climate Advisors to launch an online course on landscape finance.^[29][30]

In 2019, EcoAgriculture Partners co-founded the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People (1000L) initiative, a global partnership of dozens of leading environmental, sustainable development, government and academic institutions. 1000L's goal is to deliver sustainable landscape solutions across 1,000 landscapes to benefit 1 billion people globally by 2030 and to address food and water security, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and climate change.^{[31][32][33][34][30]}

In 2022, EcoAgriculture Partners produced a White Paper on Landscape Policy. The White Paper pulled evidence together to show how national governments can craft a policy framework that fits their priorities and institutional context.^[35][12]

References[edit]