FOREST AND AGRICULTURAL LAND

Since its creation, FFEM has promoted a more sustainable relationship between humans and natural resources. Our goal: to protect the biodiversity of forests and landscapes, fight desertification, and restore the climate-regulating functions of forests and agricultural land by making them a core aspect of human development.

OUR ACTION TODAY

As the greatest reservoir of terrestrial biodiversity, land and forests are powerful tools for climate regulation. Today, urbanisation and unsustainable agricultural practices have considerably diminished their ability to support biodiversity and store carbon. Agriculture is the primary cause of deforestation and land degradation. The FFEM addresses forestry and agricultural issues together, as they are closely
linked. Our goal is to simultaneously protect biodiversity, take climate action, and fight against desertification and land degradation.

©Lionel Charrier, Livelihoods Funds

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Preservation, Management, Territories

The agroecological performance of sectors and territories
Outstanding approaches to fight deforestation
Integrated forest management

The agroecological performance of sectors and territories

Nicolas Robert

The agroecological performance of sectors and territories

The FFEM supports the development of sustainable agricultural systems that are adapted to local conditions, such as agroecology and agroforestry. We are particularly interested in systemic and integrated approaches for building sustainable sectors and territories, giving smallholder producers their fair and equitable share of added value, and promoting practices that do not use chemical inputs.

Outstanding approaches to fight deforestation

Isabelle Bonillo

Outstanding approaches to fight deforestation

Most of the world’s forest regions face deforestation, particularly in tropical areas that boast the greatest biodiversity and play a key role in carbon storage. The main cause of deforestation is the expansion of agriculture and livestock breeding to meet growing food and energy demands. By 2021, tropical regions had lost 11.1 million hectares of tree cover, one-third of which were in tropical forests.

Integrated forest management

gorille de plaine orientales Parc National Kahuzi Biega RDC

Frank Ribas-BRLi

Integrated forest management

Given the increasing loss and degradation of natural forests, we must integrate forests into land use planning approaches that aim to reconcile environmental protection, social and land use dynamics, and needs and uses around forest resources (timber, fuelwood, non-timber forest products, agroforestry products). Management of these areas must also prioritizethe restoration of degraded forests so they may recover their production and adaptation capacities.

The FFEM therefore supports projects that aim to protect and restore forest landscapes. This requires finding an equilibrium between various uses and the need to conserve forests, their social value, and economic interests. It is also important to recognize the rights of local populations.

105

projects on forests and agricultural land financed since 1995

€144 M

Committed over the past 28 years

A multidiciplinary approach

Forests and agricultural land are both strongly affected by the environmental crisis and at the centre of the many human activities that contribute to it. We must therefore promote sustainable agricultural and forestry production methods to complement ecosystem conservation and restoration efforts and climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives. Furthermore, converting agricultural and forestry products into energy or compost can contribute to circular models. This is why the FFEM encourages cross-cutting forestry and agriculture projects – including those connected to cities and energy access – that take action on biodiversity, land degradation, climate, and pollution.

Interactive map

This map is illustrative and does not list all the projects funded by FFEM.

See map of all projects