{"id":762,"date":"2024-01-12T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T07:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/?p=762"},"modified":"2024-01-30T07:36:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T07:36:00","slug":"beyond-the-bubble-tower-paradox-how-a-jurisdictional-approach-can-make-commodities-more-sustainable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/2024\/01\/12\/beyond-the-bubble-tower-paradox-how-a-jurisdictional-approach-can-make-commodities-more-sustainable\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the \u2018bubble tower paradox\u2019: How a jurisdictional approach can make commodities more sustainable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lessons from key food sectors to harmonize and scale greener production<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As countries around the world work out how to meet international climate and biodiversity targets, the lens is shifting from traditional project- or programme-based conservation strategies \u2013 which can end up simply displacing unsustainable practices to different locations \u2013 towards more holistic approaches that employ and make space for a range of sustainable land uses within a given jurisdiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Into this milieu, the jurisdictional approach (JA) \u2013 which entails integrated landscape management that\u2019s based on policy-relevant boundaries and is designed to advance high-level government involvement \u2013 has emerged as an increasingly popular strategy towards fulfilling climate pledges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 12 October 2023, at the GLF Nairobi 2023 Hybrid Conference: A New Vision for Earth<\/a>, speakers from the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF<\/a>) shared findings from various JA projects in the oil palm and agriculture sectors in Indonesia and beyond, as well as learnings that could help strengthen and scale out existing JA initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonya Dewi, CIFOR-ICRAF\u2019s director for Asia, began the session by setting the context on scaling JAs for sustainable palm oil and agriculture. She categorized JAs into three types: those driven by external value propositions, internally motivated multistakeholder cooperation, and a combination of both. She explained that CIFOR-ICRAF\u2019s work in this arena focuses largely on the second type, and on providing technical analysis and data to promote sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dewi also shared several case studies, including a green growth plan in South Sumatra that involved multiple stakeholders, performance indicators linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs<\/a>), and the application of Lumens software<\/a> for intervention mapping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe main constraints of a JA can be addressed through data, technical capacity, and multistakeholder forums,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd while some of the impacts are yet to be seen, I think we are getting there through the process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CIFOR-ICRAF scientist Beria Leimona expanded on the issues of motivation and leadership, as well as the importance of combining external incentives with internally motivated stakeholders. She shared lessons from the Sustainable Farming in Tropical Asian Landscapes (SFITAL<\/a>) programme, which is piloting JA for sustainable cacao farming in South Sulawesi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CIFOR-ICRAF senior scientist Herry Purnomo emphasized the ways in which a JA can help a range of stakeholders to work together, express their perspectives, and find common ground \u2013 including by distributing the short-term costs of sustainable transformation among stakeholders, making sustainability more feasible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSustainability is not an easy job \u2013 it is complex and costly, and we can\u2019t expect stakeholders to do it alone,\u201d he said, adding that such an approach requires flexibility and careful listening. \u201cEven though we have a global understanding of sustainability, we also need to adapt it to meet local needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leony Aurora is the landscapes and partnerships lead at the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA<\/a>) \u2013 a decade-old multistakeholder platform that aims to facilitate public-private collaboration and dialogue to address deforestation challenges linked to commodity production. She shared findings from a study conducted with global nonprofit organization CDP to understand why and how downstream industrial companies are eager to translate their commitments into action in areas distant from their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the palm oil sector, 62 downstream industrial companies have taken landscape-scale action and supported 37 initiatives \u2013 and the numbers are growing, according to Aurora. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To scale it further, \u201cthe outcomes need to be clear at the landscape and jurisdictional scale,\u201d she said. \u201cWe would like to see how companies can play a bigger role in supporting actions and goals that are determined by stakeholders, particularly local ones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Thomas, senior director on sustainable palm oil at Conservation International<\/a>, shared some of the organization\u2019s work, including a project in the Tapanuli Selatan regency of North Sumatra. It aims to support independent smallholders through training to enhance farm management and productivity; certification through Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standards; as well as conservation and restoration activities. The project also works with the regency-level forum platform to foster collaboration across various stakeholders in the palm oil sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe palm oil supply chain is dynamic, in terms of the producers feeding it to the mills, and the mills feeding to traders, and downstream companies are recognizing that there is an important need to address these things at scale and in a more coordinated manner, rather than trying to tackle supplier-by-supplier engagements,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThis dynamism can help build a case for company investment in jurisdictional approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CIFOR-ICRAF scientist Emily Gallagher then shifted the discussion to sustainable palm oil in Ghana, where the commodity is a traditional crop. While the country is still in the early stages of developing a national framework for oil palm, Ghana has made significant progress in organizing multistakeholder governance frameworks for zero-deforestation commodities at the landscape and jurisdictional levels, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallagher noted that while the formal sector is leading the way on sustainability, there is also a substantial informal sector that needs to be acknowledged and included. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are women who have been processing oil palm for generations, and that forms the backbone of the artisanal oil palm sector \u2013 although many of the mills themselves are owned by men,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are various approaches that can maintain women\u2019s role in the oil palm economy, which are appreciated by the districts and play into how much they are willing to support the presence of the companies and the multiplier effects that they have across the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marcello De Maria, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Reading, shared insights from work on sustainable soy production in Brazil \u2013 the largest soy producer in the world. Over the past two decades, the sector experienced a rapid multiplication of approaches and standards that sorely needed to be harmonized, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe found ourselves in what I call a \u2018bubble tower paradox\u2019: If everyone is developing their own standard, then there is no need for a standard anymore because everyone is following their own rules \u2013 and that\u2019s a problem,\u201d De Maria said. \u201cSo we need fewer standards than that, and in the meantime we also need to cover more of production than that which is currently devoted to sustainability.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JAs offer clear pathways to make this happen, according to De Maria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrik Segah, associate professor at the University of Palangka Raya in Indonesia, wrapped up the discussion by emphasizing the potential of JAs to promote sustainability in the palm oil and agricultural sectors while aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals and green growth principles. He also highlighted that elements like \u201csecure land tenure, robust decision-making mechanisms, inclusiveness, and enforced obligations have key roles in the ongoing success of JAs in multiple sectors around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on Forests News website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lessons from key food sectors to harmonize and scale greener production As countries around the world work out how to meet international climate and biodiversity targets, the lens is shifting from traditional project- or programme-based conservation strategies \u2013 which can end up simply displacing unsustainable practices to different locations \u2013 towards more holistic approaches that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/53232664562_318563a3a2_f.jpg","yoast_head":"\r\nBeyond the \u2018bubble tower paradox\u2019: How a jurisdictional approach can make commodities more sustainable - UKRI GCRF TRADE Hub<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beyond the \u2018bubble tower paradox\u2019: How a jurisdictional approach can make commodities more sustainable - UKRI GCRF TRADE Hub\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lessons from key food sectors to harmonize and scale greener production As countries around the world work out how to meet international climate and biodiversity targets, the lens is shifting from traditional project- or programme-based conservation strategies \u2013 which can end up simply displacing unsustainable practices to different locations \u2013 towards more holistic approaches that […]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/2024\/01\/12\/beyond-the-bubble-tower-paradox-how-a-jurisdictional-approach-can-make-commodities-more-sustainable\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UKRI GCRF TRADE Hub\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-12T07:35:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-30T07:36:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/53232664562_318563a3a2_f.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/\",\"name\":\"UKRI GCRF TRADE Hub\",\"description\":\"Trade, Development and the Environment Hub\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/2024\/01\/12\/beyond-the-bubble-tower-paradox-how-a-jurisdictional-approach-can-make-commodities-more-sustainable\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cifor.org\/tradehub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/53232664562_318563a3a2_f.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Rengas River landscape in Tenggulun, Tamiang, Nanggroe Aceh Darusalam, Indonesia. 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