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Overview

How can we produce enough food to nourish all the world’s people, without destroying wildlife and their habitats? Most at-risk species are found in regions where rural people, many of them poor, depend on agriculture for their food and livelihoods. Fortunately, farmers and conservationists around the world have devised creative strategies to manage productive agriculture and healthy habitats together in the same landscape. We call such integrated landscapes “ecoagriculture."

Mission

Through collaboration with ecoagriculture innovators all over the world, Ecoagriculture Partners works to better understand the principles and practice of ecoagriculture, link people and organizations who are practicing ecoagriculture and create tools to help them do more. Ecoagriculture Partners works in ‘learning landscapes’ all over the world, with a special focus on East Africa and Mesoamerica.

History

2001: 'Ecoagriculture' established as an approach by IUCN and Future Harvest in “Common Ground, Common Future” Report.

2002: Ecoagriculture Partners formed as a special project by the Future Harvest Foundation, Forest Trends, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

2003: First EP strategic planning meeting held with nearly 60 representatives from partner organizations.

2003: "Ecoagriculture" book published, outlining strategies of successful ecoagriculture landscapes.

2003: First International Ecoagriculture Conference and Practitioners' Fair held, where 210 ecoagriculture innovators from 46 countries produced a joint statement—the “Nairobi Declaration on Ecoagriculture”—and developed recommendations for priority collaborative activities to scale up ecoagriculture.

2005: Ecoagriculture Partners legally incorporated in the U.S. as 501c3 organization. A detailed Strategic Plan for 2005-2008 was developed and project activities are now underway.

Program

Ecoagriculture Partners works with more than 100 community based organizations, farmer groups, agriculture and conservation research organizations, development agencies, government institutions and private companies to promote ecoagriculture. Our activities are organized in three major programs: Linking and Learning; Understanding Ecoagriculture and Enabling Markets and Policies.

Projects under the Linking and Learning program are:
- The Community Knowledge Service, co-sponsored by UNDP's Equator Initiative, facilitates sharing of knowledge and expertise among community-based organizations.
- Our network of Learning Landscapes in Mesoamerica, East Africa and other regions supports and links multi-stakeholder groups working to develop ecoagriculture.
- Our Outreach activities make ecoagriculture information and resources accessible to innovators and raise awareness among policymakers, investors and the public about ecoagriculture.
- Our Leadership Development project, co-organized with the UC-Berkeley, supports leaders from diverse sectors to build skills and knowledge for ecoagriculture.

Projects under the Understanding Ecoagriculture program are:
- The Landscape Measures Initiative, co-organized with Cornell University, provides practical methods for heping analyze, plan and monitor ecoagriculture landscapes.
- The Research and Synthesis project works with researchers around the world to develop new knowledge to support the practice of ecoagriculture.

The projects under the Enabling Markets and Policies program are:
- The Markets for Ecoagriculture project helps innovators to identify and pursue market opportunities in their landscapes that provide financial returns to ecoagriculture practices.
- The Ecoagriculture Policy project evaluates how local, national and international policies can promote ecoagriculture.

Impact

Ecoagriculture Partners has successfully catalyzed the development of an international network of ecoagriculture ‘champions,’ from community leaders to research and development institutions to policymakers. We connect thousands of ecoagriculture practitioners around the world through our website and other knowledge sharing activities, such as leadership courses, research symposia, and publications ranging from newsletters to books.

CEO

Sara J. Scherr is an agricultural and natural resource economist specializing in land and forest management policy in tropical developing countries. . She is Director of Ecoagriculture Partners, an international partnership to promote increased productivity jointly with enhanced natural biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. She also serves as Director of Ecosystem Services for Forest Trends, an NGO that promotes forest conservation through improved markets for forest products and ecosystem services. She is a member of the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger, and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Agroforestry Centre. Dr. Scherr's previous positions include: Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA; Co-Leader of the CGIAR Gender Program; Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.; and Principal Researcher at the World Agroforestry Centre, in Nairobi, Kenya. She was previously a Fulbright Scholar (1976), and a Rockefeller Social Science Fellow (1985-87). Dr. Scherr received her B.A. in Economics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in International Economics and Development at Cornell University in New York.

Board

Emile Frison, Director-General, Bioversity
Minu Hemmati, Independent Advisor
Michael Jenkins, President, Forest Trends
Bruce Lloyd, Chairman, Australian Landcare Council
Jeffrey McNeely, Chief Scientists, IUCN
Odigha Odigha, Executive Director, Forest Conservation Foundation, Nigeria
Barbara Rose, Executive Director, Aid to Africa
Sara Scherr (ex oficio), President, Ecoagriculture Partners

Countries

Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Kenya, Mexico, Panama, Philippines, Uganda, United States

Contact

730 11th St NW, Suite 301

Washington, DC 20001

Phone: (202) 393-5315

www.ecoagriculturepartners.org

EIN: 20-2349392


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