Maintaining a bird’s eye view of the landscape, so to speak, requires the Yangambi Engagement Landscape team to continuously balance their global vision with the ability to respond and adapt to local complexities as they arise.
‟The closer you get to the field, the messier it looks – hot, vibrant and complex. But I wouldn’t know how else to define the landscape approach in practice”, said Cerutti.
“The challenges are many – from a lack of infrastructure, to an absence of extension services, to legal systems unable to control major and minor obstacles to the interests of farmers and traders. It takes both long-term planning, flexibility, and solid partnerships to achieve the results we envision, not to mention the hard work of our brave team members. But when these results come – as they always do – the joy and pride of the team, farmers and partners spurs them to work even harder.”
The activities of the Yangambi Engagement Landscape are coordinated by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) in cooperation with international, national and local partners, with the financial support of the European Union, the Kingdom of Belgium, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Good Energies Foundation and others. cifor-icraf.org/yangambi-engagement-landscape
For more information, contact Paolo Cerutti (p.cerutti@cifor-icraf.org)