Submissions for Special Issue "Resilient Landscapes for Sustainable Trade and Development"
Increasing globalization of the economy has triggered development opportunities but has also had widespread negative effects on the environment and landscapes. The increasing global demand for agro- and tree-based commodities has caused clearing of forests, grasslands and wetlands and associated biodiversity; deterioration of watersheds; and soil and land degradation in agricultural and forest production areas. Furthermore, it is often accompanied with strong geographic inequalities (whether people are close or distant to value hubs), including uncontrolled and poorly designed urban settlements.
In response, many companies involved in international value chains are investing in more environmentally friendly and socially acceptable forms of producing commodities. Such efforts, however, do not sufficiently address a fundamental issue for the landscapes (as socioecological systems) where the commodities are produced: enhancement of the socioecological system’s resilience to outside shocks. This has been well exemplified by the recent health crisis, where workers on oil palm estates in Indonesia lost their source of income, could not produce their own food, nor had alternatives to generate sufficient income to buy their food. Similarly, increasing reliance on cash income from single commodity crops makes farmers and laborers more vulnerable to price volatility and production fluctuations due to weather conditions, which, in most countries, will be exacerbated due to climate change.
Very few cases exist where landscape stakeholders have been able to give meaningful inputs into the decision processes that have led to large-scale agro-commodity cultivation in their landscapes based on their own reflection on their needs, aspirations, opportunities, and threats. Often, the lack of such prior reflection and options’ design results in trade-offs or missed synergies between the cultivation of the agro-commodities, the previously existing forms of cultivation, and measures needed to increase resilience in the landscape, building on the socioecological and economic features of the landscape.
Governance and access to finance appear to be pivotal in achieving resilient landscapes that can adapt effectively to climate change, contribute to development, and are in harmony with societal sustainability concerns that drive the requirements of agro-commodity value chains.
