Around the world, we work with communities and food producers who value their relationship to the lands and waters where they live and their right to manage them. To support them in finding and implementing solutions, we must connect local conditions to global forces and build bridges between civil society, government and the private sector to innovate market-based sector solutions.
We can change our food production systems for the better by rethinking our public policies, stopping the conversion of forests for food production, and safeguarding our freshwater systems and natural habitats to conserve the critical landscapes and ecosystem services that we live in. ‘They provide.
Supporting more regenerative farming practices will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve water quality and use, and ensure we waste less. And by helping to create more equitable and sustainable food systems, we can also alleviate food insecurity, especially in communities that depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Throughout all of these efforts, we must remain mindful that, as with the Sicangu Lakota, work that supports local and indigenous people as stewards of their own lands is the way to ensure resilient solutions that last – and that innovation isn’t just about high-tech gadgets and satellite technology (although those matter too; see pages 48-49). Innovation is also about listening to people, learning from their wisdom and experiences, and creating real partnerships that support them.
We are taking the same approach outside of the Northern Great Plains, as agricultural encroachment in places like the Amazon, the African Kavango Zambezi landscape, and Southeast Asia threatens biodiversity hotspots without addressing the population food security issues.
Our success will not be won by a single project, practice or innovation. We need a shared vision and a portfolio of large-scale innovations, solutions and projects to transform our current food systems and deliver positive outcomes for food security, livelihoods, justice and justice. fairness within the limits of nature, always with people at the center of our vision.
There are so many opportunities to drive innovation, gain efficiencies, increase productivity and partner with people, if we change direction and work together to do so.
As Senior Vice President for Freshwater and Food at WWF-US, Melissa D. Ho leads transformational initiatives that increase the sustainability of agricultural systems and water conservation to benefit people and communities. ecosystems.