Peru agroforestry platform officially recognized
“Stakeholders investing in agroforestry need an integrated framework that measures impact across multiple dimensions.”
SMART platform declared of ‘regional interest’ to San Martín, Peru
A regional ordinance in San Martín, Peru recognized the SMART platform’s usefulness in planning agroforestry interventions and investments that support family farmers
Early in 2024, the SMART Platform – named after the northern Peruvian region of San Martín, a CIFOR-ICRAF Engagement Landscape – was formally declared to be of special interest to the region due to its pivotal role in supporting agroforestry.
Declared by the regional government on 5 February 2024, the new regional ordinance noted the initiative’s alignment with regional and national policies, including its focus on low-emission economic development, its enhancement of multistakeholder governance, and its careful coordination with regional authorities. The ordinance recognizes the usefulness of the platform to contribute to the design and planning of agroforestry interventions and investments to generate opportunities for family farmers in the region.
SMART has been developing since 2021, when it was first established as a core initiative of CIFOR-ICRAF Engagement Landscape in San Martin, with seed funding from German and Norwegian cooperation. It engages more than 20 institutions from the public and private sectors, civil society, NGOs, cooperation agencies, research centres and others committed to advancing agroforestry. Through the initiative, these entities have collaboratively designed a tailored digital platform to share and store information from their initiatives and projects that enables informed and evidence-based decisions in agroforestry that was launched at the end of 2023.
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Driving transformational change is a long-term endeavour and commitment. Activities of SMART continue. In 2024, a new step in developing tools for multi-stakeholders’ knowledge co-creation around agroforestry was implemented. By applying the Meta framework for holistic assessment and agricultural systems, SMART members co-designed a new module, entitled the Holistic Indicator Library, aimed at fostering integrated monitoring of agroforestry by stakeholders. The initiative is supported by the Metrics: Developing Holistic Metrics for Agriculture and Food Systems project, which is funded by the European Union and managed by IFAD.
“The socio-ecological outcomes of agroforestry intersect with biodiversity, climate change, food security and equity at multiple levels” said Valentina Robiglio, a senior scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF who has been coordinating this endeavour with Rocio Vasquez, expert on Governance and Evidence-based engagement at the CIFOR-ICRAF office in Lima. “To fully capture its value, stakeholders investing in agroforestry need an integrated framework that measures impact across multiple dimensions and allows to assess benefits and emerging trade-offs.”
A workshop will be held in early 2025 to present the final online module to regional authorities from the agricultural, forestry and environmental sectors, as well as to members, and will include capacity building of users in a field application event, co-organized with cocoa producer organizations in San Martín.