Private sector engagement in landscape-based approaches - lessons from cases in East Africa

Climate change, ecosystem degradation, and increasing competition over limited resources pose significant risks to the well-being of different stakeholders, either directly or indirectly. Agricultural landscapes, including forests, are particularly experiencing great environmental stress from the production of agricultural products and commodities and their declining capacity to deliver key ecosystem goods and services is of great concern (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Currently, ecosystem management is mostly in the public domain where different functions, managed under different sectors, are not adequately coordinated. Management approaches are often inadequate due to low budget allocations and lack of data on the true value of ecosystem services. The private sector is more and more concerned with global challenges related to food security, climate change, and ecosystem degradation, and being a key player in landscapes, it does have a key role to play in addressing those challenges. However its full potential has not yet been realized (Bishop et al., 2008).

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