Presentation by Mark van der Wal at the Global Landscapes Forum 2015, in Paris, France alongside COP21. For more information go to: www.landscapes.org.

1. INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE www.iucn.nl
The domestic fuel challenge & long
term food security
Enhancing dialogue to ensure safeguards for
sustainable production landscapes
Global Landscapes Forum – Paris – December 6th 2015
Mark van der Wal – IUCN NL

2. The issues at stake:
• Spectacular rise of agricultural productivity in the 20th
century, still continuing today. In many (sub-) tropical
countries now overshadowed by far greater losses due
to the degradation of farmland,
• Collection of firewood and production of charcoal for
domestic needs, critically harms ecosystem
functionality in many developing economies
• The scale of the problem is massive, yet the response
from both national policymakers and the international
donor community has not been adequate

3. Charcoal market inside the Virunga National Park supplying
up to 80 percent of Goma’s charcoal consumption (source UNEP)

4. Assumption from Ghana: Rehabilitating
degraded land by increasing the number of
trees in the landscape is a key element for
sustainable wood energy production and
the reduction of pressure on natural forests.
High productive plantations and
agroforestry can contribute to the
sustainable development of the wood---
energy value chain, leading to a significant
generation of supplementary household
revenue

5. …
1986
ASUBIMA FOREST
RESERVE
Land degradation in 17 years
time
2003

7. What is needed?
• In order to assure food security in the long-
term, it is imperative that both policymakers
and donors ensure environmental safeguards
for production landscapes. If not ensured, the
risk of compromising on both food security and
energy for the poor is inevitable.
• The fuel / food security link should be placed
high on the political & investment agendas
of developing economies

8. Thank you!

9. Thank you!