This presentation is trying to re-think investment: how the Llanos region can be understood as a business, what their goals, risks and solutions are.

1. Re-thinking investment:
Sustainable intensification for complex
landscapes – the case of the Llanos in
Colombia: big risks, big benefits?

2. The “Llanos”: Agribusiness on the rise!
Multiple
ecosystems, medium to large farms and industrial crops
One challenge:
sustainable development by preserving/ improving
ecosystem services in complex landscapes

3. The Llanos region

4. Llanos is not the Cerrados!
Challenge is bigger - production affected by
poorer soils and limited infrastructure and access
to inputs and services
Sustainable agriculture must be developed
for local conditions

5. Ultimate Goal
To partially transform the country’s
vast and largely undeveloped
eastern plains by establishing
sustainable agriculture in the region

6. Main message
Challenge is big, but possible
to overcome through a
shared commitment on
eco-efficiency from the
research (based on applicable
principles - not
recipes), government, and
private sectors, including
NGOs (working in conservation)

7. Can evidence based research
help different investors take
sustainable solutions to scale?

8. Research for sustainable solutions
• Traditional approach: solid results!
Research line
Results
Crops
(maize, soybean)
Cattle
Two fold increase in productivity by
improving (re-building!) top soil conditions
From 0.2 heads / Ha (native savanna) to 2-3
heads / Ha (improved pastures)
Rubber
Rice
Sugarcane
etc…
Evaluation of clones
Breed for varieties resistant to diseases
Adaptation of for bioethanol production
etc…

9. Research for sustainable solutions
• Research for eco-efficient agriculture in practice:
Research line
Ecosystem
services
Results
Soil restoration to bring savannahs commercial
agriculture while increasing soil C stocks
C sequestration and reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions with improved management
(mostly in pastures and perennial plantations)
Map of C stocks in the soils as result of
combined natural and anthropogenic factors!
Impact of agriculture on quality of production
plots, forests and wetlands
Land-use planning: No-go zones, protection of
critical ES sources

10. Risks
Action
Potential
Conversion of native savannas Loss of natural habitats, flora,
to industrial agriculture
fauna and multiple ecosystems
services
Unsustainable land-use
Lands unproductive and
practices
exhausted
Large-scale monocultures
Environmental impacts and risks
(e.g., over-reliance on chemical
fertilisers and pesticides)
Expansion of new crops in the Industrial use rather than food
region
(e.g., sugarcane for bio-ethanol,
soybean for livestock feed)

11. Rethinking Investment
• Government
– Food security, GDP
growth
– Rural job generation
(3.5m in the Llanos)
– Infrastructure
– Environmental protection
• Private Sector
– Profit
– Long term sustainability
from high initial
investments