25 October 2023, Singida, Tanzania – Laudes Foundation, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Helvetas Tanzania have today announced a Regenerative Production Landscape programme, with the aim of creating a resilient agricultural production system that safeguards natural resources and biodiversity in Tanzania’s Singida and Simiyu regions.
The programme is a multi-stakeholder collaborative that will jointly work with farming communities, public and private sector players to achieve landscape-level goals focused on the complex and interconnected issues of climate, nature and people.
“Today, as these regions face serious challenges due to climate change and ecosystem degradation, severely impacting both livelihoods and the local economy, the answer lies in a holistic, place-based approach that goes beyond the farm-level and a single commodity focus, to one that tackles all issues impacting agricultural value chains including deforestation, overgrazing, misuse of water (re)sources, soil erosion, and loss of biodiversity.”
Hendrik Buermann
Project Director of the Regenerative Production Landscape Collaborative
Designed around an integrated landscape and ecosystem restoration strategy, this landscape programme aims to enable the transition from a model that degrades, depletes and pollutes, towards an innovative sustainable agri-business model that conserves, restores and regenerates.
“We are building on a strong foundation of work that has supported the region to become the largest producer of organic cotton in Africa with over 60,000 smallholder farmers benefiting both ecologically and economically. This latest investment is towards an innovative multi-stakeholder governance model to empower producers, engage communities, and enlist public and private sector players to create sustainable business opportunities for the region.”
Anita Chester
Head of Fashion at Laudes Foundation
The programme will foster collaboration between all stakeholders in the landscape, where:
- Smallholder farmers will practice regenerative agriculture, are part of inclusive business models, play their part to conserve biodiversity, and become more resilient to climate change;
- Village committees identify solutions for the restoration of their land and water sources, and are integrated into local spatial planning processes;
- District Spatial and Environmental Action Plans incorporate farm and community-level interventions;
- The private sector actively engages with farmers and communities on farming models that regenerate the land and invests in their prosperity;
- Civil Society Organizations support and facilitate field-level interventions, such as large-scale tree and landscape restoration activities; and
Investors and funders see opportunities for investments into a thriving landscape.
