Vi Agroforestry on COP29 – reflections on the seminar about agroforestry in Kenya

The event was a success with a physical audience over 50 people.
The discussion around agroforestry and its role in NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) achievement was timely and a great way to showcase Vi Agroforestry’s work in Kenya and the EA region.

Key contributions from agroforestry that were brought up:

• livelihood enhancement
• climate change mitigation and adaptation
• biodiversity /agrobiodiversity conservation
• youth and women inclusion etc.

Despite the central role that agroforestry plays in sustainable development, it is heavily under financed. This could be emanating from lack of understanding on its contribution but also majorly due to lack of government policies that would create conducive room for budgeting. The Kenya government is in the process of developing a National Agroforestry Strategy that we hope will create a good base for channeling climate finance towards agroforestry development in Kenya.

My take is that the policy makers are now appreciative of the important role that agroforestry is playing in Kenya’s achievements of the NDC targets and the current government’s agenda of 15B trees by 2032. Even as the country embarks on developing the NDC 3.0, and with the plans to transit agriculture to low-carbon, it’s our call as actors in agroforestry and sustainable land management, that the climate finance basket should as well cater for smallholder farmers and their organisations. Increasing financial to where it is most needed should enable Kenya and other East African countries to step up their climate ambitions.
There’s a need to define how and in what form these smallholder farmers, and their organisations should receive these funds. We know that this group of people is highly vulnerable to climate change and are marginalised in most cases and hence the model of financing should consider the fact that loans may not work for them. Therefore, Public funding model should take lead.