Introduction

Smallholder farms represent 97% of the farms in the world and are responsible for 50% of the food produced in the world. At the same time smallholders contribute 40% of the world’s deforestation by converting forest land into crop land to compensate for declining crop productivity. Considering that these forests store around 25% of the global carbon it is clear that smallholders are crucial for global society: Not only to secure future resources but also for combating climate change.

Climate change combined with an increasing societal demand for corporate responsibility offers new opportunities to smallholder farmers. It enables them to capture and capitalize environmental value with sustainable agriculture while at the same time benefiting from improved crop productivity and crop quality.

ForestSense provides assistance in restoring degraded smallholder systems based on sustainable principles that are commercially solid, improve farmer income, make farmers less vulnerable to market volatility and make their farms more resilient to climate change while aiming at validating a holistic set of ecosystem services (not only CO2). To achieve this, we assist and work closely with pro-active farmer producer organizations and front running business’ that embrace social and environmental sustainability. Together with these ‘early adopters’ we set up inspiring smallholder projects that prove the business case for sustainable agriculture.