The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) projected the key role sustainable Australian and global forestry will play in future farming to help tackle climate change, at a multi-stakeholder event at COP27 overnight.
Victorian red meat and tree farmer Mark Wootton of Jigsaw Farms, presented at the Towards recovery, resilience, and sustainability in agriculture – a multi-stakeholder partnership event, demonstrating to key international leaders that integrating farming with forestry works with substantial multi-pronged benefits.
“About 20 per cent of our land has been converted to trees, half of that for farm forestry and half for biodiversity. The benefits have been amazing. We are now able to carry a far greater number of sheep and cattle thanks to the shelter the trees have provided, reducing losses from windchill. There have also been marvellous biodiversity dividends. We counted 45 bird species in the late 1990s. Now we have more than 170. In addition, we are soon to benefit from a major financial gain when our production trees are harvested for timber,” Mark Wootton said.
AFPA Chief Executive Officer Ross Hampton said, “It was terrific that AFPA could help bring these organisations together – leaders in agriculture, meat and cropping and demonstrate that forestry will play a key role in future sustainability and resilience in farming, not just in Australia but across the globe. Mark’s example demonstrates a win for more meat production, a win for carbon neutrality, a win for biodiversity and a win for more timber and fibre supply.”
Speakers at the event included:
- Dr Betty Chinyamunya – CEO, National Smallholder Farmers’ Association, Malawi
- Arnold Puech d’Alissac – President, World Farmers Organisation
- Hsing Huang – Secretary General, International Meat Secretariat
- Fiona Simson – National Farmers’ Federation (Australia)
- Romano De Vivo – Vice President of Sustainability, CropLife International
- Arianna Giuliodori – Secretary General, World Farmers Organisation
- Mark Wootton – Co-owner, Jigsaw Farms
Representatives from the World Farmers’ Organisation, CropLife International, the International Meat Secretariat, the National Farmers Federation (Australia) and AFPA, along with red meat and tree farmer Mark Wootton and representatives from Malawi’s farming sector, combined at the event.
221112_Multi_stakeholder_agriculture_event_held_at_COP27_to_canvass_climate_solutions_for_farming_