The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by Melissa Duncan, Fairtrade’s Executive Director and Dr. Éliane Ubalijoro, CIFOR-ICRAF’s CEO, solidifies their commitment to advance nature-based solutions into key supply chains such as coffee and cocoa. This will later be expanded to other product areas such as tea, banana, cotton, sugar, and nuts.

This five-year partnership will also foster future mutual endeavours on advocacy and policy influencing, and collaboration on exchanging and co-developing knowledge and expertise on priority thematic areas such as climate and the environment, deforestation, and decent livelihoods.  

They will work side-by-side to support countries and supply chain stakeholders, particularly smallholder farmers, in implementing new legislation, which includes the EU Deforestation Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. In addition, they will also assist stakeholders in building up their climate resilience and transition to agroecology.   

“Fairtrade found in the alliance with CIFOR-ICRAF great synergies as well as a shared commitment to facing the challenges of climate change and the biodiversity crisis,” said Duncan. “With this partnership we aim to accelerate agroecology transitions, scaling agroforestry systems, and building further climate resilience among Fairtrade producers and workers.”

"This memorandum of understanding represents a significant step forward in our shared commitment to advancing sustainable and equitable livelihoods for smallholder farmers and forest communities,” said Ubalijoro. “By aligning CIFOR-ICRAF’s scientific expertise with Fairtrade’s market-driven approach, we can create meaningful pathways to empower producers, enhance climate resilience, and support biodiversity conservation. Together, we are fostering a future where environmental sustainability and social equity go hand in hand."

This year’s World Soil Day theme of “Caring for soils: Measure, monitor, manage” is perfectly aligned with the aim of this new strategic partnership to safeguard people and the planet. Indeed, for farmers, healthier and more fertile soils can result in higher incomes through more productivity, less reliance on external inputs, higher crop quality, and increased resilience to climate change. For the planet, enhanced soil health can increase carbon sequestration in soils as well as allowing lower emissions per product thanks to higher yields, both supporting climate change mitigation.