Post-fire forest and landscape restoration: Strengthening community-led nature-based solutions for food system transformation in Asia

Across Southeast Asia, fires and food systems are two inseparable parts of an escalating crisis. Climate change and the shift towards market-driven fire practices in the region's agricultural sector have intensified forest and land fires, with severe consequences for the region’s ecosystems, greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity. Fires are also eroding the ecological base of the region’s food systems, leading to long-term soil degradation, lower agricultural productivity and higher costs of production. These impacts are disproportionately affecting women, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, undermining local resilience and disrupting livelihoods.

Nature-based solutions, such as agroforestry or community-based fire management, offer a viable pathway for the integration of specific components of the food-fire nexus. However, there is limited evidence of how multiple stakeholders within a landscape can implement, sustain and scale such solutions in fire-affected and post-fire landscapes to drive food system transformation.
This project aims to address this research gap by exploring how community-led forest and landscape restoration can drive food-system transformation in fire-affected and post-fire landscapes in model forests in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. It will design and pilot nature-based solutions that are practical, rooted in local priorities and concerns, and inclusive.

The project will focus on researching the barriers that limit adoption of such models, including insecure land rights, gender and social inequalities and weak market access and will work closely with local farmers, governments, businesses and policymakers to strengthen multi-stakeholder platforms and promote a supportive policy environment to ensure wider adoption and long-term sustainability of the interventions.