
Livelihoods
Communities in forest and agroforestry landscapes face growing pressures, including land degradation, insecure tenure, limited market access and climate change. Yet when managed equitably, these ecosystems can provide stable incomes, nutritious food and ecological security.
Smallholder farmers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are leading efforts to sustain these landscapes, and we work alongside them. As a science-driven partner advancing global equity, Landscape Alliance turns data into actionable insights that reduce investment risk and improve well-being for smallholder women and men. We support equitable governance, strengthen land and resource rights, and catalyse inclusive value chains to enable livelihoods that are both sustainable and secure.
Livelihoods: Fast facts
At least 2 billion people depend on the agricultural sector for their livelihoods, particularly poor and rural populations1
~80% of the world’s farms are smaller than 2 ha, but they take up only ~12% of the world’s agricultural land2
~86 million green jobs, as well as food, shelter, energy, medicines, come from forests3
Sources:
1 Abraham M and Pingali P. 2020. Transforming smallholder agriculture to achieve the SDGs. In Gomez y Paloma S, et al. (eds.). Springer, Cham. 173- 209.
2 Lowder SK, et al. 2016. The number, size, and distribution of farms, smallholder farms, and family farms worldwide. World Development 87: 16–29.
3 FAO. 2020. State of the World’s Forests 2020. Rome: FAO.
RELATED RESEARCH GROUPS
Related topics
Latest knowledge products
Publications
Videos
Presentations
News
Datasets
Photos
FOUR GLOBAL ISSUES
Landscape Alliance focuses on four global challenges where our science, partnerships and field experience can deliver real-world impact.




























