IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

In addition, Livelihoods and Landscapes not only identifies indicators of changes in complex landscapes, but also makes a distinction between which contributions to rural livelihoods are derived at the household, landscape or national levels.  This requires an interdisciplinary approach that links science with local knowledge so that it is accessed and used by all stakeholders.

All individual activities within Livelihoods and Landscapes are designed to leverage influence with both the public and private sectors, particularly to promote the scaling up of successful lessons learned into national, international and or corporate policies and encouraging new investors to engage in innovative activities that can improve natural resource governance, create new income generating opportunities and improve the livelihoods of forest dependent communities.  During all of this, Livelihoods and Landscapes is monitoring, capturing and reporting on the value and the resulting outcomes of this type of indirect leverage.

The core funding of Livelihoods and Landscapes, provided by DGIS, is being used to support specific outputs which act together as a value chain:
 

• Stakeholder priority setting and outcome definition, including provision of adequate information, research and analysis as requested by the stakeholders
• Tools to help decision making, including practical ways to monitor and evaluate the delivery of real change
• Networks and coalitions of change – involving empowerment of local groups to represent and articulate their own interests and the bringing together of stakeholder groups from different sectors and geographic areas (national and regional) to enhance joint lesson learning.  
• Make the policy practice loop more responsive.  Having successful lessons learned fed quickly to decision makers at local and national and regional levels and initiating pilot actions and activities that explicitly address issues of direct relevance to policy makers.

Livelihoods and Landscapes enables the Forest Conservation Programme to more actively invest in its key forest related partnerships and to significantly reshape the way in which forests and forest use are perceived by Governments, civil society and the private sector.