Conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of a lowland forest mosaic landscape in Ogun, Edo, Delta and Ondo States To improve the conservation, sustainable use and restoration of a lowland forest landscape in order to protect globally significant biodiversity and strengthen sustainable livelihoods of local communities Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency. Component 3 of the project in particular is designed to support implementation of sustainable livelihood practices and livelihoods in connecting productive areas of the landscape. While the focus will be on reducing pressures on natural areas, particularly forests, this work will also deliver important and multiple socio-economic benefits to members of rural, forest-dependent communities, including smallholder farmers and vulnerable groups, including women. These community members will have their livelihoods enhanced, based on increased productivity and income, more diversified income sources and increased resilience to climate shocks among smallholder farmers. Support to SMEs is expected to benefit agri-entrepreneurs, including youth, by removing important barriers that stand in the way of making agricultural value chains more sustainable, resilient, productive and profitable. Forest restoration will be among the targeted value chains, with a range of expected benefits to incomes, employment and welfare.   The resulting socio-economic benefits, several of which are included in the project results framework, are expected to include the following:    Knowledge building: Training and coaching sessions will be delivered to an estimated 20,000 members of local communities, including 10,000 women, and 5,000 unemployed youths. Training will be designed to raise skills and introduce improved practices in multiple value chains. These knowledge transfers will have long-term benefits over the course of these individuals’ productive lives.   Increased incomes: Baseline household incomes in the targeted areas of the landscape are approximately N450,000. Training and technical and financial support provided by the project are together expected to raise local real incomes among 20,000 direct beneficiaries by an average of 25%.   Increased access to small-scale lending / capital: Working with commercial lenders like Sterling Bank, the project will help to develop lending criteria and associated mechanisms that will enable enhanced access to funds by micro-entrepreneurs associated with targeted value chains. This, in turn, will have knock-on benefits to employment and incomes, along with the reduced environmental impacts due to biodiversity-friendly criteria. About 2,000 borrowers are expected to benefit in this way.  Women, youth and vulnerable groups: A characteristic of each of the above benefits will be its emphasis on reaching women, youth and vulnerable groups. By targeting these groups, which in many cases face the greatest socio-economic hardships, the project will have positive impacts on income inequality and will maximize the benefits associated with any given income increase, for example. It is expected overall that 50% of those benefitting from knowledge building, income increases and improved access to lending will be women, youth and/or members of vulnerable groups.  Improved productivity: A key factor underpinning the cycle of environmental degradation in the project landscapes is the low baseline agricultural yields among smallholder farmers. Linked to low levels of inputs and shortcomings in practices, this has the inevitable effect of encouraging ongoing land clearance, with concomitant loss of ecosystem services. Breaking this cycle requires a form of sustainable agricultural intensification, a key factor in which is improved yields. To this end, the project aims to deliver an average of 10% yield increases in key sectors amongst target beneficiaries.    Furthermore, the project contributes to two of the four pillars[1] of decent work:     Pillar 1: Employment creation and enterprise development, which contains specific elements on: supporting smallholder farmers in accessing modern markets and modern value chains; and supporting MSMEs in accessing markets, training, financial services and productive assets, including land.   Pillar 4: Governance and social change, with engagement of rural communities and smallholder farmer associations and groups including women and youth, in integrated landscape planning and policy processes, and in implementation.                 [1] http://www.fao.org/3/i1937e/i1937e.pdf