UNEP-WCMC Showcases the Soft Commodities Forum’s Farmer First Clusters

The Farmer First Clusters (FFC) initiative is now featured in a UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) case study on their Land Use Finance Impact Hub, a comprehensive resource for impact funds and financial institutions focused on sustainable land use investments. It offers tools and guidance to strengthen environmental and social frameworks, facilitating the harmonization of impact monitoring across various initiatives.   

This case study delves into the FFC’s robust monitoring and evaluation framework, which assesses the program’s capacity to generate social, environmental, and economic benefits for farmers, local communities, and value chain stakeholders. By systematically tracking these outcomes, the FFC ensures that its interventions lead to tangible, positive impacts. 

The next step for enabling this scale is the Sustainable Landscapes Partnership (SLP), which brings together SCF members and downstream soy buyers from the Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition (CGF-FPC). Launched in 2024, the SLP serves as a proof-of-concept model for multistakeholder co-investment and program delivery supporting farmer-focused solutions across the Cerrado.   

In the context of the Cerrado – a key global region for biodiversity, water regulation, carbon storage, and agrifood production – the FFC’s model is particularly timely. The case study highlights the FFC’s early impacts, key lessons learned, and its strategy for scaling deforestation- and conversion-free soy production across priority landscapes. UNEP-WCMC’s recognition underscores the FFC’s leadership in establishing best practices for sustainable, landscape-level transformation, supporting the shared mission of preserving biodiversity and driving systemic, scalable change.