From the Amazon to the Atlas Mountains: SAN Members Drive Sustainable Agriculture Forward
- Sustainable Agriculture Network
- 8 hours ago
- 5 min read
Week of April 27 – May 4, 2026
Across five continents, members of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) are turning sustainability commitments into concrete action — from Farmer Field Schools deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, to a biocultural festival in Morocco's Central Atlas, to landmark progress in cotton traceability spanning hundreds of thousands of farmers. This week's round-up captures the energy, diversity, and determination that define SAN's Global Impact Network.
Rooting Sustainability in the Amazon: Fundación Pachamama's Chakra Project
Few stories this week carry as much weight as the work unfolding in Ecuador's Amazon basin. Fundación Pachamama brought together strategic partners — including the Corporation of Associations of the Amazonian Chakra, Kallari Chocolate, Wiñak Association, Tzarzayaku, Inti, and Alli Wayusa — alongside representatives from beneficiary communities in Napo, Orellana, and Pastaza, to present the first-quarter progress of its Farmer Field Schools within the Amazonian Chakra Project. The event, held in Tena on April 28, illustrated how community-based agroecology can serve as a living bridge between forest conservation and dignified livelihoods.
Just days earlier, Fundación Pachamama joined the French Development Agency (AFD) for a closing tour of the Chakra Project through Tena and Puyo, meeting the producers, families, and Amazonian entrepreneurs who made the project possible. The visit underscored a core conviction: the forest can and must be a source of dignified life, not just a conservation asset.
Cotton Traceability at Scale: CottonConnect and the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance
Supply chain transparency is no longer a nice-to-have — it's becoming a baseline expectation. CottonConnect is demonstrating what that looks like in practice, with hundreds of thousands of farmers and significant production volumes now tracked through its traceability systems. The organization is embedding regenerative practices, advancing worker inclusion — with particular attention to women — and aligning measurable climate action with supply chain operations. The message is clear: the future of cotton runs on transparency and collaboration.
Complementing this, the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance has been making the case that sustainability in the fashion sector is not a branding exercise — it is a systemic imperative. The Alliance is showcasing regenerative cotton as a scientifically validated, cross-sector pathway away from petroleum-based textiles, positioning it as one of the most promising transitions in global fiber systems.
Biocultural Roots: The Moroccan Biodiversity and Livelihoods Association's Festival
In the Upper Central Atlas, culture, nature, and food come together as one. The Moroccan Biodiversity and Livelihoods Association announced the return of the Ait M'hamed – Azilal Bio-cultural Festival for its 4th edition, themed "Living Territories of the Upper Central Atlas: Pillars of Community Resistance!" The three-day gathering will bring together local communities, institutions, and civil society to exchange knowledge on forest restoration and certification, celebrate the link between nature, culture, and food, and explore the living territories of this remarkable region. It is a powerful reminder that sustainable agriculture is inseparable from cultural identity and community resilience.
Agroecology Advocacy on the Rise: Pelum Uganda
In Uganda, the energy around agroecology is building. Pelum Uganda is calling farmers, youth, innovators, and policymakers to mark their calendars for the Agroecology Week of Action 2026 this October — a large-scale event designed to mobilize the agroecology movement and translate advocacy into action. This announcement, made alongside a Labour Day message of solidarity to smallholder farmers and agroecology champions, reflects the organization's commitment to keeping people at the center of the sustainability transition.
Strengthening Skills for a Sustainable Future: Preferred by Nature
Professional capacity is the foundation of credible sustainability systems. Preferred by Nature has updated two of its flagship training programmes to sharpen their practical focus. In Cercedilla, Spain, the Nature-based Solutions: Ecosystem Restoration and Carbon Projects training has been extended to four days, combining classroom learning with fieldwork in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park. In Shanghai, the FSC Chain of Custody Expert Course has been restructured so that classroom time is devoted to real supply chain scenarios and practical questions.
Preferred by Nature also wrapped up its Global Sustainability Summit 2026 in Bangkok — five days of pressure-testing 2028 goals against field realities, debating planetary boundaries, fair pricing, and technical roadmaps. The summit's conclusion: sustainability is not a separate project. It is a shared identity.
Biodiversity and Farming in Harmony: Fundatia Adept and CORAF
In Europe, Fundatia Adept continued advancing multi-stakeholder collaboration within the EU's agricultural innovation ecosystem. At a recent event, the organization presented both the AgriBio Academy project — a pan-European multi-stakeholder network to strengthen agricultural advisory communities — and the Farmbionet project (Horizon Europe), which connects farmers, researchers, consultants, and NGOs to facilitate knowledge sharing and support biodiversity-friendly farming, including in Natura 2000 sites.
Meanwhile, CORAF used this period to reinforce recognition of agricultural stakeholders' contributions to food security and rural development — a timely reminder that the people driving sustainable agriculture deserve acknowledgment, not just the systems they sustain.
Workers, Forests, and the People Behind Global Supply Chains: Rainforest Alliance
On International Workers' Day, Rainforest Alliance shone a spotlight on the farmworkers, land defenders, and forest guardians who feed the world and protect it simultaneously. The organization also highlighted a structural truth that too often goes unsaid: you cannot have a sustainable supply chain without sustainable livelihoods for the people working in it. With 4 out of 5 people living in extreme poverty residing in rural areas — many of them farming for a living — the call to link supply chain sustainability with worker rights, fair wages, and safe conditions has never been more urgent.
Celebrating Biodiversity at the Moxviquil Reserve: Pro Natura Sur
In Chiapas, Mexico, Pronatura Sur is preparing to celebrate the International Day for Biodiversity with an Environmental Fair at the Moxviquil Reserve. The event will feature presentations, networking sessions, interactive workshops for all ages, and hands-on activities to discover the natural richness of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas. It is a joyful, community-rooted way to connect people — especially young people — with the ecosystems they depend on.
The Sum of All Parts: Building SAN's Global Impact Network
What emerges from this week's activity is not a collection of isolated projects — it is a pattern. SAN members are implementing, adapting, training, advocating, and celebrating in ways that are deeply connected to the most pressing challenges facing our planet: climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, and inequitable supply chains.
From the Chakra Project's forest-positive livelihoods in Ecuador, to cotton traceability systems covering hundreds of thousands of farmers, to a biocultural festival keeping Amazigh traditions alive alongside forest restoration in Morocco — each action is a node in SAN's Global Impact Network. Radical collaboration, knowledge exchange, and relentless focus on people and planet are what make this network more than the sum of its parts.
Follow SAN and its members to stay connected with the frontlines of sustainable agriculture.