Dear extended FFF team, Steering Committee members, resource partners, FAO Country Representatives, regional, sub-regional and headquarters based FAO colleagues, partners, Indigenous peoples, family farmers, producers (women, men and youthful), and all well wishers. 

 

The first phase of the Forest and Farm Facility is now drawing to a close, and with the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere (see below) we move forward  in a transition to the new light of FFF Phase II.  We have so much to be proud of from our collective work over the last four years plus, and we will be sharing the impacts and learning  in our report to the Steering committee in February of 2018.  We have been able to support significant achievements by the Forest and Farm Producers Organizations and the government agencies in Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, The Gambia, Liberia, Kenya, Zambia, Nepal, Myanmar and Vietnam and in the many other countries in each region who have participated in regional exchanges, conferences and advocacy at multiple levels right up to the global.  They are the ones we should congratulate, for it is there work that we deem so important to creating prosperity that leaves no one behind now and ensures a sustainable planet for all those to come.  Yet we take pride in having been able to play our supportive and catalytic role.  Of course none of this could have been achieved without the support of everyone copied here and so many others not listed.  Please forward this to those we have neglected to copy. 

 

Please accept our warmest thanks and appreciation.

 

On behalf of the whole FFF team please accept our best wishes for the New Year! 

 

And on my own personal behalf I take the liberty of sharing a small poem (written under my pseudonym) on the occasion of the Winter Solstice.

 

Winter Soul-stitch

 

Winter soul-stitch

Yes the needle pierces

ere it finally binds

with fine threads

two halves of the shawl

 

a jamawar of aches and joys

each loop a vivid tale

the blinding night of absence

ties to the coal glow still golden

in the hearth of throbbing heart.

 

Thrown over these older shoulders

still smelling of light and day

that bear the body forward

like a shuttle subtly shrugging

in the loom that frames the night,

 

this soul-stitch shawl still serves

as a reminder of what is right

for all it’s mix of dark and bright

It still envelopes and unites

With a warmth that holds us tight.

 

-Jhaffur khan azad darakth,  Winter Solstice, Roma  2017

 

Warmly,

 

Jeff

 

Jeffrey Y Campbell

Manager,  Forest and Farm Facility (FFF)

FAO -Forestry Department, Room D-424

Viale delle Terme di Caracalla - 00153 Rome, Italy

Tel.: +39 -06 57054530 office, +39 3351977349 mobile

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www.fao.org/partnerships/forest-farm-facility

 



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