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 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> www.fao.org/partnerships/forest-farm-facility<http://www.fao.org/partnerships/forest-farm-facility> ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the FFF-Facilitators-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.fao.org/scripts/wa-fao.exe?SUBED1=FFF-Facilitators-L&A=1