Posted on December, 02 2025
Laos recently hosted TARASA25 – Transitioning Towards Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture – a major regional workshop held in Vientiane Capital from 25 to 27 November 2025. The event brought together more than 230 experts, policymakers, farmers, youth leaders, researchers, and private sector actors from 20 countries across the Asia-Pacific region.
Organized under the Lao-Facilitated Initiative on Agroecology for ASEAN (LICA) and supported by the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, together with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the European Union (EU), and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM), the workshop served as an important platform for strengthening collaboration, sharing innovations, and accelerating agroecological transitions across the region.
Across plenaries, technical sessions, and policy dialogues, participants underscored one clear message: agroecology is no longer an abstract concept. It is a practical and urgent pathway for building resilient food systems, restoring ecosystems, and ensuring sustainable livelihoods in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss. (Read more here from the Vientiane Times)
WWF Contribution: Making the Investment Case for Agroecology
Robert Cole, WWF’s Food and Sustainable Agriculture Lead for Asia-Pacific, shared a perspective often overlooked in global and regional food system discussions: the need for far stronger private-sector engagement and investment to scale agroecology. Cole emphasized that while mechanisms such as payments for ecosystem services, carbon markets, and supply-chain upgrading show promise, they are not sufficient on their own. Meaningful agroecological transformation requires demonstrating that these approaches are not only environmentally beneficial but also financially viable.
“We need the private sector to invest in agroecology,” he stressed. “That means putting real numbers behind it – showing that agroecology makes business sense, that it is bankable, and that multifunctional landscapes can deliver returns for both people and nature while reducing pressure on biodiversity.”
Challenging the Dominant Narrative
Cole also addressed a powerful counter-narrative that often dominates agricultural development – the argument that feeding a growing global population requires intensive livestock systems, monoculture commodity crops, and large-scale commercial farming at the expense of low-intensity and indigenous practices.
This narrative suggests that smallholders must rely on modern commercial inputs to earn a living, and that export-oriented commodity crops are essential for rural economic growth in the Global South.
These arguments are deeply entrenched, Cole noted, but viewing agroecology and intensive commercial agriculture as opposing extremes is not helpful. Smallholder farmers do need economic opportunities, and some level of intensive production will always play a role – but only in landscapes already suited for it.
“There is no logical need to convert vulnerable ecosystems and globally important habitats for more monoculture,” he emphasized.
Redirecting Investment for Greater Impact
Cole proposed redirecting even a fraction of the billions currently invested annually into conventional agribusiness toward agroecology – a shift that could transform rural economies, enhance ecosystem services, and strengthen long-term food security. Achieving this requires direct engagement of private-sector actors, financial institutions, and farmer organizations in the multi-stakeholder processes shaping agroecological futures.
Food Systems and Forests: A Global Driver of Change
Food systems are also a major driver of forest loss, reflecting global evidence that food production is responsible for 80% of global deforestation and is a major driver of biodiversity loss. Integrating sustainable agriculture with forest conservation can reduce pressure on forests while supporting community livelihoods and enhancing biodiversity in production landscapes – a growing priority across the region.
In Laos, across its conservation landscapes, WWF supports government partners and local communities to strengthen climate-resilient livelihoods through sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, non-timber forest products, and nature-positive food systems. These efforts contribute directly to national priorities, including enhancing rural incomes, protecting forests, and increasing resilience to climate impacts – while aligning with WWF’s Global Roadmap 2030 and its goals of halting nature loss and restoring ecosystems at scale.
A Shared Vision for the Future
Throughout the event, speakers from the Lao Government, the French Embassy, the EU, CIRAD, GRET, and other partners echoed a shared ambition: placing farmers at the center of innovation, renewing research and extension systems, strengthening the links between knowledge and policy, and fostering more inclusive public-private collaboration.
TARASA25 ultimately highlighted the region’s collective momentum toward food systems that are ecologically sound, socially equitable, and economically resilient.
A Call to Action
As Asia-Pacific faces accelerating pressures – from climate change to biodiversity loss to deepening rural inequality – the transition toward agroecology presents a critical opportunity.
For WWF, the path forward is clear: scale solutions that work, invest in communities, support governments, and push for a far stronger and more committed private-sector role.
The call to action from TARASA25 is unmistakable: agroecology can no longer remain a small, specialized practice. It must become a mainstream, well-financed, and collaborative regional effort – one that benefits farmers, protects nature, and ensures a sustainable future for generations to come.
