Meine van Noordwijk, Principal Scientist and Chief Science Advisor, World Agroforestry Centre explains how balancing the roles of agriculture and forestry in climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security and poverty alleviation is a key condition for any initiative in developing countries. Hence understanding the trade-offs between these functions is extremely important for creating win-win strategies and opportunities. Landscape approaches aim at balancing incentives for commodities and those for maintenance of assets and services. It focuses on how interactions between forests and agriculture impact on commodities and services including climate change adaptation functions and carbon.