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Debates on the challenges and opportunities for sustainable agricultural production and natural resources management – mainly of land, water, and forests – have intensified in recent years. This is due not only to a more prominent climate change agenda, aimed at mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to limit global warming to less than 1.5oC [1]; it is also due to the recent Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda [2]. The role that forests play in climate change mitigation is at the heart of climate change and sustainability debates; as such, reducing the pressure that ‘forest-risk’ commodity crops (e.g. palm oil, cocoa, soy, beef, timber) place on forests is key [3]. Forest conversion contributes to soil erosion, reduces water quality and supply, leads to biodiversity loss and increases carbon emissions [3]. An issue of increasing concern is how to support the meaningful integration of smallholders in these commodity supply chains, as well as improve their capacity to capture greater market benefits [4].