Tune in live as we follow up with the hosts of our discussion forums to pick their brains about the sessions. With topics ranging across restoration, agroforestry, sustainable supply chains and more, you won’t want to miss out.
During this session we will be going in-depth with discussion forum hosts to get the low-down on their sessions, their concluding thoughts, key takeaways and more. Register now to get involved in the conversation and ask the hosts some questions of your own.
Following the Voices of the Landscape Plenary session, we will be joined for a live discussion with the panellists to shine a light on the efforts of their communities, some of them decades-long, in restoring degraded forests and landscapes. Participants will present key achievements, factors enabling such achievement and key opportunities for landscape restoration going forward. In particular, the meaning of “success” from the perspective of communities will be probed. Discussions will also focus on measures for scaling up community initiatives within and across settings. To amplify these community voices in global policy debates, we will be talking to the panellists about their key takeaways and concluding thoughts from the plenary session.
Land degradation affects us all directly or indirectly: food insecurity, pests, reduced availability of clean water, increased vulnerability to climate change, biodiversity loss, and much more. However, policy often fails to acknowledge this problem, or is incapable to identify solutions.
That’s why we offer this MOOC, running from August 27th through October 15th, 2018 to help understand how to influence policy making to foster sustainable soil protection and rehabilitation.
Theoretical and methodological input by experts will help you to clarify specific policy objectives, the preferred modes of communication of your target group, and to identify the most suitable engagement techniques or activities.
You will have the opportunity to exchange views and experiences with experts and participants and work on the topic in an international network of practitioners, scientists and policy makers. You are also encouraged to reflect on the possible application of the acquired knowledge in your own case, by developing your own case specific policy brief and feeding your conclusions back into the MOOC forum.
Specific benefits of the MOOC will be:
Learning through inputs, sharing of experiences, exercises and case studies.
Strengthening of existing networks, creation of new networks, and potential for further joint work or knowledge exchange.
Visibility of the topic and experiences through broad communication of the MOOC.
Access to a collection of material and background documents on the topic, including examples and case studies that could be further explored.
Support in the development of case/country specific material (e.g. policy briefs).
Who can participate?
Anyone who would like to extend and share their knowledge and experience on bringing soil protection issues into policy making.
Duration and workload
This MOOC is an 8-week program consisting of 8 modules, and it is entirely free of charge. Traditional course material such as videos, readings, and case studies will be provided together with an online learning room. The MOOC’s interactive tools will help build a vibrant learning community, focused on co-creating solutions. Participants who would like to receive a certificate should expect a workload of 3 hours per week.
Certificates
Participants who successfully complete the course and develop a case specific policy brief, will receive a certificate from GIZ.
Agricultural supply chains are responsible for over 70% of tropical deforestation, but can also be important drivers for reforestation and landscape restoration. While landscape initiatives emerge around international supply chains, sector initiatives strive to halt deforestation and reforest landscapes. But how can the sector be incentivized to invest in more sustainable landscapes? What role can certification play to achieve results on landscape level? In this panel you will be taken on a journey through West, East and Southern Africa to get to know the places and people behind landscapes and sectors in order to answer these questions.
West Africa:
In West Africa, more than 80% of the industry together with the governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire have committed to halting deforestation and restore forest areas. We will hear from the Cocoa and Forests Initiative how this multi-stakeholder initiative has been established and is now being put in action. But how do initiatives like that look like on local level? In Jiabeso-Bia, the members of 34 communities, covering 29 thousand hectares, established a landscape management board to oversee the planning, implementation, and monitoring of sustainable practices on their cocoa farms. A representative from this project will tell us about the factors that have enabled this initiative. And how does it link to changes at sector level? The project supports communities and producers in the development and the implementation of local plans for landscape sustainable use, but then engage stakeholders (communities, companies, producers, government, CSOs) in the development and promotion of the policies that enable the landscape management on the ground.
East and Southern Africa:
The tea sector of East and Southern Africa has also been driving deforestation, as both rural households as well as tea processing in factory highly depend on fire wood. At the same time the sector has acknowledged that it can only be sustainable if landscapes are restored and operations are based on sustainable forest management. In Kenya, stakeholders have focused on bringing renewable energy options to scale at both farm and factory level. In the communities, household energy centers are disseminating awareness and low-cost technologies to switch to sustainable briquette; at factory level, central biomass sourcing and briquette production facilities replace about a third of the fire wood by renewable options. In Malawi, smallholder tea growers trusts and blocks, district councils and community stakeholders, local nongovernmental organizations and conservation groups work together to collectively address key areas such as soil conservation, water and forestry. Most important is the learning from the pilot and dissemination of best practices and case studies to advocate with national and private sector to further invest in a landscape strategy for the restoration of the landscapes of Mulanje and Thyolo.
Drawing from these different experiences we will learn what we need to drive deforestation out of these sectors and bring them to invest in reforestation in the future. We will discuss how such sector initiatives support AFR100, and on the other hand, how they could be supported by AFR100.
A Podcast recording of the Digital Summit can be found here.
Contact:
Should you have any questions or enquiries, do not hesitate to contact GLF Digital Summit Coordinator Charlie Nelson at c.nelson@cgiar.orgfor further information.
