Let’s talk about our changing landscapes. Government agencies, civil society organizations, academic institutions, and youth organizations from Sierra Madre, Palawan, and Bukidnon-Misamis Oriental will come together for the 2nd National Environmental Dialogue on August 1-2, at Novotel, Quezon City.
This year’s dialogue strategy includes visioning exercises where participants will draw from their experiences and aspirations to plan for the futures of our landscapes. Participants will talk about drivers of change and threats to our landscapes, and envision what can still be done to adapt, and to prepare for generations ahead. Specifically, the dialogues will focus on natural resource management and devolution; water provisioning functions of landscapes; and land conversion.
Sustainable and Inclusive Landscape Governance (SILG) Philippines is a program implemented by Forest Foundation Philippines, together with Tropenbos International and several civil society organizations. SILG PH banks on opportunities that can emerge out of continuous dialogues, which can span from small intervention projects to policy reviews and advocacies.
Organizer: Department of Research and External Relations, Office of the Vice Chancellor, Thimphu, Bhutan
Background
The landscape governance is an innovative approach in the sustainable management of ecosystem goods and services to improve the livelihoods of the landscapes’ inhabitants, while enhancing ecological integrity, economic development and socio-cultural resilience in an integrated manner.
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu and Centre for Development Innovations (CDI), Wageningen University have coordinated several regional consultations with ICIMOD’s 8 member countries to define and understand the capabilities which landscape professionals need to have in order to facilitate participatory landscape governance on the ground.
Together with the Royal University of Bhutan these capabiities have been turned into a draft curriculum at BSc level, and will therefore be the first university in the Hindu Kush Himalaya Region to have a formal curriculum on Landscape Governance, with the aim to deliver a new generation of integrated landscape professionals, practitioners and poilcy makers, leading to long term improvement of NRM and spatial planning within Bhutan’s future.
Why Landscape Governance in Bhutan and why now?
Bhutan’s new Five Year Development Plan sets out new elements of greater inclusivity in development planning by engaging all stakeholders and building a national consensus to ensure that every stakeholder can identify him or herself with the Plan, and commit to its outcomes. Coordination, Consolidation and Collaboration have been identified as fundamental principles underpinning the goals, strategies and programmes of the plan, and cut across all the sectors and development actors in the country. Introducing the concept of Landscape Governance and having it mainstreamed in its education system will therefore be very helpful in the operationalisatioon of the new Five Year Development Plan, and will provide a good framework for spatial policy integration at the national scale.
Moreover, the concept of Landscape Governance fits in Bhutan’s national policy framework of Gross National Happiness, and may contribute to its operationalisation at the landscape level.
The role of the Royal University of Bhutan
The Royal University of Bhutan is the premier institution in Bhutan that is tasked to foster centres of excellence in teaching, research and innovation, and community service that are recognized internationally. Specific to natural resources, RUB institutions are responsible to:
Contribute to science and knowledge by conducting research and policy analyses in relevant problem areas;
Mainstream scientific research findings into environmental policy and decision-making processes, and
Train current and future generation of conservation and environmental leaders, practitioners and academics.
The Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) with several on-going initiatives of delivering environmental governance and well-being initiatives is well placed to take the leadership of delivering “Landscape Governance Curriculum” to be implemented by one of its professional colleges specialised in enironmental management. As the RUB is an active member of the Himalayan University Consortium (HUC) which aims to promote inter-university collaborations among HUC members in mainstreaming best-practices throughout the region. The RUB currently holds the honorary title of “The first ICIMOD Mountain Chair”, and is therefore strategically positioned to invest in landscape curriculum development havnig a regional impact.
Where indigenous peoples and local communities hold secure rights, forests are less likely to be degraded or destroyed, providing better protection than even legally protected areas. However, in many countries, there is a substantial gap in tenure security for community lands.
To highlight recent solutions for closing the implementation gap, GLF is teaming up with its newest charter member Climate Focus, to offer a Digital Summit on the role of forest rights. Speakers will share recent research findings and their own experience. Particularly, research from the LandMark initiative, which shed light on the nature of the implementation gaps in 14 countries and research from IIED, which tracked progress on empowering forest-linked communities.
Join us to learn how we work together to secure rights to protect landscapes and empower local communities to ensure healthy landscapes.
Speakers:
Moderator: Ingrid Schulte, Land use consultant and NYDF Assessment coordinator, Climate Focus
Fabrice Dubertret, World Resources Institute/LandMark
James Mayers, Director, Natural Resources, International Institute for Environment and Development
Hindou Oumar Ibrahim, Association of Indigenous Peul Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT)
Objectives:
Highlight the role of rights in healthy landscapes
Present high-level findings on the area of legally recognized and documented community land
Discuss implications for spurring progress toward full legal recognition
Showcase current progress towards empowering forest-linked communities and the mechanisms to do so
