Month: January 2021

Register now for this special conversation organized by one of the first GLFx chapters, GLFxNairobi, and World Agroforestry. Join this virtual learning experience that will aim to answer the question: How can Kenyan youth take the lead in restoring their landscapes and foster synergies to scale-up efforts?

Join speakers like Patricia Kombo, a youth climate activist in Kenya known for her tree planting initiatives as part of her nonprofit PaTree Initiative. The initiative has planted over 10,000 trees as of 2020. For this work, Kombo has been named a United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Land Hero.

This event will showcase and talk through five steps of a leadership journey:

• The existing efforts of youth leaders who are starting their own organizations or joining existing ones
• Networking to gain community support
• Confronting challenges head-on
• The ins and outs of restoration financing e.g., business opportunities within restoration
• How music, art, drama, theatre, song, and dance can inspire landscape restoration

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In September or October 2021, the UN Secretary-General will convene a Food Systems Summit with the aim of maximizing the co-benefits of a food systems approach across the entire 2030 Agenda and meeting the challenges of climate change. The Summit aims to provide a platform for ambitious new actions, innovative solutions, and plans to transform food systems and leverage these shifts to deliver progress across all of the SDGs. It is envisioned that the Summit will have objectives and outcomes including to:

• Raise awareness of food systems’ centrality to the entire sustainable development agenda, and the urgency of transforming food systems, particularly in the wake of a global pandemic;
• Align stakeholders around a common understanding and narrative of a food system framework as a foundation for concerted action, making food and food systems a more widespread issue for advocacy and action to achieve the 2030 Agenda;
• Recognize the need for inclusivity and innovation in food systems governance and action;
• Motivate and empower stakeholders who support food systems transformation through the development of improved tools, measurement, and analysis; and
• Catalyze, accelerate, and enlarge bold action for the transformation of food systems by all communities, including countries, cities, companies, civil society, citizens, and food producers.

By delivering on these objectives, the 2021 Food Systems Summit provides an opportunity for us to review our choices and be bold on the outcomes we seek throughout the Decade of Action, and put the world on a new trajectory within a generation.

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Forests, trees and landscapes have long played a role in economic development, with the rise and fall of societies coinciding with the health of farms, fields and forests and the availability of their biological resources as renewable sources of energy, building materials, food and other ecosystem services. Now, sustainable landscapes are more important than ever in protecting the world from accelerating climate change and helping to mitigate the runaway consumption of non-renewable resources.

The circular bioeconomy – an economy powered by nature and its sustainable resources – offers a unique opportunity to use renewable natural capital to holistically transform and manage our land, food, health and industrial systems as well as our cities. If managed sustainably for people and the planet, it has the potential to decarbonize our economy and restore biodiversity while providing jobs and achieving inclusive growth.

On March 19, the European Forest Institute (EFI), the recently-merged Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, in collaboration with the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), will host the world’s first conference examining the forest-based bioeconomy with a focus on the Global South.

This half-day digital forum will bring together investors, scientists, forestry, agroforestry and landscape experts, practitioners, community and business leaders and policy makers to explore what it will take to shift to a circular bioeconomic model that supports people and the planet, putting nature at the heart of how we operate.

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This online conference will create a global hub of expertise and new ideas on reforestation.

Tree planting dominates political and popular agendas, often portrayed as an easy answer to the climate crisis and effective mitigation for corporate carbon emissions.

But it is not a simple solution and planting the wrong trees in the wrong place can cause considerably more damage than benefits, failing to benefit either people or nature.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Botanic Gardens Conservation International will jointly convene three days of online discussion and debate on best practice and policy, underpinned by scientific evidence, to go beyond the headlines and find ways of raising the standard of global reforestation.

The conference will create a global hub of expertise and innovative thinking to ensure that reforestation delivers benefits, not just for carbon capture but also for biodiversity and human wellbeing.

We will focus on finding workable, evidence-based solutions for reforestation to benefit biodiversity, carbon capture and livelihoods – questioning assumptions, showcasing success stories, identifying challenges and encouraging new, integrative approaches.

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Opening in 2021, the Yangzhou International Horticultural Exposition aims to showcase how horticulture and greening can be an important part of future urban planning and sustainable lifestyles. Yangzhou, a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, has a long horticultural history. The Expo is sponsored by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China (NFGA), China Flower Association and the People’s Government of Jiangsu Province. It is co-organised by the People’s Government of Yangzhou Municipality.

The INBAR Garden
INBAR will have a space at the Yangzhou Expo, similar to the Bamboo Eye Pavilion and Garden at the International Horticultural Exhibition 2019, Beijing, China.

The total area of the Yangzhou World Horticultural Expo is 230 hectares, of which the INBAR Garden covers an area of more than 3000 square metres. It is composed of a main building constructed of bamboo, and a traditional bamboo garden.

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Leaders from business, government and civil society set out the bold action needed to create a circular economy.

Use of resources has tripled since 1970, and could double again by 2050 if we continue business as usual. We must urgently work to create a circular economy where waste and pollution are designed out, products and materials are kept in use, and natural systems are regenerated – leading to a more resilient economy.

This webinar will bring together leaders from business, government and civil society to launch the Circular Economy Action Agenda. Developed collectively by more than 200 experts from 100 organizations, the Action Agenda is a rallying call to accelerate the transition to a circular economy – and to a better future for people and nature. The five reports focus on plastics, textiles, electronics, food, and capital equipment.

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Jen Baer, Strategic Accounts Manager, USA/Canada will present the session “Reimagining Certification: Key innovations in Sustainable Agriculture and Responsible Supply Chains,” which will be part of “Session 4: Future of Sustainability Schemes.” The presentation will spotlight some of the highlights of our 2020 Certification Program, with a focus on the cocoa sector and farmer livelihoods.

The North American edition of the Sustainable Foods Summit will be hosted on an online platform and brings together some of the leading organizations involved in sustainability and eco-labels in the food industry. The aim of the Summit is to explore new horizons for eco-labels and sustainability in the food industry by discussing key industry issues.

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The UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) at its fifteenth session, requested the UNFF Secretariat, in consultation with other members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) and with input from members of the Forum, to compile an initial assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on: (i) sustainable forest management (SFM), (ii) the forest sector, forest-dependent people, indigenous peoples and local communities, (iii) forest financing and international cooperation, and to present this assessment to the Forum at its sixteenth
session in April 2021.

To initiate this assessment and collect information, the UNFF Secretariat conducted five assessments in different regions. The UNFF consultants who carried out the regional assessments will share the findings of their assessments with the EGM participants. The meeting will provide an opportunity for experts to share their experiences and lessons learned. The main objective of the expert group meeting is to discuss and share views on: (i) the impact of the global pandemic on forests and forest sector, including risks, threats and challenges; (ii) potential responses and measures for forests and forest sector recovery; (iii) the role of forests in the post COVID-19 recovery; and (iv) potential opportunities, if any, that COVID-19 has brought to the fore to enhance contribution of forests to inclusive and long-term sustainable development.

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The challenges facing the food system, particularly in Africa are immense and the global community is not on track to meet SDG targets or the Paris Agreement.

The Global Commission on Adaptation in its flagship report Adapt Now calls for a Revolution in Understanding, a Revolution in Planning, and a Revolution in Finance.

Meanwhile, the Actions to Transform Food Systems Under Climate Change report focuses on 11 actions needed, including the transformation of innovation systems (i.e. how ‘understanding’ interacts with planning, finance and action). It also puts emphasis on finance, and the role of the private sector in driving transformational change.

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and Wageningen University & Research (WUR) are committed to developing scientific insights for food systems and putting these insights into practice to shape sustainable food systems transformations—together with farmers, cooperatives, businesses, financial institutions, NGOs and governments.

This virtual dialogues series taps into the competitive advantages of the host institutions to convene key stakeholders to catalyze evidence-based action, which builds on earlier efforts outlined.

Learn more

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