Biodiversity: A Digital Journey

Agriculture is the main income source for most rural households in Asia and the Pacific region. However, the increasing biodiversity loss due to climate change represents a huge threat to people’s livelihoods, the consequences of which could be even more dangerous than the COVID-19 pandemic. To promote youth engagement in biodiversity protection toward achieving the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, this Youth Daily Show – led by Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) in collaboration with the Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL) – will explore what young Indigenous people working in agriculture are doing to preserve biodiversity

Join us for an informal facilitated networking session. Guided by conversational menus you will have the opportunity to connect with fellow conference participants in short breakout sessions of 10 minutes each. These sessions are limited to 1,000 participants, on a first come, first served basis.

GLF Biodiversity – Networking Menu Session 2

Biodiversity is already a well-recognized element of sustainable forest management (SFM). The role of forests in maintaining biodiversity is also explicitly recognized by the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030. The purpose of this session is to discuss the state of mainstreaming biodiversity in the forest sector, take stock of existing concepts and tools for integrating biodiversity in forest management and make recommendations for future actions. The results of the discussion will inform the research of FTA as well as preparatory work  towards the implementation of FAO’s Strategy on Biodiversity Mainstreaming across Agricultural Sectors.

The environment, climate change, biodiversity, health, the economy – we face multiple crises. Deforestation and ecosystem degradation have not lost their momentum – we are losing biodiversity fast, reducing our ability to use land-based solutions. Mono-causal solutions have not worked for these interconnected problems. This interactive and informative session will invite the audience to learn and explore, with experts from science and indigenous peoples, how to deliver a green, just recovery: How are biodiversity and climate change linked? How can rights-based approaches protect and fully restore ecological functionality? Which policy processes and finances are needed? Where are the priorities?

The 252nd edition of international forestry journal Unasylva, “Restoring the Earth: the next decade”, is devoted to building momentum for the restoration agenda to 2030, particularly in light of the opportunities presented by major restoration commitments such as the Bonn Challenge, the New York Declaration on Forests, AFR100, Initiative 20×20 and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.

The variety of life on Earth is being lost at an unprecedented rate. Now more than ever, the health of our planet requires us to recognize our complex, interdependent relationships with nature. During this opening plenary, keynote speakers will interact with the online community to frame the wicked problems of biodiversity loss alongside land degradation, climate change and the emergence of zoonotic pandemics. We kick off the conference with a call for a One Health approach, spotlighting the essential role of biodiversity and setting the scene for building back better.

This participatory plenary will be framed around the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the Paris climate goals and the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, all of which call on the global community to ‘bend the curve’ on these critical issues. Key global policy makers, scientists as well as business and community leaders will inform the audience about plans in place for the new decade, and engage in critical discussion. Through constructive debate, we will explore how the new policy frameworks can spark a vivid societal dialogue, consolidate next steps and pave the way for direct global action from individuals, civil society, local authorities and the global business community.

Join leaders of the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO), World Agroforestry and Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR-ICRAF), Global EverGreening Alliance (Alliance) for the signing of a landmark partnership agreement to restore drylands and drought-prone areas in Asia.

Aware of the critical state of degradation of ecosystems worldwide, on 1 March 2019, under Resolution 73/284, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2021 – 2030 to be the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The resolution calls for supporting and scaling up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide, as well as to raise awareness of the importance of ecosystem restoration. UNEP and FAO are the lead implementing UN agencies of the Decade and therefore, to support its implementation, a Task Force on Best Practices (TF) has been established involving a group of 85 individuals from 32 global leading organizations in the field of knowledge capitalization and dissemination. Led by FAO, this group is in charge of setting the ground for future efforts on knowledge capitalization and dissemination as well as the identification of new knowledge products, proposing an action plan for scientific research over the course of the Decade.

The session will launch the White Paper and Policy Brief “Build Back Better in a post-COVID world – Reducing future wildlife-borne spillover of disease to humans” produced by the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme. Presenters will discuss alternative strategies to tackle the drivers of zoonotic disease emergence and their spread along wildlife value chains. They will emphasize the need to consider and involve the millions of citizens, communities and Indigenous People who rely on wildlife for food, income and cultural identity. Discussions will focus on how to encourage policy dialogue and coordinated targeted investments to prevent, detect and respond to future pandemics.

• Philippe Mayaux, Head of sector Biodiversity and ecosystem services – Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) – European Commission 
• Michelle Edgardine Ngwapaza, Deputy General Director and National focal point for the SWM Programme in Gabon – Wildlife and Protected Areas General Directorate (DGFAP), Ministry of waters, forests, sea and environment, in charge of Climate Plan and Land Use Plan – Republic of Gabon (Central Africa) 
• Nickolas Fredericks, Current Toshao (indigenous village chief) for Shulinab village. Current chairman of the National Toshaos Council, the highest representative body for Indigenous Peoples in Guyana 
• Nathalie van Vliet, Associate researcher – Site Coordinator SWM Programme Guyana – CIFOR 
• Amanda Fine, Associate Director, Wildlife Health Programme WCS 
• Marisa Peyre, Deputy Head ASTRE research unit – CIRAD 
• Keith Sumption, Chief Veterinary Officer and Leader of the Animal Health Programme at FAO Director of the Joint Centre for Zoonoses and Anti-Microbial Resistance (CJWZ) 

Find this session’s white paper here.

To implement the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework, a major challenge will be to customize and redesign financial instruments to ensure that investment plans are evaluated for their potential risk to nature, or to create incentives for biodiversity-friendly investment into value chains. The session will bring together expert practitioners from the public and private sectors in multiple continents to discuss existing approaches in the field of financial instruments, good practices and lessons learned, as well as how to bring successful approaches to scale and how to link COVID-19 response measures to financing for a biodiversity-friendly future.
Find this session’s white paper here.

Agricultural supply chains are the leading driver of deforestation globally, contributing to the depletion of biodiversity and natural ecosystems. In this plenary, the audience will get an inside look at the interrelation between finance for biodiversity and sustainable land use and healthy landscapes and sustainable, inclusive value chains. A discussion among experts will place local communities at the heart of the discussion while exploring the innovative financial instruments that are needed to spark a bioeconomy, grounded in the rights and expertise of local communities.

The session will envisage what the next steps should be for SDG 2.5 in the post-2020 Agenda. Where do we go from here? It will seek to demonstrate why agrobiodiversity is essential to ensure food and nutrition security for current and future global populations. The greater the diversity, the more resilient the system. Protecting crops and livestock from pests and disease, and ensuring they have improved resistance to increasing climatic shocks is essential. But how do we get there?

In Latin America, multiple drivers are putting pressure on biodiversity and natural ecosystems. This plenary will build on the issues raised in the ‘Financing Diversity’ plenary to shed light on opportunities and challenges to sustainable climate finance in the Amazon basin and the Latin American region at large. The debate will speak to financial innovations at the intersection of biodiversity and climate action and explore the initiatives and instruments needed to achieve a bio-economy that is truly based on nature’s richness, is gender–inclusive, and is grounded in the rights and expertise of Indigenous Peoples.

The two-part discussion will primarily be held in Portuguese and Spanish, with English translation.

Join us for an informal facilitated networking session. Guided by conversational menus you will have the opportunity to connect with fellow conference participants in short breakout sessions of 10 minutes each. These sessions are limited to 1,000 participants, on a first come, first served basis.

GLF Biodiversity – Networking Menu Session 3

Rangelands (grassland, savannahs and silvo-pastoral systems) in dry areas and mountains account for the largest global restoration opportunities for ecosystems, human and environmental health, and economic growth.

Journey to Malaysian Borneo with The Borneo Project to learn about the rare wildlife of this unique island and see how local communities are involved in documenting and maintaining forest health! Join Fi, Bryan, Shahnaz, and Jettie on an exploration of the rainforests of the Baram River Basin to learn about a community-led project to document the endemic species of this ecosystem. This extraordinary, remote land is home to the Orang Ulu, which roughly means “people of the interior”, a term that includes many different indigenous groups. Together we will discuss how community-led forest protection is an essential tool in maintaining biodiversity, and we will even see some of the rare species that have evolved to suit this particular climate. It’s everything you could want from an exotic eco-tour, minus the mosquitos and humidity!

The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region extends across eight countries from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east, crossing Pakistan, India, China, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. It is a globally important resource – biologically and culturally rich, it provides ecosystem goods and services to a quarter of the world’s population. The HKH is the Pulse of the Planet – what happens here affects the rest of the world. This session will explain why the HKH is the Pulse of the Planet and the need to reinforce positive relations between biodiversity, landscapes, culture and health in a post-COVID ‘new normal’.

Humanity’s destruction of biodiversity creates the perfect conditions for diseases like COVID-19 to emerge. Our lives depend on protecting our forests – not only to prevent future pandemics but also to reverse the impacts of catastrophic climate change. Indigenous communities in Sarawak are hard at work applying local solutions to these immense global challenges by protecting some of the richest tropical rainforests on earth. In this session, learn from grassroots leaders about what Indigenous-managed forest protection looks like on the ground: from investing in village-led research, mapping and forest management, to cancelling the construction of the second largest mega-dam of its kind in the world.

Business, the environment and society need to be addressed simultaneously if we are to achieve economic and ecological restoration and a future balance.

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world and Uganda, the world’s 6th largest exporter, is home to almost 20% of the world’s coffee smallholding farmers. In Bugisu, on Mount Elgon, the farmers live remotely at high altitude adjacent to a UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserve. A spiral of worsening deforestation in tandem with aggressive climate events of worsening flash floods and landslides is occurring and is at a point where their last economic activity – coffee farming, is at risk.

Small businesses can experiment in business models and CARICO Café has worked with these communities using their coffee livelihood holistically as a socio-economic-ecological lever. Despite improving quality and yield, driving end-consumer knowledge of origin, livelihoods remain poor.

The session will discuss the value of holistic triple levers to address the challenge of reversal and restoration of biodiversity.
Find this session’s white paper here.

As we proceed through the 21st century and confront today’s biodiversity crisis, we on one hand realize how intertwined our well-being is with our biodiversity and ecosystem health, and on the other hand, we find ourselves immersed in a globalized urban cultural dimension detached from our roots.

For hundreds of generations, the Gwich’in people of Alaska and northern Canada have depended on the caribou that migrate through the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. With their traditional culture now threatened by oil extraction and climate change, two Gwich’in women are continuing a decades-long fight to protect their land and future.

The Arctic Refuge is home to lands and wildlife vital for the subsistence way of life of Alaska Native communities; and it serves a vital role as a remaining link with the unspoiled natural world and a source of hope for future generations, even for those who may never set foot there.

The Trump administration is proceeding with plans to give oil and gas companies the right to drill in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. Drilling will destroy intact wilderness and violate the human rights of the Gwich’in, who rely on this sacred place to sustain their culture and w

This session will highlight the need for recognition of the contributions of mixed, diverse agricultural/agrarian landscapes – not only to biodiversity conservation, but also to the development of more resilient food systems to respond to challenges like those that the world is currently facing. Global policies, such as those of the CBD, have conventionally seen agriculture as a threat to biodiversity. Hence, responses have often focused on promoting the protection of natural ecosystems by concentrating efforts on preventing further expansion of agriculture. We argue that the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will be seriously flawed if it fails to tackle the effect of food systems and agriculture on biodiversity, or fails to bring farmers into the alliance towards biodiversity conservation and sustainable production. ICRAF and GIZ are the main organizing partners for this session. The CBD Secretariat, IUCN, national representatives, a representative of the private sector and a farmers’ representative will also participate.
Find this session’s white paper here.

More than ever, we are realizing how interconnected we are. Public health, biodiversity, and ecosystem restoration are interconnected. Biodiversity underpins life on Earth; it protects our health and wellbeing and it is up to us to restore it.

While the world seems to get further entangled in a web of concurrent crises, there are a growing number of leaders and experts who are sparking new hope and trust in the future. GLF took the effort to find the experts sharing their visions on the state of biodiversity and gathered them in a single digital space to share their inspirational knowledge. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to listen in, learn and get inspired on why biodiversity is essential to building back better.

Growing food and fiber with industrial techniques has devastated our climate. Conventional agriculture contributes up to 25% of the emissions driving the climate crisis. But there’s another way. Regenerative organic methods can build healthy soil which helps draw carbon back in the ground.

Because healthy soil traps carbon, many believe that regenerative organic farming methods have the potential to change the way we grow food and fiber and restore the health of our soil and climate. These practices help build healthy soil that could help draw down more carbon from the atmosphere than conventional methods. Regenerative organic agriculture could be a viable way to help stop climate change before it’s too late.

The New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) aims to halt natural forest loss by 2030, contributing to climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development goals. The session will cover the findings of the 2020 NYDF Assessment on extractive industries and infrastructure. A panel discussion will address the urgent need for transforming approaches to planning and implementing large-scale development projects and the role of forests and the NYDF post-2020. The discussion will focus on promoting transparency and accountability in mining and infrastructure sectors; safeguarding Indigenous peoples’ rights; building incentives for responsible sourcing; and reshaping the NYDF and international commitments.

Read the White Paper here.

Indigenous peoples are the time-immemorial guardians of many of the world’s remaining biodiversity-rich landscapes – and of the spirituality, values and worldviews embedded in these physical spaces. As human encroachments threaten Indigenous ways of life and connection to land, the world urgently needs to find ways to support this guardianship to help ensure the health of the planet and diversity of species. This interactive plenary will amplify the voices of Indigenous guardians, and will provide a platform for civil society groups, the private sector, policy-makers, local authorities and youth to discuss and explore processes that draw from Indigenous peoples and local communities’ knowledge to generate scalable solutions to contemporary challenges. These solutions will be rooted in reciprocity, will help to achieve human and ecological well-being, and will promote just and sustainable decision-making that restores harmony between people and nature.
Find this session’s white paper here.

Two days of dialogue and debate will compel participants to get ready for a strong call to global action. But what action is most urgently needed? So many of us are pleading for transformative change – but what does this require? Experts will discuss the need for a fundamental, system-wide change across technological, economic and social factors, including changing paradigms, goals and values. To achieve this, we must move away from looking at biodiversity as a production factor to seeing it as an integral part of life, without which we cannot survive. Moving from an economy of exploitation to an economy of restoration will require individual and collective behavioural change.

The Closing Plenary will be opened by Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary of the CBD and will start with a conversation between Christiane Paulus, Director General at BMU, Carla Montesi, Director at DEVCO and Carlos Rodriguez, CEO of GEF, before moving to a dynamic panel of representatives from youth, government, business, civil society and indigenous people.
Participants will join the discussion and contribute to the transformative change which we will initiate here.

Join us for an informal facilitated networking session. Guided by conversational menus you will have the opportunity to connect with fellow conference participants in short breakout sessions of 10 minutes each. These sessions are limited to 1,000 participants, on a first come, first served basis.

GLF Biodiversity – Networking Menu Session 1

Agriculture is the main income source for most rural households in Asia and the Pacific region. However, the increasing biodiversity loss due to climate change represents a huge threat to people’s livelihoods, the consequences of which could be even more dangerous than the COVID-19 pandemic. To promote youth engagement in biodiversity protection toward achieving the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, this Youth Daily Show – led by Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) in collaboration with the Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL) – will explore what young Indigenous people working in agriculture are doing to preserve biodiversity

Join us for an informal facilitated networking session. Guided by conversational menus you will have the opportunity to connect with fellow conference participants in short breakout sessions of 10 minutes each. These sessions are limited to 1,000 participants, on a first come, first served basis.

GLF Biodiversity – Networking Menu Session 2

Biodiversity is already a well-recognized element of sustainable forest management (SFM). The role of forests in maintaining biodiversity is also explicitly recognized by the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030. The purpose of this session is to discuss the state of mainstreaming biodiversity in the forest sector, take stock of existing concepts and tools for integrating biodiversity in forest management and make recommendations for future actions. The results of the discussion will inform the research of FTA as well as preparatory work  towards the implementation of FAO’s Strategy on Biodiversity Mainstreaming across Agricultural Sectors.

The environment, climate change, biodiversity, health, the economy – we face multiple crises. Deforestation and ecosystem degradation have not lost their momentum – we are losing biodiversity fast, reducing our ability to use land-based solutions. Mono-causal solutions have not worked for these interconnected problems. This interactive and informative session will invite the audience to learn and explore, with experts from science and indigenous peoples, how to deliver a green, just recovery: How are biodiversity and climate change linked? How can rights-based approaches protect and fully restore ecological functionality? Which policy processes and finances are needed? Where are the priorities?

Years from now, historians will be discussing the reality we are living and the tomorrow we are defining. What will they call this age? The age of climate denial, the age of biodiversity loss or could it possible be the age of collective action? In a critical moment for the planet and all its peoples, the IPBES 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, suggest that we all get on the train of Transformative Change – a profound, fundamental, system-wide and strategic change in discourses, actions, values and policy. 

Aware of the critical state of degradation of ecosystems worldwide, on 1 March 2019, under Resolution 73/284, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2021 – 2030 to be the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The resolution calls for supporting and scaling up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide, as well as to raise awareness of the importance of ecosystem restoration. UNEP and FAO are the lead implementing UN agencies of the Decade and therefore, to support its implementation, a Task Force on Best Practices (TF) has been established involving a group of 85 individuals from 32 global leading organizations in the field of knowledge capitalization and dissemination. Led by FAO, this group is in charge of setting the ground for future efforts on knowledge capitalization and dissemination as well as the identification of new knowledge products, proposing an action plan for scientific research over the course of the Decade.

The session will launch the White Paper and Policy Brief “Build Back Better in a post-COVID world – Reducing future wildlife-borne spillover of disease to humans” produced by the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme. Presenters will discuss alternative strategies to tackle the drivers of zoonotic disease emergence and their spread along wildlife value chains. They will emphasize the need to consider and involve the millions of citizens, communities and Indigenous People who rely on wildlife for food, income and cultural identity. Discussions will focus on how to encourage policy dialogue and coordinated targeted investments to prevent, detect and respond to future pandemics.

• Philippe Mayaux, Head of sector Biodiversity and ecosystem services – Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) – European Commission 
• Michelle Edgardine Ngwapaza, Deputy General Director and National focal point for the SWM Programme in Gabon – Wildlife and Protected Areas General Directorate (DGFAP), Ministry of waters, forests, sea and environment, in charge of Climate Plan and Land Use Plan – Republic of Gabon (Central Africa) 
• Nickolas Fredericks, Current Toshao (indigenous village chief) for Shulinab village. Current chairman of the National Toshaos Council, the highest representative body for Indigenous Peoples in Guyana 
• Nathalie van Vliet, Associate researcher – Site Coordinator SWM Programme Guyana – CIFOR 
• Amanda Fine, Associate Director, Wildlife Health Programme WCS 
• Marisa Peyre, Deputy Head ASTRE research unit – CIRAD 
• Keith Sumption, Chief Veterinary Officer and Leader of the Animal Health Programme at FAO Director of the Joint Centre for Zoonoses and Anti-Microbial Resistance (CJWZ) 

Find this session’s white paper here.

To implement the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework, a major challenge will be to customize and redesign financial instruments to ensure that investment plans are evaluated for their potential risk to nature, or to create incentives for biodiversity-friendly investment into value chains. The session will bring together expert practitioners from the public and private sectors in multiple continents to discuss existing approaches in the field of financial instruments, good practices and lessons learned, as well as how to bring successful approaches to scale and how to link COVID-19 response measures to financing for a biodiversity-friendly future.
Find this session’s white paper here.

Join us for an informal facilitated networking session. Guided by conversational menus you will have the opportunity to connect with fellow conference participants in short breakout sessions of 10 minutes each. These sessions are limited to 1,000 participants, on a first come, first served basis.

GLF Biodiversity – Networking Menu Session 3

Rangelands (grassland, savannahs and silvo-pastoral systems) in dry areas and mountains account for the largest global restoration opportunities for ecosystems, human and environmental health, and economic growth.

Journey to Malaysian Borneo with The Borneo Project to learn about the rare wildlife of this unique island and see how local communities are involved in documenting and maintaining forest health! Join Fi, Bryan, Shahnaz, and Jettie on an exploration of the rainforests of the Baram River Basin to learn about a community-led project to document the endemic species of this ecosystem. This extraordinary, remote land is home to the Orang Ulu, which roughly means “people of the interior”, a term that includes many different indigenous groups. Together we will discuss how community-led forest protection is an essential tool in maintaining biodiversity, and we will even see some of the rare species that have evolved to suit this particular climate. It’s everything you could want from an exotic eco-tour, minus the mosquitos and humidity!

The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region extends across eight countries from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east, crossing Pakistan, India, China, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. It is a globally important resource – biologically and culturally rich, it provides ecosystem goods and services to a quarter of the world’s population. The HKH is the Pulse of the Planet – what happens here affects the rest of the world. This session will explain why the HKH is the Pulse of the Planet and the need to reinforce positive relations between biodiversity, landscapes, culture and health in a post-COVID ‘new normal’.

Humanity’s destruction of biodiversity creates the perfect conditions for diseases like COVID-19 to emerge. Our lives depend on protecting our forests – not only to prevent future pandemics but also to reverse the impacts of catastrophic climate change. Indigenous communities in Sarawak are hard at work applying local solutions to these immense global challenges by protecting some of the richest tropical rainforests on earth. In this session, learn from grassroots leaders about what Indigenous-managed forest protection looks like on the ground: from investing in village-led research, mapping and forest management, to cancelling the construction of the second largest mega-dam of its kind in the world.

Business, the environment and society need to be addressed simultaneously if we are to achieve economic and ecological restoration and a future balance.

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world and Uganda, the world’s 6th largest exporter, is home to almost 20% of the world’s coffee smallholding farmers. In Bugisu, on Mount Elgon, the farmers live remotely at high altitude adjacent to a UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserve. A spiral of worsening deforestation in tandem with aggressive climate events of worsening flash floods and landslides is occurring and is at a point where their last economic activity – coffee farming, is at risk.

Small businesses can experiment in business models and CARICO Café has worked with these communities using their coffee livelihood holistically as a socio-economic-ecological lever. Despite improving quality and yield, driving end-consumer knowledge of origin, livelihoods remain poor.

The session will discuss the value of holistic triple levers to address the challenge of reversal and restoration of biodiversity.
Find this session’s white paper here.

As we proceed through the 21st century and confront today’s biodiversity crisis, we on one hand realize how intertwined our well-being is with our biodiversity and ecosystem health, and on the other hand, we find ourselves immersed in a globalized urban cultural dimension detached from our roots.

For hundreds of generations, the Gwich’in people of Alaska and northern Canada have depended on the caribou that migrate through the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. With their traditional culture now threatened by oil extraction and climate change, two Gwich’in women are continuing a decades-long fight to protect their land and future.

The Arctic Refuge is home to lands and wildlife vital for the subsistence way of life of Alaska Native communities; and it serves a vital role as a remaining link with the unspoiled natural world and a source of hope for future generations, even for those who may never set foot there.

The Trump administration is proceeding with plans to give oil and gas companies the right to drill in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. Drilling will destroy intact wilderness and violate the human rights of the Gwich’in, who rely on this sacred place to sustain their culture and w

This session will highlight the need for recognition of the contributions of mixed, diverse agricultural/agrarian landscapes – not only to biodiversity conservation, but also to the development of more resilient food systems to respond to challenges like those that the world is currently facing. Global policies, such as those of the CBD, have conventionally seen agriculture as a threat to biodiversity. Hence, responses have often focused on promoting the protection of natural ecosystems by concentrating efforts on preventing further expansion of agriculture. We argue that the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will be seriously flawed if it fails to tackle the effect of food systems and agriculture on biodiversity, or fails to bring farmers into the alliance towards biodiversity conservation and sustainable production. ICRAF and GIZ are the main organizing partners for this session. The CBD Secretariat, IUCN, national representatives, a representative of the private sector and a farmers’ representative will also participate.
Find this session’s white paper here.

The Amazon, the Earth’s largest and most diverse rainforest, biodiversity hotspot and home to many indigenous communities, is on fire. The majority of these fires are not wildfires – they are ignited and can often be traced back to illegal forest clearing to create land for monocultures and support the increasing demand for commodities such as soy, coffee, cocoa and palm oil. Fires are just one of the impacts that monocultures have on the Amazons. During this Youth Daily Show, the Youth in Landscapes Initiative discusses with young experts from the Latin America Region the impacts of monocultures on the health of the local ecosystem and its biodiversity, as well as the health and food security of local communities.

Growing food and fiber with industrial techniques has devastated our climate. Conventional agriculture contributes up to 25% of the emissions driving the climate crisis. But there’s another way. Regenerative organic methods can build healthy soil which helps draw carbon back in the ground.

Because healthy soil traps carbon, many believe that regenerative organic farming methods have the potential to change the way we grow food and fiber and restore the health of our soil and climate. These practices help build healthy soil that could help draw down more carbon from the atmosphere than conventional methods. Regenerative organic agriculture could be a viable way to help stop climate change before it’s too late.

The New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) aims to halt natural forest loss by 2030, contributing to climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development goals. The session will cover the findings of the 2020 NYDF Assessment on extractive industries and infrastructure. A panel discussion will address the urgent need for transforming approaches to planning and implementing large-scale development projects and the role of forests and the NYDF post-2020. The discussion will focus on promoting transparency and accountability in mining and infrastructure sectors; safeguarding Indigenous peoples’ rights; building incentives for responsible sourcing; and reshaping the NYDF and international commitments.

Read the White Paper here.

Join us for an informal facilitated networking session. Guided by conversational menus you will have the opportunity to connect with fellow conference participants in short breakout sessions of 10 minutes each. These sessions are limited to 1,000 participants, on a first come, first served basis.

GLF Biodiversity – Networking Menu Session 1

The variety of life on Earth is being lost at an unprecedented rate. Now more than ever, the health of our planet requires us to recognize our complex, interdependent relationships with nature. During this opening plenary, keynote speakers will interact with the online community to frame the wicked problems of biodiversity loss alongside land degradation, climate change and the emergence of zoonotic pandemics. We kick off the conference with a call for a One Health approach, spotlighting the essential role of biodiversity and setting the scene for building back better.

This participatory plenary will be framed around the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the Paris climate goals and the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, all of which call on the global community to ‘bend the curve’ on these critical issues. Key global policy makers, scientists as well as business and community leaders will inform the audience about plans in place for the new decade, and engage in critical discussion. Through constructive debate, we will explore how the new policy frameworks can spark a vivid societal dialogue, consolidate next steps and pave the way for direct global action from individuals, civil society, local authorities and the global business community.

Agricultural supply chains are the leading driver of deforestation globally, contributing to the depletion of biodiversity and natural ecosystems. In this plenary, the audience will get an inside look at the interrelation between finance for biodiversity and sustainable land use and healthy landscapes and sustainable, inclusive value chains. A discussion among experts will place local communities at the heart of the discussion while exploring the innovative financial instruments that are needed to spark a bioeconomy, grounded in the rights and expertise of local communities.

The session will envisage what the next steps should be for SDG 2.5 in the post-2020 Agenda. Where do we go from here? It will seek to demonstrate why agrobiodiversity is essential to ensure food and nutrition security for current and future global populations. The greater the diversity, the more resilient the system. Protecting crops and livestock from pests and disease, and ensuring they have improved resistance to increasing climatic shocks is essential. But how do we get there?

In Latin America, multiple drivers are putting pressure on biodiversity and natural ecosystems. This plenary will build on the issues raised in the ‘Financing Diversity’ plenary to shed light on opportunities and challenges to sustainable climate finance in the Amazon basin and the Latin American region at large. The debate will speak to financial innovations at the intersection of biodiversity and climate action and explore the initiatives and instruments needed to achieve a bio-economy that is truly based on nature’s richness, is gender–inclusive, and is grounded in the rights and expertise of Indigenous Peoples.

The two-part discussion will primarily be held in Portuguese and Spanish, with English translation.

While the world seems to get further entangled in a web of concurrent crises, there are a growing number of leaders and experts who are sparking new hope and trust in the future. GLF took the effort to find the experts sharing their visions on the state of biodiversity and gathered them in a single digital space to share their inspirational knowledge. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to listen in, learn and get inspired on why biodiversity is essential to building back better.

Indigenous peoples are the time-immemorial guardians of many of the world’s remaining biodiversity-rich landscapes – and of the spirituality, values and worldviews embedded in these physical spaces. As human encroachments threaten Indigenous ways of life and connection to land, the world urgently needs to find ways to support this guardianship to help ensure the health of the planet and diversity of species. This interactive plenary will amplify the voices of Indigenous guardians, and will provide a platform for civil society groups, the private sector, policy-makers, local authorities and youth to discuss and explore processes that draw from Indigenous peoples and local communities’ knowledge to generate scalable solutions to contemporary challenges. These solutions will be rooted in reciprocity, will help to achieve human and ecological well-being, and will promote just and sustainable decision-making that restores harmony between people and nature.
Find this session’s white paper here.

Two days of dialogue and debate will compel participants to get ready for a strong call to global action. But what action is most urgently needed? So many of us are pleading for transformative change – but what does this require? Experts will discuss the need for a fundamental, system-wide change across technological, economic and social factors, including changing paradigms, goals and values. To achieve this, we must move away from looking at biodiversity as a production factor to seeing it as an integral part of life, without which we cannot survive. Moving from an economy of exploitation to an economy of restoration will require individual and collective behavioural change.

The Closing Plenary will be opened by Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary of the CBD and will start with a conversation between Christiane Paulus, Director General at BMU, Carla Montesi, Director at DEVCO and Carlos Rodriguez, CEO of GEF, before moving to a dynamic panel of representatives from youth, government, business, civil society and indigenous people.
Participants will join the discussion and contribute to the transformative change which we will initiate here.

The 252nd edition of international forestry journal Unasylva, “Restoring the Earth: the next decade”, is devoted to building momentum for the restoration agenda to 2030, particularly in light of the opportunities presented by major restoration commitments such as the Bonn Challenge, the New York Declaration on Forests, AFR100, Initiative 20×20 and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.

Join leaders of the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO), World Agroforestry and Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR-ICRAF), Global EverGreening Alliance (Alliance) for the signing of a landmark partnership agreement to restore drylands and drought-prone areas in Asia.

Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO) is the flagship publication of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). GBO-5 provides global summary of progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and sets the scene for the development of the post 2020-global biodiversity framework. It is based on a range of indicators, research studies and assessments (in particular the IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), as well as the national reports provided by countries on their implementation of the CBD. This Outlook draws on the lessons learned during the first two decades of this century to identify the transitions needed if we are to realize the vision agreed by world governments for 2050, ‘Living in Harmony with Nature’.

Learn with forestry experts in Malawi, swim with Indigenous leaders in reef systems off the coast of Mexico and restore the Earth with young people in every landscape.

More than ever, we are realizing how interconnected we are. Public health, biodiversity, and ecosystem restoration are interconnected. Biodiversity underpins life on Earth; it protects our health and wellbeing and it is up to us to restore it.