Featured Archives - Events at Global Landscapes Forum

AGRF 12th Summit

The AGRF, Africa’s premier forum for food and agriculture, has launched its 12th annual summit under the theme Grow, Nourish and Reward – Bold Actions for Resilient F: Grow, Nourish and Reward – Bold Actions for Resilient Food Systemsood Systems’ to be held in Kigali Rwanda from September 5 to 9, 2022.

This year’s summit will call for accelerated action by leaders, innovators, businesses, private institutions, civil society, and development agencies to put forward bold actions and unite efforts towards the continental food security agenda.

Recognizing the urgency to deliver on the Malabo commitments and the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the AGRF 2022 summit will spotlight the ongoing efforts and country-led actions that can be scaled up towards food systems that deliver for the people, planet, and prosperity.

Speaking during the launch event, the Right Honourable Dr. Edouard Ngirente, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda reiterated Rwanda’s confidence in the AGRF 2022 to come up with a sustainable solution to the food system issue on the African continent.

“Rwanda is confident that the AGRF 2022 Summit will come up with concrete actions that can build sustainable and resilient food systems to feed nearly 256 million reportedly suffering from severe food insecurity on the African continent. Commodities such as beef, grain wheat, sugar, rice and soybeans that Africa has been importing, can be better produced on the continent if we implement the right policies.”

The Prime Minister of Rwanda welcomed delegates from across the continent and beyond to participate and contribute to the AGRF 2022 Summit.

The Summit will mobilize private and public investments, innovations, and country-based solutions and celebrate initiatives that are actionable and scalable in delivering food systems transformation.

H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn, the former Prime Minister of Ethiopia and the AGRF Chair said that while African leaders have shown commitment to support food systems transformation, collective action will be needed to accelerate progress and real change.

“No country is healthy unless food and livelihoods are healthy. Delivering for the planet, people, and prosperity will require collective efforts from all sectors. However, African governments should lead these efforts by prioritising and integrating policies that address multiple objectives including those that call for healthy and nutritious diets, decent income for the farmers and policies that address climate and other environmental fragilities.”

He added that as Africa builds back from the effects of the pandemic, leaders should ensure the pace lost in agriculture and food systems transformation is picked up to ensure the wholesome growth of people across the continent.

The AGRF 2022 Summit will be hosted by the Government of Rwanda and the AGRF Partner’s Group, the Summit comes at a pivotal time, a crossroads in Africa’s recovery and progress towards the deadline for zero hunger by 2030.

Some of the key highlights at this year’s AGRF 2022 Summit will include the Agribusiness Deal Room, a platform for connecting innovators with critically needed capital, the Presidential Summit, Farmers Forum, and a Youth Townhall.

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LANDac Summer School – Land Governance for Sustainable Development

Large-scale acquisition of land in the global South has received a great deal of interest in the last few years. Especially following the food crisis (2003-08), and stimulated by the growing demand for biofuels, pressure on land continues to increase. This course provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the ‘land rush’ within the more general context of land governance in Africa, Asia, and Latin America: the history and drivers, the diversity of stakeholders and networks involved, the urgency and current challenges, and innovative governance solutions.

The course

The course is organized by the Netherlands Academy for Land Governance (LANDac), a network of organizations interested in how land governance may contribute to sustainable and inclusive development. MSc students, PhD students and professionals from development organizations and related projects will acquire up-to-date knowledge on new land pressures and learn how to place these in broader theoretical contexts and policy debates. Participants learn about best practices in land governance from different perspectives and on multiple levels, from local to international. Topics are discussed in interactive mini-courses, lectures and solution-oriented workshops. The design of the course allows for participants to closely work together with professionals, experts and fellow students from a variety of backgrounds.

Tutorials will provide a general overview of important themes such as the global land rush, land governance, land administration and land issues in post-conflict situations. This overview is complemented by a mix of case studies that illustrate issues and trends in specific contexts, cases highlighted in previous LANDac summer schools include (trans)national land investments in Indonesia and the Philippines, government-led land acquisition and resettlement policies in India, and World Bank policies on land. The course also investigates the trend of foreigners buying real estate for residential tourism in Costa Rica, land governance solutions in countries with weak institutions such as Burkina Faso, challenges for participatory land governance in Mozambique, and coping with urban pressures on agricultural land in Vietnam. Topics are discussed from a range of perspectives, blending insights from Dutch and international academics with those of development practitioners, representatives of farmers’ organizations and government policy advisors.

Learn more

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Carbon Forestry: The course for future project developers and land use experts

In cooperation with renowned partner organizations active in the land-use sector, such as UNIQUE Forestry and Land Use and Solidaridad, the Chair of Silviculture at Freiburg University offers this 3-week online course in Carbon Forestry. Highlights of the course include ecological, social, economic & technical aspects of carbon forestry in theory and practice. The course is taught by experienced academics, project developers and auditors, and offers technical basics of developing and evaluating climate change mitigation projects, analysis and validation of project design documents of different types of land-use based carbon projects (REDD, Afforestation/Reforestation, Smart Climate Agriculture, Improved Forest Management etc.). Furthermore, by using a local case study, participants will measure biomass on a local afforestation site or at home and quantify the carbon contents in the lab.

Additionally, participants are trained in established methodologies of specific standards, esp. Afforestation/Reforestation projects, such as under the CDM, Verra/VCS or Gold Standard. The course fee is 750€ (partial scholarships available).

For more information please follow the headline link or send an email to: carbon.forestry@waldbau.uni-freiburg.de.

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Securing Rights in Landscapes

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Geography of Governance 2019: Visioning Probable Futures for Landscape Governance

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.

Find out more here.

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Training Workshop on Mainstreaming Integrated Landscape Governance Curriculum in Bhutan

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.

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Telling stories about landscapes – GLF Bonn 2018 Media Workshop

Telling stories about landscapes – Insights from media and science

Join our first GLF online Media workshop, pitch stories and win reporting prizes and reporting grants

Are you a journalist or a media specialist interested in sustainable development and the role that landscapes play in environmental and human wellbeing? There are many, many stories out there waiting to be told and we have all the tools to help you. Please join us at our upcoming GLF Media Workshop.

Our proposal?

Join our digital summit to discuss environmental and human stories related to landscapes and explore some of the best tools and techniques you can use for reporting in a way that speaks to both your editor and to a global audience. Experts from media and science will host an online conversation to share their experiences and tips on how to bring your reporting to the next level; get the scoop on where and how you can dig out overlooked, but critical issues around landscapes. Pick our experts’ brains with your questions and use this first-time GLF session for the media to enrich your work.
Register for and attend the GLF Bonn digital edition – watch the livestream, check the agenda, request interviews and more.
Write or produce stories from the GLF Bonn digital edition and win prizes. Prizes will be awarded for the following categories:

outstanding feature story
video
radio report/podcast
photo essay

Write your stories based on the discussions at GLF Bonn 2018 and publish them on your respective media platforms.
Send us the link to your story by Thursday, 6 December at a.popescu@cgiar.org.
Should you require expert sources or have requests for online interviews with participants at the GLF Bonn, do get in touch with us at a.popescu@cgiar.org.
A specialist panel (to be announced) will judge the entries. The top entrant in each category will win a prize of $500.
Have in mind a local story that’s relevant for the GLF? Pitch it to us!
Many times great local stories remain uncovered as reporting can face financial difficulties. We want to see more of those stories come to light, so we are starting by offering three reporting grants of USD 1,000 each for the best pitches.Your pitch should contain:
- proposed story title
- a 300-400 word outline of your story idea and reporting approach
- how your story is connected to the themes and issues discussed at GLF Bonn 2018
- a provisional list of sources: who are you planning to interview, etc
- article budget: list and detail the story-associated costs

Terms and conditions:

By submitting a nomination, the media assets provided can be used by the GLF in its communication products and platforms.
By submitting media materials, those submitting agree to a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial share-alike license (BY-NC-SA). Competition organizers will use these materials for relevant GLF products. Those submitting media are not permitted to use these materials for commercial purposes.
Media professionals are required to attach an authorization signed by a representative of the media company employing them. This authorization should state that the organizers of the contest have permission to publish the author’s work.

Submit your story pitch by Wednesday, 13 December here.

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Landscape Governance

Scholarships for our international course on LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE now available!

Always wanted to learn about integrated landscape approaches? Then this is your chance! Our famous international course on LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE is now open for application. Scholarships are available if applied for before October 10^th, so you’d better be fast!

During our two weeks programme (1-12 April 2019) we will challenge you to look at your own work from an integrative landscape perspective, learn how to build bridges between the public and the private sector, and develop innovative governance mechanisms at the landscape level.

Apply NOW, to be the first!

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Scaling up Forest Landscape Restoration commitments from local to regional level

WWF’s digital summit will feature various perspectives on how to scale up Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) and increase the scale and scope of activities in Africa. Three different case studies and two government perspectives will be presented on the question: What is needed to get FLR under the scheme of the Bonn Challenge and its regional initiative AFR100 in large-scale practise and on the ground?

Valérie Ramahavalisoa, Head of the Service for watershed management at the Ministry of Environment, Ecology and Forests of the Madagascan government and Member of the FLR national committee, and Stefan Schmitz, Head of Directorate Food, Rural Developments, Natural Resources, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany responsible for the AFR 100, will both elaborate how to scale-up restoration activities from a government / donor perspective.

The two main questions are:

What is needed to boost and enable FLR implementation scale?
Which political priority setting and funding schemes are needed?

We will highlight the important role of partnerships for FLR through the Trillion Trees Programme, a collaboration between three of the largest conservation organisations – WWF, BirdLife International, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The New Forest Company, a Ugandan Plantations company, which is a member of the New Generations Plantations Platform will showcase the role of responsible plantations under a forest landscape restoration approach.

Finally, these perspectives will be complemented by lessons learned that are drawn from WWF experiences on 13 years of restoration activities with communities in Madagascar’s Fandriana-Marolambo landscape as well as Uganda’s Mityana-Bugiri landscape. The lessons learned will touch upon important experiences on the importance of FLR for both conservation and livelihood.

We hereby invite everyone to join us in this “Digital Summit”, to better understand and discuss with all panellists on how restoration activities can be scaled up. You will have the chance to learn and ask project managers, the private sector, a government representative from a tropical forest country and a donor on their perspectives.

Participants

Keynote speaker: Stefan Schmitz – Head of Directorate Food, Rural Developments, Natural Resources, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany

Case study Uganda: Martin Asiimwe – WWF Uganda, Forest and Biodiversity Program Coordinator and Patrick Mugenyi – New Forests Company Uganda, CEO (NGP Participant)

Case study Madagascar: Valérie Ramahavalisoa – Head of the Service for watershed management at the Ministry of Environment, Ecology and Forests, National Focal Point for soil projects, and Member of the FLR national committee and Simon Rafanomezantsoa, Senior Officer, Terrestrial Biodiversity, WWF Madagascar Country Office

Case study Trillion Trees Programme (TTP) – Tim Rayden joined the TTP when it was launched at the end of 2016, and now supports the development of restoration projects across the WCS global portfolio.

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Land Matters! MOOC 2018

Land Matters! Integrating Soil Degradation Concerns and Solutions into Policy Processes

2018 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

About the course

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.

The global programme “Soil protection and rehabilitation for food security“, implemented by GIZ for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is launching the free MOOC “Land Matters!” in cooperation with the University of Leeds – School of Earth and Environment and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

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.

FIND OUT MORE

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