How can finance tackle the global extinction crisis by investing in nature?
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Category: Uncategorized
2nd Forest Restoration Talk with Bart Muys: “Biodiversity as a key asset for forest restoration in Europe”
You are invited to join our new “Monthly Forest Restoration Talks”, hosted by SUPERB in partnership with IUFRO‘s Task Force ‘Transforming Forest Landscapes for Future Climates and Human Well-Being’.
Targeting researchers, practitioners, NGOs, policy makers and other interested stakeholders, the webinar series will investigate forest restoration questions from diverse scientific perspectives, with alternating focus on the global and European levels. This includes exploring practical forest restoration approaches, experiences and challenges worldwide.
Taking place on Wednesday, 14 December from 16:00-17:30 CET, the second webinar on 14 December, when KU Leuven professor Bart Muys will discuss “Biodiversity as a key asset for forest restoration in Europe“!
Array ( [0] => Europe/Rome )Regreening Africa Roundtable
Unlocking large-scale land restoration practices, approaches, and benefits in Sub-Saharan Africa
Regreening Africa is an ambitious programme running from 2017-2023 that aims to reverse land degradation on 1 million hectares across 8 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Regreening Africa integrates trees into crop and communal areas along with complementary restoration practices and approaches to enhance inclusion, value chains, policy, and local governance. Five years into implementation, Regreening Africa would like to share its experience and lessons through a roundtable event with all partners.
The Regreening Africa Roundtable will have three sessions:
Session 1: Scaling out context-based practices
What practices will work where and how can we encourage widespread uptake? These are the questions to be addressed in this session as we investigate the many sustainable land management practices in the project and the approaches to scale them out. We will also investigate the impact of both the advisory models and the practices through preliminary impact evaluation results.
Session 2: Regreening Africa science-practice-policy partnership
Integrating data from science and practical experience is critical for improving our planning, implementation, and the policy environment. In this session we explore how community, government, scientists, and development partners worked together and what they have been able to create. We explore examples of integrating scientific data from multiple sources, how partners have been brought together to create initiatives and movements and how we consistently reflected, learnt, and improved the programme over time.
Session 3: Economic and policy incentives
Incentives are known to be a critical driver of landscape restoration and any sustainable land use transition. Farmers and pastoralists are the ones who bring about change on the ground and they must see the benefits. Incentives can come in different forms, but two critical incentives are linked to livelihoods, the economic benefits and to ownership and rights. In this session we explore two examples of value chains and cases of where engagement with policymakers has made practices more accepted and where tree use rights have been enhanced.
Date and time: 6 September 2022, 13:00-17:00 (EAT)
Eden Festival of Action – Greenpop
Be part of a growing, global, green movement.
2 – 9 October 2022 | Wild Spirit Lodge, Garden Route
The Eden Festival of Action is an environmental action gathering combining practical ecosystem restoration work like tree-planting, with a full line-up of workshops, talks and activities from sustainability experts. The evenings are filled with campfire sessions, storytelling and music from some of South Africa’s finest musicians.
The event aims to create an empowered regenerative community, equipping you to become custodians of the natural world, moving from commitment to action!
Join our 7-day sustainability experience this October 2022 and create real, long-term environmental impact.
The Agroecology TPP’s Community of Practice Activation Workshop
The Transformative Partnership Platform on Agroecology (Agroecology TPP) is delighted to launch its very first Community of Practice (CoP) Activation Workshop, which will take place on 13 September at 3pm CEST.
The 90-minute session is open to all agroecology enthusiasts, including those who are present members of the CoP. The workshop will help guide you through numerous functionalities of the GLFx platform on which the CoP is hosted, shed light on the scope and purpose of our vibrant and growing community of agroecology enthusiasts, provide a wealth of real-life examples of the CoP features, and explain how to join the CoP to all new members. There will also be plenty of time to ask all of your burning questions and engage in a fruitful discussion about a common vision of our CoP.
Grab your seat today by registering at https://tinyurl.com/workshopCoP (and don’t forget to bring a friend!)
A detailed agenda is available here.
By joining the Agroecology TPP’s CoP, you will be able to share as well as get related news and ideas, have a meaningful conversation with a like-minded and knowledgeable group of people, ask direct questions to scientists and explore a wide range of resources on the topic. Hosted by the Global Landscapes Forum (GLFx), the CoP provides an opportunity to connect and learn from each other, develop co-created knowledge, and stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the field.
Array ( [0] => Europe/Rome )62nd GEF Council
The Global Environment Facility is a unique multilateral fund supporting biodiversity protection, nature restoration, and climate change response in developing countries.
This week, GEF council – the fund’s governing body – will meet to evaluate and adopt work programs that benefit nature and humanity.
The 62nd meeting will be the final council of GEF-7, closing out the four-year funding cycle, as well as kicking-off the GEF-8 cycle. It takes place after donors pledged record support for GEF-8 in April and comes on the heels of a series of international meetings including: UNCCD COP15, Stockholm+50, and BRS COPs.
The Global Environment Facility is a country-driven organization that was founded on the principles of collaboration and partnership. For the last thirty years, the GEF has worked with global partners to catalyze progress toward protecting nature, adapting to climate change, and promoting sustainable development.
The 62nd GEF Council meeting will take place from June 21-23 from 10:00 am – 7:00 pm EDT. The venue is the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner, located at 7920 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22102. The meeting will also be streamed live on Zoom.
Array ( [0] => Africa/Abidjan )UNCCD 15th session of the Conference of the Parties
The fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will take place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 9 to 20 May 2022.
The COP15 theme, ‘Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity’, is a call to action to ensure land, the lifeline on this planet, continues to benefit present and future generations.
COP15 will bring together leaders from governments, the private sector, civil society and other key stakeholders from around the world to drive progress in the future sustainable management of one of our most precious commodities: land.
Land is the bedrock of a healthy, productive society, and COP15 will explore links between land and other key sustainability issues. These issues will be discussed during the high-level segment on 9-10 May 2022, including a Heads of States Summit, high-level roundtables and interactive dialogue sessions, as well as numerous other special and side events.
COP 15 is a key moment in the fight against desertification, land degradation and drought. It will build on the findings of the second edition of the Global Land Outlook and offer a concrete response to the interconnected challenges of land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss as we step into the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Drought, land restoration, and related enablers such as land rights, gender equality and youth empowerment are among the top items on the Conference agenda. Through its decisions adopted by UNCCD’s 197 Parties, COP15 is expected to galvanize sustainable solutions for land restoration and drought resilience, with a strong focus on future-proofing land use.
Array ( [0] => Africa/Abidjan )How will the war in Ukraine affect global food security?
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The Land Accelerator Africa
What is the Land Accelerator Africa?
In 2018, World Resources Institute (WRI) launched the Land Accelerator Africa, the world’s first training and mentorship program targeted specifically toward businesses that restore degraded forests, farmland and pasture.
To support the AFR100 Initiative’s goal of restoring 100 million hectares of land by 2030, the Land Accelerator provides entrepreneurs across Africa with mentorship and networking opportunities, technical training and workshops to build up their storytelling and pitching skills.
Participants leave the program more empowered to connect with potential investors so that they can take their business to the next stage of growth. The program has attracted nearly 1,400 applicants in Africa since 2018, and its 104 alumni from 34 countries report that they have created 11,200 jobs, worked with 56,000 farmers and restored 127,000 hectares.
What does the program look like?
In 2021, WRI and our partners at AFR100 and Fledge took a novel approach to the Land Accelerator Africa. We expanded the size of our cohort to the top 100 entrepreneurs from across the continent to join us for an all-virtual business accelerator. Restoration entrepreneurs were invited to apply from all sub-Saharan African countries, free of charge.
The Top 100 benefited from:
- 3 months of exclusive weekly trainings from experts.
- 3 months of access to Fledge’s online lessons for start-ups.
- Templates to create content to help your business thrive.
- Weekly office hours with mentors who will lend their expertise.
- Weekly networking sessions to speak with and learn from other entrepreneurs in your cohort.
By the end of the program, entrepreneurs accessed the trainings and tools that they needed to complete:
- A compelling one-minute pitch to hook investors, customers and potential partners.
- A 10 to 12 slide pitch deck targeted toward investors.
- An environmental indicator measurement, management and marketing plan.
- A three- to five-year financial model to visualize their growth projections and to identify capital needs.
- Increased confidence in their business’s mission and operations.
The top 100 entrepreneurs also had the opportunity to apply for a Land Accelerator investment pack, which an expert panel awarded to the top entrepreneurs.
Recipients of the investment packs benefited from:
- An innovation grant of $5,000 or more.
- A coaching meeting with a Land Accelerator organizer to develop an investment and innovation grant plan.
- A 90-minute group session with members of the Land Accelerator mentor network, who provided tailored feedback.
- A one-on-one call with a Land Accelerator mentor to provide feedback and a thorough review of all the materials submitted throughout the program.
- The opportunity to present a three-minute business pitch at the virtual Land Accelerator Impact Days, a two-day event that brings together the awardees and investors from across the continent.
- The opportunity to meet fellow entrepreneurs in-person for a week-long bootcamp in Nairobi, Kenya and learn from both leading entrepreneurs and trainers.
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Nature Based Solutions Challenge
Will you design and implement a nature based solution, and positively contribute to the climate, biodiversity, and quality of life? In the Nature Based Solutions Challenge, you are challenged to come up with a nature-based solution and to implement it. A jury will select the teams that receive funding (2500 euro) and mentoring from experts to make their project into a success!
The challenge
Nature based solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits. Nature-based solutions are part of the answer to the biggest challenges of the 21st century, being climate change and biodiversity loss.
In this challenge, your team will work on a nature-based solution in a local context addressing climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation and biodiversity restoration, and thereby improving the quality of life. Furthermore, societal and economic impact are to be addressed too.
Who
You can participate with a team of up to 5 members. It’s recommended to form a team of students with different disciplinary backgrounds. Fresh graduates are welcome to join the Challenge, though the graduation should take place not earlier than academic year 2020/2021. Fresh graduates should not exceed 20% of team members.
Registration
You can apply by submitting a Concept Note (a format will be provided on this page) on your envisioned project, focusing on nature based solutions. We will open registration as from mid February until April 13 (deadline of registration).
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