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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.

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The European Forest Institute (EFI), the European Forum on Urban Forestry(EFUF) and the Horizon 2020 CLEARING HOUSE project invite you to two days of integrated activities on urban forestry (March 23-24 2021). This on-line event is targeted at advanced practitioners, established researchers, sector leading policymakers and those wishing to learn of the latest developments in Europe and beyond. A special focus for this conference is Sino-Europe collaboration. The conference will be run in English with Mandarin translation.

Day one is themed on integrated urban forest management with a focus on the ‘sustainable transition of cities’ and ‘urban forestry and the pillars of sustainability’. In addition to keynote speakers, ‘a tour of management models’ with leading practitioners will cover different European bioregions and beyond.  You can also attend a ‘virtual fieldtrip’ with ‘live stream Q&A’ from a peri-urban forest near Bonn in Germany.

Day two is themed on urban forests and health infrastructure. Keynote speakers will outline what medical science is telling us about forests as health infrastructure followed by a thematic workshop on ‘forests and urban greenspaces in pandemic times’. The second day will also see the launch of EFUF 2021; a decentralised networking programme running from March to May 2021 with many diverse events. The new EFUF App will also be unveiled at the conference.

How can disruptive technology transform the Aral Sea region?

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The Aral Sea in Central Asia, once the world’s fourth-largest inland water body, has almost disappeared due to the overuse of its resources and the climate crisis, endangering the livelihoods of 40 million people who live in the region.

The Global Disruptive Tech Challenge 2021 aims to identify and support disruptive technologies and innovative approaches to landscape restoration in the Aral Sea region and Central Asia. The Challenge asks innovators from around the world to submit their ideas and help change the lives of millions of people.

The webinar, held on 11 January, 20:00 UTC+6, is an opportunity to learn more about the Challenge and the Aral Sea region, connect with world leading institutions and regional organizations and universities, and get your questions on the Challenge answered.

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Как прорывные технологии могут помочь региону Аральского моря?
Вебинар о Всемирном конкурсе прорывных технологий 2021: Восстановление земель в регионе Аральского моря

ральское море, расположенное на территории Центральной Азии, когда-то четвертое среди крупнейших внутренних водоемов, сегодня почти исчезло из-за чрезмерного использования его ресурсов и изменения климата, поставив под угрозу благосостояние 40 миллионов человек, проживающих в этом регионе.

Всемирный конкурс прорывных технологий 2021 направлен на выявление и поддержку прорывных технологий и инновационных подходов в сфере восстановления земель в регионе Аральского моря и на территории Центральной Азии. Конкурс приглашает новаторов со всего мира предложить идею и помочь изменить жизнь миллионов людей.

Вебинар, который пройдет 11 января в 20:00 по алматинскому времени (UTC+6) – это возможность не только узнать больше о Конкурсе и регионе Аральского моря и получить ответы на интересующие Вас вопросы, но и наладить связь с ведущими мировыми институтами и региональными организациями и университетами.

Find out more about the Challenge here.

Join us for a webinar that will feature a panel discussion with corporations and representatives from Kazakhstan government and Kazakh-German University.

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The webinar will be the launch of the Disruptive Technology and Innovation Challenge in the Aral Sea, and will feature a panel discussion with corporations and representatives from the Kazakhstan government and Kazakh-German University.

About the Disruptive Technology and Innovation Challenge in the Aral Sea:
This challenge will connect innovation with impact-driven solutions. Four individual or organizational innovators from around the world will receive awards to further their disruptive and innovative solutions to landscape restoration issues in the Aral Sea region. The challenge will focus on proposals regarding agriculture and land management, sustainable forestry, socio-economic development, and information and knowledge.

Agenda

06:00 – 06:10 pm: 
Plug and Play Opening Remarks: Mike Zayonc, Vice President at Plug and Play
06:10 – 06:15 pm: 
World Bank Opening Remarks: Lilia Burunciuc, Regional Director for Central Asia at World Bank
06:15 – 06:30 pm: 
Keynote Presentation: Sulton Rkhimzoda, Chairman, Executive Committee of International Fund for saving the Aral Sea (IFAS)
06:30 – 06:50 pm: 
Startup Presentations and Q&A
06:50 – 07:25 pm: 
Panel Discussion

• • Magzhan Madiyev, CEO at Astana Hub
  • Paola Agostini, Lead Natural Resource Management Specialist at World Bank
  • Barbara Janusz-Pawletta, Vice Rector for International Cooperation at Kazakh-German University (DKU)
  • Azamat Abdraimov, Consul General of Kazakhstan in San Francisco
  • John Colmey, Managing Director at Global Landscapes Forum (GLF)

07:25 – 07:30 pm: 
Closing Remarks

Find out more about the Challenge here.

The Aral Sea in Central Asia, once the world’s fourth-largest inland water body, has almost disappeared due to the overuse of its resources and the climate crisis, endangering the livelihoods of 40 million people who live in the region.

The Global Disruptive Tech Challenge 2021 aims to identify and support disruptive technologies and innovative approaches to landscape restoration in the Aral Sea region and Central Asia. The Challenge asks innovators from around the world to submit their ideas and help change the lives of millions of people.

The Q&A session, held on 21 December, at 6 p.m. Almaty time (UTC+6), is an opportunity to learn more about the Challenge, connect with world leading institutions and regional organizations and universities, and get your questions on the Challenge answered.

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Всемирный конкурс прорывных технологий 2021

Аральское море, расположенное на территории Центральной Азии, когда-то четвертое среди крупнейших внутренних водоемов, сегодня почти исчезло из-за чрезмерного использования его ресурсов и изменения климата, поставив под угрозу жизнеобеспечение 40 миллионов человек, проживающих в этом регионе.

Всемирный конкурс прорывных технологий 2021 направлен на выявление и поддержку прорывных технологий и инновационных подходов в сфере восстановления земель в регионе Аральского моря и на территории Центральной Азии. Конкурс приглашает инноваторов со всего мира предложить идею и помочь изменить жизнь миллионов людей.

Сессия “Вопросов и ответов”, которая пройдет 21 декабря в 18:00 по алматинскому времени (UTC+6) – это возможность не только узнать больше о Конкурсе и получить ответы на интересующие Вас вопросы, но и наладить связь с ведущими мировыми институтами и региональными организациями и университетами.

The International Mountain Day (IMD) is celebrated annually on 11 December to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life, to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development, and to build alliances that will bring positive change to mountain peoples and environments around the world.

The theme for this year’s IMD is “Mountain biodiversity”. Mountains are storehouses of global biodiversity. Half of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are concentrated in mountains, and four of those hotspots lie in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. This IMD, we celebrate the rich biodiversity in mountains and call attention to the threats it faces.

ICIMOD will be organizing a week-long event – a “week for mountains” – to celebrate this important day by organizing various programmes in-house and in its country offices.

Find out more here

As a follow up from the FTA 2020 Science Conference, FTA and its managing partners are now developing a series of open webinars, extracting the highlights from the conference and bringing them to the public. The aim is to inform and support concrete action on the ground with a focus on transformative science derived from FTA’s most innovative lines of research.

The CGIAR research program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development. Innovative finance is one of FTA’s key Operational Priorities, led by Tropenbos International (TBI), one of its managing partners.

On the 26^th of November, FTA and TBI are proud to launch and present their latest report on Innovative Finance for Sustainable Landscapes.

This milestone publication, developed through extensive open consultations and cutting-edge collaborative methods, explores the complex barriers that hinder the potential of external finance to increase sustainability of tropical landscapes and achieve positive impact at scale. A selection of most promising financial innovations and schemes are identified and discussed and pathways to alleviate these barriers are proposed. These findings result from a participatory process with strong engagement from the Civil Society and the Private Sector. The outcomes of the report were recently reviewed at the FTA Science Conference.

In the occasion of the launch of the report, FTA and TBI would like to invite everyone to an open webinar to illustrate some of the key findings and open questions that the study reveals, as well as what are the future areas of collaborations for implementing innovative finance.

The discussion will bring together perspectives from different stakeholders and donors, and will allow ample time for question and answer sessions from the audience.

Join us in our efforts to understand and overcome barriers to access to finance!

Find out more

ThinkForest is a European high-level forum on the future of forests. It provides:

A unique science-policy interface
Inspiring and dynamic science-policy dialogue

ThinkForest works to identify information needs related to forest policy questions and build a common understanding of the problems at hand. By helping policy makers navigate through the wealth of information on offer and providing them with the best available expertise and the latest research-based information from the scientific community it enables informed decision making on strategic forest issues.

The ThinkForest forum brings together policymakers, the scientific community and stakeholders, offering a space for science-policy dialogue which builds bridges on pan-European forest and bioeconomy issues. It is chaired by Janez Potočnik, former EU Commissioner for both Science and Research, and Environment. From its foundation in 2012 until June 2019, it was chaired by former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson.

Find more information here.