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How can we advance towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in times of COVID-19 response and recovery? The 2021 UNECE Regional Forum on Sustainable Development will uncover concrete policy actions to accelerate SDG progress and spur the efforts to build back better. The Regional Forum will offer seven days of SDG action with 12 virtual peer learning round tables taking place from 10-16 March 2021, followed by the Forum’s hybrid plenary sessions on 17-18 March 2021. The 2021 Regional Forum will also give space to a range of discussions in 20+ side events and various pre-meetings.

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Building forward better: towards a resilient and green Africa to achieve the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063

The aim of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development is to advance integrated implementation of the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063, which are mutually reinforcing. To that end, the Regional Forum provides a multi-stakeholder platform for follow-up and review of progress and challenges in the implementation of the two Agendas, while strengthening learning and advocating effective policy measures and actions. The Regional Forum makes important contributions to bolstering multi-stakeholder engagement and synergies, and promoting concerted efforts to implement and achieve the development objectives of the two Agendas. Six sessions of the Forum have been held since 2015.

Sub-themes of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development

The activities of the seventh session of the Regional Forum will be conducted on the basis of the following sub-themes, which have been crafted around the nine Sustainable Development Goals to be considered at the 2021 high-level political forum:

1. No poverty;
2. Zero hunger;
3. Good health and well-being;
4. Decent work and economic growth;
5. Reduced inequalities;
6. Responsible consumption and production;
7. Climate action;
8. Peace, justice and strong institutions;
9. Partnerships.

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Fish and fish products are the most highly traded food commodity internationally. Therefore, the impact of COVID-19 on the fish supply chain and operations has been profound. Demand has also been affected negatively by interruptions to the supply chain.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – countries covered by the FAO Subregional Office for Central Asia – have experienced impacts of the COVID-19 at various degrees. However, the pandemic’s consequences on their fisheries and aquaculture sector has not been documented well.

Therefore the FAO webinar provides a platform for governments, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and industry to share experience of responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

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Hosted by the World Bank’s Environment, Natural Resources, and Blue Economy (ENB) Global Practice, in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Earth and Resources Universitas Indonesia and Griffith University, Bicara Bumi webinar series aims to promote cutting-edge technical knowledge, share good practices and experience, strengthen policy dialogues on natural-resources-management-related topics, and provide a platform to explore opportunities for collaborations amongst Indonesian and global stakeholders.

Overview

The World Bank Indonesia invites you to Bicara Bumi Webinar Series on “Launch of World Bank Reports: Protecting Natural Resources and Fostering Resilient and Green Economic Growth through Sustainable Agriculture, Effective Fire Management, and Strong Peatland and Lowlands Governance.” on February 4, 2021 at 9:30-11:45am Jakarta time.

The reports being launched are:

• Sustainable Lowland Agriculture Development in Indonesia. This report discusses recommendations to achieve the twin benefits of raising agriculture productivity (to promote greater and more widely shared prosperity) and environmental sustainability (to curb resource depletion and deleterious long-term effects).
• Improving Governance of Indonesia’s Peatlands and Other Lowland Ecosystems. This report presents recommendations to address sustainability challenges from lowland development through a landscape approach. The report focuses on peatland area in eight fire-prone provinces.
• Addressing Persistent Forest and Land Fires in Indonesia: Institutional and Expenditure Review of Fire Management. This report discusses critical elements in developing an Integrated Fire Management (IFM) strategy in Indonesia, including fire-prone locations, major drivers of fires, central government institutions with mandates linked to drivers of fires, program framework and related spending on fire management, as well as the role of local institutions and an integrated approach at the landscape level (‘cluster-based’).

The event will be conducted in Indonesian with translation to English via Zoom. Instructions to choose the language can be found here. The event will also be live-streamed via World Bank Indonesia Facebook Page

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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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