Digital edition: Climate 2021

We are poised at a critical moment in human and planetary history: the decisive decade to act against climate change and restore our relationship with nature. Over the last three days, we have heard extensively about why forests, food and finance are key to securing a sustainable future.

But what we have been doing is not enough. Transformative change requires radical collaboration and integrated action at speed and scale, across forests, food and finance – as we call them, the ‘frontiers of change’.

At the Closing Plenary of GLF Climate, be inspired and challenged by climate champions from the grassroots to the global. Ordinary citizens, activists, youth, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, business, government and development leaders will join us at the University of Glasgow – and online from around the world – to pave the way for action beyond COP26.

According to a recent global survey by the University of Bath, the climate crisis is causing distress, anger, anxiety and even guilt among children and young people worldwide, who are pointing to a lack of ambitious action from world leaders. How can we cope with eco-anxiety and find constructive sources of hope and action? Join this session together with other GLF Climate participants to share your interests, needs, thoughts and feelings on the climate emergency – without judgement. Please note: This session is digital and spots are limited to 30 participants. Save your spot now by registering here.

This is an interview with Josephine Becker, a climate activist, movement organizer, and Ph.D. candidate. The conversation explores individual and systematic change, the responsibility for the climate crisis, the importance of sharing stories of those experiencing climate change, and the relationship between personal and systematic change.

Josephine highlights the need to address the underlying issues of the climate crisis. She emphasizes that it is not solely the responsibility of individuals but rather a result of systemic forces that have existed for centuries. She mentions the role of colonialism, industrialization, and the actions of a few significant companies in contributing to the crisis.

The conversation discusses the importance of sharing stories of those directly affected by climate change, as it helps break the narratives of historical erasure and reminds us that everyone deserves safe and thriving conditions. Josephine encourages learning from those on the front lines and supporting their calls to action.

Regarding individual and systematic change, Josephine acknowledges the value of individual actions but emphasizes that they alone cannot solve systemic issues. She argues that individual efforts should be complemented by addressing the larger systems that shape our society, such as education, politics, and economics. She calls for redistributing injustices and dismantling the systems that perpetuate them.

The conversation concludes with a discussion of the relationship between individual and systematic change. Josephine rejects the notion of an either/or approach and argues that both are necessary and should coexist. She highlights the power of community and collective action and the need for individuals to challenge their behaviors and values within the larger systems they are a part of.

Josephine also briefly discusses the podcast she co-hosts called “The Yikes Podcast,” which aims to provide educational tools and facilitate nuanced conversations on activism and social movements. She encourages young people to get involved in their communities, connect with existing groups or start their initiatives, and emphasizes that everyone’s skills and contributions are valuable in the fight against the climate crisis.

The conversation ends with a quote from Wangari Maathai emphasizing the importance of teamwork and the need for collective action to create lasting change.

Overall, The conversation highlights the interconnectedness of individual and systematic change in addressing the climate crisis and emphasizes the power of community and collective action in creating a more just and sustainable future.

Due to huge locally based renewable energy potential, Indonesia is aiming for a 23% energy mix from renewables by 2025. The country has an extraordinary range of natural resources that can be harnessed for renewable energy, including unparalleled geothermal, immense local biomass potential, substantial hydro, solar irradiation, wind and even oceanic current flows.

Characteristics that make biomass suitable for substituting diesel power plants in Indonesia include a flexible power plant size and load-follower capabilities. Biomass power generation can also be deployed anywhere where sufficient potential for biomass production exists, including in the rural grids of Timor Island. Moreover, as the biomass in Timor is only applied on degraded/non-forested land using fast-growing leguminous trees that can be harvested through coppice and do not require replanting for 15-20 years, planting trees at scale for biomass production can maintain reduce soil erosion, improve landscape fertility, sequestrate soil carbon, and stabilize hydrological cycles in the mid to long-term.

To enhance the benefits of biomass power plants more significantly, we propose a community-based business scheme, ensuring that the biomass is produced and harvested by local communities and sold to power generation facilities, considerably improving income as the sole biomass feedstock supplier.

Under this approach, biomass power generation can be a catalyst for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels (especially diesel) used in power generation, provide an income for communities supplying feedstock and restore degraded landscapes at scale.

Relevant Resource(s):

• Biomass based microgrid development in Indonesia (watch here)
• Powering the Indonesian Archipelago – White paper – Global Landscapes Forum

Useful Website(s):

• https://www.inbar.int/bamboo-renewable-source-energy-remote-communities/
• https://forestsnews.cifor.org/59908/turning-on-the-lights-in-eastern-indonesia?fnl=en
• https://forestsnews.cifor.org/58778/bamboo-a-sustainable-alternative-for-bioenergy-production-in-indonesia?fnl=

With scientific evidence piling up about the impact of food systems on the climate crisis, many young people are embracing more plant-based foods and including fewer animal products in their diets. However, this is not necessarily a novel practice: from India to Ethiopia, from Ghana to Jamaica, many cultures across the world have been eating heavily plant-based diets for centuries – long before ‘going vegan’ was a trend. Join this Youth Daily Show and take a culinary trip to Ghana and Malaysia to visit two aspiring young vegan chefs. Who knows, we might even learn a new recipe or two!

The ways we use our land to produce food and other goods and services are responsible for just under a quarter of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Within this segment, the most significant contributors are deforestation and agricultural emissions from livestock, soil and nutrient management.

It’s also on the land where climate change has its most considerable immediate effects on people’s livelihoods. Whether different land-uses are mutually exclusive as in protected forest ecosystems and highly intensified crop fields or combined as in agroforestry systems, we need integrated leadership and policies to govern land use in ways that balance goals from different sectors.

Restoration is a key intervention to bridge the conservation and food production agendas, and it can help to overcome historical administrative and sectorial silos. Regenerative practices such as agroforestry, crop diversification, reduced tillage, and many more, will reduce GHG emissions. To take these to scale, we need policies and incentives that enable smallholders to reconstruct local and regional agri-food systems and value chains.

In this plenary, we will discuss solutions for managing forests and agriculture to realize mitigation and adaptation targets with experts and practitioners.

This brings us to a second positive tipping point which is food system transformation.
Useful Publication:
Landscapes for Forests and Food

In response to the increasing and devastating degradation of ecosystems, African leaders committed to restore 100 million hectares by 2030 under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100). There are many African communities, enterprises and politicians already invested in the movement to restore forest landscapes and ecosystems. Yet, as national ambitions continue to grow, so does the demand for local stakeholders to match these commitments in the field. In order to reverse degradation and achieve nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement, it is crucial to unblock large-scale restoration efforts, include all levels of stakeholders and build on existing achievements on the ground. With the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in mind, one critical success factor of ecosystem restoration is the transfer of local experience into sustainably funded large-scale concepts.
Successful upscaling requires close exchange, mutual understanding and strong collaboration of various stakeholders. Bridging existing challenges and embracing opportunities will be key to upscale Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) today in order to ensure to ensure that yesterday’s promises are fulfilled tomorrow.
This session discusses challenges, opportunities and achievements of upscaling restoration in Africa with representatives from local organizations, governments, private sector and communities. Restoration champions will share their experiences and achievements with upscaling restoration in order to identify and discuss success mechanisms. Political, financial and community stakeholders will be able to voice and exchange their expectations and contributions to collectively address the challenges they face when upscaling restoration measures.

Relevant Resource(s):

• The Land Accelerator: Empowering Restoration Entrepreneurs (watch here)
• Whitepaper: Upscaling Forest and Landscape Restoration: Regional and Local Mechanisms for Success

Useful Website(s):

• The Land Accelerator

Over the last 30 years, forests have been increasingly at the center of discussions within multilateral agreements on climate. Recent global initiatives have focused much attention on either reducing deforestation by conserving existing forests or restoring degraded land through reforestation.
However, less attention has been given to improved forest management and forests restoration by local communities, which plays an important role in reducing the impact of climate change. It also addresses the many interconnected drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, by increasing resilience, both economically and ecologically. Numerous examples demonstrate that community forestry can significantly contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation.
Through this session, the Rainforest Alliance and its partners will highlight the importance of community forestry in contributing to stopping forest degradation and enhancing climate adaptation and mitigation. Case studies of responsible forest management and productive forest restoration conducted by local communities or Indigenous Peoples, at the crossroad between forestry and agriculture, will be given. We will present how trade-offs between enhanced ecosystem resilience and increased livelihoods can be met.
We will also explore the role of companies, governments and financiers on how to further support community forests and what is needed to scale up this support at the landscape level, identifying and addressing barriers.

Relevant Resource(s):

• Introducing the Rainforest Alliance’s Integrated Community Forest Management
• Supporting Community Forest Management and Enterprise: Eight Lessons from Twenty Years of Global Experience

Useful Website(s):

• Forest Allies Archives | Rainforest Alliance (rainforest-alliance.org)

Curious about what GLF’s restoration practitioners are up to? Whether they’re planting trees, recovering coral reefs, connecting stakeholders or creating local communities, tune in to learn about the GLF Restoration Alliance and what Restoration Stewards and GLF chapters are doing to restore our planet as part of a global effort during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Positive tipping points can transform our future. One promising entry point for triggering them is ecosystem restoration, which combines restoring ecosystem functioning and development with climate mitigation and adaptation. Experience shows that landscape approaches are key to restoration, as it is in landscapes where stakeholders meet, conflicting interests are negotiated, and synergies are achieved. However, there are persistent challenges that involve conflicting stakeholder interests, siloed rules and regulations, and power imbalances that resist change. Overcoming them requires all actors operating in forest conservation and restoration, food and agriculture, supply chains, healthcare, and business and finance, to step up to change. Speakers will elaborate on the role of restoration in triggering positive tipping points and discuss the key challenges and opportunities they have experienced whilst implementing restoration processes at the regional and local level.