Changing Fashions, Changing Climates

Description:

Fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world. It’s responsible for 20% of the planet’s water pollution, and every second, it creates enough textile waste to fill a garbage truck. What’s more, its production processes create around 10 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and take up valuable land that could otherwise produce food or remain forested. Our appetite for disposable outfits is putting our ecosystems – and our species – at serious risk.

The “Changing Fashions, Changing Climates” forum will discuss the fashion industry’s footprint and consider its options for a more sustainable future. It will showcase initiatives that are placing sustainability at the top of their agenda, and consider options for scaling these up. Let’s take a closer look at what we’re wearing, where it comes from, and how we can help steer this gargantuan industry onto a less wasteful and more regenerative path.

Format:

  • Brief introduction to the event by moderator (Fe Cortez) (5 min)
  • Short (5-7 minutes) introduction by each panelist (25 min)
  • Questions from Fe Cortez for the invited guests (45 min)
  • Questions from audience and online participants (25 min)
  • Discussion and wrap-up (20 min)
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Operationalising the landscape approach: Learning from doing

Location: University of British Columbia, Faculty of Forestry, Room 1005

Event description

Sectorial approaches to land management have proved to be inefficient in combating persistent global challenges of biodiversity loss, food insecurity, climate change, and political and socio-economic inequality. Landscape-scale interventions have been identified as a means to manage trade-offs between conflicting land uses and capitalize on areas where synergies exist and provide a potential mechanism for addressing such local-national-global challenges. Six years on from the first Global Landscape Forum held in Warsaw, Poland, the term “landscape approaches” has now become integral to the development lexicon. Governments, the private sector, indigenous groups, conservation actors and the development community explicitly recognise the importance of working at the scale of the broader landscape, aimed at integrating differing and often competing land uses to ensure both environmental sustainability and continued human well-being. However, despite increasing traction of the landscape approach, the formal implementation, and more importantly, evaluation of landscape approaches on the ground has proved elusive. This, however, does not mean that landscape-scale interventions are not happening but may be a reflection of such initiatives not being widely reported in the popular and scientific literature.

This event will address this shortfall with a range of panellists representing academia, the private sector, indigenous and youth groups. From these diverse perspectives, panellists will discuss the perils, pitfalls and potential of landscape approaches and how they relate to rights, access, tensions between biodiversity conservation, economic development, and food security. Are landscape approaches a new sustainable development paradigm or merely “old wine in new bottles?” What experience can the panel share on successful (and less successful) examples of landscape-scale interventions? What does it take to implement landscape approaches in terms of institutional and governance arrangements? How do we achieve sustainable landscapes while recognising the need to feed a growing population that demands more from their resources?

With explicit engagement with a live and virtual audience, we will also try and answer the questions related to successful landscape-scale interventions and address the shortfalls between current rhetoric surrounding landscape approaches and the reality on the ground.

Format

Brief introduction to the event by moderator, followed by a short film: https://www.cifor.org/youtube/a-landscape-approach-what-where-and-how/ (20 mins)

Short (5-7 minute) introduction by each panellist prompted by questions from moderator. (25-30 mins)

Questions from the audience and on-line participants. Panellists respond. (30 mins)

Discussion and wrap up. (30 mins)

Participants

  • Terry Sunderland, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia and Senior Associate, Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) – moderator
  • Gabrielle Kissinger, Lexeme Consulting, Vancouver
  • Charles Menzies, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia
  • Navin Ramunkutty, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia
  • Roopa Davé, KPMG, Vancouver – not yet confirmed
  • Intu Boedhihartono, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia and Tanah Air Beta, Indonesia
  • Sam Adeyanju, Graduate Student, Faculty of Forestry, UBC and Founder and International Director at Pace Impact Initiative
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Youth leadership in climate smart landscapes

This WUYLF discussion panel will explore the role of youth leadership in the co-creation of innovative climate smart knowledge. The panel will be informed by the outputs of participatory and interactive workshops held 2 days prior to the panel. Photos, mind maps, visual representations, stories, business plans and novel ideas developed in the workshop will thus offer insights for the interactive youth-led panel discussion. The panelists represent youth initiatives; on-the-ground solutions from our own backyard in Europe, as well as from the rest of the world and personal experiences within the domains of nature conservation, agriculture, restoration, economy, business, activism, research and practice. Together, the 2-day event is the chance for the youth to create a space to connect, share and learn about practical and immediate action for sustainable landscapes and a climate smart future. It is a space where diverse perspectives will converge and together with critical thinking, offer new avenues for changing paradigms and instigating courageous action.

About the Wageningen University Youth for Landscapes – WUYLF

We – the WUYLF – are a dynamic and passionate group of WUR students who are inspired by science for impact. We have initiated a WUR-based platform to link up young critical thinkers to the world’s largest knowledge-based, multi-sectoral platform for sustainable landscapes – The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF). Empowering WUR-based youth to connect, share, learn and act with the global community is crucial to co-create and realize a vision of sustainable landscapes.

WUYLF was inspired by the stories, communities of practice and ideas stemming from WUR-networks, that we think should not only be shared with the global community but would also benefit from institutional and synergistic collaboration with the broader GLF-network to jointly co-create a vision for sustainable landscapes. WUR is continuously involved in cutting edge research and is a breeding ground for innovation. We know this is where it happens and we want to share it. We believe positive change can and should start at from the youth, enshrining the crucial role of the youth within landscapes and showcasing the initiatives in our own backyards. This is important to initiate climate action in landscapes across Europe and the rest of the world. WUYLF is taking the lead; by critically engaging, daring to question and is dedicated to overcoming the hurdles and resistance needed for transforming scientific development, policies, business as usual and our daily activities.

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UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – a dialogue on restoration approaches and commitments in East Africa

UN Environment is hosting a 2 hour discussion forum as part of the 24-hour Digital Edition, one of 5 live online sessions around the world, to take place on May 13, following on the GLF conference live from Kyoto. The session will be webstreamed live, with an expected audience of 10,000+.

The expert discussion forum in Nairobi will be connecting global experts, and leaders from Government, indigenous peoples, youth, civil society, and the private sector – both in person in Nairobi, and online. The theme will be the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, which was declared in March 2019 by the UN General Assembly. The Decade aims to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems. UN Environment and FAO will lead the implementation of the Decade with their partners.

The Decade, a global call to action, will draw together political support, scientific research and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration from successful pilot initiatives to areas of millions of hectares. Research shows that two billion hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded landscapes offer potential for restoration, with at least an equal area of marine and coastal ecosystems in need of restoration.

The side event aims to raise awareness and show evidence on the potential of the decade to coordinate an ambitious restoration program that builds resilience, reduces vulnerability and increases the ability of systems to adapt to the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss, daily threats and extreme events.

The event will be framed around experiences. The emerging approaches highlighted will build on the experiences and expertise of the speakers. It will aim for increased awareness of the importance of restoring ecosystems in order to restore healthy and sustainable ecosystems for today and the future. Visual presentation tools will be used to enhance presentations, and active audience participation will be facilitated, including of the online audience.

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