Digital edition: New York 2019

Recent studies show that nature-based approaches to carbon capture such as restoration can provide more than a third of the emissions reductions needed to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C. Showcasing a large-scale community-driven forest restoration initiative in the

Andes, involved parties representing communities, intermediaries, and financiers will share what factors determine successful implementation and what roadblocks have to be overcome. Attendees will leave the panel discussion with a better understanding of what factors determine the success of landscape-wide restorations in remote mountain areas, how long-term engagement of both the implementing and the financing partners can be ensured and much more.

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[Video] Andes Action: New Trees for the Andes

[Photos] Andes Action: New Trees for the Andes

Climate change is occurring much faster, and is wreaking much more damage than was predicted even just a few years ago. The acceleration of global warming is nearly unstoppable – unless we act now, and unless we act ambitiously, together, as a global community. A global goal, and a set of six ambitious targets, are proposed to overcome the climate crisis, keep our earth habitable, and improve the lives of people around the planet.

The goal is to capture and restore back to the land 20 billion tons of CO2 annually from the atmosphere by the year 2050, to create a drawdown of 10 billion tons of negative CO2 emissions per year, through evergreening or nature-based storage of carbon. The six targets include: Tripling the current rate of increasing tree cover on farmlands; scaling-up leguminous shrubs on farmlands; restoring tree cover on degraded forest lands through assisted natural regeneration; and regenerating a healthy grass-tree balance on degraded pasturelands.

This session aims to inspire concrete action, set cascading targets, build capacity for scaling-up evergreening practices, implementing at the grassroots level, and tracking the impact from local to global levels. For more information on this campaign, please visit evergreening.org.

Read more on forests here.

Panel of discussants

• Tim Christophersen, UN Environment Program & Chair, Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration
• Marjolein Albers, CEO, Justdiggit
• Sean Dewitt, CEO, World Resources Institute
• Felix Finkbeiner, Founder, Plant-for-the-Planet
• Monicah Kibaki, Fellow, Global EverGreening Alliance
• Jennifer Morris, President, Conservation International

The transition to responsible agriculture production systems is possible and underway. By using sustainable approaches to agriculture, such systems incorporate broader landscape considerations and goals to create benefits such as reduced demand for land use change, ecosystem restoration, improved food security, and carbon sequestration.

During this event, stakeholders will share their experiences with changing agriculture in their landscapes through the adoption of climate-smart agriculture, agroforestry, and new thinking around how we grow and consume food. Through their stories, they will share what it takes to make the transition and to scale up action. Discussion will center on the question: “what does it take to make the transitional to sustainable agriculture production systems?”

Restoration is now a critical component of national agendas worldwide. Fulfilling the promises of the U.N. Decade of Ecosystem Restoration could radically reduce atmospheric carbon, secure the future of millions of rural peoples and save hundreds of thousands of threatened species from extinction. Yet, in the past 20 years, we’ve failed to fully leverage the potential of restoration to meet the scale of the planetary need. As we prepare for the coming Decade, how do we learn from the past to successfully restore the ecosystems necessary to avoid environmental and social collapse? Leaders from across the world will provide key recommendations for how to deliver on the promises of restoration.

The U.N. Decade of Ecosystem Restoration is a game-changing initiative to massively ramp up restoration of degraded ecosystems and fight the climate crisis while enhancing and protecting food security, water supply and biodiversity. Collaboration and leveraging both evidence-based and traditional knowledge will be crucial as communities, governments and businesses around the world prepare to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in projects in the coming years.

Scientists from CIFOR-ICRAF have researched landscapes from the mangroves of Southeast Asia to the savannah of Africa, investigating the very problems that currently plague regions suffering from underproductive and damaged land. This session will highlight the role collaboration with stakeholders and knowledge play in supporting sustainable, equitable and productive landscapes.