Event Type: Digital Forum

Restoration practices must be designed in environmentally, socially and economically efficient ways in order to enhance long term farmer adoption. Putting together farmers’ experiences and scientific knowledge through participatory monitoring can help to find the most feasible solutions to develop resilient agroecosystems. However, involving multiple stakeholders in research can be challenging and requires careful design of collaborative monitoring adapted to the local context.

In this Digital Summit, three cases of participatory montoring used to foster agroecosystem restoration will be shared. The case studies present differing methods that have been used in research in three ecosystems: African thickets and forests, Mediterranean drylands in Spain, and the subtropical Atlantic rainforest in Brazil. After considering the strengths and lessons learnt from these case studies, we will facilitate a discussion about plausible strategies, benefits, challenges and limitations of participatory monitoring to facilitate knowledge exchange, foster the restoration of agroecosystems, and promote science with impact.

Speakers:

• Moderator: Dr. Joris de Vente, Spanish National Research Council (CEBAS-CSIC)
• MSc Raquel Luján Soto, Spanish National Research Council (CEBAS-CSIC) & Institute of Sociology and Peasant Studies (ISEC) – University of Cordoba.
• Mr. Piet Krueger, Farmer participating in Living Lands restoration initiative (South Africa).
• Dr Lindsay Stringer, University of Leeds
• MSc Heitor Mancini Teixeira, WUR (NL) and University of Viçosa (Brasil)

This Digital Summit is hosted by GLF and initiated by J. de Vente and R. Lujan Soto from the Spanish National Research Council as a partner in the ENABLE consortium and supported by a research grant from Fundación la Caixa.

Participatory approaches to map and model system dynamics can help to create mutual understanding of appropriate collective action for ecosystem restoration initiatives. But in contexts with active resource or value system conflicts, this can be a challenging task.

Join us for this Digital Summit, which will address the potential benefits, limitations and challenges of participatory modelling as a methodology to co-create scenarios promoting coastal-rural synergies.

In particular, three examples of ongoing projects in Spain, India and Portugal will be presented: 1) the Mar Menor coastal lagoon and its contributing catchment area, as part of the COASTAL project; 2) the Ria de Aveiro coastal lagoon and Lower Vouga River Natura2000 sites; and 3) A project with farmers about groundwater management in India.

Already have thoughts or questions for our speakers? Registered participants will be asked to submit their questions in advance!

Speakers:

• Moderator: Joris de Vente, Spanish National Research Council (CEBAS-CSIC, Spain)
• Javier Martínez-López, Spanish National Research Council (CEBAS-CSIC)
• Alexey Voinov, Centre on Persuasive Systems for Wise Adaptive Living (PERSWADE, Australia)
• Óscar Esparza Alaminos, WWF (Spain)
• Ana Lillebø, University Aveiro (Portugal)
• Heliana Teixeira, University Aveiro (Portugal)
• Nagesh Kolagani, Centurion University (India)

This Digital Summit is hosted by GLF and initiated by J. de Vente and J. Martínez López from the Spanish National Research Council as partner in the  ENABLE consortium and COASTAL project.

Where indigenous peoples and local communities hold secure rights, forests are less likely to be degraded or destroyed, providing better protection than even legally protected areas. However, in many countries, there is a substantial gap in tenure security for community lands.

To highlight recent solutions for closing the implementation gap, GLF is teaming up with its newest charter member Climate Focus, to offer a Digital Summit on the role of forest rights. Speakers will share recent research findings and their own experience. Particularly, research from the LandMark initiative, which shed light on the nature of the implementation gaps in 14 countries and research from IIED, which tracked progress on empowering forest-linked communities.

Join us to learn how we work together to secure rights to protect landscapes and empower local communities to ensure healthy landscapes.

Speakers:

• Moderator: Ingrid Schulte, Land use consultant and NYDF Assessment coordinator, Climate Focus
• Fabrice Dubertret, World Resources Institute/LandMark
• James Mayers, Director, Natural Resources, International Institute for Environment and Development
• Hindou Oumar Ibrahim, Association of Indigenous Peul Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT)

Objectives:

• Highlight the role of rights in healthy landscapes
• Present high-level findings on the area of legally recognized and documented community land
• Discuss implications for spurring progress toward full legal recognition
• Showcase current progress towards empowering forest-linked communities and the mechanisms to do so

Local landscape initiatives make business sense: companies stand to gain an edge in innovation through supporting local communities and smallholders by utilizing the tacit knowledge of front-line employees. But how can we create environments that better connect financial instruments and ground level landscape initiatives?

Join us on July 9th at 14:00 Central European Time (Paris, Rome), where we will bring together diverse perspectives on what inclusive finance means and how it may be mobilized. This Digital Summit, organized by the the CGIAR Research program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), will feature speakers like Pauline Nantongo of Ecotrust in Uganda, Marco Boscolo from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and Juan Carlos Gonzalez Aybar of Althelia Funds and impact investment manager from Mirova. Speakers will share their experiences and thoughts on the way forward for the upscaling of innovative finance mechanisms that support sustainable landscapes and have special consideration for the smallholders within that landscape.

This Digital Summit emerges from the context of a workstream on inclusive finance initiated within the framework of the FTA, Tropenbos International and CIFOR. This workstream included eight interviews with key stakeholders of the finance value chain and a summary of existing documentation on the topic. This learning journey is now entering a consultative and interactive phase.

Share your thoughts on finance for inclusive and sustainable landscapes with experts on the topic by registering today.

Speakers:

• Marco Boscolo
• Juan Carlos Gonzalez Aybar
• Pauline Nantongo
• Gerhard Mulder

Download Inclusive Finance Interviews HERE

We have chosen CO2 as the primary measure for nearly everything related to the climate crisis from pollution to solution. What do we gain? Better communication and easier reporting of success and failure. What do we lose? An opportunity to utilize a holistic approach to tackle a complex issue, often resulting in crucial topics such as biodiversity being left behind.

Take for example, a potential REDD+ project that prioritizes fast-growing tree species for carbon sequestration while potentially sacrificing biodiversity, landscape heterogeneity, ecosystem services, etc. Is carbon and the climate emergency stealing attention from other pressing issues which, when considered more holistically, could also make significant contributions to adaptation and mitigation? Let’s discuss these key questions in this GLF Digital Summit “To carbon or not to carbon.” What other approaches are there to this carbon-centred dilemma?

Host: Youth in Landscapes Initiative

Climate advocates are increasingly urging the adoption of “nature-based solutions” to address climate change and prevent further biodiversity loss, putting landscape restoration more fully in the spotlight. The recently announced U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 dovetails with the concept of using nature-based solution as a key element for solving socio-environmental challenges.

Using nature-based solutions to tackle landscape restoration and boost development involves restoring the land while keeping rights in focus. Gender-blind restoration efforts are likely to reinforce or even exacerbate pre-existing inequalities. Successful restoration relies on the women and men who depend on the landscapes for their livelihoods – and whose rights and wellbeing must be safeguarded and promoted for restoration to be sustainable and just.

This upcoming digital summit unites researchers, practitioners and advocates working at the nexus of gender and environment who will share experiences and strategize over how to ensure an equitable, sustainable and just implementation of the restoration agenda. It will provide a conceptual foundation for addressing gender equality and restoration. Presenters will discuss key restoration-related gender concepts, which will be illustrated through global experiences while identifying new potential.

Background

Since the launch of the Bonn Challenge in 2011, governments, companies and civil society groups have pledged to bring hundreds of millions of hectares of degraded lands into restoration by 2030. The Bonn Challenge builds on the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) framework, aiming to “restore ecological integrity at the same time as improving human well-being.” An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that gender-blind restoration efforts are likely to reinforce or even exacerbate pre-existing gender inequalities. At the same time, numerous studies have found that addressing gender equality can enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of restoration action. Identifying needs, opportunities and good practices for addressing social inclusion and equity in restoration is particularly critical now, as the United Nations recently declared 2021-2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Resources

Gender matters in Forest Landscape Restoration: A framework for design and evaluation

Joint infobrief set on gender equality and forest landscape restoration

Photo by Becca Henry

April 2019 marks six years since the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed 1138 people and injured many more. Join us during Fashion Revolution Week to ask #whomademyclothes, and learn from those working to improve transparency and rights within the fashion supply chain.

The fashion industry is the world’s second most polluting industry, and the textile industry uses more water than any other industry after agriculture. Not only is the glamorous facade of the fashion industry in many cases founded upon exploited workers in low-paid and unsafe working conditions, but it also harms the environment through intensive cotton crops, polluting dye processes and the impact of fast-fashion on landfills, to name a few of the issues at hand.

With the signing of the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action in December, and industry-leading fashion councils supporting sustainable initiatives, progress is being made — but is it enough? In this summit we will explore the many issues of fashion supply chains and hear about innovative ideas to improve transparency, ensure workers rights and reduce the extent of fashion’s footprint on our precious planet.

Speakers:

Christian Smith, Leader and advocate of sustainable business practices in the fashion industry

Kavita Parmar, Founder & Creative Director, The IOU Project

Read more on this topic on Landscape News:

• Sustainable fashion moving from trend to permanent style
• How lab-made fashion is changing landscapes
• Lebanese designer leads fashion toward sustainability
• Transforming the fashion industry to meet U.N. sustainability targets

Join us on International Women’s Day in conversation with three inspiring women who are flipping paradigms, breaking glass ceilings, and innovating to combat inequality and strengthen rights for local communities. Power imbalances and marginalization run rampant in our world, affecting farmers, indigenous peoples, women, local communities, and even everyday citizens. In this Digital Summit, speakers will present their experiences in using innovation and technology to bridge the gap — from implementing authentic bottom-up approaches to give farmers a leading role on an international stage or data democratizing through open source tools that empower local communities. Get inspired by these stories and learn to face global challenges with a creative and innovative spirit.

SPEAKERS:

Luisa Volpe, Head of Policy Development, World Farmers’ Organization

Hajar Benelcadi, Senior EO Data Analyst, Mundialis GmbH & Co. KG

Neha Misra, Co-Founder and Chief Collaboration Officer, Solar Sister