Engaging the Private Sector in Integrated Landscape Approaches: More examples from across Africa

Building on the engaging discussion forum 12 at GLF Nairobi, “Engaging the Private Sector in Integrated Landscape Approaches: Cases from the African Landscapes Action Plan”, this digital summit will provide bring additional examples from new geographies, new voices, and new insights to this important topic. Panelists will react to the key messages of the GLF Nairobi discussion forum:

  • Value chain approaches not sufficient to address sustainability issues, we need integrated landscape approaches.
  • Landscape management can be a de-risking strategy for financing development.
  • Private sector players and financial institutions can become interested in investing in the landscape if you make a clear business case. Most of them, however, don’t speak the language of landscape yet.

Engaging the private sector is a key action area within the African Landscapes Action Plan (ALAP), which, like AFR100, contributes to the African Resilient Landscapes Initiative (ARLI). Our digital summit panelists will provide insight from both the landscape partnership convener perspective, and from the private sector already engaged in landscape management initiatives.

By sharing cases from both perspectives, we can help both groups see the benefits, and acknowledge and address the challenges, of working together. Through these stories we hope to help more landscape initiatives reach out successfully to private sector partners, and to motivate more private sector actors, of all sizes, to actively seek out opportunities to be engaged and supportive partners in integrated landscape management in the landscapes where they operate. We believe that those working to advance sustainable land and resource use and forest and landscape restoration in Africa can benefit from the collective experience (both successes and failures/obstacles) in engaging with the private sector in the process of collaborative landscape management.

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Think climate smart landscapes

Climate Change is impacting our landscapes, action is needed now! During this international short course, you will learn about the landscape approach, climate trends and adaptation actions to increase the resilience of your landscapes and its people.

We will provide you with practical and participatory tools, which allow you to assess the vulnerabilities of your landscapes and develop climate smart strategies. This way, you will look for synergies between various SDG goals!

Apply here

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Les tourbières : Un paysage à découvrir

This Digital Summit will be conducted in French.

Les tourbières sont l’un des écosystèmes les moins compris et les moins surveillés de la planète. Cependant, ils contiennent les plus fortes concentrations de carbone organique dans leur sol et constituent un refuge pour les espèces en voie de disparition. Ces zones humides spongieuses aident à protéger les communautés contre les précipitations irrégulières et contre l’élévation des niveaux d’eau.

Si elles sont drainées, dégradées ou brûlées, les tourbières émettent des gaz à effet de serre et de la brume, ce qui affecte les populations et accélère le changement climatique. Actuellement, les émissions liées aux tourbières devraient représenter jusqu’à cinq pour cent du budget mondial de gaz à effet de serre.

En 2017, les chercheurs ont découvert que la tourbière de la Cuvette Centrale dans le bassin du Congo était beaucoup plus grande que ce qui avait été estimé précédemment. Ils ont également estimé que ces sols tourbeux forestiers pratiquement intacts contenaient environ 30 gigatonnes de carbone, soit l’équivalent de trois années d’émissions mondiales de gaz à effet de serre. La Cuvette Centrale est actuellement difficile d’accès et héberge de petites communautés humaines et les plus fortes densités mondiales de gorilles de plaine de l’ouest, ainsi que de bonobos, de chimpanzés et d’éléphants de forêt.

La découverte de ce complexe de tourbières dans le bassin du Congo, et sa cartographie sont particulièrement importantes car elles aident à identifier, à l’échelle mondiale, l’une des zones à protéger pour leur valeur climatique et leur biodiversité.

Depuis les années 1990, les tourbières des régions tropicales, tempérées et boréales sont devenues célèbres pour les feux de forêt intenses et les émissions de gaz à effet de serre extrêmement élevées par hectare une fois drainées. En s’inspirant de l’expérience d’autres pays, la République du Congo et la République démocratique du Congo (RDC) se sont engagées à protéger la Cuvette congolaise avec l’Indonésie et d’autres partenaires de l’Initiative mondiale pour les tourbières (GPI). Il y a cependant beaucoup de choses à comprendre sur les paysages de tourbières pour pouvoir les prendre en compte correctement dans les futurs plans et actions de développement des pays.

Ce sommet, organisé par la FAO en collaboration avec le GLF vise à accueillir spécialement les acteurs des secteurs public et privé, la société civile et l’académie, les médias francophones, les personnes vivant ou travaillant dans le bassin du Congo, aussi que les praticiens du développement.

Panelistes :
Francis Müller, Directeur, Pôle-relais tourbières à la Fédération des Conservatoires d’espaces naturels, France
Dr Ifo Suspense, Université Marien Ngouabi, République du Congo

Modérateur : Anne Branthomme, FAO

Familiarisez-vous avec le sujet : Infographie « Les tourbières et le changement climatique »

Peatlands – A landscape to discover

Peatlands are one of the least understood and monitored ecosystems in the planet. Still, they contain the highest concentrations of organic carbon in their soil, and are a refuge for endangered species. These spongy wetlands help in protecting communities against erratic rainfall and raising water levels.
If drained, degraded or burned, peatlands start emitting greenhouse gases and haze negatively affecting people and accelerating climate change. Currently, peatland-related emissions are estimated to raise up to five percent of the global greenhouse gas budget.

In 2017, researchers discovered that the peatlands of the Cuvette Centrale Peatland in the Congo Basin are much larger than previously estimated. They also estimated that these practically intact, forested peat soils contain approximately 30 Gigatons of carbon — equivalent to three years of global greenhouse gas emissions. Cuvette Centrale is currently hard to access and hosts small human communities and the world’s highest densities of western lowland gorillas, as well as bonobos, chimpanzees and forest elephants.
The discovery of this largest, continuous peatland complex of the Congo Basin and its mapping are especially important because they help in identifying globally one of the areas that need protection for their climate and biodiversity value.

Since 1990s, peatlands in tropical, temperate and boreal regions have become notoriously famous for the intense wildfires and the extremely high greenhouse gas emissions per hectare when drained. Learning from other countries’ experience, both The Republic of Congo (RoC) and The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have committed to protect the Cuvette Congolaise with Indonesia and other partners to the Global Peatlands Initiative. Still, a lot needs to be understood to be able to take the peatlands into account in the future plans and development actions of the countries.

Confirmed panelists
Francis Müller, Director of Pôle-relais tourbières à la Fédération des Conservatoires d’espaces naturels, France
Dr. Ifo Suspense, Marien Ngouabi University, Republic of Congo

Moderator: Anne Branthomme, FAO

Participation
This summit, organized by FAO in collaboration with the Global Landscapes Forum, aims to especially welcome public and private sector actors, civil society and academia, French-speaking media, people living or working with stakeholders in the Congo Basin, as well as development practitioners.
Materials to share with participants: Infographics Peatlands and Climate Change.

 

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GLF Climate Action in the Landscape at COP24

The Climate Action in the Landscape GLF will be second thematic forum to specifically focus on climate change and the interactive solutions that can be found within sustainable landscapes. The event will feature 4 sessions held throughout half a day at COP24 in Katowice and will align with the Five Pillars of the GLF: Livelihoods, Rights, Restoration, Finance, and Measuring Progress.

The event will bring together stakeholders from science and academia, civil society, indigenous peoples, practitioners and government representatives and will focus on climate action at the international and national level.
Climate Action in the Landscape will open with a High Level Plenary session reflecting on the role of land use and forests in the context of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 degrees, to be followed by 3 consecutive Discussion Forums on topics related to:

  • Climate Action at scale through Forest Landscape Restoration: lessons learnt;
  • The role of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples (LCIP) Platform to Climate Actions in landscapes;
  • Putting into practice Article 5 of the Paris Agreement and the special role of ecosystems

For details of the GLF activities at COP24, read the Concept Note below.

Read Concept Note

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Landscape Governance

Scholarships for our international course on LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE now available!

Always wanted to learn about integrated landscape approaches? Then this is your chance! Our famous international course on LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE is now open for application. Scholarships are available if applied for before October 10th, so you’d better be fast!

During our two weeks programme (1-12 April 2019) we will challenge you to look at your own work from an integrative landscape perspective, learn how to build bridges between the public and the private sector, and develop innovative governance mechanisms at the landscape level.

Apply NOW, to be the first!

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Scaling up Forest Landscape Restoration commitments from local to regional level

WWF’s digital summit will feature various perspectives on how to scale up Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) and increase the scale and scope of activities in Africa. Three different case studies and two government perspectives will be presented on the question: What is needed to get FLR under the scheme of the Bonn Challenge and its regional initiative AFR100 in large-scale practise and on the ground?

Valérie Ramahavalisoa, Head of the Service for watershed management at the Ministry of Environment, Ecology and Forests of the Madagascan government and Member of the FLR national committee, and Stefan Schmitz, Head of Directorate Food, Rural Developments, Natural Resources, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany responsible for the AFR 100, will both elaborate how to scale-up restoration activities from a government / donor perspective.

The two main questions are:

  1. What is needed to boost and enable FLR implementation scale?
  2. Which political priority setting and funding schemes are needed?

We will highlight the important role of partnerships for FLR through the Trillion Trees Programme, a collaboration between three of the largest conservation organisations – WWF, BirdLife International, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The New Forest Company, a Ugandan Plantations company, which is a member of the New Generations Plantations Platform will showcase the role of responsible plantations under a forest landscape restoration approach.

Finally, these perspectives will be complemented  by lessons learned that are drawn from WWF experiences on 13 years of restoration activities with communities in Madagascar’s Fandriana-Marolambo landscape as well as  Uganda’s Mityana-Bugiri landscape.  The lessons learned will touch upon important experiences on the importance of FLR for both conservation and livelihood.

We hereby invite everyone to join us in this “Digital Summit”, to better understand and discuss with all panellists on how restoration activities can be scaled up. You will have the chance to learn and ask project managers, the private sector, a government representative from a tropical forest country and a donor on their perspectives.

 

Participants

Keynote speaker: Stefan Schmitz – Head of Directorate Food, Rural Developments, Natural Resources, Federal   Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany

Case study Uganda:  Martin Asiimwe – WWF Uganda, Forest and Biodiversity Program Coordinator and Patrick Mugenyi – New Forests Company Uganda, CEO (NGP Participant)

Case study Madagascar: Valérie Ramahavalisoa – Head of the Service for watershed management at the Ministry of Environment, Ecology and Forests, National Focal Point for soil projects, and Member of the FLR national committee and Simon Rafanomezantsoa, Senior Officer, Terrestrial Biodiversity, WWF Madagascar Country Office

Case study Trillion Trees Programme (TTP) – Tim Rayden joined the TTP when it was launched at the end of 2016, and now supports the development of restoration projects across the WCS global portfolio.

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GLF Nairobi Discussion Forum Interviews

Tune in live as we follow up with the hosts of our discussion forums  to pick their brains about the sessions. With topics ranging across restoration, agroforestry, sustainable supply chains and more, you won’t want to miss out.

During this session we will be going in-depth with discussion forum hosts to get the low-down on their sessions, their concluding thoughts, key takeaways and more. Register now to get involved in the conversation and ask the hosts some questions of your own.

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Voices of the Landscape

Following the Voices of the Landscape Plenary session, we will be joined for a live discussion with the panellists to shine a light on the efforts of their communities, some of them decades-long, in restoring degraded forests and landscapes. Participants will present key achievements, factors enabling such achievement and key opportunities for landscape restoration going forward. In particular, the meaning of “success” from the perspective of communities will be probed. Discussions will also focus on measures for scaling up community initiatives within and across settings. To amplify these community voices in global policy debates, we will be talking to the panellists about their key takeaways and concluding thoughts from the plenary session.

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Land Matters! MOOC 2018

Land Matters! Integrating Soil Degradation Concerns and Solutions into Policy Processes

2018 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
 

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
 

About the course

Land degradation affects us all directly or indirectly: food insecurity, pests, reduced availability of clean water, increased vulnerability to climate change, biodiversity loss, and much more. However, policy often fails to acknowledge this problem, or is incapable to identify solutions.

That’s why we offer this MOOC, running from August 27th through October 15th, 2018 to help understand how to influence policy making to foster sustainable soil protection and rehabilitation.

The global programme “Soil protection and rehabilitation for food security“, implemented by GIZ for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is launching the free MOOC “Land Matters!” in cooperation with the University of Leeds – School of Earth and Environment and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Theoretical and methodological input by experts will help you to clarify specific policy objectives, the preferred modes of communication of your target group, and to identify the most suitable engagement techniques or activities.

You will have the opportunity to exchange views and experiences with experts and participants and work on the topic in an international network of practitioners, scientists and policy makers. You are also encouraged to reflect on the possible application of the acquired knowledge in your own case, by developing your own case specific policy brief and feeding your conclusions back into the MOOC forum.

Specific benefits of the MOOC will be:

  • Learning through inputs, sharing of experiences, exercises and case studies.
  • Strengthening of existing networks, creation of new networks, and potential for further joint work or knowledge exchange.
  • Visibility of the topic and experiences through broad communication of the MOOC.
  • Access to a collection of material and background documents on the topic, including examples and case studies that could be further explored.
  • Support in the development of case/country specific material (e.g. policy briefs).

 

Who can participate?

Anyone who would like to extend and share their knowledge and experience on bringing soil protection issues into policy making.

 

Duration and workload

This MOOC is an 8-week program consisting of 8 modules, and it is entirely free of charge. Traditional course material such as videos, readings, and case studies will be provided together with an online learning room. The MOOC’s interactive tools will help build a vibrant learning community, focused on co-creating solutions. Participants who would like to receive a certificate should expect a workload of 3 hours per week.

 

Certificates

Participants who successfully complete the course and develop a case specific policy brief, will receive a certificate from GIZ.

 

FIND OUT MORE

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