This report synthesizes the shared experiences, challenges, and solutions suggested by several dozen young landscape practitioners and experts across Africa who participated in a series of consultations centered on the restoration of African ecosystems. Co- written by several experts in the field, this report covers gaps and solutions across policy, finance, capacity building, and communication to show how landscape restoration can be scaled for long-term impact on people and the planet. The report identifies 4 opportunities for transformative change:

1. Finance: create flexible financing and resources for community-led restoration.
2. Policy: commit to a paradigm shift, ensuring youth and excluded groups are meaningfully represented in decision-making.
3. Capacity development: support the capacity of young experts and restoration practitioners across Africa.
4. Communications: use clear, culturally appropriate methods and platforms to co-create and communicate about restoration.

Are you attending UNCCD COP16? Join us on 9 December at 09:00 local time (UTC+3) at the Restoration Pavilion for the session “How are young visionaries rewriting the future of Africa’s landscapes?“

Join 1M+ youth on the Youth in Landscapes Initiative, driving change for people and landscapes worldwide!

The post Rooted in restoration Youth-led transformative change for regreening Africa appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About GLF Africa 2024

On 17 September, thousands of participants gathered at ‘GLAF Africa 2024: Greening the African Horizon’ in Nairobi, Kenya, and online for a global conference focused on forging a prosperous and sustainable future for Africa’s land- and seascapes, driven by local solutions.

About Betty Kibaara

Betty Kibaara is a Director in the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, Africa Regional Office. At the Foundation, Betty leads the Foundations investments in transforming food systems. These include increasing access to nutritious foods through school feeding programs. She is also advancing investments in regenerative agriculture through development of the frass fertilizers from insects such as the black soldier fly. She holds a Master of Science degree in Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, USA and a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management, Egerton University, Kenya.

The post Creating Opportunities for African Entrepreneurs: A Rockefeller Foundation Perspective appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About the Rewilding Community of Practice

The Rewilding Community of Practice aims to build a network of rewilding enthusiasts and professionals who can exchange ideas and information to help build a better world.

This webinar brings together experienced rewilders to learn more about what it takes to rewild waterways from four experienced practitioners with very different approaches to rewilding but have a shared passion for preserving our most precious resource for future generations.

The post Rewilding Waterways: Restoring Nature’s Flow appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About GLF Nairobi 2023: ‘A new Vision for Earth’

The GLF Nairobi 2023 Hybrid Conference, held on October 11 and 12, convened global thought leaders to set the stage for COP28, the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference. This pivotal event mobilised action on critical issues affecting humanity, biodiversity, and our planet.

The conference featured two focused days: Day 1 centered on “Africa’s Sovereign Solutions,” exploring pathways to a sustainable and prosperous future for the continent. Day 2, dedicated to climate, aimed to craft a “Survival Guide for a Planet in Crisis,” paving the way for a fairer world ahead of COP28.

GLF Nairobi brought together a diverse coalition of influential voices, ranging from scientists, activists, and Indigenous leaders to financiers, women, youth, policymakers, and private sector representatives. As a united front, we collectively championed change and passionately advocated for meaningful action in these pivotal times.

About Voices of the Landscape Vol. 1

Join us on a journey around African landscapes to witness the on-the-ground field operations of our community of actors. From the Taniala Regenerative Camp in Madagascar to the hills of Bamunkumbit in Cameroon, we will look at how the GLF’s Restoration Stewards and Chapters are working to create sustainable landscapes throughout Africa.

The post Voices of the Landscape Vol. 1 appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About GLF Nairobi 2023: ‘A new Vision for Earth’

The GLF Nairobi 2023 Hybrid Conference, held on October 11 and 12, convened global thought leaders to set the stage for COP28, the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference. This pivotal event mobilised action on critical issues affecting humanity, biodiversity, and our planet.

The conference featured two focused days: Day 1 centered on “Africa’s Sovereign Solutions,” exploring pathways to a sustainable and prosperous future for the continent. Day 2, dedicated to climate, aimed to craft a “Survival Guide for a Planet in Crisis,” paving the way for a fairer world ahead of COP28.

GLF Nairobi brought together a diverse coalition of influential voices, ranging from scientists, activists, and Indigenous leaders to financiers, women, youth, policymakers, and private sector representatives. As a united front, we collectively championed change and passionately advocated for meaningful action in these pivotal times.

About this session

The International Bamboo and Ratan Organization (INBAR) was introduced as a pivotal resource for green jobs and economic growth in Africa. Five presenters discussed the National Bamboo Strategy’s impact on land restoration in different countries. They emphasized bamboo’s ecological restoration potential and its role in sustainability and economic development.

The session underscored the importance of policy, market access, resource development, and pro-poor value chains to unlock bamboo’s benefits. South-South cooperation and comprehensive incentives were also discussed to ensure the broad-reaching advantages of bamboo value chains. The meeting concluded with a reminder of the importance of planning for the future through bamboo initiatives.

The post Can bamboo save African livelihoods? appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About the 6th GLF Investment Case Symposium

Hosted in Luxembourg and online, GLF–Luxembourg Finance for Nature 2023: What comes next? united 4,500 participants from 160 countries around how finance can solve – rather than exacerbate – the climate and biodiversity crises. The event featured 106 speakers and 100 global and local partner organizations and reached 10 million people on social media, with more than 230,000 engagements.

Ellen Van explains what is regenerative farming

In this video from GLF–Luxembourg Finance for Nature 2023, Ellen Van explains how the Mekong Earth and Forest Fund is investing in regenerative farming across Southeast Asia.

The post Ellen Van: What is regenerative farming? appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

The post How value chains enable food systems transformation and regenerate ecosystems in Africa appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About GLF Africa 2022

GLF Africa 2022: How to build an equitable, resilient food future brought together over 8,500 participants from 122 countries and featured 182 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth and government leaders, and 68 incredible partners to explore African solutions to the global food crisis caused by climate change, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. 

Across 31 plenaries, interactive sessions, launches, virtual tours, dialogues, performances, and a job fair, the digital conference explored ways to transform the future of food through healthy landscapes, equitable access to land, and shorter, greener value chains. Messages spread on social media rallied 26 million people around concrete ways for Africa to regain its food sovereignty.

Growing an alliance of Kenyan urbanites to create regenerative urban food systems

Shambajijini Summit is a growing collective of regenerative-urban-farming-enthusiast farmers and gardeners, chefs, suppliers, musicians, artists, researchers, and trainers. They believe in the power of regenerative urban agriculture to transform food systems in Kenya.

In this session, speakers explore ways to connect with like-minded urbanites and provide opportunities to take action: advocacy, knowledge sharing and education, and producer-consumer communications. For the Shambajijini urban farming collective, feeling connected to others is key to creating more just and regenerative food systems and societies.

The post Speaking with one voice: growing an alliance to regenerative urban food systems appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About GLF Africa 2022

GLF Africa 2022: How to build an equitable, resilient food future brought together over 8,500 participants from 122 countries and featured 182 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth and government leaders, and 68 incredible partners to explore African solutions to the global food crisis caused by climate change, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. 

Across 31 plenaries, interactive sessions, launches, virtual tours, dialogues, performances, and a job fair, the digital conference explored ways to transform the future of food through healthy landscapes, equitable access to land, and shorter, greener value chains. Messages on social media rallied 26 million people around concrete ways for Africa to regain its food sovereignty.

GLFx Cape Town on innovative food systems that positively impact the environment and people

Earlier this year, the GLFx Cape Town Speaker Stage at Greenpop’s Reforest Fest carried out a series of talks that discussed how we could implement innovative food systems that positively impact the environment while also benefiting local communities.

Nicola Rule, Professional Officer at Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) Africa presents extracts from this series and discusses the complex dynamics of food and equity and the potential for shaping the future of food systems in South Africa. Five speakers with innovative enterprises deliver their message on sustainable food systems:

1. Mercy Nqandeka works for Viva con Agua in Bulungula to facilitate clean water access and sanitation in schools. The degraded soils in the area make it difficult for even those who want to grow food to do so successfully.  The solution is to plant trees as they cover the soil and allow life to regenerate. But the tricky aspect of this context is that Rural South African villages maintain deeply ingrained cultural beliefs, habits, and superstitions around trees and land use, and these beliefs must be taken into consideration if these projects are to thrive.  Watch the full speech.
2. Kaspar Paur is a Swiss environmentalist and founder of the Muizenberg-based initiative Oceaneers, a growing community of sea aficionados looking to spread knowledge and positively impact the oceans around them.  Watch the full speech.
3. Tasneem Karodia, COO and co-founder of Mzansi Meat, is a long-standing advocate for plant-based diets in response to the severe negative effects of large-scale animal agriculture, and her involvement with Mzansi Meat came from a fortuitous Webinar, which saw her later joining forces with her co-founder and CEO Brett Thompson. Now they’re spearheading the change with the first cultivated beef in Africa.  Watch the full speech.
4. Gray Maguire is a member of the Climate Neutral Group and works with farmers to reduce the carbon footprint of production and ensure no one is deprived of access to resources. Watch the full speech
5. Rosanna ‘Rosie’ McLean recites her poem Find me in nature. Watch the full video.

Download From landscape to table, food systems in perspective White Paper  

The post From landscape to table, food systems in perspective appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

Earlier this year, the GLFx Cape Town speaker stage at Greenpop’s Reforest Fest invited a series of speakers to discuss landscapes and food systems. GLFx Cape Town presents extracts from this series, discussing the complex dynamics of food and equity, and the potential to shape the future of food systems in South Africa.

Follow the journey of 5 innovations that are promoting food system equity:

• Mercy Nqandeka of Viva con Agua, discusses the importance of equity in restoring rural landscapes and communities in South Africa;
• Kaspar Paur from Oceaneers addresses the importance of food choices and their links to ocean health;
• Tasneem Karodia, tells us more about cultivated meat and the role of Mzansi Meat in developing ways to consume sustainably in the future;
• Gray Maguire from the Climate Neutral Group. shares information about their role in promoting regenerative farming in Southern Africa; and
• Rosanna ‘Rosie’ McLean shares her original poetry called You can find me in nature.

Watch GLFx Cape Town speaker’s series

The post From landscape to table, food systems in perspective appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.