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 Deborah Oyugi

Deborah is a seasoned Safeguarding/ PSEAH expert with over a decade of experience in implementation of global safeguarding frameworks, investigations support, and Protection and Rights programming. Deborah volunteers as the English Countries Manager and Safeguarding Lead at YILAA. She also serves as the Global Officer, Safeguarding and Ethics, at the International Justice Mission. A member of the Youth Advisory Group in the International Land Coalition and the Advisory Board at CleanUp Kenya, Deborah is dedicated to creating safe, secure and inclusive environments globally and locally.

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About GLF Africa 2024

On 17 September, thousands of participants gathered at ‘GLF 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 this session

Millions of hectares of diverse landscapes will be needed worldwide to achieve global climate, environmental, and development goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and Rio Conventions. In this spirit, 34 countries have pledged almost 130 million hectares for restoration under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).

Organized by The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), this session dives into the complex and multilayered fields of governance and action behind the impressive numbers of hectares to be restored. It covers people as rights holders, their land and livelihoods, strengthening rural resilience, leveraging economic opportunities, and creating prospects for local communities, women and young people while restoring ecosystems and their services and functions at the same time.

Resources

• Lessons on land tenure and forest landscape restoration (FLR): A focus on sub-Saharan Africa
• Impacts of land tenure and its governance on the success of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR)
• The AFR100 Programme – Funding and technical assistance
• The AFR100 Programme – Funding
• Forests4Future: Giving Forests a Future

The post Restoring forest landscapes in Africa: Aligning climate and environmental protection with rights to land and economic perspectives appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

Land degradation impacts over 3.2 billion people globally. Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) aims to restore ecosystems and improve human well-being but faces challenges, especially regarding property rights and governance. Global initiatives, such as the Bonn Challenge and AFR100, aim to restore millions of hectares of degraded land by 2030. Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Togo have committed to specific restoration targets. This policy brief focuses on how land tenure systems in these countries affect FLR implementation and highlights best practices for improving restoration efforts.

Key messages

• Tenure and land governance models are decisive factors of FLR success.
• Tenure arrangements and who benefits from FLR must be well-defined prior to implementation. Different approaches exist from individual land tenure to communal.
• Significant gaps in communal land use policies still exist and need to be addressed.
• There is a lack of inter-sectoral cooperation between land and forestry authorities, creating need to improve coordination and transparency between sectors and stakeholders.

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The policy recommendations in the document emphasize the importance of integrating customary land tenure systems into forest landscape restoration policies. It also highlights the need for inclusive governance that respects cultural heritage and supports the long-term interests of communities, including marginalized groups. Additionally, the document recommends considering the drivers of deforestation and degradation, as well as the interaction between tenure rights, relations, and security with incentives for either deforestation or restoration. Furthermore, it suggests that restoration initiatives should be based on the preferences and needs of local communities and smallholder farmers to ensure sustainability.

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The briefing identifies three main categories of constraints impacting gender equality within agrifood systems: structural barriers, land tenure, and resource access. Through case studies from Guatemala, Indonesia, and Kenya, it explores initiatives aimed at addressing these issues. The insights gleaned from these studies offer valuable lessons to understand what has worked to drive changes in behavior and practice.

Key messages

The post Advancing gender equality and agrifood systems: what’s working? 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 side event, co-organized with the Stand 4 Her Land Campaign, GROOTS Kenya, and ILC Africa, brought grassroots women, government and CSO representatives, as well as international development agencies together to: 1) highlight the nexus between land restoration, secure women land rights, and addressing the climate crises; 2) share knowledge and successful practices by women restoring land in highland and rangeland ecosystems; 3) create opportunities for networking and alliance building to advance land restoration goals.

The post Why control and ownership of land by women matters in land restoration 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

Well managed carbon markets can provide opportunities for nature, communities and the economy. However, the introduction and implementation of carbon credit schemes also comes with serious risks: people with insecure tenure rights risk being excluded from benefit sharing and decision making and could even being forced off their land.

This session discussed the risks of carbon markets to local communities without tenure rights, as well as ways to address them and allow community members to become active stakeholders in carbon markets and reap the benefits.

Download white paper

Safeguards for Carbon Markets – Prioritizing Local Communities’ Tenure Rights

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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

Sub-Saharan Africa is disproportionately affected by desertification, land degradation, and drought. The continent’s drylands urgently need to be restored to help communities adapt to the climate crisis and build resilient and sustainable food systems.

Small-scale farmers, women, youth and Indigenous Peoples are the most vulnerable to the impacts of unsustainable land use practices. However, they can play a crucial role in restoring if granted secure land tenure rights.

This session highlights the importance of tenure security to restoring landscapes, protecting biodiversity, and shielding livelihoods from the effects of the climate crisis.

Resources

• Video: Indigenous Peoples are ECOSYSTEM HEROES!
• Video: Pastoralists are ECOSYSTEM HEROES
• Video: Local Communities are ECOSYSTEM HEROES

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About the 6th Investment Case Symposium

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

Across 37 plenaries, expert sessions, special announcements, networking sessions, dialogues, onsite presentations, and inspirational talks, the event sparked vibrant conversations on the state of sustainable finance in 2023, including the latest innovations, success stories, investable projects, and much more.

What does sustainable finance have to do with Indigenous rights?

Meet Galina Angarova, executive director of Cultural Survival who explains the direct link between sustainable finance and Indigenous rights. Galina elaborates on the intrinsic relationship Indigenous Peoples have with biodiversity. 

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