biodiversity loss Archives - Global Landscapes Forum

A practical approach to measuring the biodiversity impacts of land conversion

kneditor — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 11:51:39 +0000

The document presents a globally applicable framework to quantify the impacts of human activities on biodiversity using species-specific habitat suitability models. It links land-use changes to biodiversity outcomes, focusing on the impacts of soy expansion and other land-use changes in the Brazilian Cerrado from 2000 to 2014. The study emphasizes the need for biodiversity impact metrics that track the relationship between habitat loss drivers and biodiversity state changes.

Key Messages

Biodiversity Impact Metrics: Improved quantification of biodiversity loss requires metrics that link human activities to biodiversity changes, considering species ecology and cumulative effects of habitat loss.
Framework Development: A globally applicable method uses freely available datasets and habitat suitability models to assess biodiversity impacts.
Case Study in Cerrado: Soy expansion and land-use changes in the Brazilian Cerrado significantly impacted over 2,000 species, with mammals and plants suffering the greatest habitat losses.
Species-Specific Insights: Birds and mammals, particularly endemic species, were most affected by habitat conversion, with soy expansion having the greatest per-unit-area impact.
Methodological Benefits: The approach improves assessments by linking human activities to biodiversity losses, incorporating species-specific needs, and accounting for cumulative habitat loss impacts.

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Effective ecosystem restoration to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity: Scaling up through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

kneditor — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 12:48:49 +0000

About GLF Africa 2024

Can Africa show the world a sustainable way forward? The climate crisis is taking a toll on Africa – and especially on rural communities that depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.

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

To reverse global ecosystem degradation, the UN has declared the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030), led by FAO and UNEP. FAO is developing best practices and tools, while the Decade promotes moving from commitments to action through initiatives like the World Restoration Flagships.

In Africa, three Flagships—African Farmers Transforming Food Systems, the Great Green Wall, and Regreening Africa—have been recognized. This session, hosted by FAO and UNEP, will showcase tools and lessons from these projects to inspire and scale up restoration efforts across Africa.

Resources

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Between the Rains: Q&A with the Filmmakers

Global Landscapes Forum WT — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 12:54:47 +0000

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.

Behind the scenes of Between the Rains

Meet Andrew and Samuel and discover the ‘behind the scenes’ of Between the Rains, awarded Best Documentary Feature and Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival 2023. Learn why one of the most critical aspects of this film is telling the human story beyond tribal conflicts and how the creators show a complicated human interaction through the eyes of the community, their experiences, their strengths and their challenges in a world in climate and biodiversity crisis on this Q&A moderated by Salina Abraham, GLF Africa Hub Manager.

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How feebate policies could upscale organic agriculture and food self-suffiency in Bhutan

kneditor — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 15:05:39 +0000

Bhutan’s organic rice self-sufficiency goal

Bhutan has targeted becoming the world’s first country with an entirely organic agricultural production. As well as aligning with the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), achieving 100% organic agriculture would support Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) index by benefiting human health and improving ecological diversity.

The goal includes Bhutan’s most important cereal crop, rice, which accounts for around 22% of the country’s total crop production by value. Currently, Bhutan produces only about 47% of its domestic rice consumption, relying on imports for the rest. Given rice’s importance in the national diet, and supply vulnerabilities exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Bhutan’s government has prioritized improving self-sufficiency in rice, with a 60% target.

This policy brief discusses how feebate policies could upscale organic agriculture and food self-sufficiency in Bhutan, specifically looking at rice production.

The simulations show that a feebate (fee and rebate) policy coupled with promotion and training in agroecological farming methods could incentivize widespread adoption of agroecology, achieving both 100 percent organic production and greater self-sufficiency for rice in Bhutan.

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Agroecology: a transformative opportunity for biodiversity and the Rio conventions

kneditor — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 15:37:09 +0000

What is agroecology?

Agroecology is a holistic and integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agriculture and food systems.

It seeks to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment while also addressing the need for socially equitable food systems within which people can exercise choice over what they eat and how and where it is produced.

Agroecology is concurrently a science, a set of practices and a social movement and has evolved as a concept over recent decades to expand in scope from a focus on fields and farms to encompass the entirety of agriculture and food systems.

It now represents a transdisciplinary field that includes the ecological, socio-cultural, technological, economic and political dimensions of food systems, from production to consumption.

Key messages

This policy brief originated in the leadup to COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in December 2022, with a focus on agroecology and agricultural biodiversity as central to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). While it retains this biodiversity focus, it has been expanded to include climate and land considerations.

This framework call on all countries to support agroecology through 5 key messages:

Industrial food systems are the main driver of biodiversity loss and ecosystems degradation. Without transforming food systems, we will not be able to reverse these highly destructive impacts.
Agroecology works with nature and has the power to substantially achieve multiple national targets across issues and scales.
A food systems lens, grounded in agroecology, is central to the implementation of the KMGBF, and to national climate, food and development strategies. Without agroecology, key national goals and targets risk being missed.
There are vital connections between agroecology and conservation.
A call to action: Support biodiverse agroecology for sustainable food systems and climate resilience.

Learn more and visit the FAO Agroecology Hub.

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Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss

kneditor — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 13:57:13 +0000

This paper explores the role of the global food system as the principal driver of accelerating biodiversity loss. It explains how food production is degrading or destroying natural habitats and contributing to species extinction. The paper outlines the challenges and trade-offs involved in redesigning food systems to restore and conserve biodiversity, and provides recommendations for reducing pressures on land in the form of three levers. The first is to change dietary patterns to reduce food demand and encourage more plant-based diets. The second is to protect and set aside land for nature, whether through re-establishing native ecosystems on spared farmland or integrating pockets of natural habitat into farmland. The third is to shift to more sustainable farming. All three levers will be needed for food system redesign to succeed.

The authors’ recommendations for action are based around a series of major summits and conferences on food systems, climate, biological diversity, nutrition and related areas scheduled in 2021. These offer a unique opportunity for a ‘food systems approach’ to become embedded in international policy processes.

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GLF Africa 2021: Outcome Statement (EN/FR)

kneditor — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 02:20:53 +0000

Drylands cover 43 percent of Africa’s surface (excluding deserts), and provide vital ecosystem services for more than half a billion people. They harbour some of the continent’s most celebrated species, produce much of its food, and contribute significantly to economic growth. Yet, too often, the narrative applied to these landscapes is one of scarcity and neglect.

Changing that narrative was a goal of the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) digital conference: GLF Africa 2021: Restoring Africa’s Drylands, Accelerating Action On the Ground. Held on the 2-3 June 2021, the conference brought over 7,000 registrants – including 6000 African nationals – together to debunk old myths, and celebrate the abundance, diversity and potential that Africa’s drylands have to offer.

The event reached over 32 million people on social media, and provided a crucial platform for 223 speakers – including 108 women and 35 youth – to share knowledge, shape policy and galvanize global support for Africa’s drylands ahead of the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.

A compilation of insight from all those involved, this Outcome Statement summarizes the conference’s key messages, and contains quotes from across the 47 sessions that took place.

Changer ce discours était l’un des objectifs de la conférence numérique du Forum Mondial des Paysages (GLF) « Restaurer les zones arides d’Afrique : Accélérer l’action sur le terrain ». L’évènement, qui s’est tenu les 2 et 3 juin 2021, a été l’occasion de réunir des milliers de personnes du continent africain pour démystifier les vieux mythes et célébrer l’abondance, la diversité et le potentiel que les zones arides d’Afrique ont à offrir.

Les écosystèmes des zones arides couvrent environ 43 % de l’Afrique (en dehors des déserts). Ces zones abritent certaines des espèces animales et de végétales les plus célèbres d’Afrique, et produisent une grande partie d’aliments du continent. Mais trop souvent, le discours appliqué aux zones arides africaines est celui de la pénurie et de la négligence.

GLF Afrique a touché plus de 32 millions de personnes via les réseaux sociaux et a fourni une plateforme essentielle pour 223 intervenant∙e∙s (dont 129 personnes originaires d’Afrique,108 femmes et 35 jeunes) pour partager leur connaissance, façonner les politiques et galvaniser un soutien mondial pour les zones arides d’Afrique avant le lancement de la Décennie des Nations Unies pour la restauration des écosystèmes 2021-2030.

Cette Déclaration Finale est une compilation des idées de toutes les personnes impliquées dans, et résume les messages clés de la conférence à travers des citations issues des 47 sessions qui ont eu lieu.

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The 4 Returns Framework for Landscape Restoration

kneditor — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 07:19:42 +0000

Concern about the environment has moved decisively from niche to mainstream. Although carbon markets are coming up to speed, shareholders are asking business to become carbon neutral, massive tree planting campaigns have started, and circular economic thinking is taking off, the current attempts to address the biodiversity and climate crisis continue to fail. We need a common language and new approaches, that inspire optimism, long-term solutions and systemic change at scale. All are inherent in rebuilding resilient living landscapes, our global life support system.

The 4 Returns Framework for landscape restoration is a practical tested system-change framework used by stakeholders to undertake a landscape approach. It seeks to balance competing stakeholder demands in a mosaic of different management approaches, to supply a full range of natural, social and economic returns.

Successful holistic landscape restoration is a long-term endeavour that only works if it is grounded and owned by the people in the landscape. Finding the balance between top-down decision and inclusive bottom-up approaches to ecosystem restoration is critical to success.

The 4 Returns Framework connects ecology, community values, spirit and culture, business and long-term economic sustainability at landscape level. It allows government, business and communities to co-create and deliver a common vision for a resilient landscape.

Download the report to find out more.

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Voices from the Land: Restoring Soils and Enriching Lives

kneditor — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 09:11:44 +0000

As vital to our existence as air or water, land is one of our greatest shared assets – and the degradation of that land is one of our most pressing common challenges.

Unchecked land degradation threatens not only human wellbeing, but that of the entire planet, contributing to the acceleration of climate change and biodiversity loss. Today, with a quarter of our land already degraded and almost half the global population directly affected by land degradation, we are losing this precious resource at a time when we can least afford the social, economic or environmental impacts of this loss.

The continued wellbeing of both people and planet relies on our ability to protect, manage and restore our land more quickly than we degrade it. The stories in this book provide a timely reminder of how local and global collaboration to achieve land degradation neutrality can tip the balance in our favor, offering a foundation on which to build a healthy, equitable and prosperous future.

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Sustainable Forest Management Impact Program: Dryland Sustainable Landscapes

kneditor — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 07:08:49 +0000

Investing in the sustainable management of drylands is becoming ever more urgent, given the convergence of a number of global trends: high population growth rates; increasing water scarcity, sometimes exacerbated by climate change; increasing food insecurity; out-migrations of young people; loss of cultural heritage; and decreasing habitats for wild species with detrimental effects for biodiversity. Such forces are highlighting the value of healthy drylands to the world, and their role in a secure global future.

The objective of the Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) Impact Program is to avoid, reduce, and reverse further degradation, desertification, and deforestation of land and ecosystems in drylands, through the sustainable management of production landscapes. The program will transform the management of drylands in selected regions and countries, establishing the basis for the scaling out of sustainable dryland management to regional and global levels. The program will focus specifically on three geographical dryland clusters: the Miombo and Mopane ecosystems of southern Africa; the savannas of west Africa; and the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands of Central Asia.

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