About GLF Peatlands 2024

Peatlands cover 3-4% of Earth’s land but store a third of global soil carbon. Despite their importance, 12% are degraded, contributing 4% of human-induced emissions.

Degradation, driven by agriculture and forestry, causes environmental and social issues like fires and economic damage. Managing peatlands effectively requires collaboration across sectors.

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Peatlands 2024 Hybrid Conference brought together global stakeholders to address gaps in peatland science, policy, and practice. Held alongside the UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Conference, it explored peatlands’ roles in carbon storage, biodiversity, and water regulation.

Closing Presentation by Daniel Murdiyarso

Join Daniel Murdiyarso, Principal Scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF, as he explores the overlooked importance of peatlands and the crucial reasons why they must be brought to the forefront of global conservation efforts.

The post Why peatlands are forgotten and what needs to be remembered appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

An indispensable guide to launch your funding journey and create a meaningful impact, specifically crafted for practitioners and professionals. This guide delivers crucial tips and insights sourced from GLF’s dynamic community and Luxembourg partners. Featuring a compelling case study from the Taniala Regenerative Camp in Madagascar, a community-based solution providing ground-level insights to enrich your learning experience.

Tips from GLF’s community

• Dedicated fundraising staff: Learn how dedicating staff to fundraising efforts and improving financial disclosure can enhance your competitiveness in funding applications. Consider investing in staff training.
• Financial stability and resilience: Discover strategies for building financial stability, such as income-generating activities and diverse funding avenues. Explore the possibility of applying for awards/prizes as an alternative funding source.
• Team capacity building: Strengthen your team’s capacity to identify resources by learning about different types of funding instruments. Develop the skills to identify resources most relevant to your project, create a budget plan, and determine the ideal funding size and type for your organization.

Tips from GLF-Luxebourg partners

• Aligning with donor objectives: When researching financial support for a project, understand the donor’s intentionality. Tailor your project proposal to match the preferences of the specific donor. Engage in open discussions to co-design a project that resonates with the donor’s interests.
• Networking at events: discover the importance of attending events to network with potential donors and build relationships that can support your projects.

Get insights from the ground

Be inspired by the success story of Taniala Regenerative Camp, located in Madagascar’s Menabe Region, is dedicated to restoring degraded land. Despite language barriers and a small team, they received an award in 2023 and won the Lush Spring Prize for soil restoration.

Now, their focus is on securing funding for full-time operations, expanding their team’s language skills, and seeking grants and awards for infrastructure development and village base camps.

Download now our guide to embark on a path of financial empowerment and impactful restoration initiatives!

Also, visit the GLF-Luxembourg platform.

The post Unlocking funding success: Insights for project developers & restoration initiatives appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

This study in La Jagua de Ibirico, Colombia, compares soil hydraulic characteristics in shade-grown coffee, a 15-year-old regenerated forest, pasture, and reference forest. Findings indicate similarities in saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) between coffee and the reference forest, showcasing agroforestry’s positive impact on soil hydrological functions. Moreover, 15 years of forest regeneration after land abandonment demonstrate improvements in soil hydraulic attributes, highlighting the potential for positive ecological outcomes.

Key takeaways

1. Agroforestry boosts hydrological function: Shade-grown coffee exhibits comparable saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) values to the reference forest, showcasing the positive impact of trees on soil hydrological functioning in agroforestry systems.
2. Forest regeneration improves soil attributes: After 15 years of regeneration, the formerly abandoned Sub-Andean Forest shows enhanced soil hydraulic attributes, emphasizing the positive ecological effects of forest regrowth on soil health.
3. Water repellency in reference forest: Soil water repellency is observed in the reference forest, shedding light on additional soil characteristics that contribute to the complexity of soil hydrology in tropical environments.

The post Shade-grown coffee in Colombia benefits soil hydraulic conductivity appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

This book explores the impact of coffee agroecosystems on soil hydrological functions, focusing on the potential benefits and challenges associated with land-use change. Utilizing low-cost methodologies like the Steady Simplified Beerkan Infiltration (SSBI) method and visual soil assessment (VSA), the study examines various land-use types in Guatemala. Key findings highlight the positive influence of shade trees on soil hydrological properties and the microclimatic benefits of leaf litter in seven-year-old shade-grown coffee. The book concludes with a recommendation for regular monitoring to understand the temporal variability in tropical land-use systems.

Key takeaways

1. Shade trees boost hydrological properties: Thirty-year-old shade-grown coffee (CN) exhibits the highest saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) values, indicating that shade trees positively impact soil hydrological properties in coffee agroecosystems.
2. Microclimatic benefits of leaf litter: Seven-year-old shade-grown coffee (CP) demonstrates higher soil volumetric water content (VWC) and a significant positive effect of leaf litter on soil temperature, highlighting the positive impact of leaf litter on microclimatic conditions and soil moisture.
3. Effective low-cost methodologies: The Steady Simplified Beerkan Infiltration (SSBI) method, coupled with visual soil assessment (VSA), proves to be a cost-effective and easily implementable approach for assessing soil hydraulic and physical characteristics in various land-use types.

The post Low cost and easy to implement physical and hydrological soil assessment of shade-grown coffee in Santa Rosa, Guatemala appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

This issue of the Bamboo & Rattan Update Magazine highlights the unique advantages of bamboo for contributing to the goals of the UNCCD, and considers the untapped promise of the plant.

Landscape restoration schemes rely upon accurate baseline data, so decision-makers can allocate resources in an optimal manner. However, in many areas of the Global South where desertification and land degradation are most rampant, there is a paucity of relevant information. Working to solve this stubborn problem, INBAR partnered with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN in 2020 to put bamboo on the map with new tools for monitoring forest coverage. Though current figures place total global bamboo forest coverage at approximately 35 million hectares, some estimates range as high as 50 million, as many countries lack the capacity and coordination for forest resource assessment.

The first article examines new instruments for bamboo resource monitoring to help bamboo-rich countries achieve the full potential of this multifunctional plant and intelligently inform long-term sustainable policymaking.

The second article takes a look at The Restoration Initiative (TRI), which is a major initiative seeking to reverse degradation and restore landscapes around the world. INBAR is currently working to achieve these twin goals with partners on the ground in Cameroon including the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, UN Environment Programme, Cameroon’s Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, FAO, and other local government ministries and civil society organizations.

The third article showcases one of their recent public-private partnership projects which has now accumulated five years of data during its trial period. Using bamboo to protect one of Ghana’s transitional zones from deforestation and endless cycles of fire, the project is bringing new life into what has been characterized as “deserted wasteland.”

About INBAR

INBAR, The International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation, is an intergovernmental organisation bringing together some 40 countries for the promotion of the ecosystem benefits and values of bamboo and rattan.

The post Rehabilitating land with bamboo appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

Bamboo is a versatile plant that can provide climate-smart solutions to millions of rural communities – if its benefits are recognised by decision makers and planners and if national sustainable development policies address the benefits that bamboo can offer.

Land degradation, caused by factors like biodiversity loss, soil erosion, pollution, and water scarcity, harms the environment, disrupts agriculture, and threatens food security. It also carries economic and health risks.

Bamboo is a valuable tool for restoring degraded lands due to its ability to grow in challenging conditions, prevent soil erosion with its extensive root system, and regenerate quickly. Many countries, including Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, India, Madagascar, the Philippines, and Vietnam, have recognized bamboo’s potential for sustainable land management.

Additionally, bamboo offers economic opportunities, as it grows rapidly and can be used to create various products. It has contributed to poverty alleviation and has a significant global trade value estimated at USD 60 billion.

Outlining the environmental and economic benefits of bamboo

The case studies presented in Chapter 2 offer a wide range of projects from across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Diversity aside, there are several particularly clear findings from the case studies.  It is equally clear that bamboo offers an important co-benefit and can increase incomes for local residents. The case studies also make clear that, to be successful in the long term, bamboo land restoration projects require social acceptance and local buy-in, which can largely be achieved by clearly outlining the environmental and economic benefits of bamboo:

1. Environmental benefits
2. Livelihood gains and social acceptance
3. Economic viability

About INBAR

INBAR Policy Synthesis reports aim to inform decision makers in government and international development partners of the benefits that bamboo and rattan can bring to their efforts to build sustainable development and green economies that improve peoples’ livelihoods.

INBAR, The International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation, is an intergovernmental organisation bringing together some 40 countries for the promotion of the ecosystem benefits and values of bamboo and rattan.

The post Bamboo for land restoration appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

• PES Benefits for Farmers: Boosts income diversification, encourages sustainable practices, and supports climate action.
• CompensACTION Initiative Objectives: Enhance farmer incomes, promote sustainable farming, provide co-benefits, diversify funding, and attract climate finance.
• Levers for Scaling: Innovate PES for affordability, blend public-private finance, and enable implementation readiness.
• G7 Leadership: Lead PES efforts to improve livelihoods, ensure food security, and address climate goals while promoting policy reforms and research.

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) to smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can increase and diversify farmers’ income while also incentivizing practices for ecosystem services, including climate change mitigation and adaptation. The world’s 480 million smallholder farmers produce one third of the world’s food supply on one quarter of global agricultural area and often earn less than USD 1.25/day. Yet schemes for paying smallholder farmers in LMICs for ecosystem services have been limited.

The CompensACTION Initiative seeks to promote PES innovation at large scales to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers in LMICs while incentivizing climate action and environmental outcomes. The Initiative has five objectives:

1. Increase and diversify the incomes of smallholder men and women farmers, while also supporting long-term investment by farmers.
2. Incentivize practices for sustainable farming practices that lead to resilient and low-emission food systems, as well as other ecosystem services on- and off-farm.
3. Deliver co-benefits with compensation mechanisms such as improved credit ratings and easy access to finance for farmers.
4. Diversify financial instruments and increase public and private funding in addition to climate finance.
5. Attract international climate finance for adaptation and mitigation action in the agricultural sector that leads to improved ecosystem services maintenance.

The post Compensating farmers for ecosystem services appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

• Poor soil quality in southern Africa requires inorganic fertilizers, but their impact is limited.
• Malawi’s fertilizer subsidy program falls short due to declining soil health; solutions involve diversification and organic practices.
• Enhancing soil health through subsidies, carbon finance, private sector involvement, and digital tools can promote sustainable agriculture.

Could ‘payments for soil health services’ be an option in Malawi?

In many parts of southern Africa, soil quality is poor due to weathering and low nutrient content. Inorganic fertilizers are often necessary, but their effectiveness can be limited. Malawi’s fertilizer subsidy program isn’t achieving food security goals due to declining soil health.

Solutions like crop diversification, organic matter addition, and fertilizers can help, but challenges exist. Improving soil health has benefits for nutrition and climate resilience. Payments for ecosystem services could support soil health, alongside other actions. Possibilities include redirecting subsidies, better extension services, diversifying crops, tying subsidies to soil health, and linking to carbon finance. Private sector involvement, affordable lime, and digital tools could also play roles.

Payments for ecosystems services (PES) to smallholder farmers could be a possible mechanism to incentivise soil health practices

PES is widely used for water, biodiversity and carbon services. The global initiative CompensACTION seeks to promote PES innovation at large scales to facilitate positive environmental outcomes.

In Malawi, PES could be used for soil health services. Such payments could help to incentivise sustainable agriculture practices, which would facilitate climate change adaptation and mitigation (the latter through carbon sequestration), increase and diversify farmer incomes, and possibly improve credit ratings and easier access to finance for farmers. Payments for carbon sequestration are likely too small to stimulate change by themselves but cobenefits may be large.

Farms in Malawi are small and the additional carbon sequestered through soils or agroforestry would likely bring in very small payments to farmers, but the co-benefits of such schemes may still be attractive.

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Presentation by TMG Research alongside the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC), held from 6 November until 18 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

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