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

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Young people all over the world are organizing climate strikes, leading restoration projects, joining learning programs, and trailblazing with innovative technologies to address climate change. Yet these activists are also adamant that every action taken should also work toward another goal: universal climate justice.

But what does climate justice really mean in practice? And how can its pursuit be inclusive of everyone, everywhere? Originally aired in November 2021 in collaboration with the Youth in Landscapes Initiative, this episode dives into these questions and more with Joycelyn Longdon, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge and founder of Climate in Colour, an online education platform and community that makes climate conversations more diverse and accessible.

Learn more about climate justice in episode 8 with Varshini Prakash, executive director and co-founder of the Sunrise Movement.

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UNCCD COP15

COP15 brings together leaders from governments, the private sector, civil society, and other key stakeholders from around the world to drive progress in the future sustainable management of land.

The land is crucial for a healthy, productive society, and COP15 explores links between land and key sustainability issues such as climate change. These issues are discussed during high-level roundtables and interactive dialogue sessions, as well as numerous other special and side events. ​

For GLF, COP15 is a key moment in the fight against desertification, land degradation, and drought. Land rights, gender equality, and youth empowerment are among the top items on the Conference agenda.

About the session

During the Land Tenure Security as a Catalyst to Achieving Land Degradation Neutrality speakers discuss land degradation neutrality and its relation to land tenure security and why tenure security is important to combat the further degradation of land.

Land tenure security is embedded in a wider spectrum of human rights and what is needed to secure these multiple rights for those living on and from the land.

Local, regional, and global actors elaborate on what instruments they use to align legal frameworks with local realities, and what it takes to bridge formal legislation with informal realities on the ground.

The outcome of the discussion exposes the pros and cons of multi-stakeholder dialogue, which is increasingly seen as an instrument to bridge the two, and help to strengthen land tenure security for all.

The post Why tenure security is important to combat land degradation? appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

UNCCD COP15

COP15 brings together leaders from governments, the private sector, civil society, and other key stakeholders from around the world to drive progress in the future sustainable management of land.

The land is crucial for a healthy, productive society, and COP15 explores links between land and key sustainability issues such as climate change. These issues are discussed during high-level roundtables and interactive dialogue sessions, as well as numerous other special and side events. ​

For GLF, COP15 is a key moment in the fight against desertification, land degradation, and drought. Land rights, gender equality, and youth empowerment are among the top items on the Conference agenda.

Land governance is more urgent than ever before

During the round table titled Achieving Restoration Objectives through Safeguarding Legitimate Tenure Rights, experts discuss the role of smallholders in securing land tenure to ensure investments in ecosystem restoration and food security and land-based adaptation options for millions of people around the world.

As the global community scrambles to address multiple crises, responsible land governance is more urgent than ever before. The session outcome points summarize:

• TMG Research and its partners have developed a human rights-based approach to land governance monitoring, including a reference tool called the Human Rights and Land Navigator, which they will launch during this side event session.
• The online tool aims to make the UN-backed Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) more tangible by detailing human rights on which they are based.
• During the session, UNCCD stakeholders and human rights actors discuss the potential of the international human rights system and the new tool to enhance the implementation of the VGGT to safeguard legitimate tenure rights for ecosystem restoration.
• The event provides practical entry points for land rights defenders, national-level policymakers, and human rights bodies to advocate for and monitor progress on land governance instruments.

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A framework for securing tenure

Ten years ago, the Committee on World Food Security adopted the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, known by its acronym as the VGGT and regarded as the foundational framework for securing tenure not only to land but also to fisheries and forests. However, the change that the VGGT could achieve for the lives of millions is thwarted by the fact that its proposed regulations are, as its name states, voluntary.

As such, Berlin-based sustainability organization TMG ThinkTank, the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and the Malawi Human Rights Commission have for the past two years been developing a human rights-based approach to land governance that can strengthen the application of the VGGT by connecting them to binding human rights obligations. The result of these efforts is a first-of-its-kind digital tool, the Human Rights & Land Navigator, which works like a search engine for linkages between the VGGT and land-related international human rights standards. One can filter for specific land issues – related to finances, decision-making processes, or fair land allocation, for instance – and then see which rights are at stake and which rights instruments are relevant, helping to inform legal action and advocacy.

A new digital tool

The Human Rights & Land Navigator is an online database that provides a systematic overview of the linkages between the VGGT and international human rights standards. It was developed by TMG Research gGmbH, in cooperation with the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Malawi Human Rights Commission.

Check GLF’s Knowledge Library for more Land Rights resources.

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Food should be a human right. A right to food protects the fundamental liberty for all individuals to feed themselves with dignity. The right to food should be supported in ways that allow all individuals to have the means and freedom to access food that is quantitatively and qualitatively adequate to meet the individual’s dietary needs and correspond to the cultural traditions of the people that the individual belongs to. This session at GLF Bonn 2020 explores food sovereignty and designing a just food system.

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In this GLF Bonn 2019 Landscape Talk, Frank Pichel of the Cadasta Foundation discusses how the application of simple-to-use technology can help communities around the world document, strengthen, and secure their land and resource rights. Through the use of partner and project case studies, Pichel highlights the transformative role of technology to support land tenure and rights-based landscape management challenges to contribute to a more just, sustainable, and prosperous future for the global community.

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