About the 2023 Landscape Leadership Workshop

On 9 and 10 October, the 2023 Landscape Leadership Workshop was held in Nairobi, Kenya, to set the scene for the GLF Nairobi 2023 Hybrid Conference: A New Vision for Earth. Co-designed by the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), the Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL), and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), the workshop brought together 45 brilliant young minds from Africa and around the world selected from over 700 applicants to drive impactful and transformative change.

Together, we brainstormed out of the box to find landscape solutions to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, social injustices and other major challenges. We held hands while sharing our feelings about the world. We harnessed the power of art to challenge dominant narratives. We will forever cherish the memories we made, and we will continue to nourish these new relationships with care.

Facilitating change in multi-stakeholder landscapes

This presentation introduces the concept of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSPs) as cooperation arrangements to address specific issues. It emphasizes the importance of mapping stakeholders in landscapes, exploring power dynamics, and recognizing the roles of different actors. The presentation discusses the 7 principles of effective MSPs, including embracing systemic change, transforming institutions, and fostering collaborative leadership. It encourage understanding power, conflict resolution, and effective communication.

The audience is prompted to reflect on the obstacles to communication and how MSPs bring people together to address landscape challenges. The presentation concludes by providing tools and key resources for working with power and managing conflict.

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2023 Landscape Leadership Workshop

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About the 2023 Landscape Leadership Workshop

On 9 and 10 October, the 2023 Landscape Leadership Workshop was held in Nairobi, Kenya, to set the scene for the GLF Nairobi 2023 Hybrid Conference: A New Vision for Earth. Co-designed by the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), the Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL), and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), the workshop brought together 45 brilliant young minds from Africa and around the world selected from over 700 applicants to drive impactful and transformative change.

Together, we brainstormed out of the box to find landscape solutions to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, social injustices and other major challenges. We held hands while sharing our feelings about the world. We harnessed the power of art to challenge dominant narratives. We will forever cherish the memories we made, and we will continue to nourish these new relationships with care.

Landscape approaches and landscape leadership

This presentation explores the concept of landscapes and collaborative governance. It urges participants to consider the meaning of “landscape” in their language. It then delves into the landscape approach, discussing the ideal size, personal perceptions, and the aim of this approach.

The presentation emphasizes that landscapes can be any size, support various activities, and contribute to broader area-based development. It introduces the notion of landscape leadership, defining key characteristics and their role in fostering awareness and understanding. The presentation concludes by sharing key resources, including videos on landscapes in different languages and the landscape approach. Overall, it aims to engage participants in thinking about and leading within landscapes for sustainable development.

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2023 Landscape Leadership Workshop

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The post Landscape approaches and landscape leadership appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About the 2023 Landscape Leadership Workshop

On 9 and 10 October, the 2023 Landscape Leadership Workshop was held in Nairobi, Kenya, to set the scene for the GLF Nairobi 2023 Hybrid Conference: A New Vision for Earth. Co-designed by the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), the Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL), and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), the workshop brought together 45 brilliant young minds from Africa and around the world selected from over 700 applicants to drive impactful and transformative change.

Together, we brainstormed out of the box to find landscape solutions to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, social injustices and other major challenges. We held hands while sharing our feelings about the world. We harnessed the power of art to challenge dominant narratives. We will forever cherish the memories we made, and we will continue to nourish these new relationships with care.

Exploring human-nature futures

This presentation by The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), explores the importance of considering the future and understanding the factors that shape it. It emphasizes the distinction between forecasting and foresight, urging the audience to go beyond predicting outcomes and instead focus on comprehending how change unfolds. The presentation advocates for foresight as a capacity to anticipate and plan for various possible futures, enabling better decision-making in the present.

Explore collaborative governance through futures thinking—a participative approach shaping actions and decisions. This inclusive process values diverse worldviews, empowering stakeholders, fostering innovation, stimulating social learning, managing conflicts, and enhancing governance with varied knowledge types. Open to everyone, futures literacy becomes a tool for collective influence.

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2023 Landscape Leadership Workshop

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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

This interactive session delved deep into the challenges and opportunities to catalyze climate finance for nature-based solutions, especially in the Global South, featuring solutions from Luxembourg. It emphasized the importance of climate finance for nature-based solutions and discuss strategies to ensure that financing reaches local communities.

Rewatch to discover solutions from Luxembourg organizations and institutions on climate adaptation and mitigation financing, as well as form new collaborations for sustainable finance, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation ahead of the UNFCCC COP28 climate summit.

Explore the Luxembourg-GLF Platform

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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

In this insightful session, we explored the alignment of agroecology and ecosystem-based adaptation with three practical projects. The GIZ ProSoil project in Madagascar showcased the impact of agroecological practices on climate adaptation and food security. WWF Kenya highlighted capacity-building for ecosystem-based adaptation, and a GIZ Project spanning Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala illustrated how ecosystem-based adaptation can be scaled up in Latin America to foster more resilient rural landscapes.

This session aimed to strengthen the connections between these approaches, with a closing statement from Oliver Oliveros from the Agroecology Coalition.

Resources

• Agroecology, making ecosystem-based adaptation work in agricultural landscapes;
• Resilient landscapes – Five key messages on how to implement agroecology as a systemic adaptation response;
• Living Adaptation – Pathways to climate resilient agri-food systems

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• Forest-based adaptation is a versatile strategy to enhance climate resilience through various actions
• It can address gaps in climate adaptation, aligning with Sustainable Development Goals
• The paper outlines ten actionable principles to effectively utilize forests in adaptation, with real-world examples

Forests are key to climate resilience

Forest-based adaptation is an ensemble of climate actions that employ forests and trees in support of climate change adaptation and resilience, including sustainable forest management, forest conservation and restoration, reforestation and afforestation. Forest-based adaptation can help address the gaps between current adaptation actions and the adaptation needed for reducing climate-related risks and impacts, while contributing to most of the Sustainable Development Goals and promoting strong synergies with mitigation.

This FAO technical paper unpacks the concept of forest-based adaptation and describes policy spheres that could bolster the role of forests and trees in providing adaptation and resilience benefits. It introduces a set of ten principles for using forests and trees to promote transformational adaptation, which were developed with leading experts from the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) and other partners. It describes the policy implications of each principle and draws on examples from diverse forest ecosystems and management practices to illustrate their application in practice.

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How digital climate information services, circular economy or landscape approaches can contribute to climate change adaptation

Agri-food systems are increasingly affected by climate change. For example, droughts, floods, or the loss of fertile soils have devastating consequences on agricultural production. At the same time, agri-food systems are a significant contributor to climate change, accounting for over 40% of global emissions. The urgent need for a sustainable transformation is clear. Together with its local partners, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development applies tailored strategies to strengthen climate resilience and secure sustainable low-emission agri-food systems in various parts of the world.

The film shows how adaptation lives: Three project examples from Madagascar, India and Ethiopia illustrate how digital climate information services, circular economy or landscape approaches can contribute to climate change adaptation.

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There is a wealth of compelling scientific evidence that hunger, climate change, biodiversity loss, as well as land and water degradation are not only systemic but also interrelated crises, which reinforce each other in their intensity. The consequences of these multiple crises for global food security are severe. In 2021, an estimated 702 to 828 million people – or respectively around 8.9 to 10.5 percent of the world’s population – were suffering from hunger.

This number is estimated to increase in the upcoming years. Climate change, in particular, is expected to heavily impact agricultural landscapes in the different world regions, as a major driver of crop failure and growing food insecurity. At the same time, agriculture itself further contributes to climate change, biodiversity loss, and to land and water degradation.

Therefore, policymakers often face difficult trade-offs in managing the equally important goals of safeguarding food security and rural livelihoods while also protecting and restoring critical ecosystems. Additionally, countries must meet international commitments in the area of environmental and climate change-related policies, as agreed to in various multilateral processes, such as the Rio Conventions or the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These diverse commitments add to the complexity of political decision-making. Yet, efforts to address the multiple environmental crises by different policy communities remain primarily in isolation from each other. As a result, a holistic adaptation of the global food system to the changing environmental and climatic conditions is still an outstanding task.

The solution

To ensure the long-term survival of the growing world population while staying within planetary boundaries, systemic and crises-responsive approaches to produce sufficient and highquality nutrition are urgently needed.

The purpose of this brief is to suggest one such approach: implementing agroecology to enhance Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in the agricultural sector. Agroecology supports food security and rural livelihoods within agricultural landscapes in a sustainable and nature-friendly way.

Against this background, this Policy Brief outlines five key messages for decision-makers on how to strengthen agroecology as an ecosystem-based adaptation approach in the agricultural sector. The central idea behind this Paper is to synergize the achievement of multiple national-level targets and commitments, including food security, climate adaptation, biodiversity protection, as well as sustainable land and water management.

Five key messages

• Crises-responsive and nature-friendly food systems depend on a systemic transformation along the whole supply chain.
• The formation of alliances for change is needed to strengthen agroecology as an adaptation response.
• Circular knowledge transfer across sectors and scales supports farmers’ resilience in diverse landscapes.
• Long term success of climate resilient agroecological innovations requires an enabling environment.
• Strategic adaptation funding and local responsive financial support for the agricultural sector are at the core of ensuring food security.

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• Agroecology and Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) share principles and aims for sustainable ecosystems and livelihoods.
• Urges integrated responses for resilient food systems amidst climate crisis, hunger, and biodiversity loss.
• Climate change compounds risks by affecting agriculture, water resources, and global food systems.

Agroecology and ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA): two sides of the same coin

Agroecology is a systemic approach promoting agriculture that systematically uses and supports ecological processes. It proactively addresses the various linkages between producers, consumers, and the range of other elements constituting a food system. Agroecology is based on a set of clearly articulated socio-economic and ecological principles. Advocates of agroecology aim to achieve transitions in agricultural production schemes, ranging from more “incremental” changes at the level of the agroecosystem up to more “transformational” shifts at the level of the food system as a whole.

While agroecology and EbA originate in different policy and knowledge communities agroecology from the sustainable agriculture community and EbA from the climate and biodiversity spheres –, they share common principles and key characteristics, that could support joint policies, programs, and strategies.  Both EbA and agroecology are NbS with the aim of strengthening and maintaining ecosystem services for sustainable livelihoods and ecological, economic, and social sustainability.

Challenge of interlinked and systemic crises

The aim of this report is to encourage the agriculture and climate communities to find common, integrated, and systemic responses to one of the most urgent questions for humanity: How to develop climate-resilient and sustainable food systems in times of multiple crises that are threatening global food security? Today’s planet is facing a number of systemic crises that are closely interlinked with each other. One of the most dramatic examples is the interdependency between the global food system and the drastic change of the global climate.

The climate crisis exacerbates hunger, biodiversity loss, and the degradation of land and water resources. Thus, climate change threatens agriculture and disrupts the global food system, thereby multiplying existing risks in the system. For example, changing rainfall patterns cause higher frequency and severity of droughts and floods, posing immense challenges to farmers in all world regions.

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What is Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and how can it help reduce fall armyworm

The Fall Armyworm (FAW) (Spodoptera frugiperda Smith) is a pest native to the Americas. This hungry caterpillar feeds on different plants but prefers maize. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a combination of strategies that focusses on reducing the environment’s suitability for FAW increase.

Agro-ecological approaches form the basis of IPM, creating unfavorable environmental conditions for FAW while promoting natural elements that regulate FAW populations. These tactics are designed to reduce the overall FAW populations and avoid outbreaks. IPM also involves scouting for pests so that farmers can make assessments of the need to take further action or not. If further action is deemed necessary, biological control or biological based pesticides (such as fungi or viruses that attack the pest) are preferred. Because of the risk they pose to natural enemies, and therefore future natural control of the pest, chemical pesticides are applied only as a last resort.

This informational video is produced with the support of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).

Join GLFx the Transformative Partnership Platform on Agroecology

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