Registration required. Please contact:
Susan Tonassi, +1 626 487 9681 or STonassi@burnesscommunications.com,
Martha Cuba Cronkleton, +51 (1) 349-6017, m.cubacronkleton@cgiar.org
**MEDIA ADVISORY—EVENT ON SIDELINES OF LIMA CLIMATE TALKS, DECEMBER 6-7**
In Latin America and worldwide, competing claims for land seen as roadblock for efforts to staunch one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions; New research, initiatives, and high-tech tools to be launched at Lima’s largest forestry and farming event
Organized by more than 20 international organizations and supported by over 60, the Global Landscapes Forum is expected to draw 1,500 leaders from business, government, civil society and think tanks from across Latin America—as well as Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. The event will determine how to slash climate pollution from land use—the source of 24% of all greenhouse gas emissions, most of which come from clearing land for farming and leveling forests for wood, pulp and paper. Land use will be a hot topic at the global climate talks in Lima, as negotiators hammer out an agreement that is expected to be finalized in Paris in 2015.
Participants will debate how to resolve competing claims to contested fields and forests by farmers, foresters, miners, conservationists and indigenous peoples. In Peru, Brazil, Indonesia and beyond, these claims can lead not only to carbon emissions, but also to social conflict and violence. New research, new multinational initiatives and cutting-edge tools for ensuring compliance to commitments will be launched at the event, which is expected to build on the successes of the UN Climate Summit in September, where action on forests dominated headlines.
| Where: | The Westin Hotel and Convention Center, Lima |
| When: | December 6-7
To follow or mention the event on social media, use the hashtags #ThinkLandscape and #GLFCOP20 |
| Who: | Speakers include:
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Topics expected to be discussed at the event include the following:
- Land, money, power: As the global population grows larger and wealthier, demand for agricultural commodities is increasing, leading to intensified competition for scarce land and natural resources – sometimes even to the point of violence.
- Feeding ourselves into hunger: The impetus to produce more food as well as non-essential agricultural commodities to stave off an impending food crisis and achieve economic growth is contributing to the loss of forests and biodiversity. The effects of these losses will make it harder to produce food, and perhaps contribute to the very crisis the movement aims to resolve – unless these commodities are produced more sustainably.
- Business will never be the same again: Once, big business and conservationists would not stay in the same room together, but now global corporations are lining up to pledge “zero deforestation”, often with the support of their former adversaries, as they seek ways to preserve the natural resources on which their long-term survival depends – yet accusations of “greenwashing” persist.
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Multifunctional landscapes and land uses are at the heart of the intertwined challenges associated with climate and development. The Global Landscapes Forum, held alongside the UN climate negotiations, creates a platform for positioning landscapes in the new international agreements on climate and sustainable development. The annual event brings together more than a thousand negotiators, world leaders, researchers, civil society leaders, business leaders, practitioners and policy makers in agriculture, forestry and development, funding organizations, and media, making it the largest, most influential event outside the UNFCCC COP.
