Young development professionals and students could pitch solutions to global landscape challenges to a panel of experts in a Dragon’s Den Style Event. :copyright: Andrew Wheeler for Wild Dog Limited / WLE_CGIAR 2015 all rights reserved worldwide.
From the 1st to the 4th of December, about 50 young people gathered in the most beautiful city in the world : Paris ! Why ? They are passionate about landscape and they all have the same objective : find solutions for humans and for the environment.
5 five teams were created: education, landscape restoration, finance & trade, measuring success, rights & tenure. During four days, every team worked hardly, seriously and passionately. What an amazing experience to work with people from all around the world, from all the continents ! And it wasn’t an exercise, it was real work to find concrete solutions for humans and for the environment.
I was in the challenge landscape restoration, mentoring by Alan Nicol and Abby Waldorf (from CGIAR). All the young people had a lot of creativity, enthusiasm, energy, confidence, and it was really rewarding. For me, this experience brought us a lot of competences and empowerment.
The main goal of this work was to prepare for the GLF (Global Landscape Forum – 5th and 6th of December 2015), and particularly the Dragons Den session during this forum. During this session, we explained our solutions to the “Dragons” from CIFOR, UNEP, Word Bank,… For example, for the team landscape restoration, we explained our solutions to restore ecosystems near the Nil and to ensure gender equity.
Here is a video about the Youth in Landscapes Initiative, and particularly for the team “landscape restoration” :
Moreover, I was also in the delegation of IFSA (International Forestry Student Association) during the GLF. Whether they are students or professionals, all IFSA delegates are passionate by forests and by issues like REDD+, forest management, agroforestry,… And Salina Abraham, made a very nice keynote speech during the closing session of the GLF.
Beyond that, the Youth in Landscape Initiative and IFSA association allows people from all around the world to meet and to connect themselves. And they are great opportunities for young people to propose their solutions, to carry their voice during international events like the GLF !
Olivier Rousselle is one of the 10 young champions who worked on the “ Landscape restoration ” challenge with Youth program’s partner: WLE (CGIAR).
Learn more about the Global Landscapes Forum Youth program, meet our 50 youth champions, discover the 5 Landscapes challenges they took up and the solutions they developed and pitched at the Dragon’s Den on 6th December 2015, in Paris.
