When the Global Landscapes Forum was launched alongside UNFCC COP19 in Warsaw, the focus lay on connecting two communities: forestry and agriculture. Over the past two years, the Forum has reached out to a range of other groups involved in land use decision making, such as institutional investors and consumer goods companies.
The 2014 Forum in Lima saw the launch of major initiatives for sustainable land use (such as the large-scale restoration efforts in Latin America under Initiative 20×20) and in June 2015, the first breakout event dedicated to scaling up landscape finance was held in London.
The closing ceremony will take a closer look at some of the initiatives that emerged through the Forum and offer a space for tracking progress as well as outlining next steps.
Key questions addressed
- We have the SDGs, we are on the way to enter a new climate agreement – what action needs to happen in landscapes to realize international policy goals?
- Restoration is viewed as key to achieving climate, food security and livelihood goals all in one – but how does it play out in practice? And what knowledge is needed to make restoration work?
- Questions of how land is used are directly linked to questions of who uses that land – and unclear tenure is still cited as major obstacle for sustainable land use. What are the key areas for action as pressures on land increase?
- What is finance able to do for landscapes? What is finance willing to do for landscapes?
- What role do landscapes play in the new climate agreement? How do countries propose to measure progress? And what can science do to support the achievement of climate goals in land use sectors?
