Blog competition

Your community, your landscape

Landscapes are intrinsically tied with the communities that inhabit them. Landscapes consist of more than just our use of and interaction with land: healthy landscapes provide habitats, homes, livelihoods and ecosystem benefits far beyond the reach of the land itself. However, landscapes also often provide the backdrop to many challenges and conflicts between and amongst different communities, governments, companies and other actors. Tell us about your local landscapes: how do you, your community and others define, engage and interact with it? What challenges are your communities and landscapes facing, and how are you solving them?

Submit your blog here


The 2017 blogging competition will run up until GLF’s global event in Bonn, 19-20 December. The competition will span across at least two additional events—GLF: Peatlands Matter and The Investment Case and cover six cross-cutting themes: food & livelihoods, finance, restoration, rights, peatlands and measuring progress.

Winning submissions from relevant cross-cutting themes will be featured during corresponding thematic and regional events: top peatlands submissions will be highlighted at the GLF: Peatlands Matter event, and best financing sustainable landscape picks will be in the spotlight at The Investment Case event.

Thousands of participants from all over the world will come together to participate in our 2017 events, with thousands—maybe even millions!—more tuning in online. With representatives from the private sector, NGOs, leading international organizations, government and more, along with an online social media campaign that will reach millions through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and live streaming, the GLF can put your work at the center of the world’s stage.

Anyone! No matter if you are an experienced writer, or simply a casual blogger; this year’s blog competition is open to anyone and everyone. If you have a passion for writing and an interest in landscapes, then this competition is for you.

Peatlands

Little-known peatlands—referred to by a multitude of names (mires, bogs, heaths and wetlands are just a few)—are important carbon sinks and stocks, estimated
to hold more than 600 Gt of carbon. When drained, peatlands are especially susceptible to fires: the fire and haze event in Indonesia in 2015, which produced 15% of the world’s carbon emissions that year, caused billions of dollars in economic losses and created a public health crisis, bringing these conflicting issues to the forefront of global attention. Meanwhile, millions of farmers derive their livelihoods from unsustainable agricultural practices on these lands—translating to conflicting demands as the need persists to protect public health, ecosystem services, and biodiversity.The world now needs to know why peatlands matter, and it is time for you to show us! Whether you focus on biodiversity, local communities, fire and haze, climate change or something entirely different, tell us why peatlands matter to you.

Deadline: 12 May, 2017

Financing sustainable landscapes

At every step in the fight for landscape restoration, food security, indigenous rights and climate change, finance and investment must be unlocked to build momentum and scale up. In achieving the Paris Agreement and the SDGs, we must find new and innovative methods to stimulate private sector investment. The business case for investing in achieving climate and development goals is strengthening; there are new, groundbreaking initiatives to stimulate private investment in sustainable landscapes all over the world—and we want to read all about them from you.  Tell us about the financial tools that are funding restoration and sustainable development efforts across landscapes.

Deadline: 23 October, 2017

Landscape restoration

In the fight against climate change and for sustainable development, it has become clear that the world’s greatest asset is nature itself. The power of natural landscapes to sequester carbon, regulate air and water quality and provide essential natural resources for livelihoods will be a deciding factor in achieving the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite their importance, landscapes are degraded and exploited continually. Fortunately, solutions do exist. In fact, more and more restoration schemes and initiatives are popping up every day. We want you to tell us about innovative programs and initiatives that aim to restore the world’s degraded landscapes. Show us how these initiatives work to restore landscapes and their impacts on livelihoods, food security, gender equality and investment opportunities.

Deadline: 12 December, 2017

Rights

We know that granting land and tenure rights to women, indigenous peoples and communities leads to better environmental protection and conservation and a significant decrease in deforestation rates. This theme focuses on climate action and sustainable development initiatives working in tandem while upholding and improving the rights of indigenous peoples; improving tenure, legal frameworks and law; facilitating large-scale land investments and rights; and enabling gender and women’s empowerment. Share with us the stories of the communities fighting to protect their local environment. Tell us the tales of indigenous peoples exercising their rights to self-determination in defending their homelands. Highlight the successes of communities that have exercised their rights to manage their own land.

Deadline: 12 December, 2017

Food and livelihoods

Food security is not just about how much food is produced, but also about the quality and variety of people’s diets. Research shows that people living in environments supported by healthy ecosystems benefit from more nutritious and varied diets. However, competing interests accompany landscapes with a wide variety of natural resources: where some rely on forests for hunting and foraging, others rely on them for harvesting resources to make a living. Moving towards a food-secure world without hunger largely depends on how well we can sustainably manage these competing interests. Just as we cannot sacrifice the health of an ecosystem for people’s livelihoods, we also cannot sacrifice entire livelihoods for the health of an ecosystem; though, luckily, one does not have to come at the cost of the other. Show us the solutions that sustainably and equitably reconcile these competing interests. Tell us the stories of communities balancing food and nutritional security with biodiversity, climate and other goals.

Deadline: 12 December, 2017

Measuring progress towards climate and development goals

Tracking and measuring progress is essential to achieving climate and development goals, especially as land use relates many SDGs and their targets. This theme will engage writers to find and describe the latest knowledge and tools working to measure progress at the landscape level. Tell us about your experiences in evaluating benefits across interests and uses in landscapes; utilizing technology and innovation in monitoring land use change; monitoring public and private sustainability, restoration and no-deforestation commitments; and developing and testing indicators for SDG targets.

Deadline: 12 December, 2017

To participate, writers must first upload their blog pieces via the submission form (Insert hyperlink) to landscapes.org for consideration. Once your submission has been approved and uploaded to our website, you can then promote your work on social media platforms for voting—making sure to tag the relevant GLF social media page in all posts.

Submissions must include a title, the author’s name, a maximum of 750 words and specified competition theme.

Winners of the grand cash prizes and event attendance will be announced on December 1, 2017. Top blogs from all thematic categories will be displayed at our global event in Bonn. Additionally, the top blogs of the ‘Peatlands’ and ‘Financing sustainable landscapes’ themes will be selected for display a week prior to the GLF: Peatlands Matter event and The Investment Case event.

Two grand prizes will be awarded for the overall 1st and 2nd placed blogs, along with 5 rewards for the top-rated blogs of each theme:

  • 1st prize: USD1000 + attendance at our global event in Bonn
  • 2nd prize: USD500 + attendance at our global event in Bonn
  • Runner-ups: The top 5 blogs will be chosen for display at our event in Bonn. Top blogs from the Peatlands and Finance themes will also be displayed at our GLF: Peatlands Matter and Investment Case events respectively.

By submitting blogs to the competition, writers agree to a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial share-alike license (BY-NC-SA). Competition organizers will use winning blogs for event materials and exhibition at Forum events. Writers are not permitted to use these pieces for commercial purposes.

Professional writers who work for the media are required to attach an authorization signed by a representative of the media company employing them. This authorization should state that the organizers of the contest have permission to publish the author’s piece from the media outlet in which the blog originally appeared.