Wednesday, 16 November
Registration
Location: Kenzi Club Agdal Medina, MarrakeshDiscussion forums
Coffee break and knowledge-sharing activities
Location: Kenzi Club Agdal Medina, MarrakeshDiscussion forums
Lunch and knowledge-sharing activities
Location: Kenzi Club Agdal Medina, MarrakeshWelcoming plenary and roundtable: Climate meets landscape — from agenda to progress
Location: Marrakesh roomCoffee break and knowledge-sharing activities
Location: Kenzi Club Agdal Medina, MarrakeshDiscussion forums
Closing plenary: Reaching one billion — Launch of the future Global Landscapes Forum
Location: Marrakesh roomEvening reception
Location: Outdoor garden and Kenzi barWednesday, 16 November
Climate Resilience through Sweet Potatoes (CReSP): Harnessing the power of the orange-fleshed sweet potato to aid vulnerable populations
Location: Ourika room
When droughts and floods threaten lives and livelihoods, nutrition must be secured. To this end, the International Potato Center (CIP) is launching the Climate Resilience through Sweet Potatoes (CReSP) initiative. CReSP supports countries and humanitarian organizations throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America in harnessing bio-fortified and resilient sweet potatoes for effective disaster preparedness and responses.
CReSP builds upon the pioneering research on orange-fleshed sweet potato breeding and delivery to vulnerable populations in Africa – for which CIP scientists Jan Low, Robert Mwanga and Maria Andrade were awarded the 2016 World Food Prize. CIP is committed to increasing access to these successful technologies and capacities to address the need for climate change adaptation in vulnerable countries around the world.
Speakers
Maria Andrade
Sweetpotato Breeder, Cape Verde
Adiel Mbabu
Regional Director (SSA), Nairobi, Kenya
Simon Heck
Program Leader, Resilient, Nutritious Sweetpotato Program (SO1)Online deforestation mapping tool: Helping find the culprits behind clearing land for plantations over the past four decades
Location: Menara room
This new digital map offers the first significant opportunity to differentiate to a large degree oil palm and pulpwood companies who practice deforestation from those who don’t.
Using satellite technology, combined with information from the Indonesian government, experts at the Center for International Forestry Research in Indonesia have developed the map of Borneo, the world’s largest source of palm oil and a significant source of pulpwood.
The oil palm industry has been responsible for deforestation on a grand scale, but planting on already degraded land is a cornerstone of sustainable development, while oil palm generates efficient income and is the chief livelihood for millions of farmers. More transparency is required to distinguish oil palm companies who practice deforestation from those who avoid deforestation, and to prevent companies being unfairly blamed for recent deforestation.
With CIFOR’S mapping tool, it is possible to measure the time lag between when forest was removed and when plantations were established. The shorter the gap, the more likely it was cleared by a particular company for planting oil palm or pulpwood.
The tool also provides 42 years of history of industrial logging and oil and pulpwood expansion, and can calculate the area that has been actively deforested.
The map is designed to be useful to government and campaigners, and to the industry. Already CIFOR experts have been contacted by Indonesian corporates concerned about illegal logging on their concessions.
Background reading
Speakers
David Gaveau
Scientist, CIFOR
Aida Greenbury
Managing Director Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement, Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP)
Pablo Pacheco
Principal Scientist, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Matt Hansen
Professor, University of Maryland“Produce and Protect”, a global online platform to deliver on sustainability commitments
Location: Agdal room
“Produce and Protect” is a new global online, interactive platform created by the San Francisco-based Earth Innovation Institute.
It aims to connect jurisdictions – provincial, regional or other sub-national territories – where commodities are produced sustainably with companies looking to buy those products.
The first information source or brokerage platform of its kind, it will create an incentive for jurisdictions that are dedicated to sustainable development, while offering easier access for companies that have pledged that their products or sourcing will be environmentally and socially responsible.
The platform will meet a discernible need in the global marketplace. Global corporates such as Unilever, IKEA and Marks & Spencer have committed themselves to preferential sourcing. With consumer demand for products produced sustainably growing, others are bound to follow. At the same time, regional governments that have made the right choices for the environment will be given somewhere to advertise the fact. The exchange will provide them with a place to register their pledges and sustainability data for all interested parties to see.
Subnational jurisdictions often cover very large, sensitive land areas, so the benefits for the locality and for the planet as a whole in reducing deforestation via sustainable production and sourcing would be substantial, as well as helpful to national progress towards NDCs and the SDGs.
Building alliances, partnerships and consensus are fundamental to how Earth Innovation Institute works. Please join us to hear more in depth about the conception of the Produce and Protect platform and how it will function.
Speakers
Joko Arif
Managing Director, Intitut Penelitian Inovasi Bumi & Senior Fellow, Earth Innovation Institute
Juan Ardila
Research Associate, Earth Innovation Institute
TFA 2020’S Africa Palm Oil Initiative
Location: Ourika room
The Africa Palm Oil Initiative (APOI) brings together nine Central and West African governments, as well as the private sector, civil society and indigenous and local peoples groups, in a commitment to make this key industry sustainable and responsible.
The initiative is being launched at an important moment in the development of the palm oil industry in the region, as it is on the verge of becoming a net exporter. High-level representatives of the nine governments are expected in Marrakesh to sign the pledge, which aims to be a sustainable driver of long-term, low-carbon development in a manner that is socially beneficial and protects tropical forests. The countries concerned are: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone.
The APOI is the first major initiative of the Tropical Forest Alliance, a global public-private partnership set up in 2012 that aims to reduce deforestation linked to key global commodities.
The framework, which has been developed in coordination with Proforest, takes into account ambitious national development plans, as well as environmental targets for reduced deforestation and the rights of indigenous peoples.
Background reading
Speakers
Marco Albani
Director, TFA 2020
Abraham Baffoe
Africa Regional Director, Proforest
Jeff Seabright
Chief Sustainability Officer, Unilever
Crystal Davis
Director-Global Forest Watch, World Resources InstituteGlobal Peatlands Initiative
Location: Menara room
The Global Peatlands Initiative is a new UN Environment Programme-led effort to save one of the world’s largest carbon stocks.
Containing up to 100 times more carbon than tropical forests, peatlands have crucial importance in fighting climate change. Although many unknowns remain, some estimates suggest that draining and degrading peatlands is responsible for as much as 5% of global anthropogenic emissions.
The Global Peatlands Initiative aims to increase the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of peatlands in countries with significant peat deposits delivering benefits for agriculture, biodiveristy and the climate. In terms of scale and scope, the initiative goes beyond any recent collaborative efforts on peat.
Among the founding members are: the governments of Indonesia, Peru and the Republic of Congo, UNEP, FAO, IFAD, the EC, Wetlands International, UNEP-WCMC, GRID-Arendal, Ramsar Secretariat, European Space Agency, WRI, Greifswald Mire Centre and SarVision/Sateligence.
Speakers
Nazir Foead
Head of Peatland Restoration Agency, Republic of Indonesia
Horst Freiberg
Head of Division for Forest Conservation and Sustainable Management of Forests, Biological Diversity and Climate Change, German Federal Ministry for the Environment
Frank-Martin Seifert
Technical Officer, European Space Agency
Jaime Webbe
Chief Environmental Education and Training Unit, United Nations Environment Programme
Martin Frick
Director Climate and Environment, FAOThe Five Great Forests Initiative
Location: Agdal room
The MacArthur Foundation is supporting the development of a new conservation initiative to protect the world’s great forests – the last intact primary forest landscapes.
These forests, in the Amazon, Congo Basin, tropical Southeast Asia and Melanesia, boreal North America and boreal Russia, are globally irreplaceable for their contribution to climate change mitigation potential, biodiversity and sustaining imperiled cultures.
This work is in its early stages and the MacArthur Foundation is reaching out to encourage others to participate, to invest and to play a role in shaping the design during a two-year period. The key opportunity is the recognition that intact forests can make a great, and under-appreciated, contribution to the goals of the Paris Agreement, complementary to efforts to control agricultural frontiers and restore degraded landscapes. Recognition of this will bring new impetus to a wide range of conservation efforts, policy measures and public campaigns, from protected areas and indigenous territorial management to the siting of new infrastructure and logging operations.
Preserving forests intact ensures significant climate benefits in three ways – huge emissions of stored carbon are avoided, a major active sink of carbon is maintained and local climatic regimes are moderated. Current efforts to protect intact forests are falling alarmingly short.
The 5 Great Forests Initiative envisions a world where the value of intact forests to humankind is universally recognized, loss of intact forests has ceased and the restoration of previously intact forests is underway. The Initiative will involve a broad grouping of NGOs, civil society, academics, funders, government and members of the private sector.
Speakers
Christopher Holtz
Director, Conservation & Sustainable Development
Tom Evans
Climate Change Mitigation Lead, WCS Conservation Science and Solutions ProgramPipa Elias
Senior Policy Advisor, Global Lands and Climate
Christoph Thies
Forest Campaigner, GreenpeaceWednesday, 16 November
International Potato Center
The International Potato Center, known by its Spanish acronym CIP, was founded in 1971 as a root and tuber research-for-development institution delivering sustainable solutions to the pressing world problems of hunger, poverty, and the degradation of natural resources. CIP’s headquarters is in Lima, Peru and it has offices in 18 developing countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Working closely with our partners, CIP seeks to achieve food security, increased well-being, and gender equity for poor people in the developing world. CIP furthers its mission through rigorous research, innovation in science and technology, and capacity strengthening regarding root and tuber farming and food systems.
CIP is part of the CGIAR Consortium, a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food secure future. CGIAR research is dedicated to reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring more sustainable management of natural resources. Donors include individual countries, major foundations, and international entities.
INRA host of the scientific secretariat of the international research program of the ‘4 per 1000’ Initiative
The international research program of the ‘4 per 1000 Initiative. Soils for food security and climate’ is providing the scientific basis and building the technical, economic and social tools needed for the 4 per 1000 objective in diverse environments
BNDES/Amazon Fund
The Amazon Fund was created in 2008 to provide financial support to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, as well as to promote the sustainable use of biodiversity in the Brazilian Amazon. It is managed by BNDES, the Brazilian development bank. It has received more than US$ 1 billion in donations – from Norway (97%), Germany and Petrobras – and supports 85 projects with US$ 598 million.
Peatland Restoration Agency, Republic of Indonesia
BRG is a non-structural institution directly under and responsible to the President of the Republic of Indonesia. This agency was established in 6 January 2016 based on Presidential Regulation No. 1 Year 2016.
The establishment of BRG is a testimony to the Indonesian government’s commitment to restore the degraded peatland ecosystems. Degraded peatlands are inextricable from the land and forest fires and happening for almost the last 18 years, culminating in 2015. The responsibility of BRG is to coordinate and facilitate the restoration of peatlands in priority regions: the provinces of Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan and Papua. BRG’s target is to restore the approximately two millions of hectares of degraded peatland within five years period.
International Tropical Timber Organization
At ITTO we promote the conservation, sustainable management and legal trade of tropical timber and other tropical forest products. We work with governments to develop good policies and we partner with local organizations to implement these policies to help them use their forests sustainably. Through our global leadership – we cover around 80% of the world’s area of tropical forest and 90% of the tropical forest products trade – we help protect biodiversity, mitigate climate change and bring people out of poverty through sustainable forest management (SFM). ITTO is an action-oriented international organization, with nearly 30 years of experience. We have funded over a thousand projects dealing with the various aspects of SFM, including harvesting, biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, environmental services, community forestry, livelihoods, timber processing, timber trade, non-timber forest products, forest governance, etc. ITTO also produces reliable statistics on timber trade.
The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility
The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility (“The Tenure Facility”) is a unique new institution that provides grants to advance land and forest tenure security and the rights and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. It is emergent and responsive to the growing global land and forest tenure crisis that often pits communities, businesses, and governments against one another. This crisis is growing as result of weak governance and unclear, unenforced or undocumented rules for governing land, forests, and people. The Tenure Facility is the first and only institution exclusively focused on securing collective rights to land and forests. The Tenure Facility is designed to respond quickly and flexibly to indigenous and community organizations working to secure their land, and is informed by and engages with the private sector as well as existing international instruments including UN-REDD+, FIP, DGM, and bilateral programs.
IUCN
IUCN’s Forest Programme convenes decision-makers, facilitates forest landscape restoration commitments and supports rights-based approaches, helping countries address national priorities while achieving their international climate change, biodiversity and land degradation goals.
The Belantara Foundation
Belantara Foundation (Bersama Lestarikan Nusantara – Conserving the Nation Together) aims to preserve Indonesia’s natural environment by supporting holistic conservation projects, focusing on ten critical landscapes across Sumatra and Kalimantan, Indonesia. Belantara uses a landscape scale approach to help ensure the balance between long-term economic development, sustainable livelihoods for local communities, and environmental conservation. Belantara supports restoration and endangered species protection, studies to strengthen sustainable landscape management, as well as community engagement and local economic development, especially in areas with a heavy reliance on natural resources.
Woods Hole Research Center
Woods Hole Research Center is an independent research institute where scientists investigate the causes and effects of climate change to identify and implement opportunities for conservation, restoration and economic development around the world.
