The main takeaway from this year's Global Landscapes Forum? Diversity is key! | Land Portal

At this year' Global Landscape Forum (GLF 2019), one message was loud and clear: diversity is key to restoration and sustainable landscape management, more specifically the emphasis on a variety of viewpoints and stories, is what will help us reach our goals!

This year's Forum in particular put land rights at the center of its agenda. As we were eagerly wait to host our Learning Café event, jointly organised with GIZ, we sneaked around different sessions during the opening day. We began day one by listening in on stories of land rights defenders from all corners of the globe - people putting their life at risk everyday, for the recognition of the rights to land and natural resources for their communities. While each story and context is different, the message is once again, unanimous:

We are not fighting against development, but for a different development model, where indigenous people and community land rights matters just as much as the interests of governments and private companies.

 

With this message still very fresh in our minds, we headed to the official opening session, with a great panel of inspirational speakers, each of them passionate about creating a better world.

The session started with a remote video address from actor and activist Alec Baldwin, who suggested that fostering change is indeed possible. While picking out only one messagge from such a rich session is almost impossible, the one that we would like to pass on here is that we need "radical collaborations" - from Hollywood, to the most remote areas of the Amazon, this is key in helping to restore forests and to sustainably manage our landscapes.

 

Later on, we joined the GIZ panel discussion, which brought together a variety of different stakeholders involved, when in comes to land rights and forest restoration. So many different perspective, as diverse as our landscapes, emerged: from the key ingredients for a sustainable land reform in Madagascar, to the voice of indigenous people in Brasil; from the experience of the Ethiopian private sector in combining agricultral productivity and landscape protection, to the robust scientific evidence around multistakeholders approach as a key ingredient for sustainable development, and to the use of new technologies to support land titling of indigenous communities in Peru through participatory mapping. 

 

With our mind still tuned on the last panel discussion and on the variety of implications related to rights-based approach for landscape, we go back to the main room, for the closing session of day 1. We take part in a number of vibrant and inspiring talks. 

We need to change the narrative, and for doing so, we need to empower people to tell their own story.

 

Clearly, this message resonated very much with us at the Land Portal. And it is from these words, that we start our journey towards day 2 of the GLF. The morning is short but vibrant, and it is already time to go to the Learning Café event that we are jointly organising with GIZ. We call back the panelists from the GIZ session organised on the previous day, and we ask them to grab a cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and tell us their own story.

 

 

We embark on the journey spanning from traditional indigenous knowledge to big data and the result is amazing. Our session attracts an impressive number of participants, with many people standing and struggling to find a space to listen in! 

When the session ends, we have the strong feeling that we have done our part, by bringing our contribution into the wider arena: we have passed the microphone over to our guests, and we have given them opportunity to speak out loud, reaching a wider audience with their story. 

The diversity of landscapes mirrors the diversity of the people that depends on them, and we will keep working hard to provide a friendly, inclusive and open access space, helping everyone to tell their own story. Our mission has just started, and we will keep adding more stories to enrich the soon-to-be-launched Portfolio on Forest and Landscape Restoration, so... stay tuned for more stories and help us in telling everyone's story!

 

 

 

 

 

Related content: 
Event
globallandscapeforum
23 June 2019
Global
Organizers: 
Land Portal Foundation
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

This session will build on and contribute to the panel discussion “Challenges in implementing a rights-based approach for sustainable management and restoration of landscapes and forests”. It will include short face-to-face discussions with guest speakers from the panel discussion, engagi

Event
Global Landscapes Forum Bonn 2019 cover image
22 June 2019
Global
Organizers: 
Global Landscapes Forum

In 2019 the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) will focus the world’s attention on the fundamental importance of rights to address the current environmental crisis. Linking people to landscapes, the GLF will explore the essential contributions of indigenous peoples, local communities, and rural and indigenous women and youth in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement targets on climate change, highlighting the transformative role of rights and rights-based approaches in securing a more just, sustainable and prosperous future for all. Woven across the year’s events, these priorities will form the centerpiece of the annual conference in Bonn, Germany – to be held on June 22–23 alongside the intersessional climate talks – making it the world’s single largest forum on rights and sustainable landscapes.

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