Global Landscapes Forum: Best of 2018

Celebrating local voices and moving to action

A year of unprecedented growth wraps up for the Global Landscapes Forum, which has now reached more than 250 million in over 195 countries with its messages about sustainable landscapes. Key sustainability stakeholders have joined forces with the GLF in a mission to create a global movement of 1 billion people and GLF events on three continents got the world talking about are the next steps for action on the ground in moving faster together towards a sustainable future. Youth and media programs have empowered young people and journalists to lead the conversations on landscapes, while the freshly launched Landscape Academy provides an international landscape curriculum for anybody and everybody wanting to further their skills and knowledge.

“Touching people’s hearts is how you change their behavior, and this is the only way to create long-lasting change.”  Fe Cortez, Brazilian entrepreneur

“We honor rights as our foundation for our work going forward. We cannot address climate change without addressing other inequalities in communities.”   Janene Yazzie, indigenous rights activist

In 2018, the GLF focused on revealing the stories of local actors improving landscapes and livelihoods at ground level and their successes serve now as inspiration for stakeholders from all levels and backgrounds to step up efforts and opportunities for green funding. Voices of the Landscapes plenaries at GLF Nairobi and Bonn strengthened local voices talking to governments and investors, while the GLF Landscape Heroes campaign drew eye-opening stories from all continents of people driving positive change.

Making the financial case for the private sector to invest in sustainability, featuring restoration success across Africa, monitoring how far we’ve come since the Paris Agreement and REDD+, mapping out the steps towards SDG targets and tackling climate change at landscape level were core to discussions in Washington DC, Nairobi, Bonn and Katowice, but also across social media platforms, among tens of thousands of people.

21 international organizations have now officially joined the GLF as charter members, a key move marked in the closing of GLF Bonn with their commitments to action. The GLF is growing stronger than ever and building the lessons of 2018 into an even more ambitious 2019 for landscapes. Stay tuned!

Through its events in Washington, Nairobi, Bonn and Katowice, GLF has been making the headlines around the world, with more than 230 mentions in print, online and radio news outlets. Articles in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Bahasa and Swahili reached more than 26 million people across the globe.