Global Landscapes Forum: Best of 2019

Focus

THIS WEEK'S FOCUS:

We're all connected, and the choices we make matter. From scrutinizing supply chains to encouraging eco-friendly daily habits, GLF has been helping lead the charge towards more sustainable lifestyles that don't cost us the Earth. Learn more in these Landscape News articles.
Tune in next week for Best of Change-makers.

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How to wash your clothes

Whatever your style, unfortunately your fashion footprint isn’t finished yet. Washing and drying clothes contributes heavily to energy and water use, carbon emissions and pollution.

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What revolutionizing values could mean for capitalism – and the planet

Digging into the psychology of materialism with Tim Kasser

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Orsola de Castro from Fashion Revolution

You can be the fashion revolutionary!

Event Focus: GLF Kyoto

Twenty-two years on, in May 2019 delegates returned to the site of the historic signing of the Kyoto Protocol for GLF Kyoto, which was held on the sidelines of the 49th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). At the conference, Kyoto's mayor Daisaku Kadokawa pledged that the city would meet a target of zero carbon emissions by 2050. The event marked GLF's first foray into a Digital Edition, which livestreamed special addresses, multimedia content and art from five continents, and reached over two million people on social media.

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Global Landscapes Forum Kyoto

For the first time ever, GLF launched a Digital Edition, which aired climate change videos, special addresses and art streamed live from five continents, reaching over 2 million people on social media.

From poets to politicians, indigenous elders to youth activists, this year GLF has provided platforms for changemakers of all stripes to get their crucial messages out into the world. Find out more in these stories.
Tune in next week for Best of Restoration.

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Xiuhtezcatl Martinez: “This crisis is one of the most unifying moments of human history”

Indigenous activist and musician on turning despair into action

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Changing the Narrative

Only by changing our thinking and learning to accept, understand and honor all perspectives can we rewrite together the collective story of our shared future.

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Hardest hit by climate change, but triumphing over it

Former Irish president Mary Robinson uses true protagonists to show why everyone must cling to hope

Restoring landscapes has always been a central focus of GLF's work, but things have really stepped up a notch this year with the announcement of the upcoming 2021-2030 UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which we'll help to lead and shape. Read more here.
Tune in next week for Best of Food.

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The Everglades, forever more

The story of one of history’s most ambitious restoration projects

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How to turn your backyard into a carbon sink

4 steps to replace your lawn with a carbon-sequestering garden

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Emil Fischer: Bamboo for Integrated Development Ghana

Bamboo agroforestry as the solution for landscapes restoration in Ghana

GLF New York

At the close of an historic Climate Week, in September 2019 over 400 people met at the United Nations headquarters in New York City for a GLF gathering entitled 'Restore the Earth'. There, delegates explored the practicalities and potential of the upcoming UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, 2021-2030.

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Global Landscapes Forum New York

The GLF stands at the forefront of the recently-announced UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

As climate change alters the planet's food-producing landscapes and systems, how do we feed the world without depleting ecosystems further? Nature-friendly farming and sustainable wild harvest were key concerns for the GLF this year, as these stories show.
Tune in next week for Best of Livelihoods & Rights.

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Meet the oyster mushroom producer changing urban Ghanaian diets

Plus, how to transform free sawdust into profit

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How to Fulfill Restoration Promises

Leaders from across the world are provide key recommendations for how to deliver on the promises of restoration.

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High cost of food waste

Reducing food loss is key to achieving zero hunger and meeting environmental targets.

We can't protect forests and mitigate the impacts of climate change without taking a 'livelihood lens' and centering the rights of indigenous and local communities. As speakers at a number of GLF events this year highlighted, their knowledge and stewardship is critical to preserving the world's remaining biodiversity and carbon sinks. Check out these articles to know more.
Tune in next week for Best of Biodiversity.

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In Africa, bamboo bicycles are shifting gears for women in the workforce

Building a sustainable, equitable set of wheels from grass

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Mary Robinson

Video address from Mary Robinson , Former President of the Republic of Ireland & Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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Tackling logging in Cambodia? There’s an app for that

Smartphone app helps communities fight illegal logging

GLF Bonn

Rights were in the spotlight at GLF Bonn in June 2019. Indigenous leaders, young people, scientists and policymakers rallied around the cause of securing rights for the world's 350 million Indigenous peoples, whose ancestral lands harbor 80 percent of the world's biodiversity and almost 300 billion metric tons of carbon. At the conference, a 'gold standard' was developed for rights-based approaches to landscape restoration.

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Global Landscapes Forum Bonn

Held alongside the UNFCCC’s Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB50), indigenous leaders and representatives stood shoulder to shoulder with policy makers, scientists and youth in their commitment to securing the rights of the world’s 350 million Indigenous peoples.

As this year's IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services made clear, our planet's biodiversity is rapidly declining due to environmental degradation, unsustainable extraction and climate change. The GLF continues to draw attention to this crisis, and to voice the human and financial losses associated with this decline. Find out more here.
Tune in next week for Best of Finance.

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Behind the scenes of new BBC series “Dynasties”

Producer Rupert Barrington reflects on 2 years documenting the world’s reigning animal families

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Searching for the rare kākerōri bird in the Cook Islands

Birdwatching with Ian Karika on Rarotonga

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8 Facts about Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Peoples and local communities are bearers of rights and solutions to the climate crisis.

Changing course costs money — even if the savings in the long run are priceless. Public funds are limited, but there's vast private-sector potential that we are yet to unlock. That's why GLF has continued to make the business case for green investment, and worked to help channel finances towards creating more sustainable systems. See more here.

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Green finance 101: How to mobilize funds for the planet

The ins and outs of sustainable investing

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A green finance glossary

All the key terms to know about sustainable investing

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Opening plenary of GLF Luxembourg 2019

It is time to explore some of the options to mainstream sustainable land-use investments in the practices and tools of traditional finance stakeholders.

GLF Luxembourg

How can we make sustainable finance mainstream? That was the question on everyone's lips at the GLF's fourth annual Investment Case Symposium, held in Luxembourg in November 2019. Held just after the UNEP Finance Initiative's Regional Roundtable on Sustainable Finance, the event focussed on facilitating the flow of investment into sustainable landscape projects and supply chains.

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Global Landscapes Forum Luxembourg

This event focused on the development of cutting-edge financial tools and mechanisms, ways to overcome investment risks, financial needs in landscapes, and new policies being enacted to increase the amount of money going to create sustainable landscapes for the future.

Best of 2019