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About GLF Africa 2022

GLF Africa 2022: How to build an equitable, resilient food future brought together over 8,500 participants from 122 countries and featured 182 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth and government leaders, and 68 incredible partners to explore African solutions to the global food crisis caused by climate change, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine.

Across 31 plenaries, interactive sessions, launches, virtual tours, dialogues, performances, and a job fair, the digital conference explored ways to transform the future of food through healthy landscapes, equitable access to land, and shorter, greener value chains. Messages on social media rallied 26 million people around concrete ways for Africa to regain its food sovereignty.

How trees can help restore landscapes

Forest landscapes and their services are critical to the well-being of smallholder farmers, local populations, and Indigenous communities. However, global food systems are under pressure, with climate change further driving land degradation and declining crop yields.

This session aims to show the potential of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) for food security and the resilience building of local communities. Collaborating in different African countries, GIZ’s Forests4Future (F4F) and the FAO Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) enhance agroforestry systems and business activities by linking producers and their organizations with processing enterprises, thus professionalizing tree-based value chains.

The projects work with farmer and women organizations, which are crucial agents of change as they enable large networks, raise awareness, and function as multiplicators of restoration implementation.

The session draws from practical experiences in FFF’s and F4F’s partner countries, Madagascar and Togo where crops of mangos, coffee, eucalyptus, and medicinal trees served to as income generators and restoration barriers to break winds and improve soil management.

‘The inclusion of women is significant in the conservation and restoration of landscapes,’ says Bariétou Agbere, Founder of the National Network of Women Farmers of Togo (RENAFA).

Download the session white paper to find out more about resilient tree-based value chains in Madagascar and Togo