Rio Conventions Pavilion at UNCCD COP15

The Rio Conventions Pavilion, supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), carried out a series of events that aimed to increase ambition to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change, to restore and maintain healthy landscapes with a focus on addressing the interlinked challenges of land degradation, climate change, and biodiversity loss.

Science Day brings together a diverse and highly engaged audience of participants, including scientists, policy-makers, practitioners, students, journalists, and representatives of civil society organizations and development agencies.

Under the theme of “Science for Action: Land Restoration and Drought,” Science Day focuses on these two critical issues on the COP agenda.

Restoration Stewards Adrian Leitoro at the Science Day, Rio Pavilion

Young Africans have a strong vision for their land: their stories of restoring landscapes are also stories of young people defining their own narratives of a good life and creating multiple, contradictory, and coexisting futures across the continent.

In this short session co-created by the World Agroforestry Center, the Global Landscapes Forum, and the Youth in Landscapes Initiative young Kenyan restoration practitioner Adrian Leitoro shares his thoughts and experiences, focusing on the importance of healthy landscapes for climate adaptation and food sovereignty in Africa.

Leitoro is also the founder of Nature and People as One (NAPO) in Kenya, an organization dedicated to implementing restoration projects that empower youth. He elaborates on the importance of leveraging community knowledge in restoration and its potential to generate income and self-employment for African youth.

He also presses for the need for technical financial support and favorable policies that support youth actors working in land degradation.