This year’s Global Landscapes Forum aimed to launch a revitalized “movement,” bringing together a range of actors under one banner to drive progress toward the climate change and sustainable development agendas.

More than 1,000 actors drawn from a disparate range of sectors including agriculture, forestry, and ecology, as well as faith and indigenous leaders, gathered in Bonn, Germany, for the two-day GLF, which has been given a new lease on life thanks to an 11 million euro grant from the German government.

Here are some key takeaways from the event: 

  • Restoration is the flavor of the forum. Restoration — the practice of regaining the ecological integrity of land that has been deforested or degraded, most often by planting trees — was the hot topic at the GLF, with a number of side events and sessions dedicated to the concept.
  • Land tenure and indigenous rights are key. Studies show that securing indigenous and community forest rights yields substantial benefits over a 20-year period and are cheaper than establishing new protected areas.
  • Private sector. UN Environment has been doing that through its work in Indonesia through the Tropical Landscapes Financing Facility, a $1 billion fund that it helped set up with French bank BNP Paribas to get long-term financing into commercial green projects, including responsible agribusiness and agroforestry.
  • The wrong crowd? None of the companies who pledged to achieve zero net deforestation by 2020 in their supply chains were in attendance
  •  Identity crisis Some delegates Devex spoke to, who wished to remain anonymous for professional reasons, said the GLF event was too academic and research-focused and that they hoped future events would attract more practitioners and those with experience implementing landscape projects on the ground.

Read the full article by Sophie Edwards about the Global Landscapes Forum from Devex International Development