NAIROBI — The last two days have been quite a revelation to me after attending the Global Landscape Forum (GLF) conference 2018 in Nairobi. To help you understand what was so special about the conference, I’ll give you some background information about it.
The theme for Nairobi GLF was “Are you restoration ready?.” An estimated 2.8 million hectares of forest is lost every year through deforestation and land degradation. GLF has connected different stakeholders from private and public sectors, as well as scientists and the youth. The main objective of the GLF conference workshop was to foster a way to restore 100 million hectares of degraded landscapes across Africa by 2018.
GLF is using the following ingenious techniques to make this happen
- Initiating thought-provoking discussions on how to manage trade-offs, cross-sectoral planning and implementation approaches, and ways to strengthen capacity around GLF’s five core themes of restoration, food security and livelihoods, rights, financing sustainable landscapes and measuring progress towards climate development goals.
- After identifying the issues that the local or international communities are facing, GLF empowers the individuals, particularly the youth who then start movements and have members of their communities join their the causes. To start a movement, the individuals are then equipped with the right technical expertise to ensure that they are able to reach as many people as possible.
Each success story, from the dust-laden roads in Cameroon, to once poverty-stricken regions in Africa which now have thriving farming or forestry, you can tell that change is coming and the best part of it is that it was initiated by the affected communities themselves!
In this world where mainstream media is always reporting negative news, it was so fulfilling to interact with people full of positivity and plans for changing the world and making it a better place. Digital media is playing a critical part as it connects members of the different movements who sometimes come from different continents.
United by the love of conservation and landscape restoration, you could feel that mother nature was smiling. The future has never been brighter!
About The Writer
Titus Maina is a social media expert working at Dotsavvy, a leading digital agency based in Nairobi. He attended the GLF conference where he helped facilitate a social media training workshop for youth leaders attending at a GLF workshop.
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