The three-day gathering will draw thousands to showcase locally-led initiatives and innovations that could help prevent forest loss in the Amazon and avoid a climate collapse
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Bonn, Germany (09 Sep 2021) – The Amazon rainforest is on the verge of crossing a tipping point that could cause it to permanently dry out.
This would devastate biodiversity and the livelihoods of its 30 million people, accelerate the climate crisis, and potentially even alter the Earth’s water cycles, disrupting global food systems and causing trillions of dollars in damage to the global economy.
But there is still time to bring it back from the brink – by combining local and global knowledge and solutions to reverse deforestation and degradation.
WHAT: The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is organizing the largest-ever global conference on the Amazon biome using an inclusive and co-creation approach. GLF Amazonia: The Tipping Point – Solutions From Inside Out will address the urgent need to preserve and restore the biological and cultural diversity of the world’s largest and mightiest tropical forest.
The conference is the outcome of a year-long engagement process with key organizations and stakeholders and several months of workshops with local civil society organizations representing the voices of local, traditional, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.
From land restoration to sustainable finance, from local business solutions to resilient food systems, over 40 plenaries, sessions, workshops and Q&As will provide a broad understanding of the challenges affecting the Amazon biome and the people living within, particularly the need to balance competing land use demands between forestry, agriculture and restoration.
Speakers across the three-day event will include but are not limited to:
- Indigenous leaders like Benki Piyãko of the Ashaninka community in Terra Kampa do Rio Amônia and Nemonte Nenquimo, a prominent Indigenous leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon
- Representatives of the regions supply chains like Marcello Brito, President, Brazilian Agribusiness Association (ABAG) and Felipe Villela, Founder & Chief Commercial Officer, reNature
- Heads of non-governmental organizations like Paulina Garzón, Executive Director, Latinoamérica Sostenible (LAS) and Leila Salazar-Lopes, Executive Director, Amazon Watch
- Policymakers like Luis Hidalgo Okimura, Governor of Madre de Dios, Perú and Marina Silva, Brazilian politician and environmentalist and Manuel Pulgar Vidal, former Minister of Environment of Peru
- Filmmakers like Estevão Ciavatta, CEO, Pindorama Filmes and Mari Corrêa, who initiated a pioneer audiovisual training project in Brazil for Indigenous women.
- Activists like Angela Mendes, Environmental Activist, National Council of Extractivist Populations (CNS), Chico Mendes Committee and Estefanìa Cortez, a Peruvian lawyer and member of the Peruvian Youth for Climate Change (JPCC)
- Scientists like Ana María-Hernández, Chair, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and Brigitte Baptiste who advocates for gender diversity
- Finance experts like Clever Rojas, Founder and Manager of National Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (FENACREP) and Leonardo Letelier who pioneers social loans and donor advised funds in Brazil.
Initiatives undertaken across the three-day event will include but are not limited to:
- Launches, including three projects led by Indigenous communities, including youth, offer innovative solutions that could help reach the wider conservation and restoration goals of the Amazon biome.
- A release of a statement to the world by local civil society organizations that represent IPLCs in the region on the third day of the conference.
- Cultural activities including an Amazonia Film Festival, a curated exhibition of over 15 documentary features, short and micro films, as well as cine forums will bring audiences and directors together to discuss the stories and the experience of filmmaking in the Amazon.
WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, 21 September to Thursday, 23 September, starting at 8:30 EDT/AMT (UTC-4, Manaus, Caracas, La Paz, New York/Miami).
The event will take place online, with selected content broadcasted live via the GLF’s social media platforms, including YouTube and Instagram. All content will be made available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
WHO: Hosted by the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, the conference will bring together thousands of participants from across Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world.
The event will lend a platform to a diverse range of voices from across the region, bringing together leading experts and practitioners, Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs), Afro-descendants, conservationists, policymakers, financiers, activists, youth and many more.
GLF Amazonia occurs within the framework of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, an initiative of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and with support from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.
The outcomes of the conference will feed into key global forums this year: Climate Week 2021 (20–26 September), the GLF Climate hybrid conference (5–7 November), and the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (1–12 November).
***To request interviews with GLF speakers, researchers whose work will be discussed in the sessions and youth leaders, please email Thaís Ferreira, t.ferreira@cgiar.org***
INSTRUCTIONS FOR JOINING: register as press here. The conference is free for those living in Latin America and the Caribbean and a small fee for those living in other regions.
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This digital conference has been made possible through the generous support of: Ford Foundation, BMU, BMZ, the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and FOLUR.
Organizations participating in the conference include but are not limited to: World Wildlife Fund WWF, Conservation International, Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI), Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA), Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (SPDA), Embrapa Eastern Amazon, The Forest Dialogue’s Amazon Forest Forum, Rainforest Alliance, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Universität Koblenz-Landau (Institute for Environmental Sciences – PRODIGY), Earth Innovation Institute and GLF, International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR), Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Amazônia Oriental), Pindorama Filmes, Instituto Catitu, Itaú Cultural, WaterBear, TAWNA, Laberinto Cine Y Televisión, Marfrig, Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, Climate Focus, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Alliance Bioversity International (CIAT), Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos), Amazon Conservation Association, MAP Initiative, CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), Brazilian Coalition on Climate Forest and Agriculture, Green Gigaton Challenge (UN-REDD+, Emergent, EDF, Forest Trends, and the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions, Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force, Brazilian Coalition on Climate Forest and Agriculture.
The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, dedicated to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement. The Forum takes a holistic approach to create sustainable landscapes that are productive, prosperous, equitable and resilient and considers five cohesive themes of food and livelihoods, landscape restoration, rights, finance and measuring progress. It is led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in collaboration with its co-founders UNEP and the World Bank and Charter members.
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