ACCRA, Ghana (23 October 2019) – The complex, ongoing process of restoring degraded African landscapes, from changing food supply chains to applying design-thinking to land-based challenges, will be showcased during the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) conference in Accra, Ghana, on 29–30 October 2019.
Titled “Restoring Africa’s Landscapes: Uniting Action from Above and Below”, the event will highlight scalable solutions and local community successes in confronting many of Africa’s pressing climate and development challenges, including gender equity, biodiversity conservation, land tenure, Indigenous rights, attracting private finance and reforming policy.
The diverse program of speakers includes:
- DJ Switch (Erica Armah Bra-Bulu Tandoh), the 11-year-old Ghanaian spinning sensation who works to “switch up people’s happiness”;
- Nana Osei-Darkwa, Ghanaian social entrepreneur and team leader of the Green Republic Project;
- Constance Okollet, activist farmer and founding member of Climate Wise Women;
Desmond Alugnoa, co-founder of Green Africa Youth Organization;
- Bernice Dapaah, executive director of Ghana Bamboo Bikes;
- Chris Buss, deputy director ofIUCN’s Global Forest and Climate Change Program;
- Kirui Kennedy, co-founder and CEO of creative consulting firm Tanasuk Africa; and
- Houria Djoudi, senior scientist and migration expert at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
Their voices will be joined by Ghanaian stars Joselyn Dumas and Michelle Attoh, television hosts and actresses, and Rocky Dawuni, Grammy-nominated musician and U.N. Environment Goodwill Ambassador for Africa, who will give an Afro Roots performance that will include DJ Switch. The Queen of Buganda, Uganda’s largest kingdom, Nnabagereka Sylvia Nagginda Luswata, will also speak at the event.
GLF Accra immediately follows the fourth annual partnership meeting of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), a continental initiative to bring 100 million hectares of African land under restoration by 2030. AFR100 is Africa’s unifying contribution to broader global restoration initiatives including the Bonn Challenge, the New York Declaration on Forests, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the upcoming U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030), which was spotlighted at September’s U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York as a platform with the needed degree of potential to fight climate change with nature-based solutions.
“As we look toward the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, now is the critical time to share knowledge, create new thinking and identify and scale innovative solutions for landscape restoration that is inclusive and ensures the rights of all stakeholders,” says John Colmey, managing director of the Global Landscapes Forum.
For further information and interviews contact:
Sandra Cordon (English) at cordonsa@gmail.com
or
Ahtziri Gonzalez (French) at A.Gonzalez@cgiar.org
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 livelihood initiatives, landscape restoration, rights, finance and measuring progress. It is led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in collaboration with its co-founders UN Environment and the World Bank and Charter Members.
Charter Members: CIRAD, CIFOR, Climate Focus, Conservation International, Ecoagriculture Partners, The European Forest Institute, Evergreen Agriculture, FSC, GEF, GIZ, IPMG, CIAT, ICIMOD, IFOAM – Organics International, INBAR, IUFRO, Rainforest Alliance, Rare, Rights and Resources Initiative, UN Environment, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation part of Wageningen Research, World Agroforestry, World Resources Institute, WWF Germany, Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL), World Bank Group
Funding Partners:
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