Director General of Planning, Housing and Nature at the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, Paul Delduc, speaks at the high-level closing plenary session from the second day of the Global Landscapes Forum 2015, in Paris, France alongside COP21.

The closing ceremony takes a closer look at some of the initiatives that emerged through the Forum and offers a space for tracking progress as well as outlining next steps.

Sunday, 6 December 2015
Global Landscapes Forum, Paris, France
#GLFCOP21 #ThinkLandscape

Transcript

Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, I will ask to apologize for Mrs Ségolène Royal, Minister for Ecology and Sustainable Development, who could not make it with you, but shares your work here.

And as I’m in charge of Architecture, I want to mention that for us young people it goes to the age of 40, but we can have a discussion about it. So now, this forum and its contribution to climate negotiations are crucial. You all know, like me, that 24 percent of greenhouse gases come from agricultural activities. And of course this must be at the heart of these negotiations. Like Achim Steiner has said, this is a crucial debate.

Forestry and farming are at the heart of transition of rural territory towards resilience and low carbon emissions. All these synergies can only be found through landscape approaches. We are fully aware of that in France and we’re willing to promote integrated conservation strategies to promote natural resources without losing sight of our main objective, which is to ensure the wellbeing of all populations.

This forum has brought together many different stakeholders, NGOs, representatives from private sectors, and this in a non-formal forum, which allows people to be free in the way they express themselves. More than 10,000 people came here at different times. Your forum and the impetus it generated is a concrete example of the mindset of that around which COP21 was organized in Paris. Because our desire was to get civil society involved in fighting against global warming.

This forum shows that there are means to fight against deforestation and in favor of farming. France is very happy with regards to the measure that was taken when we talk about the policy to fight against deforestation. Billions will be dedicated to that and we have a true commitment from various players in the private sector. These commitments help develop traceability, develop the targets with targeting those that have the highest impact: palm oil, cocoa, etc.

The Minister for Ecology in our country, in France, wants to support this transformation of the landscape. And at the French level we’ve initiated a thinking process about public purchases to see how we can source from zero=deforestation sources and at European level we want to think part in a thinking process at European level to reduce deforestation.

And at an international level the minister is very happy with the international declaration on protected areas that brings together various countries in America and in the Caribbean region. We are part of it through French Guiana and this initiative brings together various territories having to face the same challenges. France will make concrete proposals to face the process. France is particularly active because it has a tropical forest on its own territory. One being quite large, in French Guiana. France also has long lasting cooperation with all countries in the Congo area.

In our territory, France also implements integrated solutions to support rural landscapes in metropolitan France, and support them to shift towards lean management of natural resources. And that’s the model of regional natural parks, which is close to another model that you’ve probably heard about, which was supported by Japan during the Convention on Biological Diversity, and that’s the Satoyama Initiative. Regional parks are organized around sustainable development and they want to protect the natural heritage. In France, we have 51 regional parks covering 15 percent of the French territory.

I want to thank you for the very fruitful exchanges you had over these two days. All efforts to make this conference on climate a success are welcome, and your active contribution was most appreciated.

Thank you very much.