Global Landscapes Forum/Robert Nasi: What happened at GLF Bonn?

Global Landscapes Forum

“We are the hope for the future because we are the future.” – Aka Niviâna, Inuk poet

Dear Reader,

We have just wrapped up an inspiring weekend in Bonn, Germany at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), where for 48 hours we came together in-person and digitally, to discuss one of the most important issues for tackling climate change: rights. Over 700 people from 150 countries gathered, joined by a global online audience of 14,000. The messages spread even farther, reaching over 14 million people on social media.

Why rights?

Some 350 million Indigenous peoples and communities occupy and care for lands that encompass 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity. We know that when communities and Indigenous peoples have secure rights, landscapes thrive, store more carbon and preserve biodiversity.

At GLF Bonn, the message was clear: Rights are an important solution to climate change.

This GLF was the first that focused on rights, through sessions on land tenure, activism, changing the narrative, gender inclusion, traditions, landscape sustainability and more.

Here are some of the key outcomes:

1    There is an urgent need for the international community to take action to stop the growing threats of violence and criminalization of Indigenous peoples and environmental rights defenders
2    We must move quickly and together, to secure the rights to a healthy life for present and future generations
3    Gender equity should be placed at the core of rights-based approaches to sustainable landscapes management and governance
4    There is a need to integrate and mainstream traditional knowledge and practices in sustainable landscape management
5    Ecosystem restoration as a nature-based solution, is vital in combating the climate crisis and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

GLF Bonn 2019 is not the end of the rights conversation. It is only the beginning. By the end of 2019, the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development (IPMG) and the Rights and Resources Initiative aim to establish a gold standard on rights - the first of its kind - shaped through consultations at upcoming GLF conferences with the thoughts and knowledge of Indigenous peoples, organizations and the many other voices of the GLF’s ever-growing global community.

The next GLF takes place in New York City on 28 September, where we will frame the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – while keeping rights firmly in mind.

I look forward to seeing you there,

Robert Nasi

Director-General, CIFOR

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, 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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