African royalty, celebrities and creative leaders join smallholder farmers, scientists and activists at GLF Accra 2019

ACCRA, Ghana (18 October 2019) – The complex yet 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: 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 of IUCN’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 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. 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 Glob