Global Landscapes Forum: Shaping the climate agenda for forests and agriculture
The Global Landscapes Forum brings together two of the world’s most influential annual conferences on the role of forests and agriculture in mitigating and adapting to climate change: Forest Day and Agriculture and Rural Development Day.
The Global Landscapes Forum will take place from November 16-17, 2013, on the sidelines of the UNFCCC COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, to develop the potential of the landscape approach to inform future UNFCCC agreements and the proposed post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. More than 1,000 global experts, policy makers, and representatives of the private sector, civil society, farm organizations and indigenous groups are expected. Organizations are invited to host technical and science sessions and exhibition booths.
The Global Landscapes Forum combines into one event two of the world’s most influential annual conferences on the role of forests and agriculture in mitigating and adapting to climate change: Forest Day and Agricultural and Rural Development Day. This will be a global platform to inform and engage world leaders, policymakers, scientists, donors, media, civil society, the private sector, indigenous and community groups, and climate negotiators on the role sustainable landscapes can play in providing food, shelter, income and ecosystem services and environmental goods. The objective is to develop the potential of the landscape approach to inform future UNFCCC agreements and the achievement of the proposed Sustainable Development Goals. To this end, the Forum will be organized along four main themes:
- Investing in Sustainable Landscapes and Livelihoods. Includes discussion of poverty alleviation, private and public financing
- Landscape Policy and Governance. Includes land tenure, women and gender, rights of communities and farmers
- Synergies between Adapting to and Mitigating Climate Change in Landscapes. Includes MRV of landscapes
- Landscapes for Food Security and Nutrition. Includes sustainable food production and consumption, nutritional aspects, wood-fuels and energy efficiency and supporting climate resilient communities (commodity value chains and markets)
The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) will be organising and participating in a number of Technical and Networking Sessions and Discussion Forums throughout the Forum. A few of the sessions will be live-streamed [more information to come on this]:
- On Saturday 14:00-16:00 CET, CCAFS will be leading the Technical and Networking Session Managing landscapes for food, fuel, fiber and forests: innovative approaches in a time of food insecurity and climate change together with IFRI University of Michigan and The Forests Dialogue.
- The Technical and Networking session “The good, the bad and the ugly: Climate change's potential impact on farmers in Africa” will be organised by IFPRI at 16:30-18:30 CET and present the CCAFS-supported Climate Change in African Agriculture book series.
- On Sunday 11:00 -12:30 CET, four parallel Sub-Plenaries will be held. CCAFS will be active in the plenary entitled Synergies between Adapting to and Mitigating Climate Change in Forest and Agricultural Landscapes. The Sub-Plenary will be co-organised with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA).
- CCAFS theme on Long-term Adaptation, based at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) will be co-organising a Discussion Forum on the theme of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs): Opportunities for cross-sector synergies in the nexus between water, food security, forests and energy? The Forum will be taking place on Sunday 15:00-17:30 CET.
- On Sunday, another Discussion Forum entitled Rolling up our sleeves on agricultural mitigation for landscape benefits, will be co-organised by CCAFS and Farming First among others. The session will be held 15:00-17:30 CET.
The Forum is jointly coordinated by CIFOR on behalf of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, and by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) on behalf of a global consortium of leading Agriculture and Rural Development organizations.