It is time to get landscapes on the fast-track to sustainability

News in the Framework of the European Business & Biodiversity Campaign

 

It is time to get landscapes on the fast-track to sustainability

On 1-2 December 2018, 1,000 participants assamled on-site at the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany, to take action for a sustainable future

"The world needs decisive action," said director general of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Robert Nasi, in his closing remarks. "Research is important, but we now know enough to understand that there is a problem and that we need to solve it – enough to know what we have to do." Jochen Flasbarth, who is state secretary of the German Ministry for the Environment, shared Nasi’s sense of urgency: "Without a sustainable land use sector, let’s forget about meeting any of the global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development targets."

Participants reiterated that business-as-usual will not get landscapes on the track of sustainability, or do it broadly and quickly enough to meet critical biodiversity, climate and development goals. What, then, will get us where we need to go? To answer this question, delegates from governments, academia, NGOs, the private sector and civil society devoted the better part of the two-day forum to presenting specific principles and practical strategies.

"To affect systemic change, we need action from the bottom-up, but also from the top down, so we can get rid of the many that perverse policies that are not in line with the Sustainable Development Goals," pointed out Louise Luttikholt, director of IFOAM, which is one of 21 GLF Charter members that signed a commitment to the GLF mission at the event. Good governance, targeted policies, and adequate institutional and legal frameworks are essential, noted participants, but the public sector cannot power the sustainable landscape revolution alone.

Read more about the key findings of the event on the Webpage of the Global Landscapes Forum.

Source: Global Landscapes Forum, 4.12.2018 [original shortened]
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