As more than 100,000 climate activists took to the streets in Glasgow to demand rapid climate action from global leaders alongside COP26, a pivotal UN climate change summit, the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) gathered more than 400 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth and government leaders.

Over three days, GLF Climate, as the event was called, stood as a rallying call for concrete, science-based action against the climate crisis by restoring the Earth’s forests, transforming food systems and ramping up sustainable finance. 

Launches included:

• The Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program, which aims to transform global food and land use systems through landscape restoration and sustainable land management practices (read more here)
• The Restoration Alliance, which brings together the Global Landscapes Forum’s Restoration Stewards funding and mentorship program as well as GLFx network of local restoration chapters
• Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD), a project to strengthen global food security by developing climate-resilient crop varieties.
• Restore Africa, an initiative to restore degraded lands and livelihoods across East and Southern Africa
• Transparent Monitoring in Practice, a new project to improve forest and land management using complementary datasets, tools, and portals
• The Forest Allies community of practice, which aims to form partnerships between leading industry partners and local forest communities to protect, restore and sustainably manage forests

Now for a breakdown of the event in numbers:

• 4,263 attendees from 144 countries (1,057 from Europe, 417 from North America, 586 from Latin America and the Caribbean, 627 from the Asia-Pacific region, 718 from Africa, 858 from elsewhere)
• 1,886 youth attendees
• 320 in-person attendees in Glasgow
• 52.8 percent of attendees were female and 43 percent were male
• 400 speakers, of which 62 were from Africa, 53 from the Asia-Pacific region and 53 from Latin America and the Caribbean (and with 199 being female)
• 121 participating organizations, 6 media partners, 5 sponsors and 40 press registrants
• 9 plenaries held, along with 32 interactive sessions, 3 youth daily shows, 5 launchpads, 12 climate talks/coffee withs, 3 GLF Acts, 3 Climate Circles and a film festival
• 14 white papers released
• 3 film festival panels showing 9 films and 17 speakers
• 10,159 total stream views
• 495,000 total webpage views
• Social media reach: 31.49 million
• All impressions: 107.75 million
• All engagements: 222,950
• Number of posts using #GLFClimate hashtag: 6,135
• 7,337 new followers across social media

Did you miss a session? You can go back and rewatch them on the event platform. Or you can take a look through our pick of the best quotes from the event.

This article is focused on value chains in support of the work of the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program (FOLUR), with funding from the Global Environment Facility.