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Last year, Landscape News ran its Routes to Roots series on forest restoration, zooming out to see the extent of global efforts to bring more forests back onto this planet, then zooming in on the various methods by which that is being done.
At the start of 2023 – yet another year in which we can say that forest restoration is needed more than ever to achieve climate, biodiversity and human rights goals – we revisited the topic in a special GLF Live on 12 January at 09:00 GMT. Acclaimed young forester Kandi, the interim CEO of forest research institutes CIFOR-ICRAF Robert Nasi, and the chair of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and head of his namesake lab Tom Crowther came together to discuss what’s most promising and most needed for forest restoration this year.
Listen back to the conversation:
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Eva Makandi, commonly known as ‘Kandi’, is from Kenya’s Meru County and served as the 2022 Global Landscapes Forum Restoration Steward for forests. She is a passionate sustainable community development and peace change agent who loves art and working with children. Kandi believes in and champions education as her ultimate catalyst toward empowering and transforming communities for sustainable development. For this, she founded community-based organization Light On A Hill (LOAH) in September 2020, which has restored and conserved forests in the area in which she was raised, to ensure they survive for future generations.
Robert Nasi is a forest engineer holding a PhD in the field of ecology from the University of Paris Sud – Orsay. Since 1982, he has been living and travelling extensively in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, undertaking research activities in the fields of ecology and management of tropical forests. His particular research interests include the sustainable use of forest products and multiple-use management of tropical forests. His scientific work aims to integrate social and biological sciences for better management of tropical forests, more sustainable livelihoods and better designed forest policies. His main disciplines are ecology, botany, biometrics, tropical forest management, and silviculture. He has authored/co-authored more than 300 scientific publications.
Tom Crowther is a Welsh ecologist in the department of Global Ecosystem Ecology at ETH Zurich, where he founded Crowther Lab, an interdisciplinary group of scientists studying global ecosystems and generating knowledge to protect biodiversity and address climate change. He serves as chair of the advisory board of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and chief scientific advisor to the UN’s Trillion Trees Campaign. Crowther is the founder of Restor, a science-based open data platform that provides ecological insights, transparency and connectivity to conservation and restoration efforts across the globe. Restor was named a finalist for the Royal Foundation’s 2021 Earthshot Prize. Crowther has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and serves on the advisory council of WEF’s Trillion Trees initiative (1T.org).
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