Originally posted on UN-REDD Blog Contribution of forests to Zambia’s economy higher than currently reflected in GDP: Forest economic valuation and accounting can strengthen national REDD+ processes You can’t manage what you don’t measure! While this certainly relates to establishing forest reference (emission) levels and national forest monitoring systems in order to measure periodic progress against a benchmark, one […]

The Tropical Landscapes Summit in Jakarta concentrated on sustainable development. Bringing together government, private sector and NGOs the summit discussed economic action that needs to be taken in the fight against climate change.  

  For sustainable landscapes, fostering green businesses with private sector investments was a key topic during this week’s two-day event Tropical Landscapes Summit 2015 in Jakarta. CIFOR scientists and communicators participated in the event and produced a video wrap (see above) and three blog posts for CIFOR’s Forests News Blog, summarizing key messages and observations. Check out the blogs by clicking below: Day […]

Originally announced in The Equator Initiative newsletter The Equator Initiative calls for nominations for the Equator Prize 2015 as part of an extensive partnership effort underway to strengthen and highlight the role of indigenous peoples and local communities at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP21). The Equator Prize 2015 will be awarded to […]

By Troy Wiseman, CEO of EcoPlanet Bamboo The last 10 years of REDD and REDD+ development have shown that the price attributed to and the willingness to pay for forest based ecosystem services, whether through compliance or a voluntary schemes, is unlikely to ever compete with the market price for wood and fiber that comes from […]

A training manual, co-developed by colleagues from EcoAgriculture Partners, is available for trainers of sustainable land management (SLM). It aims to help educators hold effective courses on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) from an integrated landscape management perspective. According to EcoAgriculture Partners, the manual provides a curriculum for capacity building to support a landscape approach to SLM […]

In order to take the “landscapes approach” from concept to concrete, we need people who are trained to color outside the lines. Landscapes are diverse, complex, multi-actor structures with often conflicting sectors. The ability to creating a bridge between these sectors and disciplines and finding solutions that balance needs of multitude of actors from different stakeholder groups is […]

By Iain Henderson, member of UNEP Finance Initiative REDD+ and Sustainable Land Use A long, long time ago, in an age when the REDD+ acronyms that both comfort and confuse were but a twinkle in negotiators’ eyes, the world was a very different place. This was the ‘pre-smartphone period’, a world without Twitter or Facebook, a world where ‘text […]

By Thomas Hubert, originally published on Forests News BOGOR, Indonesia—It’s an increasingly prominent way of thinking about land use that has yet, somewhat usefully, defied easy definition. Now, it’s beginning to come into sharper focus, as scientists are beginning to lift the veil on the “landscape approach” to land management. This phrase has a wide […]

 By Tim Christophersen, UNEP Senior Programme Officer, Forests and Climate Change The world is on track to deliver the largest-ever ecosystem restoration effort: restoring 150 million hectares of degraded forest landscapes by 2020. To keep the momentum, countries need concerted coordinated support and finance from the international community for action on the ground. “Nature has developed […]

By Kate Evans, originally posted at Forests News BOGOR, Indonesia—A tropical forest: A habitat for wildlife, untouched by humans? Or trees ripe to be cleared for profit? Or is the forest an integral part of a human landscape: relied on by people for clean water, timber, forest foods, wood fuel, a haven for animals and […]

The ‘youth in landscapes’ initiative is a world-first project uniting top young forestry and agriculture innovators (aged 18 – 35) to tackle global land use challenges and create solutions using innovation tools, leadership development and intercultural skills. To get involved in 2015 activities, contact Michelle at m.kovacevic[at]cgiar.org or sign up to our mailing list: www.landscapes.org/youth […]

By Peter Holmgren, originally posted at CIFOR Forest News The landscape approach is largely about working across institutional boundaries – boundaries that evolved for good reason but now sometimes hinder the integration needed to overcome imminent development and environment challenges on all geographic scales. The most obvious boundary discussed in relation to landscape approaches is that […]

CIFOR principal scientist Anne Larson speaks about the need to consider how climate change might affect men and women differently, and to incorporate gender into studies of both mitigation and adaptation. “If we don’t take a gendered approach, we’re likely to do more harm than good for women…In the REDD+ context, if the status quo […]

In this video, Robert Nasi, Deputy Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), speaks about bushmeat and food security. Protein from wildlife (including fish) is crucial to food security, nutrition and health across the tropics. The harvest of duikers, antelopes, pigs, primates, rodents, birds, reptiles and fish provides invaluable benefits to local […]