Originally published at IUFRO Sustainable development objectives and discourse have dominated environmental and development policies and practice for the past three decades. During the last decade new narratives have emerged within these discourses with catchphrases like: “Green Economy”, “Inclusive Green Growth”, “Low Carbon Development”, “Climate-Smart Agriculture” and “Sustainable Intensification”. There is no universal consensus about […]

Wageningen University, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Centre have designed a 2-week course on landscape management. Towards innovative arrangements for inclusive decision making at landscape level, is the title of the international course for forest and nature management professionals. Scholarships are available for applicants before 20 March 2015. Where: Bogor, […]

CIFOR postdoctoral fellow Ashwin Ravikumar on the the importance of engaging young people at the Global Landscapes Forum: “The amount of learning that just happened in that room, not just by young people but also by older professionals was amazing.”

CIFOR scientist Jacob Phelps explains some challenges of setting up Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, particularly in the context of landscape-level planning. He and his co-authors argue that designing PES schemes is complicated by external stressors, such as fires, sea level rise, hurricanes and invasive species, which need to be taken into account in PES design. […]

by Hannah Watson  A fire rages, not only clearing large swathes of forest, but also threatening a protected area nearby. Managers are largely powerless to control the fires outside their site boundaries. A new dam is constructed on a river, starving a downstream protected wetland of the sediment and nutrients it needs to survive, so […]

Are you interested in joining the 2015 Global Landscapes Forum? Subscribe to our newsletter to not miss any updates. By Ayesha Constable, University of the West Indies and Youth Facilitator on the post-2015 Development Agenda Being a member of the Global Landscapes Forum team was a great honor- put simply, it was a big deal. […]

By Daisy Ouya, originally posted on Agroforestry World Blog Integrated landscape initiatives in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa are investing heavily in institutional planning and coordination, but they have had mixed results engaging different stakeholder groups, especially the private sector. This key stakeholder group was almost always missing from a selection of landscape initiatives […]

By Sarah Carter (Wageningen University / CIFOR), With contributions from Arild Angelsen, Martin Herold, Hambulo Ngoma, Rosa María Román-Cuesta, Mariana Rufino, Niki De Sy, and Beatriz Zavariz. At the Global Landscape Forum in Lima, Peru in December 2014, scientists working on the links between REDD+ and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) presented results of their research. […]

A new global cropland map combines multiple satellite data sources, reconciled using crowdsourced accuracy checks, to provide an improved record of total cropland extent as well as field size around the world. Knowing where agricultural land is located is crucial for regional and global food security planning, and information on field size offers valuable insight […]

Registration for the 21st ISTF Annual Conference is now open. Date: January 29th – 31st, 2015 Location: Kroon Hall, 195 Prospect St., Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511   The International Society of Tropical Foresters, Yale Chapter convenes its conference around: Conserving biodiversity across multiple use landscapes through strategic governance and land-use planning  This year’s […]

By Bruno Vander Velde, originally published at Forests News Early successes in Brazil and Indonesia are proof positive that low-emissions sustainable development is practicable, according to a land-use policy expert. Speaking to more than 1,000 participants at the Global Landscapes Forum—organized by the Center for International Forestry Research on the sidelines of the UN climate […]

By Kate Evans, published originally at Forests News Scientists and indigenous leaders at a gender session at the Global Landscapes Forum—on the sidelines of the annual UNFCCC climate change conference in Lima, Peru—stressed the need to consider how climate change might affect men and women differently, and to incorporate gender into studies of both mitigation […]

By Barbara Fraser, originally published at Forests News African herders who have traditionally moved livestock from place to place, following seasonal forage and water supplies, increasingly find their old paths blocked by land speculators and investors, experts say. In other parts of the world too, similar problems plague indigenous people who practice shifting cultivation in […]

By Barbara Fraser, originally published on Forests News In an indigenous village deep in the Amazon forest, a family clears a small plot in the forest, plants cassava or other crops for a couple of years, and then moves elsewhere, leaving the plot to be overtaken by forest. “Slash and burn,” as it is sometimes called, is […]