Side Event at the XXV IUFRO World Congress

Venue:                    EXPO UNIMED, Curitiba, Brazil
Date/Time:              1 October 2019, 17:30 – 20:30
Organised by:         IUFRO Special Programme for Development of Capacities (SPDC)
Main Sponsor:        German Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)
Partners:                 Local institutions in 9 Snapshot countries

More details on the FLR Project


Background and Rationale

Political support for restoring degraded lands has significantly increased in recent years. This is exemplified by the establishment of the Bonn Challenge global policy initiative, aiming to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030. This challenge seeks to actively engage states helping them achieve progress on their existing international commitments under the CBD Aichi Target 15, UNFCCC REDD+ goal and the UNCCD land degradation neutrality objective, all intended to lead to carbon richer landscapes that are bio-diverse, economically more productive, and resilient against climatic vulnerabilities. To date a total of more than 160 million hectares has been committed under the Bonn Challenge for restoration.

The United Nations has declared a UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 that aims to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems. Restoring degraded forests and forest landscapes has also become an important component within the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda through various SDGs, particularly SDG 15 on ‘Life on Land’ and its associated targets on restoration. Other SDGs such as SGD 6 on clean water or SDG 13 on climate action refer to enhancement and restoration of important ecosystem services

Over the past 10 years, considerable efforts have been underway by the science and technology community in promoting forest landscape restoration in all regions of the world. IUFRO has been an active member of the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration (GPFLR) for more than 10 years. Through mechanisms such as the Global Forest Expert Panels (GFEP) and the Special Programme for Development of Capacities (SPDC), IUFRO has contributed to GPFLR and other international processes by synthesising available scientific information on all aspects of forest landscape restoration. Yet, given the scale and complexity of implementing forest landscape restoration, there is a clear need for the scientific community to:
•    Further assist in collecting and synthesising scientific knowledge on landscape restoration,
•    Evaluate evidence on progress made in restoring land in specific local contexts, and
•    Disseminate these findings for policy learning and technical training targeting both professionals and civil society actors.

With this end in mind, IUFRO on the basis of generous funding from the German Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) is currently implementing a project that
•    Collects evidence of progress made in FLR implementation in selected landscapes in nine countries around the world through an independent scientific analysis (Snapshot analysis of FLR); and
•    Presents and discusses the results on progress made in FLR implementation with policy makers, practitioners and scientists in an international side event at the XXV IUFRO World Congress in Curitiba, Brazil on 1 October 2019.


Purpose of International Side Event

The event aims at sharing the results of the ”FLR Snapshot” with an international audience of practitioners, scientists, and policy makers that will use the information to achieve larger impact. By discussing progress made and lessons learnt in FLR implementation in the socioeconomic, political and environmental context of different landscapes around the world, this event will reach beyond the perspectives of individual projects, sectors, or actors in order to offer a multi-dimensional glimpse of FLR implementation on the ground.


Description

The side event will be organised within the framework of the XXV IUFRO World Congress in Curitiba, Brazil at the Expo Unimed on 1 October 2019 (17:30 – 20:30).
During the moderated evening event (with drinks and snacks) the results of the snapshot analysis conducted by IUFRO scientists in specific landscapes in Africa, Asia and Latin America will be presented and discussed. In addition, the knowledge collated in one global and three regional FLR implementation conferences organised by IUFRO in the period 2016 to 2018 will be consolidated and used in drawing a more comprehensive picture of progress made in FLR implementation on the ground as well as lessons learnt from successes and failures and opportunities for scaling up to achieve larger impact.
Being part of the largest forest science congress in 2019, the event provides an excellent opportunity for forest scientists, FLR practitioners and policy makers to share their experiences with restoring forest landscapes. This exchange will be stimulated and guided by the results from past and on-going assessments highlighting successes and failures and important lessons learnt.


The event will result in the following outputs for three major target audiences:

  • Policy makers: recommendations on enabling governance and policy frameworks for forest landscape restoration at local and national levels; recommendations on international cooperation for further enhancing large-scale FLR implementation;
  • Practitioners: identification of workable approaches and activities for FLR at national and local scales; and
  • Scientists: identification of existing knowledge gaps, additional research needs and new insights into FLR implementation; and the way forward for closer cooperation between scientists and practitioners in support of FLR implementation.

The results of the side event will contribute to major international events, including:

  • The launch of the UN-Decade on “Ecosystem Restoration” to take place at the UN Headquarters in New York at the same time as the IUFRO side event. The GLF/CIFOR will provide opportunities to promote IUFRO’s FLR side event at the global level as a contribution of this important UN-Decade;
  • GLF Regional Conference, Accra, Ghana in October 2019;
  • UNCCD COP 14 New Delhi, India on 7-18 October 2019;
  • 25th UNFCCC COP 25 in Chile on 11-22 November 2019;
  • The Fourth Investment Case/GLF in Luxembourg on 30 November 2019,
  • 55th Session of the International Tropical Timber Council in Lomé, Togo on 2-7 December 2019; and
  • The IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France on 11-19 June 2020.