The world continues to be confronted with worsening degradation of the natural environment largely driven by population growth, unsustainable exploitation and consumption of natural resources, environmental pollution, and accelerated climate change. Severe consequences exemplified by prolonged droughts, shortage of water for human consumption and irrigation, floods and storms, and loss of biodiversity can be seen in many regions endangering people’s health and livelihoods. Against this background a diverse array of initiatives at global, regional, national, and local levels are underway to reverse this dire situation and set the world onto a path to recovery and restoration.
Over the past ten to fifteen years, efforts have been stepped up around the world towards reversing land degradation in virtually all land use types such as forestry, agriculture, mining and others. A wide range of alternative and improved land management practices, such as, agroforestry and agropastoral systems combining trees and agricultural production, water and biodiversity conservation through protection and innovative financing mechanisms and contractual arrangements between local stakeholders and governments, have been developed and tested in the field. To this end, a wealth of experiences in restoring vital ecosystem functions, while at the same time, improving the livelihood of local communities and society at large has been accumulated waiting to be upscaled where appropriate.
One of the key land governance issues identified for successful upscaling of land restoration is related to reconciling competing land uses, particularly among food and fibre production, nature conservation such as water and biodiversity, and human health and recreation. In this context, aspects of current global crises related to climate, world trade, energy, food security and the COVID-19 pandemic require adequate consideration at the local level for successfully restoring and building resilient and healthy landscapes. Experience has shown that this can only be achieved if all relevant sectors and interest groups within a particular landscape work together, reconcile conflicting interests and jointly decide on restoration measures as well as on best approaches and mechanisms for implementing non-degrading land use practices. Sectors such as agriculture, forestry, infrastructure development and mining as well as nature conservation play important roles in this collaboration. The symposium will aim at bringing together experts and scientists from major players in the land use sector, particularly agriculture, forestry, and nature conservation to discuss ways and means for closer cooperation in building future resilient landscapes.
The symposium will have the following objectives:
