Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Global Landscapes Forum Bonn Digital Conference 2020: Food in the time of crisis

03-05 June 2020. Online Conference. Global Landscapes Forum Bonn Digital Conference 2020: Food in the time of crisis.

Nearly 5,000 people from 6 continents gathered at the Global Landscapes Forum Digital Conference being broadcast around the world from 185 countries. To date, the conference is the world’s largest digital conference this year on the environment– and kickstarted a global conversation on how to ‘build back better’ and transform food systems to protect human well-being and planetary health in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 77,000 session views was streamed live from conference platform and reached 50 million people on social media.

Human health and livelihoods depend on planetary health. So, how can we feed a growing global population without eating the planet? The 2020 theme of GLF was“Food and Livelihoods.” Today, food systems are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, a main driver of deforestation and the greatest threat to biodiversity.

Extracts of the programme

03/06 Opening plenary: A new normal
  • Tony Simons (Moderator) Director General, World Agroforestry (ICRAF)
  • Father Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam Senior representative of Pope Francis in the Vatican, Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
  • Ada Osakwe Founder and Chief Executive, Agrolay Ventures, an investment firm focusing on early-stage innovative food companies in Africa. She’s also the founder of Nuli, Nigeria’s fastest-growing farm-to-table beverage brand and restaurant chain that utilizes only locally grown agriculture produce.
  • Ashok Sridharan Mayor of Bonn, President of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
  • Maria Flachsbarth Parliamentary State Secretary, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
  • Yemi Adeyeye Director, Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD)
  • José Yturrios Alianza Cacao Perú
  • Wanjiku Mwaurah (MC) Master of Ceremony for this Session, Journalist, Deutsche Welle

In this session, presenters described and discussed the approach of two GIZ projects in a biosphere reserve in Benin - one enhancing food and nutrition security and the other the protection and sustainable use of a biosphere reserve. The speakers illustrated the common ground they found for collaborating on improving nutrition and protecting the environment - by promoting local trees and plants.
03/06 Soils as keystone for food security and ecosystem restoration
This session is organised under TMG’s SEWOH Lab project (2020-2024). The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration offers the much-needed opportunity to align efforts by policy communities that too often operate in silos. Given the magnitude of the challenge to restore our ecosystems, a failure to cooperate would aggravate the risk of not achieving SDG 15 by 2030. Against this backdrop, this session unites representatives from land restoration programs, sustainable soil management, and rights-based land governance. In terms of actors, this segment focuses on the role of smallholder farmers as central actors in promoting restoration activities. This segment explores how to create an enabling environment for restoration activities, in particular by smallholders. It is divided in the following three sessions.


03/06 Soil Organic Carbon: How can smallholder farming communities benefit from carbon sequestration projects?
03/06 Sustainable wood-fuel value chains for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa
One of the most important contributions of forests to food security is the provision of wood fuel. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 60% of households use wood fuel to cook, boil water, and preserve food. But unsustainable wood fuel production and trade is depleting and degrading forests and trees. This session will explore how to promote more sustainable wood-fuel value chains.

DRC: Promoting sustainable wood fuel production in agroforestry systems - funded by the European Commission (posted by CIFOR on 27/05)


Wood biology laboratory, first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa, opens in Democratic Republic of the Congo - funded by the European Commission


The edges of peatlands, often along rivers, have a long history of human settlement. Peatlands are a challenging place to live, but provide a range of products and income sources. As awareness rises about peatlands’ carbon-sequestration abilities, it’s important both to protect them from degradation, and ensure that local communities have viable options for livelihoods and food security.
  • Jeremy van Loon (Moderator) Team Leader Outreach and Engagement, CIFOR
  • Dr. Alue Dohong Vice Minister, Ministry Environment and Forestry, Republic of Indonesia
  • Dr. Roch Germain Mpassi-Moumpassi Director-General of Sustainable Development, Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Republic of the Congo
  • Dr. Gabriel Quijandría Acosta (Speaker) Deputy Minister, Strategic Development of Natural Resources, Peru
  • Dr. Jean Jacques Bambuta (Speaker) DRC National Coordinator and Focal Point of Peatlands, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Sue Page Professor of Physical Geography, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
  • Zulaili Isnaini Habib (Speaker) Lecturer, Anthropology Department University of Riau, Indonesia
  • Dompas Ghedang Cemerlang (Speaker) Forest Farmer Group (Kelompok Tani Hutan/KTH), Riau, Indonesia
  • Georgine Lumba-Lobengo Association des Femmes Pygmées de l’Équateur (l'AFPEQ) Republic of the Congo
  • Gerard Bondeko (Speaker) Communities Coordinator, Wildlife Conservation Society’s Lac Tele Community Reserve project, Republic of Congo

Posted by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) on 1st of June 2020.


The Innov4AgPacific project and its partners shared experiences and showcase lessons learned to support more coordinated actions and motivate the national, regional and international community to increase financing for scaling-up successful interventions which directly benefit rural communities, small producers and other agri-preneurs by investing in value chain and agri-business development to contribute to the social and economic transformation of Pacific Island States.
  • Sashi Kiran  Founder and director, Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises and Development (FRIEND)
  • Kenneth Katafono Founder, TraSeable Solutions
  • Judith Ann Francis Senior Programme Coordinator, Science and Technology Policy at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)


5 June 2020. Christiane Paulus (Speaker) Director General, Nature Conservation and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, German Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) on the European Green Deal and upcoming German presidency of the EU


  • Edward B Barbier University Distinguished Professor, Department of Economics Senior Scholar, Colorado State University, USA - on the Global Green New deal commissioned by UNEP
  • H.E. Siti Nurbaya - Minister of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia 
  • Inger Andersen Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
  • Naoko Ishii CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility (GEF)
  • Ibrahim Thiaw Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) 
  • Yugratna Srivastava Plant-for-the-Planet and Global Focal Point, UN Major Group for Children and Youth 
  •  Salina Abraham Senior learning officer, Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Achim Steiner Administrator, United Nations Development Programme

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