Key Activities for 2022 - 24

Showcase and Share

  • Confederate a range of data providers working on these issues, notably the Task Force on Monitoring for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the UNCCD reporting framework, and the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency;
  • Establish a systematic process to continuously review and distill international best practices in the domain of restoration and conservation so that they could be projected and promoted across the world;
  • Create application process interfaces from existing databases to be used by the media, social media influencers and other interested actors;
  • Develop high-quality data visualization products based on the existing database and make them available to the media, including social media;
  • Establish partnerships with accomplished documentary directors and media houses to produce and promote high-quality documentaries on case studies of conservation successes;
  • Create an immersive visual analytics space for international exhibitions/meetings that allows participants to inhabit current and future environments and interactively test, compare, debate and share ‘data journeys’ into the current and future impacts of decision-making;

Establish global awards to recognize leadership efforts in land restoration and conservation efforts. Subject to the availability of additional partners and resources, the Initiative will propose establishing a highly prestigious Restoration Leadership Award for game-changing national land restoration policies and programmes so that leadership at the highest level can be recognized and given visibility, including at the G20 Leaders’ Summits.

Work With Private Sector

  • Establish a Private Sector Land Restoration Forum that focuses on the topic of restoration and conservation and work with them to upscale restoration efforts;
  • Conference series: In partnership with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), , WEF and the WBCSD, the Initiative will design and launch a research and policy conference series exploring options to repurpose taxes, incentives and subsidies to drive investment into sustainable land management and the restoration of terrestrial landscapes and ecosystems.
  • Collaborate with other private sector initiatives: Trillion Trees, Ark, Land Degradation Neutrality Fund, etc., We will work collaboratively to showcase and leverage the achievements of private sector creators and investors;
  • Establish partnerships with Sustainable Development Goal-oriented business schools (such as the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society at INSEAD) with the aim of changing the narrative on investment in land restoration; establish partnerships for outreach with consumer associations, youth movements, etc.; and promote the launch of the sourcing challenge with the marketing departments of major producers in collaboration with WBCSD/WEF;
  • Nurture young people’s creativity and entrepreneurial spirit by supporting training on entrepreneurship development for the most innovative and creative start-ups and social enterprises;
  • Conduct systematic analyses for developing a good understanding of what the private sector is seeking from investment and how land-based solutions can offer investment opportunities while providing environmental and social benefits;
  • Conduct dialogues between the private sector and governments to formulate economic policies which will stimulate private sector investment in land conservation and restoration;
  • Promote the availability of blended finance to the private sector, including during the post-pandemic economic recovery packages, for incentivizing and rewarding sustainable land management and creating enabling conditions for long-term land stewardship;
  • Study and make recommendations on eliminating perverse subsidies that incentivize habitat degradation and fuel climate change and biodiversity loss; and
  • Establish guidance for the private sector for engaging in land restoration and sustainable land management.

Work with Civil Society

  • Create a Social Forum for Land Restoration that includes Indigenous peoples, women and youth and is active in the field of sustainable land management and conduct periodic consultative meetings;
  • Create a citizen science community: Citizen science (also known as community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur (or nonprofessional) scientists. Citizen science is sometimes described as “public participation in scientific research”, participatory monitoring, and participatory action research. Its outcomes are often advancements in scientific research by improving the scientific community’s capacities as well as increasing the public’s understanding of science. We will challenge young people, design a platform/network for citizens to document land degradation and progress in the restoration of land (through photography, video and interactive games or exercises) and call on the community to crowdsource innovation (ideas incubator/hackathon), possibly around the use of blockchain for transparency.
  • Ecosystem Restoration Camps: Collaborate with the Ecosystem Restoration Camp organization to encourage and manage a flow of volunteers of all ages, but especially young people, to restore agricultural and natural ecosystems; train people in techniques for restoring land; and provide practical opportunities for people to practice new approaches to landscape restoration. The camps are helping to teach large numbers of people how to restore degraded land whilst giving them the opportunity to work with local farmers who need support in transitioning to regenerative agriculture. At the camp, young people acquire the knowledge and information they need in order to put theory into practice. This gives farmers who are struggling financially the ability to try regenerative techniques, thanks to the voluntary manual labour, and gives people valuable experience in landscape restoration. The Ecosystem Restoration Camps have the potential to give millions of people around the world the chance to reconnect with the natural world, causing ripple effects as they bring this knowledge and connection back into towns and cities across the globe.
  • Media Award: Mass media plays an important role in creating awareness among people, and studies have shown that an increase in media coverage of an issue correlates with an increase in public concern for this issue, which eventually plays a determining role in relevant policy change. To increase and maintain mass or social media coverage of issues related to land degradation and terrestrial habitat loss and increase its quality, the Initiative Coordination Office (ICO) will aim to partner with an existing and established media award to create an award category for a distinguished example of explanatory reporting, using any journalistic tool, that illuminates a complex subject related to land degradation and terrestrial habitat loss.
  • Promoting land-based solutions that endorse Indigenous communities, women and youth as major agents of change. The Initiative will work together with these stakeholders individually and collectively to develop projects and programmes which will provide increased access to them in decision-making regarding land management.

Organize events to harness the power and reach of faith-based organizations to increase the involvement of communities and leadership in land restoration.

Capacity Building

  • Establish a Global Research and Academic Network on Land Restoration, linking collaborating institutions from G20 member countries and beyond for promoting land restoration and a sustainable land management agenda;
  • Hardwire land restoration and sustainable land management into the curriculum of agricultural universities and forestry institutes around the world so that the future generation of agricultural scientists and forestry experts are fully familiar with the science, technology and economics of land restoration and habitat conservation;
  • Establish a Global Leadership Programme to sensitize future leaders on climate change, biodiversity loss and the importance of sustainable management as a basis for sustainable development;
  • Build targeted capacity-building among champions, changemakers and opinion makers on land stewardship, particularly focusing on youth, women and indigenous peoples;
  • Foster communities of practice of experts working in the area of sustainable land management;
  • Make use of modern online and hybrid (online and in-person) approaches, including by partnering with online educational platforms, to achieve capacity-building at scale for those who are outside the conventional academic system; and

By sharing and exchanging knowledge about technology through (virtual) innovation hubs, the Initiative would (i) contribute to the development and maturing of innovative new technologies and the testing and evaluation of new and previously unused technologies; and (ii) eliminate barriers to the uptake and usage thereof. For the implementation, the Initiative will develop financing mechanisms, including seed funding, and facilitate networking through the (virtual) innovation hubs to identify market opportunities.