Land blog posts

In this episode of Thrive Podcast, filmmaker Doug Varchol asks a few of the over 3,000 attendees of the Global Landscapes Forum (a major parallel event of COP21) what they think about these newly minted SDGs and whether they have begun incorporating them into their work.

The government of Tigray, a region home to a growing population of over 4.5 million farmers, continues to promote food security through improved production and expanding land use for agriculture.

This film follows a group of ten youth innovators as they devise a solution to landscapes challenges to be pitched to a panel of judges in a Dragon's Den style event at the Global Landscapes Forum.

In an unused school classroom in the village of Sekoti, Ghana, community members gathered to learn how to make a video. Many of them had never even used a camera before, much less operated a microphone. Participatory video is an empowering and creative process that allows those who understand their local issues best to have a voice.

One of the highlights of this year's Global Landscapes Forum in Paris was the Dragons Den session, hosted by the Youth in Landscapes Initiative. Eavesdropping from the workshop to the final pitches was Andrew Johnstone.

Most people working in sustainable development are familiar with the ‘tragedy of the commons’ referring to when a group of individuals, all acting independently to deplete common resources, in this case degrading landscapes. But what if someone told you that the real tragedy  was that these land has to be either taken over by the state or privatized in order to be sustainable?

What is the future for Indonesia and its landscapes?  The country is at an extraordinary moment.  Under the new populist government of Joko Widodo, huge areas of the country’s state lands may change hands in the next few years. 

Fifty young innovators had four days to come up with solutions to some of today’s biggest landscape challenges. As if that wasn’t enough, they then had to pitch their ideas to a panel of experts. In front of an audience of over 200 conference participants.

For over 40 years as an international soil scientist, I have been hearing more and more what I call “The Soil Scientists’ Lament” – the cry that “soils are neglected”, “soils are under-valued”, “inaction on soil degradation is costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year”, “but those who make public policy are not listening to us”. 

Why are many apparently simple, technical solutions to agricultural problems not widely adopted? Why don't people change their behaviour when provided with information that ought to be useful? In this episode of the Thrive podcast, Katherine Snyder from CIAT, shares her views on silver bullet solutions to dilemmas in agricultural development.