The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF)
The fast-growing movement for sustainable landscapes in the Global South
In 2024, the GLF continued to build a global movement for sustainable landscapes – bringing together youth, women, practitioners, investors, policymakers, researchers, Indigenous and community leaders, media and AI innovators.
Building on its roots in the Global South, the GLF catalysed connections and action across continents by uplifting community-led restoration, fostering transformative learning and bridging finance and nature.
Connecting 1.3M+ youth globally, the Youth in Landscapes Initiative drove impact across all three Rio Convention COPs both online and in person. In 2024, it supported Regreening Africa with a key report, while the 2024 Restoration Stewards program funded and highlighted seven youth-led restoration projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia, bringing the total network to 26 since the program launch in 2021. An alumna from Peru also won the prestigious Midori Biodiversity Award.
Since its launch in 2020, the GLFx network has grown to 38 locally-led organizations. Working with over 30,000 people in their communities, these chapters are transforming landscapes in 26 countries, safeguarding livelihoods and preserving biodiversity. GLFx provides grant support, field visits, funded internship programs, access to global policy spaces including the Rio Convention COPs, and regional community meetings.
The GLF’s learning platforms have trained more than 35,000 professionals in sustainable landscape management. The Landscape Academy has convened more than 60 partner courses and 35 GLF online and blended courses. The Digital Campus offers personalized learning experiences, drawing on CIFOR-ICRAF’s cutting-edge research, while the Restoration Education curriculum was developed with five leading African educational institutes in Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi and Rwanda.
The GLF forums provided its global community with powerful convergence points where diverse voices, actions, and ideas come together. The GLF forums ignite momentum – amplifying ongoing efforts and inspiring new collaborations. By connecting local and global changemakers, the forums turn collective energy into lasting impact for landscapes.
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The GLF forums provided its global community with powerful convergence points where diverse voices, actions, and ideas come together. The GLF forums ignite momentum – amplifying ongoing efforts and inspiring new collaborations. By connecting local and global changemakers, the forums turn collective energy into lasting impact for landscapes.
The GLF–Luxembourg Finance for Nature Platform hosted the world’s largest forum on sustainable finance in the Global South. The 7th GLF Investment Case symposium took place in Cali, Colombia, alongside UN Biodiversity COP16, and identified methods to mobilize the $200 billion needed annually to achieve global biodiversity goals.
GLF Africa 2024: Greening the African Horizon and the7th Investment Case Symposium convened 200 speakers, 160 partner organizations and 5,730 participants from 120 countries, with over 3 million engagements online. The GLF AI Hub formally launched with two regional expert consultations and sessions in Nairobi and in Cali, identifying a roadmap to advance ethical, inclusive, and locally rooted AI solutions for sustainability and climate action.
The GLF also welcomed 2,042 participants from 121 countries to the GLF Peatlands hybrid conference and the State of Central African Forests hybrid forum, organized with the Central Africa Forest Observatory (OFAC) of the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC). Uniquely aimed at practitioners, these forums provided vital spaces for practitioners to exchange experiences and solutions worldwide.
In 2024, the GLF welcomed two new charter members based in the Global South: IPAM Amazonia and SouthSouthNorth. To date, the GLF has connected over 25,000 organizations and reached over 4 billion people through social media and media, including an annual cohort of 42 Social Media Ambassadors from 27 countries communicating in 15 languages.