Dominique le Roux
Amazing. Engaging. Enriching. Inspiring. Integrated. Uplifting…
That’s participants describing our recent Global Summit and Knowledge Exchange that brought together representatives of most of the 22 Landscapes For Our Future projects around the globe. Here’s a glimpse of what you might have missed. (With so much more in store for 2024.)
PLUS: Talk to us about communities of practice: What? When? How? Who?
Keep in mind the purpose of the Landscapes For Our Future progamme, which is – through these 22 pilot projects – to guide the EU Delegations and partners on how to implement ILM.
Bernard Crabbé, Head of Environment Mainstreaming and Circular Economy Sector at the European Commission DG INT
We are committed to change leadership in the landscapes arena. We seek opportunities to embed landscape approaches within global and national institutions and constantly strive to deepen our understanding of how this can be achieved effectively.
Eliane Ubalijoro, CEO, CIFOR-ICRAF, speaking at the opening of the Summit
STORIES FROM THE FIELD:
ILM Communication and the Art of Storytelling
Patricia Roche from our Cerrado Biome project in Brazil and Paraguay had us captivated with her tales of golden grass, a lady’s purse, and the water wealth of her treeless landscape.
As a kid, did you ever play the «broken telephone» game? The one where you whisper something to one person who whispers it to the next and so on until the story comes back to you with very different details. Or, more often than not, no details at all.
Isn’t that what so often ends of up happening when we put the facts about our worthy projects out into the world? Do we inspire people to tell our stories? And when they do, what information do they convey to the next and the next and the next listeners?
At the Summit, we challenged the participants to tell a story about their landscape – something that would hold listeners’ attention and capture their imaginations. As props, all they had was an art piece we collaborated on. No PowerPoint, no text – just artful storytelling. The results were magical! It turns out we have so many talented storytellers amongst us.
KNOWLEDGE:
Pros at play
Khalil Walji and Freidah Wanda playing at some serious negotiations.
The Summit brought together 50+ ILM practitioners to explore the inner workings of an integrated approach to landscapes management. But how best to bring everyone to a common understanding of these principles?
A game, of course!
Claude Garcia’s strategy game simulated the oil palm supply chain in Cameroon, and participants played their parts with aplomb. Taking on various designated stakeholder roles helped us all to better understand the effects of decisions, values, and choices on ecosystems. Serious learning. But so much laughter too.
Central Component Deputy Co-ordinator Khalil Walji summed up the session so well on his social media, and we shared his wisdom on our Knowledge Hub.
SURVEY:
Communities of Practice, sure. But how? What? When? Where?
A community of practice is a group of people who «share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.»
This idea of developing such groups emerged strongly during the Summit. We all agreed they’d be useful. But do we agree on what they are and how we want to run them? Please guide us on what you’d like created and how you’d like to be involved by answering 5 quick questions in our survey.
Wishing you a wonderful festive season and looking forward to building on our Integrated Landscape Management successes and learnings together in 2024! — Your Central Component team
