Business Solutions for Landscapes

February 9 the IDH Forum DRIVING BUSINESS SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES was held in Amsterdam. Designed as a catalyzer for innovative solutions, over 100 high level representatives from 11 landscapes in Africa, Asia and Latin America built on each others experiences to drive new landscape business solutions. Check out: #IDHforum.

In our journey towards setting up public, private and civil society partnerships for sustainable resource management, we are joining forces with organizations who have in-depth knowledge, expertise and experience in how to build multi-stakeholder coalitions to improve landscape governance. Our role at IDH is to ensure that we capitalize on this collective expertise, to further scale up projects that work, and learn from those that have failed.

Daan Wensing, Director of the IDH Landscape Program: "This Forum is the next step in our partnership: it is a platform to learn from practical examples from all over the world on how sustainable landscapes can be achieved and their related business cases. Moreover this forum has once again showed me and I think all participants that IDH and its landscape staff are doers. We set things in motion, prototype new models and dare to start. It was like someone said during one of the panel discussions: "If we wait until all models are perfectly designed, we will not see change happening in our life time".  The sense of urgency and action that came from the discussions and workshops was refreshing. I remember the honorable MD Harrison, managing Director of the FDA from Liberia, saying it very adequately: "The clock is ticking and the forest is disappearing". I sincerely hope that this Forum has acted as a catalyzer and accelerator for the work we need to do to stop deforestation, provide livelihoods for people and produce agricultural commodities as they are the engines for economic growth in many tropical countries. Its the mantra produce, protect and include that resonated with all participants, being companies, governments, financial institutions, and NGOs. And as everybody claimed, we need to work togetjer hard and we have to work together no to get to make the future together'.

A more elaborate report about the Forum will follow soon.

Watch the opening video of the Landscape Forum showcasing best practices and potential learnings from Liberia, Kenya, Indonesia and Brazil.

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Just to give you a small taste of the suite of public private delegates, speakers and participants, here is a (far from complete) list of speakers and panelists that were on the forum:

Honorable Harrison Karnwea, Managing Director, FDA Ms. Juliana Lopes, Sustainability and Communication Director, AMAGGI Mr. Simeon Hutchinson, Managing Director, Finlays Mr. Gusti Hardiansyah, Special Advisor Environment to the Governor of West Kalimantan and Dean of the Forestry Faculty of Tanjungpura University Ms. Sonya Dewi, Senior Landscape Ecologist and Country Coordinator Indonesia, ICRAF Mr. Fernando Sampaio, Executive Director, PCI Strategy State Committee Mato Grosso Mr. Christopher Stewart, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Olam Mr. Tom van Loon, Environmental and Social Responsibility Manager, Interholco Mr. Purwadi Soeprihanto, Executive Director of the Association of Indonesian Forest Concessionaries (APHI) and Founder & Senior Advisor of PT Ekosistem Khatulistiwa Lestari Ms. Lim Siam Choo, Group Head of Corporate Secretarial Services & CSR, Bumitama Agri Ltd Mr. Benardi Dharmawan, General Manager of HR-GA, Legal & Sustainability, PT Pas Mr. Jeff Seabright, Chief Sustainability Officer, Unilever Mr. David Barley, Investment Director, Althelia Ecosphere Mr. Stephen Rumsey, Chairman, Permian Global Mr. David Rothschild, Director, GVL Ms. Liz Wilk, European Director Sustainability and Stakeholder Outreach, APP Mr. Marcio Sztutman, Critical Lands Manager Brazil, The Nature Conservancy Mr. Rob McWilliam, Senior Manager, The Forest Trust

Download the Landscape Forum Booklet for a complete list of topics and speakers Follow us on Twitter: #IDHforum