The 6th edition of the Geneva Peace Talks, on 21 September 2018, had the theme of ‘Peace beyond Borders’. In previous years, Initiatives of Change has provided speakers, but this year it was asked to co-moderate the event. Initiatives of Change (IofC) has built up a bit of a reputation in international Geneva for doing events differently by focusing more on personal stories and offering opportunities for interpersonal connection and even (crazy as it may sound) silence.

IofC helped organize a series of online interviews on Facebook Live before the event took place. About 600 people attended the event itself, which took place in room XVIII at the Palais des Nations. Sarah Noble, head and co-creator of the Peace Talks, and I moderated it together.

The Peace Talks have built up a format of eight-minute talks in which peacebuilders tell their personal stories and share their message. We added two new elements. At the beginning we  included a chance for everyone to turn to their neighbours and introduce themselves to the ‘other peacebuilders’ in the room, as we are all called to work for peace. At first there was some hesitation about being so informal in such an official space, but after some light nudging people really got into it. It was great to see ambassadors and UN directors leaning over their desks to shake hands with high-school students. The buzz reverberated off the old UN walls that had seen countless hours of rather more official interactions. A first border between people had been crossed.

After that, the peacebuilders told powerful stories from the grassroots and from the heart. Two speakers in particular touched me.

Diana Garcia from Colombia passionately encouraged the participants to embrace uncertainty as a route to peace. She had seen the dangers of certainty and and rigidity in Colombia’s civil war.

Jasminko Halilovic spoke of his innovative War Childhood Museum, the only museum to focus exclusively on the children’s experience of war. It was illuminating to see war and also peace through the eyes of a child. The energy rose as the stories ebbed and flowed, followed by music.

Our second innovation was a couple of minutes of silence at the end, to let everything sink in. We were not sure how silence would work (or sound) in a UN conference room with 600 people. It was moving to see how people took it to heart: a profound silence took hold of this room made for talking. Many commented on how powerful and fitting it was to digest all the powerful messages in this way.  I was proud to be a part of this event and to see how IofC can contribute, with others, to promoting peace beyond borders. 

The Geneva Peace Talks are a public event co-organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva, Interpeace and the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform to celebrate the International Day of Peace, the 21 September.

Watch the whole event here.

Report: Rainer Gude

Photo: Antoine Tardy for Interpeace

13 November 2018 – Christine Beerli, former Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and former member of the upper house of the Swiss parliament, was appointed on 1 November 2018 as the new President of Initiatives of Change Switzerland. 

On 7 November 2018, 75 people participated in the latest event in IofC Switzerland’s Enriching Encounters series, which took place in the UN Library in Geneva. ‘Peacebuilders – Voices from local communities’ was co-organized with the Library, as part of the fifth Geneva Peace Week.

This was the third year that IofC Switzerland took part in Geneva Peace Week, an annual gathering of academic, institutional and non-governmental institutions, which are working to build peace on the local, national or international level. The theme of the 2018 Week was ‘Building Peace in a Turbulent World’. During the five days, over 120 groups organized more than 65 events. IofC Switzerland and its partners chose to approach the subject through the stories of five individuals working with local communities.

Three of the five speakers were brought in by our partners: the Kofi Annan Foundation, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers.

Mimoun Berrissoun is part of Extremely Together, an initiative of the Kofi Annan Foundation which others outstanding young leaders who are tackling violent extremism. He spoke about 180° Wende, the organization he founded in Cologne to engage with young people affected by extremism.

Jennifer Pro, a Senior Emergency Coordinator for IOM, spoke of her work managing humanitarian response operations in Somalia, South Sudan and Syria.

Martine Miller is the Director of Inclusive Peace (global) and Asia and Libya (lead) for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers. She drew on over 20 years of experience providing direct peace support to communities and organizations.

The organizers felt it was important to have a local perspective in the mix of speakers and invited Fabrice Roman, Director of Le Centre de la Roseraie, to take part. He helps migrants in Geneva to become actors in their lives through French classes, visits in the city and support in administrative procedures. He expressed the need to ‘build bridges between grassroots organizations in Geneva and the UN’.

The fifth speaker was Amina Dikedi-Ajakaiye, President of Creators of Peace, an IofC programme which works to empower women in over 50 countries. She shared the importance of listening deep within so that we can be advocates for peace in our communities.

We look forward to continuing the Enriching Encounters series in 2019, creating the space for a different, more interactive, sort of conversation from the traditional conference model where experts address an audience. Stay tuned for more such opportunities to engage!

Storytelling forms a central part of the yearly summer Caux Forum. One of the most dramatic stories this year was that of former neo-Nazi Peter Sundin from Sweden. When he spoke in the main hall in Caux during Addressing Europe’s Unfinished Business 2018, the woman I sat next to was in tears. She couldn’t really find words to explain it. She had no radical past herself. ‘But it touches me in the heart,’ she said. ‘So much courage.’

Telling his life story is one of the ways Peter Sundin wants to ‘give’ to society, to repair the damage he has done in his youth. He works at a crime prevention centre in Sweden to combat radicalization, particularly in schools. ‘Saying sorry is not enough,’ Sundin says. ‘I want to show people I am different now and contribute to society.’

With anti-Semitism growing all over Europe, Sundin’s work feels all the more urgent. In his home country the ultra-right Swedish Democrats became the third largest party in the elections in September. The party has roots in the Nazi movement in the eighties, although they distance themselves from them.

In the past few years the extremist Nordic Resistant Movement also seems to be gathering strength, with the establishment of a political branch in 2015, apart from its military branch. They have been elected onto some municipal councils. This makes Sundin feel like ‘banging my head against a wall’. He knows from experience that working against racism takes a lot of dedicated time and effort. 

Sundin grew up in a racist family with Nazi traditions passed down from the 1940’s. His mother told him that his second generation foreign class mate and his family were to blame for the Sundins’ rocky household economy. His brother gave him white power music to listen to and he read Nazi newspapers and children’s books. At school he automatically joined up with other boys from Nazi families. 

When the school tried to counter their extremist opinions, it only resulted in more radicalization. The school invited a survivor of the Holocaust to speak. Sundin’s brother warned him that she was a fraud. The school ordered Sundin and his friends to sit in the front rows. He could feel the other children staring at him. After that day he decided to create a local movement of National Youth, a national violent Nazi movement. ‘As I felt backed up by this organization, we became more confrontational at school.’

Later he took part in a violent attack on a foreigner. ‘When you join the movement, part of the training is to learn to justify what you do. So you justify the violence: this man was a threat for our country, so it’s self-defence. It’s a good thing.’ When the attack was on the news the next day, he felt a heavy lump in his stomach. ‘I realized I needed to free myself from this destructive context.’ It was the start of a five-year process to cut himself loose from his Nazi environment.

‘It is not a straight process,’ he explains. ‘I needed to reinvent myself, build up new values, a new worldview. Sometimes I had relapses. I would buy a Nazi newspaper again, or listen to the old music. It was easier to be a Nazi, I knew how to do that.’ Most of all, he needed to meet new people. ‘The most important thing was to get new narratives. I had always believed that the Jews controlled everything, the government, the media. People outside our movement were blind to that, it was our crusade to tell them the truth.’ 

During this period the support of a local policeman was of great importance to him. ‘He helped me to take the next steps. He took me to McDonald’s, where I never had been because I thought it was controlled by the Jews. But he also said: “You are the Nazi, you are the one who has to change”.’

His own process has helped him to see how important it is to see the human being behind the extremist opinion. ‘I was always Nazi Peter, never just Peter. In a conversation you can show that you respect someone, but disagree with their opinions.’ Sundin is convinced that it is only when you reach the human being that the change process can start. ‘I can never change another person’s opinion, that is something that only that person is capable of. But I can ask questions that stimulate reflection.’

By Irene de Pous

Oana Dinea is a concert pianist from Romania, currently based in Geneva. She took part in the Caux Peace and Leadership Programme 2018.

Caux is about relationships. About people. About how you can relate and learn from people of approximately 40 nationalities. And what is so surprising is that these people unlock doors in yourself. Your new friends can be also the ones that you didn’t see around you in your own community. A sense of presence almost like a natural revelation arrives slowly in your life.

For example, every September, at the beginning of the academic year, I organize a private meeting for the parents of my students at the Conservatory of Music in Geneva, where I teach piano.

This year, to my surprise, I didn’t want to have another official meeting, focused on organization, where the parents take notes and write down the dates of the exams and auditions. Although these things are important, this time I wanted to do something different: to share my story, my childhood in Romania and the choices that have led me to this life of mine.

So, I talked about my parents, my culture, my teachers and so many things that they didn’t know about me. I have never felt so connected to the parents of my students as in that instant. We saw each other’s humanity. And, after having this bond, they delivered themselves. They shared their stories and their fears regarding the education of their children. The fulfillment that we all felt was pure joy!

The idea of telling my story came after being at Caux. I had never before thought of sharing something meaningful with the parents of my students. It had never occurred to me that a small action could have this impact. Since that moment, our relationship has changed. The confidence that came from listening to each others’ stories will define the way their children come to the Conservatory each week, the way they see music, work and give priority to their time at the piano. I don’t feel any more that I have to convince them or that we are in battle camp. I feel that we share the same desire for progress.

At Caux I learnt something which is still very difficult for me. Planting a seed is not always about telling people what to do, but having the patience to trust their own process.

People don’t act because you tell them to; they act when your actions inspire them. When they admire you and feel that you trust them, they feel empowered. It can be very easy with some people and difficult with others. But I am confident that I am always learning new skills of communication.

Because of my job, self-discipline and setting priorities have always been part of my life. I realize that one of my priorities has changed: I give more time to people around me –not only to my friends, but to people in general. A big part of that has to do with listening and smiling.

I realize that our loneliness comes from our common addiction to media. So my next priority is to take one day per week when I am off social media and even call people. At the beginning it is very difficult. But after a while you use your creativity and sometimes you do what children do: play and wonder. Our great tool is the imagination. When you allow yourself to create your life, rather than just allowing habit to control your actions, then you feel that you are not only existing – you are living!

My concerts are related to humans and art. All the things described above – the sense of presence, sharing stories, inspiring with confidence and trusting the process, setting priorities – make me more aware of the oportunities I have to connect people and ideas. My actions are focused on creating a bridge between my work and the need that I see in the world.

This September, leaders and people from around the world have joined together in San Francisco at the Global Climate Action Summit and in New York City at Climate Week to celebrate achievements, discuss solutions, and ignite action for climate change.

The Initiatives of Land Lives and Peace network (ILLP) was present in San Francisco and worked together to take forward the agenda and conclusions of the 2018 Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS). The questions of raising capital for global scale landscape restoration and technological solutions to the issues of land degradation have been proposed by CDLS participants. 

Many of CDLS participants attended the side event organised by the World Economic Forum, where the 4th Industrial Revolution has been discussed. It has been established that a collaboration between private sector investors and the governments is necessary to create a viable model of blended finance in order to have a chance in restoring large enough areas to reverse Climate Change. 

The co-founder of BioCarbon Engineering has proposed tree-planting drones as one tool to scale-up land restoration, while The Nature Conservancy has highlighted the need for a multi-stakeholder approach. 

More CDLS participants have been speaking at the IXO event. This new innovative company has partnered with SDG Futures to co-host a series of events  to bring leaders in sustainability, natural capital, impact financing, media and technology together to discuss how solutions and actions towards the Sustainable Development Goals can be deployed and accelerated through innovative coalitions and financing to shape a more transparent Sustainable Impact Economy.

The event was attended by many delegates of CDLS, including strategic partners as Global Mangrove Trust, Regen Network, Natural Capital Alliance, Green World Campaign and others. 

The participants discussed new financial models for landscape restoration, the possibilities of tokenisation of such investments and the new tech solutions to the challenges of land degradation.  The need for continuing dialogue and the call to action has been emphasized and a lot of time has been spent planning the day of alternative finance during the next CDLS. 

Cornelio Sommaruga, Honorary President of Initiatives of Change International writes about his old friend Mohamed Sahnoun.

Mohamed Sahnoun is gone. Former ambassador of Algeria in Bonn, Washington, at the United Nations in New York, in Paris and in Rabat, he passed away on 20th September, at the age of 86, after a long illness. A political prisoner during Algeria’s war of independence, in 1957, he talked about his experiences in an autobiographical memoir, ‘Wounded Memory’, where he described the suffering of many like himself and their experiences of torture. I had the honour of writing a preface for this fascinating book, deeply shaking for its descriptions of the gratuitous and indescribable suffering that humans are capable of inflicting on their fellow men. 

But his book also describes the support of men and women from various backgrounds (civilians, soldiers and religious people) who, at risk to their own lives, worked in solidarity with those in the independence struggle.  When he came out of prison, Mohamed Sahnoun was helped by a Catholic priest, hidden in different places in France, always threatened with re-arrest, and finally was smuggled over the border into Switzerland, where Charles-Henri Favrod put him in touch with the new Algerian leaders in Evian. 

After independence he quickly became a delegate to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), then deputy secretary general of the Arab League, before ‘starting’ on his diplomatic career. In New York, and the UN, the then Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali nominated him as Special Envoy for Somalia in 1992. He strongly criticized the actions of the United Nations there, and discovered at first hand the importance of the work of the International Red Cross. Thereafter, he became an international advisor to the ICRC, before being nominated, with Gareth Evans, to be co-chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), whose report was entitled ‘The Responsibility to Protect’. As a fellow-member of the Commission, I saw first-hand his skill in finding consensus and the major contributions he made to the report that Kofi Annan received on 20th December 2001. 

He was also a member of the Brundtland Commission on environment and development and co-author of the ‘Brundtland report’, which coined the expression ‘sustainable development’ and its definition. Thereafter, Kofi Annan made him a special advisor for Africa, and he held a number of mandates, for example as a mediator in the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and he was special envoy to the African Great Lakes region. There was a deep friendship between these two great personalities, who died within a month of each other.

During the last 20 years, Mohamed Sahnoun was very active in Caux, the Initiatives of Change conference centre (formerly Moral Re-Armament), where he founded the Forum for Human Security, which brought to Caux diplomats, international civil servants, politicians and academics. His work here brought the gratitude of people from all over the world. At that time, I was President of Initiatives of Change International. At the end of my second term, Mohamed Sahnoun replaced me for three years.

He leaves with us memories of a great human being, a humble servant of the human family, with his qualities as a diplomat and a mediator at the service of peace. He had the capacity to bring people together from different backgrounds and opinions, notably across the North-South divide. A man of great wisdom: there are not many of this ilk. His memory will live on with all who knew him as a source of inspiration and encouragement.

Cornelio Sommaruga
Honorary President 
Initiatives of Change International

• Read more about Mohamed Sahnoun on IofC International's website. 
• Read Mohameds Sahnoun's book "Mémoire Bléssée" (only in French), published in 2007 by Presses de la Renaissance.
• Read the Daily Telegraph's obituary, published on 6 December 2018.

In a time when the world is agonizingly looking for leaders of dignity and wisdom, it comes with great sadness that shortly after losing Kofi Annan, we have now also lost his close friend and mentor Mohamed Sahnoun.  World-renowned diplomat, former President of IofC International and founder of the Caux Forum for Human Security, Ambassador Sahnoun embodied the saying "Be the change you want to see in the world."

Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun, or simply Mohamed, as he was known to his colleagues, came across as a soft-spoken, kind and humble man.  One would not at first assume that this was a world-renowned diplomat and international personality.  However, whenever we had the pleasure of sharing a word with him or of accompanying him to the UN (which he continued to do as long as his health permitted) you caught glimpses of life lived to the fullest in service of humanity.  Not only because of the admiration and respect that others gave him when they recognized him, but also because of his many anecdotes from almost every corner in the world and related to many of the important diplomatic and historic events of the last 40 years.  He had a background story to almost every major global event … and yet when he talked you never felt it was about him, but about the people he worked with and whom he was trying to serve.

His career postings and titles would be enough to fill multiple lives. He has served as Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity and the League of Arab States and as Algeria’s Ambassador to the United States, France, Germany and Morocco. He was a Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and has represented the UN in various capacities since 1992. Among his assignments was Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Somalia and in the Great Lakes. He served on the International Council of the Earth Charter Initiative and on the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Bruntland Commission) and remained a strong advocate of sustainable development. He contributed to the development of « The Responsibility to Protect » as a concept in international relations. He was a member of the boards of the University for Peace, the International Crisis Group and Interpeace and was co-chair of the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect.

Though he always remained dedicated and gave his time to many causes, we at Initiatives of Change were honoured to have him succeed his friend Cornelio Sommaruga, former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as the President of Initiatives of Change International in 2006.  In 2008 he launched, together with Cornelio Sommaruga, the Caux Forum for Human Security which he then chaired for 5 years bringing a whole new network of dedicated practitioners to Caux around this emerging concept.

As he said in an interview with the Huffington Post, ‘The idea came from my sense of the deep insecurity in today’s world. Insecurity is born of fear. We must look to the root causes of that fear, and address it with far more energy and cohesion.’

He chose Caux as the venue because ‘it is a place where interreligious dialogue is deeply established. (...) Caux was a safe place where people could build trust in one another.’

In Mohamed’s view, achieving human security depended on progress in five areas, which he defined as just governance, inclusive economics, intercultural dialogue, environmental sustainability and healing historical wounds. ‘So often the understanding of security has focused purely on physical security,’ he said. ‘But human security is about the very fundamentals of our existence. I place special emphasis on healing wounded memories. In Algeria, Northern Ireland, the Balkans and other places of long pain and violence, the feelings run so deep that a special effort is called for.’

To advance this programme Sahnoun called for a ‘coalition of conscience’ bringing together people of integrity and compassion to overcome the corrupting impact of greed and the struggle for power. ‘We strengthen good governance at the top by sustaining it all the way down to its roots in the family, in parenting skills, in local communities,’ he said. ‘We can challenge our governments to adopt sustainable policies if we first take a hard look at our own lifestyles.’

He was profoundly convinced that change starts with the individual, starts with me and he was a wonderful embodiment of that message.

In Caux, Mohamed was « at home » able to interact and pass on his tremendous wisdom and experience to people from around the world of all ages.  But even with all his achievements and insight, it was his humility and warmth that touched people most.  How someone so « important » and so « capable » could remain so simple and kind, was an often-repeated comment for the youth who got to know him.

In his last years with us in Geneva, it was his tenacity, determination, and yet optimism that continued to touch us.  No matter how slow he began to walk, or what other physical ailment he had, nothing would stop him from following the news and going to every meeting at the UN that he could follow.  No amount of bad news, either global or personal, seemed to take away his simple yet resolute smile. Though his eyes had seen a great many troubles, they never seemed to lose that flicker of hope for which we will always fondly remember him by.

We are immensely grateful for all Mohamed gave to Initiatives of Change and to the world, and will endeavour to pass on what he shared and stay true to his message.

• Watch Mohamed Sahnoun's opening speech of the 3rd Caux Forum for Human Security in 2010 and an interview with him in 2011. 
• Read Mohamed's Sahnoun's Book "Mémoire Bléssée" (only in French) published in 2007 by Presses de la Renaissance.

The 2017 edition of CATS (Children as Actors for Transforming Society), part of the Caux Forum, saw the launch of the 90 Day Challenge. The idea was simple: CATS participants thoroughly explored their ideas for a range of topics including the environment, education and peace whilst at Caux. Once home, from 20 August 2017, they had 90 days to put their ideas into action. The aim was to provide the participants with the necessary drive and motivation to dive in and to make a start on a project despite not having to necessarily produce results.  

The Philippines

Over the 90 days, some great initiatives emerged such as the Golden Hand Project in the Philippines, led by Cheryl Cruz, a CATS 2017 participant. Unlike others in her community, Cheryl Cruz has had the chance to take art, music and craft classes. The 90 Day Challenge gave her the opporunity to start a project which would allow the children in her community to take part in handicraft and artistic workshops thereby providing a change from their daily routine. She was set on sharing what she had learnt and to see the children discover new skills. The first workshop on drawing and the ideal community took place on 4 November 2017, attended by 18 children aged between 2 and 16. You can follow their adventures on Facebook.

Poland

Over the last three months we have also heard from both Anna Lechowska who works for a child and youth centre in Poland, and the Polish delegation. Once back at home after Caux, Anna and the young people visited the Polish Ombudsman to talk about their experience at CATS. They were also on regional radio and spoke during the International Congress for Children’s Rights which took place in Warsaw in September 2017. The children are working harder than ever, inspired by CATS. In collaboration with their counterparts in other towns, they have organized collages made up of quotes about children’s rights displayed in public places in order to raise awareness. The children and young people are also organizing several debates. One of them is about participating in school life in the hope that initial steps can be taken to create a school council in which the pupils would participate. A national debate also took place in Warsaw on 1 December 2017, notably on violence and corporal punishment against children, a topic that is dear to all of us as it will be the theme of CATS 2018. You can also follow them on Facebook.

South Africa

Some of the other projects have moved away from their intial aim. This was the case for Zakhele Mazibuko and Milandre Vlok who did not have enough time or money to implement their initial idea. However, far from letting this discourage them, these two South Africans decided to give children and young people an opportunity to voice their opinions on the changes they would like to see in their towns and schools by creating children and young people’s councils. These councils are just the beginning. The idea is to start taking action so that in 2018 the children’s suggestions become reality.

Regardless of whether or not the CATS 2017 participants have stuck to their original plan, we’re proud of them. Since Caux they have spread our values and for that we are extremely grateful. We were very impressed by this first 90 Day Challenge and we can’t wait to repeat it next year!

By Maylis Guillou-Kérédan, CATS Managing Director

This report captures the four-day programme of presentations, panel discussions and interactive dialogues at CDLS 2018 – Landscapes of Peace: land restoration for conflict resolution. The event took place from17-21 July at the Caux Palace Conference and Seminar Centre, Switzerland. Over 120 participants came together to address the role of land degradation in conflict and how peace can be restored. The event highlighted the environmental and security challenges which will shape the world over the next 20 years. This year’s special focus included financial mechanisms for landscape restoration and the role of blockchain in land registry and supply chain monitoring. 

Day 1: Land restoration for conflict resolution

Opening plenary speakers: Irina Fedorenko, Managing Director of CDLS; Barbara Hintermann, Secretary General, IofC Switzerland Foundation; Pradeep Monga, Deputy Executive Secretary, UNCCD; Dennis Kucinich, former US Congressman; Elizabeth Kucinich, Kucinich Institute for Human and Ecological Security.

Irina Fedorenko highlighted the need to explore the issues of land degradation and conflict as an interconnected problem, and to focus on solutions that use environmental restoration projects to build trust and peace. Creating and promoting high-tech jobs in farming and forestry for young people could raise education levels, build capacity and ultimately slow down migration.

Barbara Hintermann said that increasing pressure on natural resources, as demands for food and energy rise, was the greatest challenge facing humanity and a root cause of conflict. By 2050 about 9 billion people will need nutrition, but we are losing 12 million hectares of cultivated land every year. This trend must be reversed. Over 75% of the people affected by land degradation are poor.

Pradeep Monga provided an overview of social challenges to land restoration and stressed the importance of transboundary cooperation. ‘We all share a belief that if we give to the land, then the land will give to us: feed us, shelter us and provide wellbeing not only on the economic level, but also on the social and ecological level.’ Land degradation increases crisis and undermines humanity’s wellbeing. It affects over 3.2 billion people globally and also contributes to mass human migration. By 2050 food supply must increase by 70% and water supply by 50%. Smallholders have a key role in this. More on Pradeep Monga's participation at the Caux Dialogue here.

Elizabeth Kucinich called for a change of discourse from one of war and debate to one of peace and sharing of ideas. People have to understand complexity and diversity and think ecologically. Environmental change requires a holistic approach, which sees environmental challenges as opportunities. If we invest in land restoration and carbon sequestration we will create real wealth and abundance.

Dennis Kucinich addressed the dangers of polarization between communities, states, nations and religions. We need to align vision based on science and facts with inner vision, which enables us to imagine another reality and the future that we want. ‘There in nothing that limits any of us except our own limited thinking. We should challenge ourselves to be more than we are, to be better than we are and to achieve reconciliation with the natural world.’

Day 2: Ecosystem and land restoration

Speakers included: Natalie Topa, Regional Resilience and Livelihoods Coordinator for East Africa and Yemen for the Danish Refugee Council; Ruchi Jain, Founder of Taru Organics; Seth Itzkan, Founder of Soil4Climate; Dalmas Tiampati, Leader of the Maasai Centre for Regenerative Pastoralism; Sai Kishore Nellore, Executive Director of VEDA Climate Change Solutions, India; John D Liu, Founder of Ecosystem Restoration Camps; Irina Fedorenko, Co-founder of BioCarbon Engineering; Luca Montanarella from the European Commission; Patrick Worms, Senior Science Policy Adviser at the World Agroforestry Organisatio; Rolex Award laureate, Christine Keung; Alan Laubsh, from Lykke; Bremley WB Lyngdoh, founder of WorldView Impact.  

The environment day of CDLS addressed the complex challenges facing the natural environment and explored the potential for largescale land restoration.

The speakers provided an overview of the root causes of land degradation around the world. Human activity has changed the surface of the planet in profound and far-reaching ways, through people’s lifestyles, diets and climate change. Land degradation affects countries of all income levels and at all levels of development. Success in addressing the sustainable development goals will require halting and reversing land degradation. National governments, local institutions and international organizations must work in close collaboration to achieve this.

People used to think that desertification and environmental degradation only affected  certain countries and territories. It is now clear that environmental issues have no borders and that degradation in one place can impact conditions in another country. So far human impact on the natural world has been hugely negative, leading to ecosystem collapse. But is this inevitable? All natural and social systems are interconnected and if people look beyond separation and adopt system thinking we can reverse this negative trend.

The speakers presented many ways of addressing land degradation, including practical projects, technical solutions and new financial mechanisms. For example, ecosystem restoration camps plant new trees and sustain existing landscapes at low cost while improving rural livelihoods. Holistic projects promote integrated food security through reviving traditional foods, supporting ecosystem services, improving climate resilience and agriculture.

BioCarbon Engineering employs drones to restore ecosystems and plant trees in such countries as Myanmar, where tree planting has been financed through Lykke Wallet blockchain-powered tree coin and where Worldview International Foundation supports communities through creating sustainable jobs.

Day 3: Community building

Peter Rundell and Olivia Lazard of Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace opened the Peace day by pointing out that lack of knowledge leads to disasters and that global inequality is growing at increasing speed. Ensuring that development benefits the poor, supports smallholders and provides jobs for young people is crucial for the success of international peace-building programmes.

According to the Founder of 4GGL, Jin In, every year more girls are killed, aborted and neglected than boys. There are 65 more million men and boys in the world than women and girls. Her passionate speech addressed the need for female empowerment, which increases the capacity of women and girls to make choices and transform them into actions and outcomes. Increasing the level of girls’ education and empowering women will affect all the Sustainable Development Goals, increase peace and benefit the environment.  

Lisa Yasko is Executive Director of Witness, a performance devoted to the World War II Babi Yar massacres in Ukraine, in which tens of thousands of Jewish people were killed. Her presentation took the audience on a journey of exploring the tragedy and the healing process which is now taking place in Ukraine.

Yevgeniia Kuleba presented Garden-City NGO, a project which she conceived during Ukraine’s Maidan revolution in 2014 to enable communities to restore their cities and public places.

Pinaki Dasgupta, Country Director of Green Faith, presented faith-based initiatives to address climate change coming from Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Christianity. He described faith as a universal tool that allows people to connect, and which can enable environmental and social healing.

Sana Syed had been part of the Emerging Leaders Programme at CDLS 2017. She spoke about the project she has launched to train young Muslims in Chicago to become builders.  

Ekaterina Zatuliveter, founder of Altourism which enlists tourists to help restore villages in Russia, spoke about teaching young people to revive their traditions and to create active rural communities.  

The concluding panel featured a speech by Denise Lievesley, Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford, about the future of education and the importance of supporting young people who can invent the future world.

Alan Channer presented Kenyan Dialogue on Land and Security and discussed the challenges that face peace-builders in addressing conflict between groups and within groups.

Marc Ian Barasch, Co-founder of ReGen18, presented his book, The compassionate life. He spoke of how drought and desertification had forced herdsmen in Nigeria’s north to move farther south to graze their cattle, creating conflict with farmers who struggled to protect their crops.

Day 4: Sustainable finance and new restoration economy

The finance day was chaired by Rishabh Khanna, from IofC Sweden, a leader of the Invest in Peace project, and Elizabeth Kucinich from the Kucinich Institute for Human and Ecological Security. The speakers discussed innovative ways to finance landscape restoration and focused on new economic models, sustainable finance, regenerative economy and blockchain technology.

The panelists included such experts in regenerative economy and blockchain as Ash Domah from Tradom and Nhat Vuong from Water Inception, Christopher Lindstrom Co-founder of Catalyst Bioenergy Group, John Roulac from Nutiva, Tom Duncan of Regen Investment, Christian Shearer from Regen Network, Carl Pendragon of Skymining, Alan Laubsch from Lykke, David Sab of Symbol Network, John D Liu from Ecosystem Restoration Camp and Jamie Walton from Welsh Circular Economy.

The presentations emphasized the need for the monetary system to support landscape restoration. Good governance, stability and liquidity are all essential. Land regeneration requires the ability to pay local people to do restoration projects; investment for initial financing; and support from local government and financial institutions. Blockchain technology is one means of increasing trust in the economic system.

The session focused on shifting the profit system which incentivizes land degradation to one which incentivizes land restoration, by creating returns on investment in land restoration and coming up with models that reassure investors. John Roulac pointed out the connection between the health of the soil and the health of people. The cost of not doing anything is so much higher than the cost of restoring degraded land, which will not only generate return on investment, but also help to reverse climate change, provide income to local people, reduce the number of climate refugees and contribute to peace-building.

John D Lui closed the day by listing four returns provided by landscape restoration: inspiration, social capital, natural capital and financial capital.