Forests as the Foundation of a Green economy: A Circular Bioeconomy for the Mediterranean and Beyond
A live discussion hosted by the Global Landscapes Forum on Tuesday, October 28th at 12:00 UTC will explore how forests can be leveraged to build thriving, green economies through enduring management, community engagement, and innovative forest finance. The event centers on the potential of a circular bioeconomy, particularly within the Mediterranean region and its wider implications.
The discussion will focus on moving beyond simply extracting resources from forests, and instead establishing forests as the foundation for economic prosperity. Key areas of exploration include community-based forest management, strengthening forest wood supply chains, recognizing and valuing ecosystem services beyond timber production, and developing financial mechanisms that appropriately reward forest stewards.
The event will feature insights from three experts:
* Beria (Lei) Leimona, Theme Leader for Climate Change, Energy and Low-Carbon Development at CIFOR-ICRAF. Leimona’s expertise encompasses climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainability standards, jurisdictional approaches, smallholder financing, ecosystem services, and carbon markets. She has also contributed as a lead author to two Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reports, focusing on biodiversity and the valuation of nature.
* Antonio (Toni) Ventre, General secretary of the Mediterranean Model Forest Network Secretariat, representing the Tuscany region. Ventre, a forest engineer, brings extensive experience in sustainable forest management for both public and private forests, with a focus on enhancing wood supply chains, hydrogeological protection, landscape and forest restoration, and wildfire prevention and control. He has also led initiatives on forest certification and the valorization of ecosystem services. Since April 2023, he has coordinated the Mediterranean Model Forest Network (MMFN) Secretariat and overseen regional, national and EU forestry training projects.
* Abdelkrim Marzouk, President of the Ifrane Model Forest in morocco and Dean of Executive and Continuing Education at Al Akhawayn University. Marzouk’s academic background is in geographic information systems (GIS), forestry, remote sensing, and quantitative environmental modeling for land use and land cover change. He has over 15 years of experience in local, provincial, and regional development, strategic planning, and capacity building for public sector executives and NGOs.
Participants are encouraged to share their thoughts on social media using the hashtag #TalkLandscape.
A recording of the event will be available here.