Forests as โtheโ 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 throughโ enduring management, community engagement, and โขinnovative forest finance. Theโ event โขcenters on the potential of a circular bioeconomy, particularly within the Mediterranean regionโข and its wider implications.
The discussion will focus on moving beyond simply extracting resources from forests, and instead establishing forests as the foundation forโ economic prosperity. Key areas of exploration includeโฃ community-based forest management, strengtheningโ forest wood supply chains, recognizing and valuing ecosystem services beyond timber production, and โdeveloping financial mechanisms that โฃappropriately reward โforest stewards.
The event will feature insights fromโข three experts:
*โข Beria (Lei) Leimona, Theme Leader for Climate Change, Energy andโข Low-Carbon Development at CIFOR-ICRAF. Leimona’s expertise encompassesโค climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainability standards, โคjurisdictional approaches, smallholderโ 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 โMediterranean โฃModel Forest Network Secretariat,โค representing the Tuscany region. Ventre, aโข forest engineer,โ brings extensive experience in sustainable forest management for both โฃpublic and private forests,โค with โaโฃ focus on enhancing wood โฃsupply chains, hydrogeological protection, landscape and forestโค restoration, โand wildfire prevention โคandโค control. โขHe has also led initiativesโ on forest certification and the valorization โof ecosystem services. Since April 2023, he hasโฃ coordinated theโ Mediterranean Model Forest Network (MMFN) Secretariatโ and overseen โฃregional, national and EUโค forestry training projects.
*โ Abdelkrim Marzouk, President of the Ifrane Model Forest in morocco and Dean of Executive and Continuing Educationโ at Al โคAkhawayn University. Marzouk’s academic โbackground is in geographic informationโ systems (GIS), forestry, remote sensing, and quantitative environmental modeling for โฃland use and land cover change. He has over 15 yearsโ of experience in local, provincial, and regional development,โ strategic planning, and capacityโ building โฃfor public sector executivesโ andโฃ NGOs.
Participants are encouraged to share their thoughts on social media using the hashtag #TalkLandscape.
A recording of the event will be available here.