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Restoring nature’s superheroes

Caux Dialogue on Land and Security

29/08/2019

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Caux Dialogue on Land and Security

Alan Laubsch is passionate about restoring nature’s ‘climate superheros’ – the mangrove forests. He believes that democratizing natural capital investment is key to this. He has over 20 years’ experience in risk management in leading financial institutions. More recently, he established Natural Capital Markets at Lykke AG and is a founder and chief strategist of the GenBlue venture studio.

Alan Laubsch took part in the 2017 Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS), where he met Arne Fjortoft and Bremley Lyngdoh from Worldview International Foundation (WIF), who were implementing the first mangrove restoration project in the delta region of Myanmar. Later that year Alan and his team met with contacts from the CDLS in Myanmar, and together they established the Global Mangrove Trust to help Arne Fjortoft scale up his pilot mangrove restoration project there.

Alan Laubsch Trees in Myanmar

They used TREE (Heyerdahl Climate Pioneers), a digital token that Alan helped to design and which is the world’s first mangrove and Blue Carbon-backed blockchain token. TREE has raised $1.5 million so far and has incentivized the planting of 1 million mangrove trees at Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park, which is managed by WIF.

Alan vowed to return to Caux every year. The structured dialogue of the CDLS helped him to understand the links between land and ecosystem restoration, conflict resolution, community building and sustainable finance and restoration economy. It opened up opportunities for developing partnerships with others working in this domain. He collaborated with Natural Capital Alliance, an initiative launched by CDLS participants, which peer-reviews blockchain projects with the aim of building a trusted global marketplace.

Back at the CDLS in 2018 and in 2019, Alan was happy to see that the topic of blockchain was more prominent than the previous year, and that more technologists and entrepreneurs were getting involved. Inspired by the energy in Caux, he has committed himself to target mangrove restoration at scale and replicate the project that WIF has implemented in Myanmar.

Alan sees Caux as ‘a true serendipity engine’, which brings opposite worlds together and build a global network of trust.

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Yevhen Shybalov

Yevhen Shybalov is a former Ukrainian journalist with 15 years of experience in story writing for national media. Since 2014, Yevhen has been involved in HD’s efforts to build understanding and reduce tensions in search of a political solution to end the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. His work has focused on building trust and facilitating dialogue between relevant parties on the environmental impact of the conflict in Donbas, with a view to promoting co-operation on areas of mutual concern.

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Fresh air for Young Ambassadors

Tools for Changemakers 2019

16/08/2019

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Tools for Changemakers 2019

This year’s Young Ambassadors Programme (YAP) brought 39 young people from across Europe to Caux for four intensive days of training in how to work for change in their communities. They then took part in the Tools for Changemakers conference, 14–18 July.

‘We explored our own identity and how to be aware of the lenses and filters we might be looking through,’ said Niall Ridley from the UK, who took part in YAP 2018 and returned this year as a facilitator. ‘We saw how judgement, cynicism and fear can impact our perceptions of the experiences we have. We’ve observed how important it is to build trust. We’ve been each others’ catalysts, helping to distil ideas for initiatives and projects. We’ve introduced each other to silent reflection, and the role it can have in helping us to digest and make sense of our experiences.’

‘The YAP programme was a life-changing experience for me,’ said another of the facilitators, Daniela Moisei from Moldova. ‘This programme is like a breath of fresh air. It has everything a young leader needs: time for oneself and one’s ideas, informational and moral support, an active and enthusiastic group of peers and a breath-taking setting.’

When Daniela first came to Caux as a Young Ambassador in 2016, she was a radio presenter, the President of the Student Council at her university and the founder of a school for young entrepreneurs. Her experience motivated her to continue her Master’s studies abroad and inspired her to work for an international organization.

‘YAP offers a networking platform, where young people can exchange project ideas, best practices, conflict resolution methods and other techniques that have worked well in their communities,’ she went on. ‘The alumni community grows over the years, and transforms our days here into a continuous opportunity for promotion, cooperation and collaboration.’

‘I returned to Caux to facilitate this year because it was here in where, for the first time in my life, I felt inspired,’ said Mariam Inayat from the UK, who has been involved with YAP for three years.

‘The YAP programme is important because we are helping to build resilient and ethical leaders not just for the future, but for today. We have a duty to ensure that young people have a platform to be involved in dialogue. Too often there are discussions about us, without us. But our time at Caux has gone beyond that. We have not only been given a platform, but also the tools that will equip us to be successful changemakers.’

Text: Mary Lean, with contributions from Daniela Moisei, Mariam Inayat, Niall Ridley

Photos: Leela Channer, Paula Mariane

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Investing in the future of life on Earth

Caux Dialogue on Land and Security 2019

10/08/2019

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Caux Dialogue on Land and Security 2019

‘What would it feel like to be the last White Rhino?’ Alan Laubsch, founder of EarthPulse, asked participants in the third day of the Caux Dialogue for Land and Security 2019 (CDLS). ‘Your family has been killed. Your friends are dead. You have no one to play with. You are just waking alone.’ Laubsch believes that this is the Golden Hour, when decisive action could lead to an Earth Positive Economy, which leaves the Earth better than we found it.

The day focused on natural, social, spiritual and human capital. Louise Brown, who is responsible for climate finance at the African Development Bank, spoke of her work on a mechanism for investing into adaptation and resilience, inspired by last year’s CDLS. The mechanism would make it possible to pay cocoa farmers in Africa for agroforestry practices, which reduce climate risks, improve their livelihoods and mitigate greenhouse gases. The Bank has already started to prototype the framework for agroforestry and mangroves and is looking for private sector investors to support scaling this up to the market place.

Alan Laubsch welcomed this plan for investing in adaptation. He maintained that that the health of ecosystems is vastly more valuable than abstract financial markets. For instance, mangrove forests can withstand extreme weather, increase food sources for fish, filter toxins from the water and sequester vasts amount of greenhouse gases, as well as supporting a unique biodiversity.

He listed the world’s first mangrove & carbon backed digital token on Lykke Exchange, a Swiss blockchain startup and said that such new technologies have created efficient ways of creating value, bringing transparency, building resilience and eliminating the middlemen. He gave the example of CedarCoin, which will enable the Lebanese diaspora to fund ecosystems restoration in their country of origin.

The founder of Earthbanc and Liquid Token, Tom Duncan, had first come to in 2009 as a Caux Scholar, and took part in the early development of the CDLS. He shared the progress that had been made since CDLS 2018 through collaborations with Alan Laubsch, Skymining and FlowX. Liquid Token enables the issuing of tokens that represent payment for ecosystem services, such as CedarCoin, Mangroves Trees and Living Root Bridges of Meghalaya. Liquid Token offers this technology free to organizations that are aligned with regenerating land and water.

Skymining, whose founder attended CDLS 2018, is developing renewable energy solutions that sequester vast amounts of carbon into the soil, whilst producing biodiverse food crops and also biomass briquettes as a replacement for coal. Tokenizing the production system for energy briquettes will enable anyone in the world to support the initiative and contribute to securing food, water and energy systems across Africa, India and South America.

Earthbanc is the first financial platform to service the needs of global ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) investors with green bonds and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) bonds, with the security, auditability and low cost of blockchain. ESG is the fastest growing class of investment globally and currently amounts to $20 trillion. Earthbanc's CEO, Tom Duncan, believes it could be a key to averting climate crisis. He is working with a broad coalition of people via Initiatives for Land, Lives (ILLP) to explore what a global certification organization for the valuation of ecosystem services would look like.

Following this, Melinda Woolf, Founder of The Future of Humanity, described her work to accelerate investment into the SDGs. She stated that investing in sustainable crops would create a billion-dollar industry with significant social and ecological benefits. She shared her vision of replacing conventional plastics with bioplastics, to solve the ocean plastics crisis. She supports economic models where farmers can work together collaboratively to deliver products and services without impacting ecology and water.

The final speaker was Chau Tang-Duncan, Chief Operating Officer of Earthbanc, who told how she had discovered a more human side of investment and banking. In her previous work as Trade Commissioner for Clean Energy & Environment (ASEAN) and Director of Investment at UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) she had been involved in largescale mangrove restoration projects along the coast of Vietnam. Mangroves protect homes, vital infrastructure and agricultural land from salinization caused by storm surges, cyclones and tsunamis. At UKTI she oversaw £500 million investment into Britain for infrastructure, renewable energy and research and development.

Finance and better technology can only do so much, Tang-Duncan concluded. It takes human compassion, collaboration and listening to the small voice of conscience within, to make breakthroughs in seemingly impossible situations, such as the climate crisis.

Text: Rishabh Khanna, Executive Committee Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace

Photos: Leela Channer

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Summer Academy on Land, Security and Climate is launched in Geneva and Caux

Caux Dialogue on Land and Security 2019

10/08/2019

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Caux Dialogue on Land and Security 2019

Conflict, environmental degradation and climate change interact in negative feedback loops. Only enhanced cooperation between nations, and across disciplines, will generate adequate solutions.

Initiatives of Change (IofC) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) have responded to the challenge by launching a series of Summer Academies on Land, Security and Climate. Their purpose is to inspire and equip the next generation of policymakers and researchers with the interdisciplinary insights, skills of collaboration and trustbuilding, and networks needed to safeguard the future of humanity.

The inaugural Summer Academy brought together 18 participants from Afghanistan/Denmark, Bhutan, Germany, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Nigeria/UK, Philippines, Portugal, Somalia/UK, Spain/Switzerland, Sweden and Syria/Turkey. It was officially launched at the GCSP on 26 June 2019.

Ambassador Doreen de Brum, Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum of Nations and Permanent Representative of the Marshall Islands to the United Nations, spoke of the harsh realities of climate change. ‘The term “climate refugee” is not a theoretical one for us,’ she said. ‘When I think of the next generation of Marshallese people, I don’t know if they will have a country.’

His Excellence Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya, India, drew a link between the role of IofC in the peaceful creation of his state in 1972 and the need for collaborative solutions to safeguard the natural environment today. ‘We need to have good relations with all our neighbours,’ he said. ‘We have the highest rainfall in the world. Meghalaya has become the first state in India to draft a comprehensive State Water Policy. This will enable us to better manage our water resources, to ensure longterm water security and equity. One thing we are doing is ensuring the supply of clean water to Bangladesh.’

Over the next four days, the Summer Academy took place in tandem with the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS), part of the Caux Forum.

Mukhtar Ogle, Secretary for Strategic Initiatives in the Cabinet Affairs Office of the Executive Office of the President of Kenya, served as a resource person throughout the course. During the opening plenary of the Caux Dialogue, Ogle highlighted the importance of the Dialogue on Land and Security which took place in Baringo County, Kenya, in 2016. It was initiated by two county administrators who were inspired by taking in part in the CDLS at Caux in 2015. ‘After the Baringo dialogue,’ he said, ‘we framed our responses to security with reference to land and to climate change.’

Another speaker was Bruno Jochum, former Director General of Médecins sans Frontières, Switzerland, and Executive in Residence at GCSP. Jochum highlighted the challenges that will be faced by the humanitarian sector in the face of climate change. He emphasized that all actors – from governments and large companies through to each individual – need to ‘walk the talk’ in terms of implementing climate change solutions. ‘We have to take responsibility for our actions in the spaces we have control over,’ he said.

Other Summer Academy faculty included Professor Roger Leakey, Vice-Chairman of the International Tree Foundation; Dr Constance Neely, Senior Advisor at the World Agroforestry Centre; Dr Dhanasree Jayaram, Coordinator of the Centre for Climate Studies, Manipal Academy of Higher Education; Marc Barasch, Founder of Green World Campaign; Alan Laubsch, CEO of Generation Blue; Josep Gari, Senior Policy Advisor at UNDP; Gunilla Hamne, Founder of Peaceful Heart Network and Rishabh Khanna, from the Executive Committee of Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace.

Dr Dennis Garrity, Drylands Ambassador for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and Chair of the Global EverGreening Alliance, recorded a video lecture for the Academy. He cited examples of communities in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Niger which are pioneering their own solutions to challenges at the nexus of land degradation, conflict and climate change.

The vital importance of forging local solutions, and understanding the ingredients required for their success, was the theme of the Academy’s final workshop, chaired by Louise Brown from Namibia, Coordinator of the Africa Climate Change Fund of the African Development Bank.

As the 18 participants brainstormed together on how local, regional and global challenges could be met, it became hard to draw the session to a close. Everyone left with the same question: ‘What can my organization do, what can I do, to address these challenges?’

‘This Summer Academy was a fantastic initiative,’ Brown concluded. ‘I am excited about where it is going.’

Her enthusiasm was shared by the participants. 'I will be talking to my colleagues about the core skills of dialogue,’ said Claudia Santos, from Portugal. ‘I noticed changes in how I approached certain situations on the first day in comparison to the last day of the Summer Academy. It was self-transformational! I take these learnings very close to my heart in everything I do going forward.'

‘Thank you all so much for the safe space you created to share and think through many of the challenges in environmental security in our world today,’ said Dr Muna Ismail from UK/Somalia.

‘I really wish and hope a long future for the Summer Academy,’ said Ahmed Ekzayez from Syria/Turkey. ‘It was a great exchange.’

Conversations during the Summer Academy have already sparked new project prospects in Kenya and India. Participants are keeping in touch and continuing to exchange ideas through a WhatsApp group.

The Summer Academies on Land, Security and Climate are designed and delivered by Dr Alan Channer, of IofC’s Land, Lives and Peace programme, and Anna Brach, Head of Human Security at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. The inaugural course was made possible by the generous support of the African Climate Change Fund of the African Development Bank and two private foundations.

Read more about the Summer Academy in the July editon of A propos, the magazine of Swisspeace.

Text: Alan Channer PhD

Photos: Leela Channer

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