Dear colleague,

This month's issue is full of opportunities, including a pair of webinars on 7 November for our entire community. New members, along with members who wish to become more engaged with GLP, are invited to an informal half-hour meet and greet. This will be followed by a second event hosted by two of our Scientific Steering Committee members on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary career development. See below for more details and registration links for both events.

Enjoy the news!
Ariane de Bremond, Executive Officer

7 November 2022
13:30 Central European Time (UTC+1)

Join us for our next informal Meet & Greet for new GLP Members and anyone who would like to learn more about how to get more involved with GLP. We will start with a short presentation about our organization followed by introductions and networking.

This event will be immediately followed by the webinar on "Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Career Development" (see below under "From Our Scientific Steering Committee") so plan to join us for both events and help grow your LSS community. 

The authors of a new paper shared large prints of aerial images with various stakeholders in Zambian landscapes to discuss opportunities and risks of drone technology. The main question was: How are different types of aerial images used and interpreted by different groups of stakeholders?

The GLP Telecoupling Research Towards Sustainable Transformation of Land Systems Working Group leadership team welcomed two new members recently. Maria Jose Ibarrola-Rivas (far left), Associate Researcher at the Institute of Geography, UNAM, Mexico, and Johanna Coenen (second from left), PhD Researcher of Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany, are now co-coordinators with Dr. Cecilie Friis (second from right) and Dr. Julie Zähringer (far right) We welcome them to the team and look forward to working with them in the future!

19 January 2023
15:00 -16:30 Central European Time (UTC+1)

The body of literature that makes explicit or implicit reference to telecoupling is constantly growing. Although we may notice certain thematic trends and methodological developments, we usually have few opportunities to discuss our observations with the wider research community. Against this backdrop, we warmly invite all members of our telecoupling working group and any interested GLP members to join us for this interactive webinar to jointly (1) reflect back on the past years of telecoupling research, (2) discuss existing research gaps and emerging research frontiers and (3) review our expectations regarding the aims and activities of our working group.

The first in-person/hybrid General Assembly of Future Earth took place in Paris, France this past 21-23 September. The Assembly is a new structure created in 2021 to give a voice to the entire Future Earth community in setting priorities and strategic directions for Future Earth, while the Governing Council, elected by the Assembly, is prioritizing ideas and activities and enables the Global Secretariat to serve the community and carry out actions to help Future Earth reach its goals and fulfill its mission. The Assembly opened with a plenary session showcasing science from the Future Earth community, where GLP Executive Director Ariane de Bremond presented the recent GLP PNAS paper and companion report for policy and practice on “Ten Facts about Land Systems for Sustainability.” The paper was co-authored by 50 leading land use scientists from 20 countries, and the report offers specific examples to help policymakers and the public understand what is at stake.

Disentangling the numbers behind agriculture-driven tropical deforestation
A new study published in Science finds that between 90 and 99 percent of all deforestation in the tropics is driven directly or indirectly by agriculture. Yet only half to two-thirds of this results in the expansion of active agricultural production on the deforested land. Read more

Tailored pathways toward revived farmland biodiversity can inspire agroecological action and policy to transform agriculture
A new perspective in Communications Earth & Environment advocates a concept of future pathways tailored to the characteristics of agricultural land systems and relate these to targeted farming approaches using agroecological principles. Read more

Understanding deforestation lock-in: Insights from Land Reform settlements in the Brazilian Amazon
A new paper in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change applies transitions theory to the problem of land-use change and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Read more

Adaptive approaches to REDD+ are needed for countries with high forest cover and low deforestation rates
A new piece in Environmental Research Letters finds that countries with high forest cover and low deforestation (HFLD) are unlikely to be compensated fairly if REDD+ initiatives fail to conserve existing forests and to incentivize low deforestation rates. Read more

Also recently published:

New issue of Mountain Research and Development: Addressing Challenges of Hazards, Risks, and Disaster Management in Mountain Regions

New white paper from IPCC, UNESCO and ICOMOS: Intangible cultural heritage, diverse knowledge systems and climate change

Call for Participation: Global Land Cover and Land Cover Change Validation protocol, deadline not given, but call open now.

Call for AAG 2023 Session: Understanding the rural-urban-climate nexus, deadline: 28 October 2022

Call for participants in a global review of forestry data, launch event 10 November 2022

Call for Papers: Special Issue "Perspectives on Mountain Conservation", deadline: 1 April 2023