One of the highlights of this year's Global Landscapes Forum in Paris was the Dragons Den session, hosted by the Youth in Landscapes Initiative. Young professionals, selected from around the world, worked together as teams to come up with innovative solutions to pressing landscape problems.
The teams took part in a four day workshop to build their solutions and craft their pitches. The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems teamed up with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to sponsor one of the teams to enter the dragons den, pitching their solution to a real landscape challenge. The team was mentored by Dr. Alan Nicol, and tackled some of the pressing issues surrounding the collection of big data for IWMI's Four Basin Gender Profiles Project.
Eavesdropping on it all from the workshop to the final pitches was Andrew Johnstone, a freelance journalist.
There’s a clear message from this year’s global landscapes forum and that is that young people have something to say and that their ideas need to be taken more seriously and integrated more extensively into future decisions about climate change and landscape restoration.
Watch a recording of the Dragons Den session and read more about the Youth in Landscapes Initiative.
Thrive Podcast is produced by Jeremy Cherfas.
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