Climate Action in Biodiverse Landscapes (edX)

It is widely recognized that there is an interconnection between climate change and biodiversity. With examples from all over the world, you will learn how climate change negatively affects biodiversity and human well-being, but also how biodiversity can play an important role in adaptation and mitigation efforts. With the support of professionals from various fields you will be guided from analysis to identifying innovate climate solutions at landscape level.

Join this course if you want to:

- Understand how climate change is impacting you and your landscape

- Know how to mobilize collaboration among landscape actors

- Learn from nature-based climate solutions from around the world

- Get practical support in taking some first steps in climate action in your landscape

Sustainable and Inclusive Landscapes

This course is also part of the Sustainable and Inclusive Landscapes Professional Certificate Programme. Following the complete programme lets you harness the power of place and advance your career as a landscape leader. The programme consists of the following courses, which can be taken in any given order:

- Landscape Leadership: Catalyse sustainable development in landscapes

- Landscape Finance: Investing in Innovation for Sustainable Landscapes

- Landscape Governance: Collaborating Across Sectors and Scales

- Climate Action in Biodiverse Landscapes (this course)

Partners

This course is part of the Sustainable and Inclusive Landscapes Professional Certificate Programme which can be found on Landscape Academy. This is a collaboration between Wageningen University & Research, UN Environment and the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF). The course was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

Multiple international partners have contributed to the development of this course. We want to express our gratitude towards all our partners who have contributed to the production of this course:

- Tropenbos International

- Tropenbos Ghana

- Trinomics

- Oxfam GB

What you'll learn

- Define and explain different forms of climate action and understand the global urgency to take collective action

- Understand how climate change is impacting you and your landscape and why the landscape is a good entry point to take climate action

- Understand the relationship between climate change and biodiversity, and why integrating biodiversity in climate action is essential

- Assess stakeholder dynamics in your landscape and understand the importance of effective multi-stakeholder collaboration for climate action

- Apply participatory tools and methods to assess climate vulnerabilities and identify, prioritise and assess adaptation and mitigation measures to support landscape decision making

- Explain what nature-based climate solutions are and how they can benefit your landscape

- Turn your climate action into a business case and identify potential sources of climate finance

Syllabus

1: Setting the Scene

In this opening module, you will quickly get up-to-speed on climate change science, the connection between biodiversity, climate change, and landscape approaches. You will also start to look at your landscape in new ways and meet other professionals who are taking the course.

2: Stakeholder Collaboration

In this module you will explore stakeholder collaboration within your landscape as an essential part of your Climate Action. You will learn about Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships, and how to design and facilitate these partnerships in your landscape.

3: Climate Impacts

Here, you’ll learn more about climate data and how to use it in order to understand the current and future climate impacts in your landscape. . You will also analyse the vulnerability of your landscape and the different stakeholders to specific climate hazards.

4: From Impacts to Solutions

In this module you familiarize yourself with the impact chain, This is a tool which allows you to get a deeper and more complete understanding of the cause-effect relations of climate impacts in your landscape. From there you can start to identify and select potential solutions which can be further developed into detailed measures for your landscape.

5: Climate Finance

In this module, you will get to know the world of climate finance a bit better: what is climate finance exactly and where should I look for finance opportunities? You will turn your climate action into a business case that attracts investors and identify potential sources of climate finance.

6: Wrapping up

In this final module, you will reflect on what you’ve learned in this course. You will also explore your next steps to continue your learning journey.