General Assembly 2024
In the final week of February, LANDMARC concluded its fourth and final General Assembly in Canggu, Bali, Indonesia. The meeting was an opportunity to bring together the consortium’s interdisciplinary group of researchers. With diverse perspectives enriching our project, these assemblies serve as invaluable opportunities to consolidate the various threads of our research into a cohesive whole, while also learning on the ground with local stakeholders for best practices in land, waste, and water management that can be replicated across regions.
A huge thank you to su-re.co (Sustainability & Resilience) for hosting the consortium in their office in Bali!
Here are some notable highlights:
🌍 Day 1:
The General Assembly commenced in Canggu, Bali with a site visit to Urban Compost, where Buya Istiqlal showed the compost operation set up to collect and sort municipal household waste to produce organic soil for the community. Urban compost is able to implement regenerative agriculture practices that sequester carbon and benefit the community with effective waste management.
Additionally, dissemination goals for the remainder of the project were discussed, as well as case study discussions for the various regions. These discussions provided a cross collaborative learning opportunity for regions facing similar climate adversity to obtain potential solutions that can be replicated.
🌍 Day 2
Beginning with a site visit to Subak Mengwi, the consortium was able to meet with and learn from a local Subak which organizes irrigation and agricultural practices for rice paddy farmers. Through community-based water management, the Subak is able to effectively irrigate crops while managing pests.
Additionally, Ryan Grandjambe, an indigenous leader in Fort Mackay, Canada provided an overview of the challenges faced by his community to oil sands operations in the vicinity. The Q&A session highlighted the challenges faced by indigenous communities due to the impact of industry on their traditional way of living, with a focus on food security and land reclamation. Collaboration and togetherness were emphasized as crucial for recovery, with an approach that integrates technology, prioritizes food security, and adapts to environmental changes. The discussion also covered the importance of intergenerational knowledge transfer, balancing tradition with modernity, and the potential for non-profit initiatives to support community resilience and self-sufficiency.
🌍 Day 3
A site visit to Jiwa Garden hosted by co-founder DJuka Terenzi depicted the story of resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bringing together people from the community to build a farm based on regenerative agriculture practices, Jiwa Garden was able to provide employment, purpose, food, and effective waste management to Canggu. Focusing on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving water retention, and enhancing ecosystem services, Jiwa Garden is a replicable model for agriculture practices across regions. During this site visit, we were also able to see the su-re.co household biogas and wastewater treatment system that was installed at Jiwa Garden.
The third day of the General Assembly was also an opportunity to discuss stakeholder engagement and modeling for co-developed narratives. To wrap-up, the sessions for the day reflected on the discussions held throughout the week and goals and learnings going into the remainder of the project.
🌍 Day 4
Stakeholder engagement which gathered international, regional, national, and local stakeholders in one place was conducted. Stakeholders from 18 countries discussed actions in climate mitigation and adaptation. The stakeholder workshop for the LANDMARC/EECCLiRe project focused on upstream and downstream aspects of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and land management technologies (LMTs), with discussions on climate field schools, agroforestry trends, and coastal defense. Challenges and opportunities in green certification, financing schemes, and measuring and monitoring LMTs and EbA through Earth observation were also explored. Breakout sessions delved into scaling up/out EbA, LMT for resilient climate pathways, standards and certifications, early career researchers' expertise, and co-developing Indigenous systems for LMT and EbA, highlighting the importance of collaboration, capacity building, and integrating local wisdom in climate action.
🌍 Day 5
With an early 6AM start, the consortium traveled to Northern Bali to visit and discuss with forest farmer communities (The Songan B farmers community) developing underutilized social forestry land. 150 Pongamia seedlings were planted out of the 20 hectare pilot area, as part of a 43,000 hectare land restoration effort.
Later in the day, the consortium traveled to Yore Farm, to meet with a local family (I Made Suarja and Ni Putu Sarini) of coffee farmers and helped in setting up a biogas installation.
Conclusion
This General Assembly played a pivotal role in fostering synergies across diverse work packages and identifying fresh pathways for stakeholder engagement. Benefiting from a range of perspectives, these assemblies prove to be priceless occasions to amalgamate the diverse aspects of our research into a unified whole. Additionally, they offer the chance to engage with local stakeholders on-site, gaining insights into best practices for land, waste, and water management that can be applied and replicated across different regions.
Stay tuned for more insights into LANDMARC as the results of the project are disseminated through the fourth and final year!
