General Introduction to ENABLE and course

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From the course by Erasmus University Rotterdam

A Business Approach to Sustainable Landscape Restoration

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Erasmus University Rotterdam

A Business Approach to Sustainable Landscape Restoration

20 ratings

Integrated landscape management and large-scale landscape restoration should be in every company’s business strategy because in order to reach the Sustainable Development Goal on Land Degradation Neutrality (SDG Number 15.3) scaling up and acceleration of business-driven landscape restoration is urgently needed. This requires business professionals with a vision, the right knowledge and skills. This MOOC aims to train the next generation of business professionals and developers to acknowledge business’ interdependency with healthy landscapes and understand the value of ecosystem resources. “Historically, we have found countless ways to justify our continued exploitation of the environment: discovery, tradition, Manifest Destiny, even Chinese hoax. But we’re all out of excuses now. Each passing day swells the data on greenhouse gases and extreme weather, shrinking reservoirs and rising sea levels, and diminishing biodiversity. Our resources are finite, the window for change if not firmly shut, is certainly closing, and all life must adapt or be doomed.” Téa Obreht, The New Yorker, Dec. 19&26, 2016, p. 106. It is a frightening prospect indeed – that all life on Earth must either adapt or be doomed. This course is about landscape degradation – a global and wicked problem that is contributing to the dooming prospect of depletion of Earth’s finite resources. But this course is also about the solutions to this problem – business driven landscape restoration. So rather than leaving you powerless with the prospect Obreht puts fowards above, it is our hope that you learn how you can be part of the solution to making sure that Planet Earth still provides a safe and habitable home for future generations. We must act big and we must act now. With this course we want to pass on valuable knowledge and teach you useful skills that you can apply in your professional life that will enable you to tackle the issue of landscape degradation and restoration. The issue is urgent, so let’s dive right into it. This MOOC is developed by the ENABLE partnership, which is co-funded by the ERASMUS+ programme of the European Commission and involves a diverse, international group of organizations including Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Commonland, United Nations University Land Restoration Training Programme, the Spanish National Research Council and Estoril Global Conferences.

From the lesson

The business potential for Integrated Landscape Management and Restoration

This course is developed by ENABLE – which stands for European Network for Advancement of Business and Landscape Education. The objective of this course is to educate you about the role of business in landscape management and restoration and, vice versa, about the role of healthy landscapes for sustainable businesses. To accelerate integrated landscape management and large-scale business driven landscape restoration we need passionate professionals and practitioners. We will challenge you to become a professional who is not afraid to work as a game-changer in transformative collaboration aiming at landscape management and restoration. In this first video Simon Moolenaar from Commonland will give you an overview of the content and skills you can expect to learn about in each week, and what you can aim to take away at the end of the course. Simon will introduce you to one of the principal concepts of this course; landscape degradation and the scale of this problem globally. He will then show you the many dimensions there are to the relation between landscapes and businesses. Specifically, he will illustrate how there is both an economic cause for landscape degradation but also an economic logic to the solution – business-driven landscape restoration. You will be introduced to the Land Degradation Neutrality target which is one of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. Simon will explain how the SDGs can be used to raise awareness and mobilise the private and public sector for action. Another tool for landscape restoration you will learn about is the 4 returns framework developed by Commonland. This framework is about large-scale landscape restoration with 4 returns on investment: return of inspiration, return of natural capital, return of social capital and return of financial capital. We will then return to this framework and explore it in greater depth in the fourth week of the course. Let's get started!

General Introduction to ENABLE and course6:25

Meet the Instructors

Simon W. Moolenaar
Dr. ir.
Commonland Foundation, Science & Education
Rob van Tulder
Prof. dr.
Department of Business-Society Management, Rotterdam School of Management
Johann Thorsson
Dr.
United Nations University Land Restoration Training Programme & Soil Conservation Service of Iceland
Nicola Favretto
Dr.
University of Leeds; United Nations University Land Restoration Training Programme
Ólafur Arnalds
Professor
United Nations University Land Restoration Training Programme & Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural University of Iceland
Asa L. Aradottir
Professor
United Nations University Land Restoration Training Programme & Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural University of Iceland
Steve Kennedy
Associate Professor
Rotterdam School of Management

Welcome to this online course on connecting economy

and ecology through integrated landscape management

and business-driven landscape restoration.

My name is Simon Moolenaar and I'm head of science and education at Commonland.

Our organization is a Dutch non-for-profit

that funds and organizes large scale landscape restoration activities involving business.

We could also be characterized as an impact foundation

that builds transformative business cases with local farmers,

land users, companies and experts.

You will learn much more about this during this course.

I'm very excited that you've joined us for this online course

and I will now tell you about its background and purpose.

This course has been developed by the European Network for the Advancement

of Business and Landscape Education.

The acronym for our partnership is ENABLE.

We want to enable you to become part of a new generation of business professionals

that will take part in integrated landscape management

and business-driven landscape restoration.

The ENABLE partnership has been co-founded

by the Erasmus Plus Program of the European Commission

and involves a diverse international group of organizations,

including the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University in the Netherlands,

the Commonland Foundation in the Netherlands,

United Nations University land restoration training program in Iceland

and the Spanish Research Council in Spain and Estoril Global Conferences in Portugal.

We are convinced that together,

we can change this world for the better through integrated landscape management

and restoration of degraded ecosystems and landscapes.

However, we also believe there is a need to develop our thinking and skills further

in order to really make this happen on the ground.

And that's why we created this MOOC.

Together we will explore the possibilities

to involve business in integrated landscape management

and design sustainable business models to connect economy and ecology.

We believe that a new industry needs to emerge to adequately build the necessary skill

to restore our ecosystems and landscapes.

We call it the landscape restoration industry.

Also, to accelerate integrated landscape management

and large scale business-driven landscape restoration,

we need passionate professionals and practitioners - like you, perhaps.

This MOOC consists of seven modules that to introduce you to a wide variety of subjects

and perspectives related to landscape management and business-driven restoration.

Of course, you want to know in somewhat more detail

what content we will offer during this course.

We will now go through a brief description of every module.

The first model of this MOOC will highlight the importance of healthy landscapes

and the need to restore degraded landscapes.

The week will contain accompanying informative videos from key organizations

in landscape restoration to demonstrate the necessity of this field.

We will also focus on the role of the private sector

and the Four Returns for inspiration, natural capital, social capital

and financial capital.

The next module will give you an in-depth introduction to the concept of land degradation

and explain what land degradation does to ecosystem surfaces,

the benefits we get from the land.

Methods and approaches in ecological restoration will be introduced

and you will learn about the benefits sustainable land management

and ecosystem restoration can bring.

Next, we will address the value of nature,

the costs of land degradation and the benefits of integrated landscape management.

In short, the economics of land degradation.

You will also learn more about roles

that business professionals can play in the complex field

of large scale landscape restoration based on the Four Returns framework.

In the next module, we will explore the role of multi-

stakeholder partnerships and complexity,

which are both related to dealing with land degradation as a wicked problem.

Then we will explore how to design a sustainable business model

and how to take into account the Four Returns when designing one.

Finally, you will be challenged to apply the Four Returns framework to a real-

life case based on an already existing landscape restoration project.

I trust this overview has given you a better idea about what to expect during this course.

Take a look at the summary section if you want to learn more about the key subjects

and objectives for every module.

We will challenge you to become a professional who is not afraid to work as a game changer

in transformative collaboration aiming at landscape management and restoration.

And by the way, during this course, we will be talking about many concepts,

such as landscapes and integrated landscape management,

ecosystem, landscape restoration and so on.

A definition of these concepts is useful

to get a better grasp of what they mean and how they are related.

However, we do not want to be distracted by definitions too much.

We intend to take a pragmatic approach through our discourse.

It will become clear that some concepts are similar

and often they have evolved from earlier concepts

that have been revised as new research and knowledge emerges.

We have listed the main concepts that you need to understand in our online glossary.

Please to join us and take on the challenge to follow this online course.

Our next clip will address land degradation

and the importance of preventing it from happening

or restoring landscapes when it does happen.

Stay tuned and enjoy the course.

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