FIG Working Week 2023 Keynote: Global Land Outlook and Protecting our World
Clarissa Augustinus
FIG Working Week 2023 took place in
Orlando, Florida, 28-May - 1 June 2023. Three plenary sessions
set the scene of each of the three conference days. The main
theme on the first day was: PROTECTING OUR WORLD
In this introduction and recording that is offered to you in
this "Video of the Month Series" Clarissa Augustinus outlines
some of the key climate challenges facing our planet and the vital
role that surveyors play in addressing the climate crisis.
Climate challenges facing our planet
On Monday 29 May 2023, at the FIG Working Week in Orlando, United
States of America, a panel of land and climate experts came together to
talk about the climate crisis and what role surveyors can play in
climate action. The climate crisis represents the single greatest
challenge humankind faces to ensure our planet remains sustainable and
our people remain resilient. Land and climate underpins the FIG
Council’s vision of sustainability over the term 2023- 2026. For
the benefit of society, concerted action by FIG Members is needed to
help meet a range of climate challenges such as greenhouse gas
emissions, biodiversity loss, deforestation and large-scale land use
change, desertification, urban sprawl into agricultural land, water
scarcity, pollution of the seas and more. The expertise of FIG Members
means they are well positioned to make a major contribution to
addressing a wide range of land and water related climate change
issues.
Objective of the session
By bringing together a panel of active industry professionals and
thought leaders on land and climate, the session was intended to
catalyse increased climate action by surveyors. The session also
announced the creation of a dedicated FIG Task Force on climate, the
Climate Compass Task Force.
What the recording is about
In this recording from the session in Orlando Clarissa Augustinus
outlines some of the big land and climate challenges where surveyors can
play a role. As co-editor and co-coordinator of the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification Global Land Outlook Second Edition,
which reviewed the state of the planet’s land, she gives us insights
into future land demands, and the kind of climate actions which needs
the work of land professionals. She shows that the land profession is in
the critical path of achieving humanities environmental goals. She
describes some of the key global land trends and numbers. For example
13-21 percent of annual global green house gas emissions are from land
use change; and 20-40 percent of the earth’s surface is already
degraded. She gives us land use scenarios that have been modelled using
big land use data of what our future looks like if we do nothing, or if
we take a range of actions, many of which impact our profession. She
describes what is at stake for Latin America and Sub-Sarahan Africa if
we do nothing, and their potential role in restoring the future health
of the planet. She describes what the profession with its range of
skills, knowledge and positions of influence can do to support the
protection of our planet and identifies a number of areas of work for
surveyors. The discussion on climate actions at global level has too
often neglected key aspects of the roles played by surveyors on the
ground. However, there is now a strong emerging interest in linking land
use, land tenure, the blue economy and geospatial information more
closely in a practical way and getting to grips with what happens on the
ground.
FIG wishes to examine and actively promote the engagement and role
that surveyors can have in contributing to the climate change agenda.
FIG wishes to lead its members so that they can fully understand,
articulate and use their expertise and knowledge to tackle the important
challenges in climate action. The FIG Task Force on Climate Change,
which is led by young surveyors working with seasoned surveyors, and
Co-Chaired by Roshni Sharma and Clarissa Augustinus, was set up for this
purpose. The Climate Compass Task Force (TF) will elevate the work that
has already been done, and is continuing to be done, by the FIG
Commissions, Task Forces and other groups globally. It will act as a
portal to provide a clear picture of the role that surveyors, as a
global profession, play in measuring, managing and mitigating the
present and future impacts of climate change. A key focus of this Task
Force will be its Communications Strategy, which is the foundation for
outreach, capacity development, awareness raising and harvesting
knowledge, to be able to strengthen the surveying profession’s ability
to act on global climate challenges. The Task Force will support
surveyors by increasing awareness and capacity about their roles and
impact so they can engage even more with the climate crisis and help
countries to meet their net zero and biodiversity targets. It will also
support surveyors to reach out to other global and national audiences
and partners through the collection, development and sharing of relevant
land, building, natural resources and climate related knowledge, and the
identification of areas in which surveyors have the professional
expertise to contribute to actions and studies that the global climate
action agenda needs.
Diane Dumashie, President of FIG states: “As surveying and geo-spatial professionals, we are here to serve
society which means we must be involved in finding solutions to the
climate crisis. The expertise of FIG Members means they are well
positioned to make a major contribution.”
Watch and be inspired by the keynote presentation by Clarissa
Augustinus here:
About the author
Dr. Clarissa Augustinus – Honorary Ambassador of FIG
Clarissa Augustinus is interested in land administration and land
use change and management, land governance, climate and conflict.
She is the founder and Lead on the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN),
a network of over 60 international partners (2004- 2015), with FIG
being a vital partner. She was the Land and Global Land Tool Network
Unit Leader in the Urban Legislation, Land and Governance Branch,
UN-Habitat based in Nairobi, Kenya (2003-2015) and the focal point
for urban land in the United Nations system.
She was appointed Honorary Ambassador by FIG by reason of
service to the global surveying and land administration
industry (2014-). She is a Co-Chair of the FIG Task Force
Climate Compass (2023-2026) and a Senior Adviser to the Arab
Land Initiative of UN-Habitat and Global Land Tool Network
(2018-). She was the co-coordinator and co-editor of United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (2022) Global
Land Outlook 2nd Edition on Land Restoration for Recovery
and Resilience. She was a Senior lecturer in the Department
of Land Surveying in the School of Engineering, Surveying
and Construction at the University of KwaZulu Natal with a
focus on land management and cadastral reform (1994-2000)
and during this time also gave technical assistance to a
range of countries such as South Africa, Namibia,
Mozambique, Uganda, Indonesia. She is the (co-) author of 21
peer reviewed journal articles, 7 book chapters and over 70
UN reports and publications and papers in conference
proceedings on pro poor land administration and management,
and land and property in fragile states. She has a Ph.D. in
Social Anthropology from Rhodes University (South Africa)
(1995).
https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarissa-augustinus-611bb5129/
