Global Issues

Climate Change

How can a just transformation of land use contribute to sustaining life and livelihoods?

News and insights

Farmers' protests

What farmers need more money for

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UN Climate Change Conference COP27

How people across African countries are fighting climate crisis

Read the dossier
Listicle

5 facts about food policy

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Video

Achieving green transformation through collaboration

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Climate Change

COP28: Better than nothing and less than we had hoped for

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World Climate Conference in Dubai

The role of the Robert Bosch Stiftung at COP28

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Report

Sustainable food systems: From Marburg to Brussels

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Africa Climate Summit

An alternative vision for Africa’s climate agenda?

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The fight against the consequences of climate change

Restoring Africa's land

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Publication series

Bridging Policy and Practice in the Context of Climate-Induced Migration

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Opinion

Let’s Help Save the Global Climate by Restoring Local Land

To story
Call to Action to the German Government

Protection of the Pacific Islands to become a focus of Germany's foreign climate policy

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Climate change

Germany needs a strategy for climate-related migration

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MSC 2023 – Munich Security Conference

Discussion on Climate-Related Migration and its Geopolitical Implications

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Climate change and Agriculture

“We will have to eat far fewer animal products”

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Reporting on COP27

First-hand accounts from COP27

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UN Climate Change Conference COP27

How leaders from the African continent fight the climate crisis

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Climate Mobility up to 2050

“We need to harness the mobility on the African continent!”

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Writing about climate change

Climate change in our minds

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Youth climate activism

My personal climate goal

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New ways in philanthropy

How does truly equitable funding work?

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Land degradation in Niger

Surviving (and striving) in the age of Climate Change

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UN Climate Change Conference COP27

“Africa is a unified force to tackle climate change”

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Climate protection in the philanthropic sector

Strong Movement for a More Sustainable Future

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Fellowship for African journalists

Storytelling against desertification

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Agriculture and climate change

“It’s high time that we acted”

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Desertification in Niger

With their own hands

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International climate politics

“Our Earth has high fever”

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In a nutshell

UN Climate Summit in Glasgow: Between Success and Disappointment

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Interview

Subsidy of Food System Must Change

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Video

Feeding the World Sustainably

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Discover our projects

Climate Change

Climate & Land Youth Negotiators Programme

Young people will have to deal with the consequences of climate change throughout their lives, yet they are underrepresented in key international...

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Climate Change

Collective Action towards a Resilient Food System

By networking rural initiatives, we want to make the diversity of local solutions and their potential for a food transition more visible at...

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Climate Change

Scaling up dryland restoration

We support local restoration actors in the drylands of the Greater Sahel region committed to learn from each other and to act together to increase...

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Climate Change

Land and Forest Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa

We support indigenous peoples and local communities in Sub-Saharan Africa in achieving formal legal recognition of their land and forest rights....

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Climate Change

Robert Bosch Junior Professorship

With the Robert Bosch Junior Professorship we seek to contribute to a better standing of the emerging field of sustainability science in Germany.

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Climate Change

Global Alliance for the Future of Food

As a member of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, together with other foundations, we support a change in food systems around the world in...

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Climate Change

Foundations Platform F20

We are a member of the Foundations Platform F20. Through F20, philanthropic actors call for joint, transnational action towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The network shows solutions to the...

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Climate Change

Philanthropy Coalition for Climate

We support the coalition, initiated by Philea - Philanthropy Europe Association. It aims to mobilize philanthropy across Europe and beyond to...

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Climate Change

Science Based Targets for Land

The business sector plays an increasingly important role in protecting global resources, including land. We support the Science Based Targets...

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Climate Change

The FELD Catalyst

This project will provide practical support to a number of countries in the Global South as their food, eco and land use systems face serious challenges in the context of climate change. Through joint learning, innovation, and...

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Climate Change, Migration

Governing Migration in the Era of Climate Change

Our project with the Center for Global Development looks at the effects climate change is having on migration, and proposes policies to equitably...

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Climate Change, Migration

Global Centre for Climate Mobility

The Global Centre for Climate Mobility (GCCM) is a global partnership pushed forward by a group of champion countries and enabled by the United...

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Climate Change

Bioregional Weaving Labs

In Bioregions all over Europe local stakeholder processes are facilitated in order to tackle the regions’ most burning issues, e.g. drought, water management, biodiversity loss.

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What we are focusing on

 

We support an equitable transformation of agriculture, forestry, and food systems in Europe and in West and East Africa  that will protect the climate and biodiversity, make it possible to adapt to the consequences of climate change, and secure the natural resources upon which people and ecosystems rely. In addition, we work within and through international alliances to anchor a holistic approach to solving the climate crisis in a sustainable and equitable way in global discourse. We use multilateral processes to raise awareness for the crucial role played by land use.

Europe’s Transformation Agenda

Our work in Europe is focused on three approaches:

Strengthening key actors
Agricultural practitioners and rural groups have ideas and suggestions for how to make agriculture sustainable and oriented toward the common good. We support innovative, locally anchored initiatives in the EU that aim to generate political impetus with their regenerative production methods and want to scale their projects.

Political framework and participation
The transition to a regenerative , socially acceptable form of agriculture, polarizing attitudes within the EU must be overcome. We support actors from civil society, business, science, and politics in jointly creating the political framework for an equitable transformation of land use – at national and EU levels.

International responsibility
Europe bears responsibility: EU agricultural policy and food habits affect the ways in which land is used worldwide. We therefore foster cross-border and cross-sectoral cooperation among various stakeholders including think tanks and civil society organizations in Europe and Africa, jointly developing ways for an equitable transformation of land use.

Climate Resilient and Equitable Land Use in West and East Africa

In various countries in West and East Africa we focus on three approaches that particularly support the involvement of local communities, indigenous groups, women, and young people:

Strengthening key actors
Local initiatives, farmers’ and women’s associations, and other civil society actors are combining traditional knowledge with innovative ideas to counter the effects of climate change in their surroundings, and to bolster the resilience of people and ecosystems. We support them in translating their experiences into solutions that can serve as role models to be shared. We foster their networking and organizational development so that they can successfully help shape a just and demand-oriented transformation of land use.

Inclusive decision-making processes
Rural populations, and above all, indigenous peoples, women and young people, are being hardest hit by the effects of the climate crisis.  We are committed to ensuring that they can play an active role in transparent, participatory, and inclusive decision-making processes relating to all aspects of land use, and to ensuring that their rights are taken into account.

Perspectives from across the African continent
The broad-ranging spectrum of African perspectives is frequently underrepresented or portrayed in greatly simplified terms in international discourses on land use. We help committed actors from various African countries to network, to develop joint positions on climate-resilient land use, and to actively represent their standpoints at regional and international levels, including in exchanges with German and European policymakers.

  • Infrastructure projects or costs, construction projects, investments, renovation measures, operating equipment, e.g. photovoltaic systems
  • Projects that are in the past, have already begun or are about to begin
  • Material purchases, printing cost subsidies and evaluation measures beyond the projects we have already funded

We can only support individuals within the context of project-specific calls for submissions. This also applies to individual PhD projects or other scholarships. 
Geographically, we focus on East and West Africa, and in Europe on Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania  and Ukraine. In addition, we support projects with a global focus.

Ottilie Bälz
Senior Vice President
Phone+49 711 46084-520
e-mail to Ottilie Bälz
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