The Commission on Ecosystem Management is proud to announce the establishment of three new thematic groups. Two of them were previously CEM task forces (Rewilding and Human Health and Ecosystem Management -HH&EM) but due to the growing interest in these themes, they are now open as thematic groups. They will continue to be led by Dr. Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio (HH&EM TG) and Dr. Stephen Carver and Dr. Ian Convery (Rewilding TG). The third one is Impact Mitigation and Ecological Compensation -IMEC TG. Led by Dr. Martine Moran this TG results from the initiative of an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners interested in this theme. The following note describes in more detail the group’s focus and objectives. VVisit the new TG page for further information. 

This new Thematic Group aims to provide guidance around best-practice implementation of the mitigation hierarchy and ecological compensation, such as biodiversity offsetting. It will review policy and practice regarding mitigation and compensation design, governance, financing and implementation. It will support ongoing improvement towards best-practice in application of the mitigation hierarchy, mainstreaming of a more outcomes-focussed, socially-embedded and climate-smart approach to managing impacts from development, and alignment of compensation approaches with post-2020 biodiversity conservation targets under the CBD and the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The group welcomes new members from all sectors and countries.

Visit the new TG page for further information. 

The recently created CEM ignite team on ecosystem management and human health is a transdisciplinary initiative that proposes to: 1) identify the strength of relationships between disease emergence and its hypothesized drivers; and 2) apply these relationships to models for ecological restoration and rewilding. On June 19 they presented in the Ecosystem Restoration Thematic Group monthly webinar series, "Ecosystem Restoration: Global Initiatives in Science and Practice" a session called Exploring Restoration, Rewilding and Human Health. They presented on their initiative to explore potential relationships between biodiversity, ecological integrity, and disease emergence and transmission, and discussed implications for planning and implementing ecological restoration and rewilding.  The ignite team is composed by: Angela Andrade, Chair of IUCN-CEM; Cara Nelson leader of the IUCN CEM Ecosystem Restoration TG; Stephen Carver co-leader of the CEM Rewilding Thematic Group; Ian Convery, co-leader of the CEM Rewilding Thematic Group; Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio leader of the CEM Human Health & Ecosystem Management TG; Liette Vasseur, CEM vice-chair for North America and leader of the Ecosystem Governance TG; Angie Luis, Gerardo Suzan Adam Eagle, Laurie B. Marczak, and Céline Surette. During the webinar, the team invited participants to answer this survey and the invitation is extended to all with this note. The webinar is posted on the Restoration webinars page.

On the initiative of the CEM Young Professional Network members of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, a webinar called “All you want to know about bats and Covid-19” was hosted on April 9.  Its speakers were regional scientists with broad experience in its related themes: Dr. Rodrigo Medellín (vice president of IUCN’s Specialist Group on bats and Explorer-At-Large of Nat Geo); Amanda Vicente (MSc, specialist in zoonosis and disease ecology); Luis Roberto Víquez (MSc, specialist on the immune system of bats); Dr. Bernal Rodríguez Herrera (Costa Rican program for bat conservation). The specialists clarified many doubts, debunked myths, erroneous and non-scientifically based interpretations  about the relation between bats and Covid-19. You can find the webinar recording in the CEM You Tube page. 

The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems is the global standard for ecosystem risk assessment, used by governments, NGOs, scientists and practitioners to sustain biodiversity worldwide. Deakin University have developed a free training course on the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems. The course is designed for conservation practitioners and decision-makers, as well as those with an interest in sustainability. It will help learners understand the Red List of Ecosystems approach and scientific basis, how the criteria and categories are applied, and how it can help make scientifically based decisions for policy and management practices. To access the free online course visit - IUCN Red List of Ecosystems: The Global Standard for Assessing Risks to Ecosystems. 

The Exploration New Frontiers Research Funds in Canada has approved a CEM proposal on system thinking and transformation for a 2-year project. The project was developed from several discussions at CEM and among researchers at Brock University led by Liette Vasseur on how issues like ecosystem governance, relationships between nature and humans, system thinking, and resilience can be integrated in order to re-conceptualize and transform our relationships with the environment for enhance protection and conservation of all species. The transdisciplinary team wants to re-imagine and develop a vision on how different aspects can be merged from various perspectives including indigenous knowledge, arts and performance as well as scientific knowledge. It is expected that other people interested in this project will join the various activities planned. For more information contact steering committee members Liette Vasseur and Bernal Herrera.

Building on the work initiated with FAO in 2019, the Fisheries Expert Group (IUCN-CEM-FEG) continues to work on developing a support to the implementation of OECMs: (1) developing a project for e meeting with NEAFC, NAFO, GFCM, ICES, OSPAR and the DG-MARE for which funding has been obtained; (2) Elaborating a document identifying all action points needed to identify OECMs, integrate them into fisheries management and monitoring/evaluation plans, recurrent reporting and revision procedures.

On 22-24 April, the European Commission – DG MARE and the European External Action Service hosted online the International Ocean Governance (IOG) Forum, originally planned to take place in Brussels. FEG Chair Serge Garcia, FEG Vice-chair Jake Rice, as well as FEG Coordinator Despina Symons participated in the discussions and provided inputs to the European Commission. 

CEM member Ed Barrow presented in the Revive - Ecoexist talks “Our Future In Nature” in this webinar about the links between trees and spirituality. Enjoy!

Together with the IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme (GMPP), the E-bAG has been pursuing its work, in further exploring synergies between marine aquaculture and conservation issues. This topic was initiated through a first phase program funded with the Albert II foundation and led to two deliverables, one brochure, and one scientific paper. The interest of such approach of reconciling aquaculture and conservation was evidenced as well as the need to further explore it through specific cases. A second ongoing phase has been started since 2018, funded by the French Development Agency under the umbrella of the France-IUCN Partnership: Aquaculture, Coastal communities and Conservation (AquaCoCo).  A specific work is being carried out in Zanzibar, allowing the release of two deliverables: 1) a documentary film “short” and “long” version in late 2019: “A Common Challenge - Aquaculture and Marine Conservation”. 2) a new recent document of Zanzibar as a case study to illustrate how aquaculture and conservation can actually be interacting. Such document is the first of a series within a worldwide catalogue on Aquaculture and Marine Conservation. Meanwhile, the E-bAG team involved in Zanzibar AquaCoCo project has also been exploring the potential and limitations for aquacultural systems to be considered part of Nature-based Solutions through two pioneering papers that are under a reviewing process. Such application of the NbS concept to aquaculture could constitute a potential future major involvement of the E-bAG to further explore this very new field.

In May a small group of CEM members solicited comments on a discussion paper on transformative conservation and IUCN’s Nature 2030 proposal, as part of preparations for the World Conservation Congress. The authors argue that transformative conservation rethinks the relationships between nature, society and risk in light of nature’s contributions to people and the sustainable development goals. Transformative conservation restructures the institutions that govern the use of biodiversity and creates conditions for sustainable use. The ultimate goal is to achieve regenerative resource use practices and equitable distribution of biodiversity benefits while transitioning societies to net negative emissions economies. In leading up to the Congress, the authors will use the paper and comments to promote common understanding and language, particularly the importance of working systemically; contribute to the global movement for transformative change, including recovery from COVID-19; and to support parallel initiatives such as the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. A CEM webinar is forthcoming, and the authors have started working on a companion peer-reviewed journal article.

The Ecosystem Restoration Global Initiatives in Science and Practice webinar series invited this trimester CEM leaders and members for the following sessions. All the previous webinars can be accessed in this link and the session slides in the new CEM webinars page.

James G. Hallett, CEM member, Chair for the Society for Ecological Restoration and Vice Chair of the Global Partnership for Forest and Landscape Restoration was the speaker for the May 15 session: Forest and Landscape Restoration: the next decade.

Willem]  Ferwerda, CEM Business and Ecosystem Management TG, CEO and Founder of Commonland, presented on the 17 April the session: 4 Returns: experiences with a holistic model to scale up the restoration of degraded landscapes through inspiring communities, developing new business models and blended finance.

Since 2018, the Environmental Agency of Abu Dhabi (EAD) has established an alliance with Provita, the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management and the Species Survival Commission. The aim of this alliance is to build capacities for the emirate to assess the conservation status of its ecosystems. Provita has been providing training and technical support regarding IUCN RLE protocols while EAD has been responsible for the development of the assessments. A first online training has been completed and currently, the EAD team is compiling information and describing the ecosystems that will be assessed. By the end of 2020 it is expected to have a preliminary version of the RLE assessment for the Abu Dhabi’s ecosystems.

The CEM South Asia region launched a special issue of the Harnessing Nature magazine  on the occasion of World Environment Day 2020 (Vol 2 Issue 3). This CEM region is also handling a multi-author blog and invites all regional CEM members to use this platform to showcase their works/activities within the mandate of CEM-IUCN. The magazine is a peer reviewed platform and shares authentic, reviewed stories.

In celebration of World Environment Day, the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) led by Nessrine Alzahlawi (CEM member) organized an informative online webinar on Sustainable rangelands management titled Keeping Hyper-Arid Rangelands Alive. The webinar covered the best global practices and solutions for managing rangelands. Peter Laban (CEM member, Drylands Specialist Group) presented on Sustainably investing in arid rangelands ecosystems and Engaging local communities in sustainable rangelands management. Jonathan Davis and Bora Masumbouko (IUCN Global Ecosystem Management Programme) gave a lecture titled Adapting Rangeland Management for Hyper Arid environments. Tamer Khafaga (Regional Chair, IUCN-CEM West Asia) presented on Plant community structure responses to conservation management in hyper-arid Arabian Desert ecosystems. David Gallacher (CEM Member - West Asia) gave a lecture titled Rethinking Carrying Capacity for the Arabian Desert.

Dr. Mohammed Shobrak (CEM member) participated with a webinar lecture titled Migratory birds and its ecological connection and how to protect their paths organised in collaboration with Middle East Bird International.

This article led by one of our YPN-CEM members, Amrit Kumar Mishra  explores the connectivity between seagrass and mangrove ecosystems, to assess the influence of one keystone ecosystem on the population dynamics of the other. Seagrass meadows are one of the most diverse and widely distributed submerged coastal ecoscapes that inhabit the tropical and temperate bioregions of the world except Antarctica. These ecosystems provide multiple types of ecosystem services. It is well established that individual coastal ecosystems (such as seagrasses, mangroves and coral reef ecosystems) act as ecosystem engineers. Among these, both mangroves and seagrasses can act as either donors or recipients of the coastal fluxes and can influence each other’s population dynamics. However, the influence of mangroves (as donor ecosystem engineers) on the population traits of the adjacent seagrass ecosystem (as recipient ecosystem) is less understood, because most studies involving seagrasses along with mangroves or coral reefs have focused on the movement of animals (mostly fish or invertebrates) between these ecosystems. Though coastal communities across the world reap the benefits of these ecosystems, human activities including modification to and destruction of coastal habitats have led to a 30% decline of seagrass population worldwide in the last three to four decades with yearly decline of 7% year-1. Much of this decline has occurred in the bioregion of Asia in the Andaman Sea, Java Sea, South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand, considered as the biodiversity hotspot for seagrass ecosystems. The article can be accessed in this link.

How do youth take care of biodiversity? Was the guiding question for the webinar held on May 26 as part of the project “Support to the Dominican Republic for the revision of the National Strategy for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity and Action Plan (ENBPA)”. This project has as one of its objectives, the integration of youth in the scope of the SDGs and the increase of youth participation in terms of implementation and decision-making on biodiversity conservation. The webinar was organized by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic, the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, and Lemuel Familia (CEM YPN member).   This activity was carried out with the aim of create a space for exchange on the various mechanisms and platforms that youth have with an emphasis on the Global Youth Network for Biodiversity (GYBN) of the United Nation Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) to unify actions around the conservation of biodiversity.

The conversation forged a space for discussion where several interesting questions emerged such as “How can young people from communities with little or no connectivity be approached so that they know and be integrated in the conservation and protection of biodiversity ?; How can young people effectively influence people who make decisions that obey political mandates and not an environmental agenda, so that these actions for biodiversity are executed ?; Is governance on the conservation of protected areas considered as a strategic axis within the Global Youth Network for Biodiversity? The interest of the Dominican youth in being part of a group to fight for the protection of the biodiversity of their country was evident.

This webinar started a number of further collaboration between both networks CEM YPN and GYBN, which try to encourage new young people around the region and the world to get involved in initiatives for the common goal of being truly involved in the decision making processes related to biodiversity and ecosystems. 

CEM’s Young Professional Network is hosting two virtual meetings for its members to introduce the members about the Commission and possible engagements for the YPs on the CEM activities.  The meetings discuss the prospects for YPN way forward. They have been organized to suit different time zones so everyone can attend. The first is held on June 27 at 3 pm (15.00 hr, India Standard Time, GMT+5:30) and the second one on June 28 at 4 pm (16.00 hr, Eastern Standard Time - US and Canada, GMT-4:00). For more information please contact Deepu Sivadas or Salima Medoaur.  

During 20-24 April, the YPN of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean promoted a contest “Discovering the IUCN World.” This initiative had the objective of generating greater interaction with those following the page, clearing doubts and providing accurate information about what IUCN is. Also about the structure of CEM, its priority areas, and the importance of the World Conservation Congress.  This initiative had the support of the IUCN Regional Office for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean (ORMACC), the IUCN Mexican committee, and the CEM South America region.  With the premise of sharing the work done by the YPN and CEM, this dynamic included the publication of 5 infographics that were posted daily in the official Facebook pages of the above mentioned offices and representations. The last day, a trivia with 3 questions was published to be answered by followers of those pages.  The result of this contest includes two winners who were announced in social media. 

IUCN World Conservation Congress 2020 postponed

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Government of France have decided to postpone the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2020 in Marseille to 7-15 January 2021 from its original date of 11-19 June. 

For more information