Kristen Walker Painemilla, IUCN CEESP Chair

Transformation, an equitable recovery with social justice, and climate change are all intimately intertwined.

We are two months into 2021, and it’s still hard for much of the globe to think about what happens after the pandemic, hard to envision what our future and the future of the planet will look like.

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Communities, Conservation and Livelihoods is a new and freely-available book exploring how local communities, around the world, are tackling some of the biggest global challenges: the climate, the environment, and how to reach local conservation goals while sustaining economies and livelihoods. The actions that communities are taking, and the solutions they are finding, are inspiring a way forward for all of us. 
 
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In light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and in order to increase inclusivity and reach as many global youth as possible, the IUCN One Nature, One Future Global Youth Summit is going fully virtual, a first for IUCN.
 
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The co-migration of human and other species catalyzed by environmental change, including climate change, is anticipated to increase dramatically in the next decades. As calls mount for conservation to account for these trends, how will conservation practice be affected and what conflicts are likely to increase?
 
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Early predictions about COVID-19’s impacts on Africa suggested that the continent would be a disaster zone marked by weak medical systems collapsing under strain and undemocratic states failing to provide social services to destitute populations. These predictions did not come to pass. The second order effects of the virus have been significant, however.

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Faced with the deteriorating situation of environmental human rights defenders during the pandemic, how can the conservation community respond more effectively? Specifically, how can the IUCN Secretariat, membership networks and partner efforts be mobilized and strengthened?  

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Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) recently released its report “COVID-19 and indigenous and tribal peoples: The impacts and underlying inequalities”.  Building on grassroots stories from ten countries and wider research, it describes how the pandemic has highlighted underlying inequalities in its impacts on indigenous and tribal communities and territories. 

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A collaborative study reveals how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), especially those who govern, manage and conserve their lands and waters. The situation generates both negative effects and adaptive and resilient responses.

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A collaborative study reveals how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), especially those who govern, manage and conserve their lands and waters. The situation generates both negative effects and adaptive and resilient responses.

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As a quarter of the world’s land is owned or managed by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, they must be central to global conservation efforts to tackle international wildlife trade.

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Between September and November 2020, the joint SSC/CEESP Sustainale Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group partnered with the IUCN East and Southern Africa Regional Office (IUCN ESARO) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) to deliver a series of online training sessions on different approaches to engaging communities to tackle illegal wildlife trade (IWT).

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Over 2020, two institutions in Africa have begun critical work on unlocking and diversifying the wildlife economy in Africa. Community ownership and benefits are key to preventing and combating wildlife crime.

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A CEESP virtual dialogue exploring prior assumptions of the pandemic, the current situation and its impact on gender: issues of inequality, violence, access to education, health care, livelihoods and financial independence.

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Our ethnography examines how Rwanda’s current process of formalization and regulation of mining may impact rural women’s experiences with environmental, structural, and physical conflicts near extraction sites. In light of COVID-19’s socioeconomic effects, our analysis now also interrogates the ecological practices that arise in response to pandemic-induced poverty among women in mining communities.

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People of faith and spirituality are all thinking about, and offering guidance on, what an earth-centered, new normal, might look like, and how we can practically contribute to it. 

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The global Covid-19 pandemic has awakened us to the interdependence between all living beings and their environment. Educational tools that inspire hope in each person to initiate a positive change are key to overcome feelings of powerlessness. This article highlights new resources introduced during the “Spiritual Dimensions of a New Era” virtual dialogue.

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The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the French government have agreed to hold the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2020 from 3 to 11 September 2021 in Marseille. The event, originally scheduled for June 2020, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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