After over 2 years of meeting virtually, we once again had the chance to meet in-person for the 107th IUCN Council meeting. The Council reflected on opportunities to strengthen the Union – our engagement and mobilization of the entire Union, as well as our profile and influence on the global policy and science arena.

The weeks before the Council meeting were also busy. First, our Regional Directors came to Gland to strategize the way forward for the Union, exploring ways to strengthen our engagement with the Union’s Membership and to integrate our operations across the world. This was followed by the annual planning and budgeting workshop, where the Secretariat’s senior leadership took stock on progress against our targets.

Our 54^th Steering Committee will be held in-person on July 15, 16 and 17^th in Kigali, Rwanda before the African Protected Area Congress. The meeting will be joined by the steering committee members, as well as by several African-based members and colleagues from IUCN Africa who will share with us their experience on ecosystem-based approaches being led in Africa and their involvement in the region. This is a great opportunity to consider possible collaborations and to continue learning from first-hand experiences to continue building and strengthening CEM alliances globally.

We are glad to announce that the new IUCN website was launched on the 30^th June 2022. This new website will give a much higher profile to IUCN as a Union and give Members and Commissions more prominence. The new website will bring to the front and present the unique power of the Union. It will focus on delivery and relevance and serve diverse audiences.

Please note that not all content, including the thematic group sites will be available as of the 30^th June, but the Secretariat and Commissions will continue adding more content on a daily basis. We ask you for some patience as the site is a large universe with large amounts of information and we expect to have the full website up and running by the end of September.

Shalini Dhyani, South Asia Regional Chair was awarded the first position for her work “Empowering women to face the challenges of landslides and disaster in Central Himalaya through fodder bank approach” under the best practices taken towards the Agenda 3 of Honorable Prime Minister’s 10-point agenda under the compendium on ‘’Role of women in disaster risk management” an initiative by the IUINDRR-NIDM, MHA, Government of India. She will be awarded a certificate and an award money of Rs. 30,000 for appreciation. Congratulations Shalini!

A new call for proposals for the Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments (RISE) grants challenge is now open for applications

Hosted by IUCN and USAID under their partnership on Advancing Gender in the Environment (AGENT) and its Gender-based Violence and Environment Linkages Center (GBV-ENV Center), along with the collaboration from lead of the Cultural Practices and Ecosystem Management, Pam McElwee, the Resilience, Inclusive and Sustainable Ecosystems – RISE grant aims to support evidence-based strategies to address GBV in environment and climate-related programming. 

In 2022, RISE priorities are locally or community-led or driven interventions that generate learning on promising practices in climate-vulnerable contexts, in relation to protecting the rights and safety of environmental defenders, as well as in adaptive management in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted regions in 2022 are Central America and the Caribbean, Eastern and Southern Africa and South and Southeast Asia. The deadline to apply is July 18^th and the terms and conditions can be found in the RISE grants challenge website or contact Laura.Sabater@iucn.org or pdmcelwee@gmail.com.

You can watch the full webinar which was held on May 22^nd on Q&As regarding the grant here.

From March 29th to April 12th, CEM presented Connecting the Dots, the first event of its kind to be held by the Commission where, through its own metaverse, several group leaders and co-leaders, regional chairs and key secretariat representatives had the opportunity to get to know each other virtually and share their main goals for the upcoming period as well as discuss potential collaborations and articulate any future activities. We want to thank all of those who participated and we hope you enjoyed the experience!

Based on the feedback received in the last intersessional period, a core group has recently been established, to have more people engaged in the Nature-based Solutions Thematic Group (NbS TG) activities. Two NbS TG core group meetings were organized in April and May 2022, with members that had shown interest in becoming more actively involved. The purpose of these meetings was to present some past and planned activities for the TG, and brainstorm activities that the core group members can focus on and lead. Some outcoming ideas included publications, tools to help further develop the NbS Standard, contribution to the NbS Standard revision, and workshops to continue raise the awareness on NbS and the Global NbS Standard and promote the upscaling of NbS interventions.

The meetings were organized by Emmanuelle Cohen-Shacham and Edna Cabecinha (NbS TG Lead and Co-lead). The participants were Shanmuga Barathi, Nigel Dudley, Davide Geneletti, Marc Hockins, Mike Jones, Shane Orchard, Dario Piselli, Somnath Roy, Livia Zapponi, Jyotirmoy Shankar Deb, Deepu Sivadas, Risa Smith, Pete Smith and Hausner Wendo. We are looking forward to seeing many interesting initiatives developing from this engaged group!

Every year, the Royal Society and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) jointly convene the US-UK Scientific Forum to help the scientific leadership of the United Kingdom and the United States forge an enduring and productive partnership on pressing topics of worldwide scientific concern. The 2022 Forum took place on June 16 and 17^th, and focused on Bringing Nature into Decision Making. The objective of the Forum was to advance system-wide integration of biodiversity and nature’s benefits to people into decision-making. Carl Folke, Science Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre opened the event with an inspiring presentation on Interdependence of Civilisation and the Living World in the Anthropocene.

Angela Andrade, CEM Chair, was invited to deliver a presentation on Nature based Solutions and Climate Change adaptation as part of the Driving Transformation: Scaling Success and Opening New Frontiers panel.

You can learn more on the forum here.

In April, a virtual Global Forum was held to obtain feedback and inputs on the zero draft; and in May, feedback was obtained at the XV World Forestry Congress at a side event entitled System-wide capacities needed to enhance ecosystem restoration throughout the Decade and beyond. The next step is to create a first draft of the SoPs, which will be circulated in early August for global consultation via the UN Decade Website as well as by direct email to CEM members, and other stakeholders.

Other opportunities to provide input include the July session of the Ecosystem Restoration Thematic Group monthly webinar (zoom; Friday, July 15, 12:00 PM EDT); the 13th European Conference on Ecological Restoration (Alicante, Spain; 5-9 September), and the 26th Session of the FAO Committee on Forestry (Rome, Italy; 3-7 October).

You can contact cara.nelson@umontana.edu for more information.

South Asia Regional Chair, Shalini Dhyani also participated as a speaker in the Side Event at the World Forestry Congress where she led a session on Systematic approaches to agroforestry policies and practices in Asia and presented Agroforestry to Achieve Global Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Targets on May 2nd, 2022. You can find out more on this publication here.

The grassland ecosystem is one of the most threatened ecosystems in South Asia region. They are a dynamic ecosystem and have evolved under varied ecological conditions and it support rich array of flora and fauna including endemic, globally threatened species like Great Indian Bustard, pygmy hog, Nilgiri Thar etc. However, most of the grasslands in the region are degrading rapidly due to lack of management and policy which consequences loss of biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being. The United Nations (UN) has declared 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, reflecting the important role healthy rangelands play in creating a sustainable environment, economic growth, and resilient livelihoods for communities across the world.

The issue of grassland ecosystem conservation was raised in IUCN CEM South Asia 2021-2025 regional meeting on 12 February 2022 to take up various activities in coming areas. This grassland dialogue was a follow up of the regional meeting to exchange knowledge and action needs to take up in future.

Watch the full webinar here.

CEM-Asia Focal point Madhav Karki with support from Shalini Dhyani, Regional Chair, South Asia and Deepu Sivadas, IUCN’s Young Fellow lead organized a Webinar on June 12^th to highlight and celebrate jointly the World Environment Day and World Ocean Day, 2022. The topic of the webinar was “Sustainable Livelihood in Harmony with Nature Protects both People and Planet: How CEM is contributing to the Vision of Living in Harmony with Nature”. The purpose of the event was to promote active knowledge sharing among CEM members, raise their awareness and contribute to the WED, 2022 theme of “Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature” and WOD theme of “Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean”.

The webinar key note speech was delivered by Madhav Karki on Achieving SDGs by Mainstreaming Resilience in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in which he emphasized the need to strengthen the role of socioecological production system by integrating conservation, livelihoods and adaptation in socioecological production systems, the use of both the traditional and scientific knowledge and practices in a synergistic manner; and adaptive management to build resilient ecosystems and livelihoods by moderating risks and utilizing opportunities such as nature based solutions.

Other speakers included CEM Asia Regional leaders Namue Lee, Ronnakorn Triraganon, Shalini Dhyani, Hemanthi Ranasinghe, and Mahdi Kolahi. The speakers shared their specific knowledge and activities on topics ranging from Role of Community Forestry in Post Covid19 green recovery in SE Asia, Ocean as a sustainable livelihood option in Sri Lanka, and Collaboration with academia and pvt. Sector in NE Asia. Shalini Dhyani provided the summary of the webinar discussion with a message that resilient communities and ecosystems can help achieve resilient, inclusive and sustainable livelihoods.

At the end of April, CEM Deputy Chair, Liette Vasseur was invited to a workshop entitled “Nature-based Solutions for Carbon Sequestration” organized by Net Zero Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to discuss the concept of Nature-based Solutions and present the NbS Global Standard. The meeting was highly productive with presentations and round table discussions. It was obvious that in fact we were talking about Nature Climate Solutions with the clear goal to increase carbon sequestration through forest planting, wetlands restoration, and agricultural practices. In addition, the issue of inclusion, especially for Indigenous peoples, was brought up.

This workshop, led in May 30 and 31^st was organized by a group of peoples motivated by the importance to see Canada back in the forefront regarding ecological restoration with the support among many of IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, the Canadian Committee of IUCN, and the Canadian Museum of Nature. Canadians used to be very active in restoration and led the development of the first national-level principles and guidelines for ecological restoration in the world and had leadership roles in the International Society for Ecological Restoration. The question was therefore what the contribution of Canada during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration will be. The major goal of this meeting was to discuss the priorities to advance the Canadian agenda, including the development of a strategy and action plan. The meeting was quite productive, and participants remain involved throughout the meeting and now, as a “coalition of willing”, meeting monthly to advance the agenda. It was felt important to ensure that the dots were connected between research, practice, and policy. Among the action items, some will be involved in drafting briefing notes, other developing the research agenda, and helping with the organization of ER3 (Ecosystem Restoration) conference to be held in Quebec City in June 2023.

The Ecosystem Restoration Thematic Group (ERTG) contributed to the development of the Restoration Project Information Sharing Framework, which was launched in March 2022 by the Global Restoration Observatory (GRO), the Society for Ecological Restoration, and Climate Focus. The Framework was developed to track progress and trends in ecosystem restoration and includes monitoring indicators and project descriptors to facilitate the collection and use of ecosystem restoration project information. The ERTG joined more than 80 individuals from 55 organizations from 27 countries to help develop the Framework, which includes monitoring indicators organized under the 10 Principles of the UN Decade. The Framework is available on the GRO website.

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly declared 2021-2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, to create a global movement in support of preventing, halting and reversing the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. One of the key limitations identified by the UN Decade Strategy is the lack of sufficient technical knowledge and capacity to design, implement, monitor and sustain restoration initiatives. To address this barrier, CEM and its Ecosystem Restoration Thematic Group (ERTG) worked with the FAO-led Task Force on Best Practices of the UN Decade and the Society for Ecological Restoration to lead the development of ten guiding principles that underpin the full set of ecosystem restoration activities.

However, for the principles to be applied, there is a need for standards of practice (SoPs) that detail specific considerations for the planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of ecosystem restoration activities. Towards this end, the collaborative team is now engaging in a multi-step process to develop SoPs for the UN Decade. The first step was to do a stocktaking of existing SoPs for different types of restorative activities that fall within the broad umbrella of ecosystem restoration. The stock-taking, which was completed in January, was used to create a zero draft of the SoPs.

The Social-Ecological Resilience and Transformation (SERT) TG hosted during May and June seven meetings to solicit member-driven project proposals that will advance the CEM Mandate, IUCN Programme, and IUCN member resolutions. The work areas were previously identified through surveying SERT members. The meetings resulted in ten proposals for projects to be developed during this intersession; project leaders are now developing project work plans, and later this summer will form a leadership circle that meets periodically to provide overall coordination and project management.

Among other important items, proposals include: (1) hosting a South America-based webinar in Spanish that will examine what relevance and meaning “resilience” and “transformation” have in the region; (2) developing a resilience framework and corresponding cases that illustrate how core concepts like panarchy can support CEM and IUCN priorities; (3) hosting a webinar that explores the use of decentralized technologies in conservation, including blockchains; (4) compiling literature on the strengths and weaknesses of nature-based solutions, in support of a future review of the Standard; and (5) organizing a bibliography on indigenous philosophies that have similarity and contrasts with “resilience” and “transformation".

You can watch the full webinar series here.

If you want to learn more about these initial conversations, you can visit the main Portal page and search for “highlights and action items”, or contact SERT leaders Dorian Fougeres and Manuela Ruiz.

Similarly, coordination with peer CEM groups is ongoing, and further connections are welcome!

The online event International Biodiversity Day Webinar by IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management presented the Intruders in the Nature’s Canvas where several CEM members from the South Asia Regional Network participated.

Watch the full webinar here.

SERT member Thomas Döring participated in a workshop on Studies of agroecology in long-term organic and conventional cropping systems (7-8 June), organized by Jorgen Olesen from Aarhus university and held at Fouloum, Denmark (Program attached). One of the central workshop topics was the green transition in agricultural and food systems. The workshop showed the importance of long-term agricultural field experiments for quantifying effects of land use systems on sustainability, stability and resilience. However, it also showed how dynamic transformation and change of land use systems (in this case, of cropping systems) is particularly difficult to reconcile with the usually static nature of long-term experiments (LTEs). Some examples were given of how such a more dynamic implementation in LTE could be achieved. The participation of stakeholders was key at various levels. Another outcome of the workshop was the importance of research-policy communication for facilitating the transformation of agriculture. Formal outputs of the workshop are expected to be published by next year.

The IUCN CEM Fisheries Expert Group participated in the negotiations on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) during the 3rd Open Ended Working Group, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland on 14-29^th March, 2022. FEG organized a side event in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) on fisheries, oceans and marine biodiversity in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

CEM FEG has been granted the following two projects in relation to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and Area-Based Management Tools:

Supporting Parties on fisheries reporting: FEG has been preparing its work  on the project The challenge of reporting on fisheries performance in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: guiding fisheries towards the implementation of biodiversity targets, aimed at providing CBD Parties with the technical assistance needed to report on fisheries-related targets within the framework. FEG is waiting for the adoption of the framework later in the year before it can start working on this Project.

And State of play and future directions of Area-Based Management Tools (ABMTs) in fisheries: With the increasing relevance of the spatial dimension in fisheries management, IUCN-CEM-FEG has been working on the project The growing role of Area-Based Management Tools in fisheries and their ecological and socio-economic environment: advancing progress by sharing experience. The project aims to examine the current and future role of ABMTs in and on fisheries, including Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and develop policy guidance in this highly relevant and rapidly evolving domain is being developed.

You can revise the key messages and event recording available here.

At the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, CEM FEG Members participated actively during the discussions and provided inputs to the Political Declaration. FEG members also organized the side event The Future of the Oceans: finding cooperative pathways towards 2030 in collaboration with the Government of Canada, the Government of Norway, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and the European Bureau for Conservation and Development.

For more information and to view the full presentation, visit the website here.

Last Thursday, June 30^th, the CEM Impact Mitigation and Ecological Compensation Thematic Group, led by Martine Maron, Amrei von Hase, Mark Johnston, Annie Dakmejian, Stacey Baggaley, Fabrice Quètier, Camille Le Guen, Carleigh Whitman and Nadine McCormick hosted our 15^th CEM dialogue titled Nature Positive: What it is and how to do it. The webinar focused on how actions for biodiversity are gaining significant momentum and with this, the need for a “nature positive” economy and for businesses to be “nature positive” across value chains which include co-ordination, collaboration, collective action and sharing of experiences and lessons learnt. The Dialogue provided an overview on what nature positive means, how it differs from net positive or net gain, and how businesses can incorporate nature positive, net positive impact or net gain into and across their global operations and activities.

You can watch the full dialogue here.

The first IUCN African Protected Areas Congress (APAC) is the first ever continent-wide gathering of African leaders, citizens and interest groups to discuss the role of protected areas in conserving nature, safeguarding wildlife, delivering life-supporting ecosystem services and promoting sustainable development while conserving cultural heritage and traditions.

The Congress will be held on July 18-23^rd in Kigali, Rwanda where CEM will be leading several panels and events with the participation of CEM members Bernal Herrera, Joyce Jefwa, Tomas Zulkin and Hillary Masundire.

For more information on the congress and to see the full agenda visit the APAC website.

SERT member Dr. Juan Carlos Rocha published the paper Ecosystems are showing symptoms or resilience loss on how ecosystems around the world are at risk of critical transitions due to increasing anthropogenic pressures and climate change. Yet it is unclear where the risks are higher or where in the world ecosystems are more vulnerable. Resilience of primary productivity proxies are measured for marine and terrestrial ecosystems globally. Up to 29% of global terrestrial and 24% of marine ecosystems show symptoms of resilience loss. These symptoms are shown in all biomes, but Arctic tundra and boreal forest are the most affected, as well as the Indian Ocean and Eastern Pacific. Although the results are likely an underestimation, they enable the identification of risk areas as well as the potential synchrony of some transitions, helping prioritize areas for management interventions and conservation. The relevance of this research is to provide another line of support for endangered ecosystems (see RLE) and provide spatial explicit maps of ecological resilience that can be useful for management and conservation.

SERT member Tilamn Hertz authored “Between Radical and Realistic: Biodiversity, Transformation and Development Cooperation | EBA”.  The paper focuses on the potential role of development actors, including the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, in supporting the transformation needed to reach biodiversity objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals. It first provides background on the rapid loss of biodiversity, particularly in the context of the work done by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Second it summarizes a corresponding discussion with leading international experts convened by the Swedish Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA). EBA hopes that this paper will help to develop an overarching theory of change for supporting the protection of biodiversity.

SERT member Ahjond Garmestani recently co-authored the paper Social Vulnerability, social-ecological resilience and coastal governance. The paper explains how social vulnerability in coastal governance is mainly influenced by engineering, community and disaster resilience, focusing on return and recovery responses to environmental change (e.g., hurricanes, wildfires). The authors suggest a novel perspective based on social-ecological resilience, which encompasses the dynamics of linked systems of humans and nature. This revised perspective accounts for the dynamics of Earth’s systems across various spatial and temporal scales. Accounting for social-ecological resilience and its core aspects (i.e. panarchy, adaptation and transformation) is essential for informing coastal governance of social-ecological systems and to approach the questions, do we adapt or do we transform the social-ecological system?

SERT member Bryan Jenkins BR recently published The contribution of resilience assessment to impact assessment and Project Appraisal (2022). The paper sets out an approach to resilience assessment based on adaptive cycles, failure pathways, multiple spatial scales and management interventions. Examples are provided of applications of resilience assessment to project assessment, environmental policy, environmental programmes, rehabilitation priorities and project design.

Dr. Jenkins presented his paper Constraint mapping for avoiding effects of development: the application to Point Wilson and its aftermath in the recent conference Waste Management and Environmental Impact, 7-9 June 2002, Madrid - Spain. The paper describes how constraint mapping identified areas that needed to be protected from development, including the prime wintering habitat of an endangered species, the Orange-bellied Parrot. While habitat protection was useful, the aftermath indicated that informed, empowered and responsive governance of a proactive parrot recovery programme was needed to achieve species recovery.

During the March 2022 negotiations on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the Red list of Ecosystems and its indicators (in particular the RLIE) were proposed as headline indicators for ecosystems under Goal A. Previously the RLIE was listed as a complementary indicator. As headline indicators, nations would be expected to report on the Red List status of their ecosystems, and progress toward the goal of increasing area, integrity and connectivity of ecosystems over the coming decade.

Read more about the Red List Index of Ecosystems here.

To aid the facilitation of biodiversity conservation and management within the Maldives, a collaborative team of experts from IUCN Maldives, James Cook University’s Global Ecology Lab and local ecosystem experts applied the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology to ecosystems across the country. The Maldives’ Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology has now released the report: Applying the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology to the Maldives, which includes a literature review of 169 publications and results from a collaborative workshop with local experts to confirm and refine the typology for the Maldives.

Author of image: Maren Toor

This first review resulted in the identification of thirty-three biogeographic ecotypes present in the Maldives, and it is a first step that will help structure a national Red List of Ecosystems assessment and will support environmental management.

The publication Forest Dynamics and Conservation, co-written by Manoj Kumar, Shalini Dhyani and Naveen Kalra was released in June and presents a detailed application of machine learning and simulations to understand the future of forests, describes methodologies and computations to study forest structure and growth, and explores forest dynamics and surrounding environments with the help of case studies.

Find the full publication here.

Scenario-based quantification of land-use changes and its impacts on ecosystem services: A case of Bhitarkanika mangrove area, Odisha, India, is a recent paper co-written by Rakesh Kadaverugu, Shalini Dhyani among others, is an effort to understand mangroves' ecosystem services (ES), especially in developing and under-developed nations, to fasten up the mangrove conservation, well despite several conservation measures taken to protect mangroves, they have been facing economic, socio-environmental, and climatic threats. Find the full article here.

Impact of agriculture intensification on forest degradation and tree carbon stock; Promoting multi-criteria optimization for restoration in Central India, a recent publication by Jayshree Shukla, Shalini Dhyani, Paras Pujari, Ashutosh Mishra and Parikshit Verma is a multi-criteria optimization approach used to identify the priority areas of restoration and quantify the magnitude of drivers of biodiversity loss in the region by investigating the links between forest carbon stock, agriculture intensification, and altering forest structure at various degrees of forest disturbance. Find the full article here.