Around this year’s World Rivers Day on 25 September, a number of events and activities were held along the Aoos-Vjosa River in Greece and Albania to promote transboundary collaboration and protection of this unique river system, from its source to the sea.

Together, the federal and provincial governments have recently committed to establishing the province's first national urban park at Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes in Halifax. At the same time, the Federal and Provincial Environment Ministers announced a series of agreements aimed at protecting old-growth forests, improving ecological corridors, conserving coastal lands and creating an Atlantic archipelago national wildlife area by late 2024. Nova Scotia has also recently protected government-owned coastal land at Owls Head as a provincial park.

These areas will contribute to Nova Scotia’s plans to conserve at least 20 per cent of its land and water areas by 2030, which is part of Canada's goal of protecting 30 per cent of the country's land and inland waters by 2030.

BIOPAMA grantee and co-founder of the leading Haitian conservation organisation Action pour la Sauvegarde de l'Ecologie en Haiti (ACSEH) and Environmental Protection in the Caribbean’s (EPIC) Haiti Project Manager for the Black-capped Petrel Conservation Program, Anderson Jean, has been chosen as the 2022 Bright Award Winner.

The Bright Award is given annually to an “individual who has made significant contributions in the environmental preservation and sustainability area.”

Following on from five years of action in the Buna River Velipoje Protected Landscape, the partners of the Living Buna project have shared two of their successful solutions for improved protected area conservation through ‘PANORAMA – Solutions for a Healthy Planet’. Both solutions respond to challenges presented for effective conservation and management of the protected landscape and include actions undertaken by all sectors in the Buna community.

Yayasan Planet Indonesia has pioneered a model of community-based conservation through their ‘Conservation Cooperative’ model that addresses the underlying drivers causing climate change vulnerability in partner communities. They have created village-led partnerships to support ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) by instituting community governance structures (Conservation Cooperatives) that enable access to financial and non-financial services that catalyse community-based adaptation.

Adam Miller, Executive Director at Planet Indonesia, is joined in this conversation by Cécile Fattebert of the IUCN Protected and Conserved Areas team.

This LIFE4BEST project implemented by Butterfly Conservation Europe in partnership with Madeira Flora and Fauna has been targeting three highly threatened Madeiran endemics: the Endangered Madeiran Brimstone and Madeiran Speckled Wood, and the Critically Endangered Madeiran Large White.

This BIOPAMA-funded project works to ensure that forest rangers are properly trained and supported with a security and monitoring system that supports their work. This enables them to undertake more frequent field patrols, deter illegal activities and gather information on the state of biodiversity in Mukogodo Forest. A new digital reporting and monitoring system allows them to join landscape conservation efforts.

Between 6 and 8 September 2022, the 5th annual Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) International Conference (RIC2022), hosted a wide range of experts in Nairobi, Kenya, around the theme of "earth observation services for resilient social systems". 

RCMRD hosts the Regional Resource Hub, a regional observatory implemented by the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) Programme, focused on the collection, the production and the dissemination of information for decision-making at local, national and global levels. The RRH thus enables the effective monitoring of the Convention’s post-2020 biodiversity framework of Biodiversity (CBD) in Eastern and Southern Africa.

BIOPAMA hosted a Site Assessment for Governance and Equity (SAGE) training in Kenya from 5-9 September 2022. A total of 13 participants from 10 countries (Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe) were trained as Lead Facilitators for the SAGE process. As part of their training, they were able to participate and facilitate in a SAGE process held in Nashulai Conservancy, providing them with a real example of implementation of the SAGE in a site. As they return home, each one will endeavour to initiate a SAGE assessment in a relevant site, to solidify their learning, supported by a mentor from IIED.

IUCN-Papaco’s website to raise awareness among the youth (ages 10 to 17) on conservation matters is now live. Discover new topics, learn about them as you dig deeper in the materials and put everything in practice by taking action.

The portal is available in French at the moment.

As part of the global IUCN-Huawei Tech4Nature Partnership, a local, Swiss partnership was created with IUCN, Huawei and the Swiss Porini Foundation, to pilot, study and measure carbon sequestration in a protected area in Switzerland and make a transaction using blockchain technology.

This was done by testing the amount of CO2 sequestered through management activities according to the newly developed Green List Standard for Carbon (GLS+) in the forest reserve of Schwägalp – Bruggerwald in the communities of Urnäsch and Hundwil, canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland.

ANORAMA One Health was launched in February 2022. To grow this Community with further inspiring solutions, we are calling for examples of good practices from projects that implement the One Health approach around the world.

 For this call, PANORAMA collaborates with CABI and their initiative on collating One Health Cases:

CABI One Health Cases is a curated collection of real-life examples of One Health in practice, stressing the interconnections between humans, animals, plants, ecosystems, and their shared environment in a truly transdisciplinary way. A database of educational, practical cases, it will be an invaluable resource for students, teachers, academics, public stakeholders, and industry practitioners.

Planeterra and IUCN SUR co-implement the "Cash for Work" mechanism in Amarakaeri Communal Reserve and Río Abiseo National Park to ensure direct benefits for local people and help their post-COVID recovery through tourism. All the work on infrastructure that is aimed at helping local communities with their sustainable tourism services is coming to its final phase.

This year, World Tourism Day was centred around #RethinkingTourism and our partners at Planeterra celebrated it by hosting a special panel discussion focusing on Communities living in and around Protected Areas worldwide.

Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment has renewed its support for the World Heritage Leadership capacity-building programme, jointly run by World Heritage Advisory Bodies IUCN and ICCROM in collaboration with UNESCO and ICOMOS. The signing of this new phase of collaboration took place in Bergen, Norway at a high-level forum marking the 50th anniversary of the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee have issued new guidance for assessing impacts from projects that could potentially affect the planet’s most precious heritage places. Designed specifically for heritage management institutions, governments and project developers, it aims to help find the best possible solutions to meet both conservation priorities and development needs.

To tackle the continued threats faced by marine mammals, the Marine Mammal Twinning, within the framework of the EU-funded Ocean Government project, has developed a toolkit to build technical capacities and support MPA managers in understanding the level of protection afforded to marine mammals through their MPA management plans, driving the effective management of marine mammals.

As the world focuses on the new global biodiversity framework, which will be adopted at the upcoming fifteenth meeting of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), BIOPAMA invites you to an online event to present the added value of the Regional Resource Hub (RRH) and its contribution for the collection, the production and the dissemination of information for decision-making at local, national and global levels, enabling the effective monitoring of the Convention's post 2020 biodiversity framework of Biodiversity (CBD) in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Dans le cadre de la Convention sur la diversité biologique (CDB), les zones conservées seront mises en œuvre en tant qu'autres mesures efficaces de conservation par zone (AMCE), conformément à la décision de la CDB et aux orientations de l'UICN.

Ce webinaire examine les opportunités et les défis de la mise en œuvre du cadre AMCE et la nécessité de parler un langage commun sur ce qu'ils signifient et comment ils sont mis en œuvre, en mettant l'accent sur les pays francophones d’Afrique .

Since its establishment in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. IUCN’s new legacy gift options will help ensure IUCN keeps playing this essential role for years to come.

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