IUCN Digest – 24 January 2023

IUCN
February 9, 2023

Welcome to the bi-weekly digest for IUCN Members and IUCN Commission members.

Message from the Director General

Dear Members,

It gives me great pleasure to share that IUCN President, Razan Al Mubarak has been appointed UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for the COP28 Presidency.

This appointment, by IUCN State Member United Arab Emirates, is a great opportunity for IUCN. As we all heard loud and clear the Union’s message in Marseille – the climate and biodiversity emergencies are not distinct, but two aspects of one crisis. This appointment once again signals to the world that the biodiversity and climate crises must be tackled together. Just two weeks ago, the World Economic Forum published its 2023 Global Risks Report. There, the topmost risks for the next decade are climate change, extreme weather, and biodiversity loss.

Indeed, all of us in IUCN know that a large part of the response lies in the natural world. Thus, I know I can count on you to advocate for robust Nature-based Solutions that deliver benefits for climate adaptation and mitigation while conserving nature and biodiversity.

World leaders will head to the UAE in December. I am pleased to share that IUCN’s work is ramping up already. On the back of the Council meeting last week, our President, Commission Chairs, members of Council and Secretariat and myself had the pleasure to meet with the COP28 Presidency team in Abu Dhabi to commence efforts towards a productive climate COP. Our President’s appointment is both an honour and a responsibility. With your help, dear Members, we will rise to the occasion.

News

IUCN News pages

IUCN-PAN-CP partnership on forest restoration: Piloting the possibility to enter tradable carbon credit market

IUCN held a technical launch of the GCF funded TREPA project with the officials of the Eastern Province of Rwanda

At UN Biodiversity Conference, ENACT Partners discuss linked approaches to biodiversity and climate action

IUCN Rwanda hosted the 15th National Forest Landscape Restoration Cross-Sectoral Task Force Meeting

Events

IUCN Events 5th International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) 3-9 February 2023 .

Draft programme available here.

UNESCO 45th session of the World Heritage Committee, postponed until further notice.

Resolutions and Recommendations

The Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) will take place from 3 to 9 February in Vancouver, Canada. It will bring together marine conservation managers, practitioners and decision-makers to demonstrate global support for marine protected areas and spatial planning, stimulate global cooperation in marine conservation, and start planning the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework for oceans, among other things. We take this opportunity to briefly present some of the many IUCN Resolutions and Recommendations that relate to marine protected areas.

Recommendation 7.112-Planning of maritime areas and biodiversity and geodiversity conservation urges the states to adopt a forward-looking approach to planning their maritime areas, which guarantees the preservation and long-term protection of marine and coastal ecosystems and the maintenance or restoration of their natural connectivity. This approach should be based on the characterisation of all types of pressures on these ecosystems and their biodiversity, the implementation of the precautionary and preventive principles, as well as ecosystem-based management, and the anticipation of the evolution of cumulative impacts.

Resolution 7.055 Guidance to identify industrial fishing incompatible with protected areas calls on the Director General and the Commissions to provide guidance to countries to ensure that industrial fishing is not being allowed in MPAs or OECMs, to the extent that it is not compatible with the conservation objectives and the management goals of these areas, and calls on states to accurately report their MPAs and OECMs taking into account all IUCN Standards and Guidance.

Recommendation 7.126- Reinforcing the protection of marine mammals through regional cooperation asks states to reinforce the protection of marine mammals, including by identifying the marine zones and regions with significant conservation issues for them, reinforcing existing agreements in these marine zones and establishing new ones, and providing these agreements with operational action plans. It also urges the CMS and e International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling to support states in the implementation of regional agreements and national commitments.

Resolutions and Recommendations constitute a means through which IUCN Members set the organization’s general policy, influence conservation priorities and find support for moving commitments into action. The whole Union is responsible for their implementation, and we invite you to submit your activity reports on theResolutions and Recommendations Platform to help us monitor their implementation. Everything you need to know to submit an activity report is in thisUser Guide. Many thanks for your contributions!

IUCN@ the Conference of the Parties

COP15: IUCN welcomes Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework as an important step towards addressing the nature crisis. Read more here.

Post-2020 global biodiversity framework (issues brief)

BIODEV2030Inspiring national action

BIODEV2030 propose a method to accelerate the mainstreaming of biodiversity into key economic sectors in 16 pilot countries, based on a scientific diagnosis and a participatory dialogue.

Learn more about the experience of stakeholders from Benin and Tunisia in this video: Biodiversity mainstreaming: the BIODEV2030 method presented by stakeholders – BIODEV2030

Opportunities

Work @ IUCN

Call for solutions on Wildlife Health and Zoonotic Disease Risk Reduction

A Challenge to Reimagine Conservation in 2022

Currently running tenders

Online Learning and Webinars

Human-Wildlife Conflict & CoexistenceLearning in Practice Webinar Series:

Engagement and ethics of working with communities. Recording.

Community-led management of wildlife impacts. Recording.

Incentives and financial instruments for coexistence. Recording.

Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility (BNCFF)Investing for Ocean Impact, Podcast

Webinar: NASA’s AppliedEvaluating Ecosystem Services with Remote Sensingonline series

GBV-ENV Center webinar: Engaging men and boys to address GBV in coastal biodiversity management 2022 RedList trainer course – Become a certified RedList trainer

IUCN SSC CPSG training opportunities (Conservation Planning Specialist GroupSpecies Survival Commission)

Online Training in Species Conservation Planning

The Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG) now runs three online training courses in species conservation planning .Launched in 2018, it’s highly successful, no fee, seven-week Facilitating Species Conservation Planning Workshops course provides comprehensive facilitation skills training to help you put theCPSG Species Conservation Planning Principles and Steps into practice. In March 2022 CPSG launched its eight-weekWildlife Disease Risk Analysis training course, designed to demonstrate how theIUCN Guidelines on Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis can be applied within a multi-stakeholder planning context. In January this year, CPSG launches itsEx-Situ Conservation Assessment training course. This self-paced course can be taken at any time of the year and has been created to guide participants through the application of theIUCN SSC Guidelines on the Use of Ex Situ Management for Species Conservation.