Welcome to the bi-weekly digest for IUCN Members and IUCN Commission members.
Message from the President and Director General
Dear Members,
It brings us great pleasure to write to you from the French city of Fontainebleau, where we are holding the 110th IUCN Council meeting. Thanks to the key support of the Government of France and the IUCN French National Committee, this meeting is taking place where our Union was founded 75 years ago. You can read more about our history here.
These few days are important for IUCN. We held celebrations for our 75th anniversary this morning, which featured a set of inspiring discussions. We hope that many of you were able to connect live to join us. Another key topic of discussions here is our 20-year strategic vision, which will chart IUCN’s future. We are therefore pleased that senior Secretariat leadership is also with us in Fontainebleau.
Finally, we are two weeks away from the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28). This is the final lap of the year, and we encourage you to continue socialising our key messages with your networks. We invite you to join the IUCN Pavilion, our “Home of the Union”, and look forward to seeing many of you in Dubai soon! There, we will act decisively for both nature and climate.
Sincerely,
Razan Al Mubarak
President
Grethel Aguilar
Director General
News
IUCN Director General appoints the IUCN Green List Panel
In memoriam: Saleemul Huq (1952-2023)
ReSea Project Launched to Strengthen Coastal Communities in Kenya
IUCN Climate Crisis Commission : Membership Recruitment Now Open
IUCN ENGAGE
A Global spotlight on Ocean Defenders Join us on 29 November for an online webinar that aims to bring greater visibility to the plight of Ocean Defenders worldwide. This webinar will explore the ongoing struggles and efforts of ocean defenders globally, and shed light on the potential avenues through which allies and organizations can provide support and protect ocean defenders
Event details and registration
Events
IUCN at the Third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on plastic pollution (INC-3),Nairobi, Kenya 13 – 19 November 2023.
Counting on a Sustainable Future: Global Conference on Gender and Environment Data, Dubai, UAE, 28-29 November 2023.
UNFCCC COP28, UN Climate Change Conference, Dubai 30 November to 12 December 2023.
IUCN at UNFCCC COP28
IUCN at UNFCCC COP28 : What’s our Position?
Read our position paper and join one of the webinars below to learn more!
UNFCCC COP28, IUCN Position Paper: Regional Preparation Webinar Recordings
Recording– Regional preparation webinar for West Asia & Africa
Recording – Regional preparation webinar for Europe & North America
Recording – Regional preparation webinar for Asia and Pacific
Recording – Regional preparation webinar for Latin America & the Caribbean
Unite for Nature Pavilion : Watch out for Full Event Calendar
IUCN will host a pavilion at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) from 30 November to 12 December 2023. The pavilion will provide event spaces to IUCN constituents, to demonstrate how the climate and biodiversity loss crises are inextricably linked, and the crucial role that nature must play in a just transition to address the challenge of climate change.
We will share updates on events at the pavilion here. Watch out!
Resolutions and Recommendations
The twenty-first session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 21) to the UNCCD is taking place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan from 13 to 17 November 2023. At CRIC 21, parties will, among other things, review the assessment of the UNCCD’s implementation along its 2018 – 2030 Strategic Framework, and will provide targeted recommendations. IUCN Members have adopted several Resolutions that relate to UNCCD’s mandate. You will find two examples of such Resolutions below.
Resolution 7.009 – Protecting and restoring endangered grassland and savannah ecosystems expressed concern that the world’s native grasslands and savannahs are undergoing land-use change and degradation at a rate likely exceeding that of any other biome, and requests governments to designate resources to support efforts to foster grassland and savannah protection and restoration. Further, it also encourages IUCN Members and governments to apply the UNCCD’s Scientific Conceptual Framework for Land Degradation Neutrality as a means to support implementation of the UNCCD.
Resolution 6.040 – Support for Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) in Africa encourages governments, civil society organizations, corporations and other private-sector actors engaged in land use related interventions in Africa to recognize that increased programmatic support for, and investment in, FLR produces multiple benefits that contribute to local, national and global environmental and development goals, and to affirm national FLR commitments as contributions to the AFR100 target of restoring 100 million hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes by 2030, among other things.
Has your work contributed to the implementation of IUCN Resolutions? Let us know by submitting an Activity Report on the Resolutions and Recommendations Platform!
Opportunities
Online Learning and Webinars
IUCN Academy. : Have a look at the different courses available.
The Red List of Ecosystems for Assessors – Specialised Course
Nature’s crown jewels : An introduction to natural World Heritage
Find out more and register here: Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) focused on ‘Assessing tourism services in protected areas: value chain and economic analyses’.
SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG) trainings. For more information, click here.
Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence – Learning in Practice Webinar Series
Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility (BNCFF) – Investing for Ocean Impact, Podcast
RedList trainer course – Become a certified RedList trainer
Newsletters
Species Survival Commission (SSC) – Species e-bulletin, September 2023
World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) – Bulletin September 2023
Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) – Newsletter August 2023
Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy Newsletter – August 2023
Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) – Newsletter July 2023
Spanish Committee of IUCN – Quarterly Newsletter Summer 2023 (in Spanish)
Other
A Guide to Expanding Protected & Conserved Areas under the UN Global Biodiversity Framework
Announcing the 12th World Wilderness Congress
Membership Info Guide Guidance and toolkit for impact assessments in a World Heritage context
IUCN Blog – Crossroads – Latest blog – What Work In One Corner of Saudi Arabia Can Teach Us About Restoring Nature
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