The CEPA Specialty Group will facilitate the development of the best practices in communication, education and public awareness inside and outside the CEC and IUCN, encourage the sharing of stories in CEPA as a tool for learning and linking to implementation of global policy.
Our objectives are to: (1) Create a community of practice in CEPA, involving researchers, educators, communities and all practitioners in communication, which will develop skills and tools for communities, stakeholders and all those who want to bring about change for biodiversity in sustainable development; (2) Encourage the use of CEPA tools amongst all IUCN members. A focus is to develop tools that will enable all actors inside and outside of IUCN to contribute to the implementation of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements at the International Level.
Short-term plans:
- Develop an online course in Spanish based on the existing toolkit, and further develop the CEPA toolkit in different languages and through an online community of practice;
- Provide support and capacity-development for CEPA to NBSAPs, National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans;
- Encourage CEC members and others to participate in the International Year of Biodiversity, supporting activities at the national level;
- Encourage CEC members to hold a CEPA side event at the Nagoya COP for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in October 2010, define the programme and promote broad participation in the event;
- Offer CEPA tools and expertise for IUCN Regional projects and National Committees;
- Provide resource persons and other expertise for regional and sub-regional CEPA workshops of the CBD and other multilateral environmental agreements;
- Promote the involvement of the young professionals in CEPA activities and to enrich the CEPA vision, in particular for the side event at the Nagoya COP.
Long-term plans focus on enhancing the role of CEPA in reference to the new CBD strategic plan, after the Nagoya COP; the International Year of Forests in 2011; the Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012 and the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.
