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| OUR SIX COMMISSIONS CLARIFY GLOBAL CONSERVATION AGENDAS |
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IUCN Commissions unite 10,000 volunteer experts from a range of disciplines who assess the state of the world’s natural resources and provide the Union with sound know-how and policy advice on conservation issues. By improving knowledge and information in their specialties, Commissions illuminate powerful linkages across disciplines and inform decision making in the practice and policy of natural resource management.
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Holly T. Dublin, Chair of the IUCN Species
Survival Commission (SSC)
When working with individual species, evidence of the impact of our work is sometimes hard to explain or only evident in the years to come. With that in mind, there still is notable progress. We secured a mandate for the delivery of species-based biodiversity indicators based on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species for measuring progress towards the 2010 target. The Red List for 2006 generated six times more website traffic, and raised the media profile of the Commission and the Red List as the global standard for reporting the conservation status of over 40,000 species. From assessment we went to action.
The Veterinary Specialist Group contributes to removing the drug responsible for more than 90% reductions of south Asian vulture numbers and is alerting the pharmaceutical industry to similar scenarios for other drugs in future. The first-ever meeting of all 13 Asian elephant range states addressed threats to the continent’s largest mammal. A continental strategy for the conservation of African lions was agreed. Specialist Groups and partners continue to tackle the amphibian extinction crisis. We are now laying a sound scientific basis for climate change adaptation planning by identifying which species are most vulnerable and why. And we clean our own house: SSC became the first Commission to make its operations carbon neutral.
SSC looks forward to building on its strengths to deliver the information, knowledge and expertise needed to guide improved decisions and actions to safeguard biodiversity, and to increase the capacity to tackle emerging challenges.
Nik Lopoukhine, Chair of the IUCN World
Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)
The World Commission on Protected Areas charts innovative ways to ensure that protected areas – the priceless gems of our planet – are conserved for future generations and contribute to the wellbeing of the people that depend on them.
In June, the World Protected Areas Leadership Forum focused on the role of protected areas in improving health, innovative financing and effective management. The creative ‘Healthy Parks – Healthy People’ initiative by Parks Victoria in Australia incorporates human health into every aspect of protected area management. WCPA, through its far-reaching network, aims to make such initiatives the norm rather than the exception.
WCPA continues to drive the Programme of Work on Protected Areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity. In East Asia, it has updated the Regional Action Plan for Protected Areas as a blueprint for action to 2010. We also pushed stakeholders to use mountain protected areas’ connectivity to mitigate climate change impacts.
Finally, we work to build a future pool of experts by engaging youth, for instance at the Youth Forum. They are future protected area professionals who need or may find the tools necessary to manage the challenges of the 21 st century.
Sheila Abed de Zavala, Chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law (CEL)
CEL is going through vibrant changes: 450 members in a range of specialist groups work on the promotion of environmental law in their areas of expertise. With an agreed plan of action in hand, and annual meetings of the specialist group chairs, we pay special attention to the Resolutions and Recommendations of the next Congress.
In 2006, we produced a Code of Ethics for Biodiversity that is now being reviewed to arrive at a powerful ‘Code of Codes’ that can be applied at local, regional and national levels. We work more with other commissions, for instance on the Precautionary Principle Guidelines, on the legal issues related to protected areas, such as land tenure, and on specific legal issues in their work.
For my election, I made the commitment to serve the whole IUCN membership. As a result, we have invited members to express their needs for legal advice by letter and through two meetings in Africa and South America, and asked young law professionals to submit papers and work with us on the most pressing legal challenges.
Through such changes, CEL remains the network of legal excellence, whilst improving its legal support to the work of the entire Union.
Keith Wheeler, Chair of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC)
The Commissions help shape the Union and help the Union shape the world. CEC is actively exploring how to effectively do this ‘shaping’. We have been experimenting with change processes and learning what works for us and the Union to move people, organizations and societies to sustainable solutions.
We will focus our energy on some of the answers: Dialogue for the co-creation of strategic outcomes; building social capital that increases our capacity to bridge knowledge and action; more innovation and experimentation for improved practice.
Meanwhile, we have also made practical progress. We offer study certificates with the United Nations University that match the IUCN Programme with a network of universities worldwide via distance learning.
For the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, we contributed to the UNECE process in Europe, and developed indicators with partners in Asia- Pacific to understand the Decade’s impact. For the Convention on Biological Diversity, a demand-driven toolkit helps coordinators to make National Biodiversity Strategies and Actions Plans more effective. Another highlight is our work to reconnect youth with nature to nurture an environmentally aware and responsible citizenship.
We look forward to continuing with you on our learning journey and re-shaping ourselves so that we can most effectively co-create the world in which we want to live.
Taghi Farvar, Chair of the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP)
We address the concerns of communities and societies about the connection between conservation and crucial socio-economic and cultural concerns, and therefore work to improve the governance of natural resources in different areas and at different levels.
We promoted greater involvement of communities in the management of protected areas and the impacts of mining, also as a way to reduce poverty. We supported regional networks and built their capacities for the co-management of marine protected areas in West Africa, protected areas in Southeast Asia, natural forests in China, and conflict resolution over natural resources in Afghanistan and Madagascar.
Specifically, we helped turn traditional knowledge and management arrangements into effective management arrangements: we did so on the ground in Iran, Afghanistan and Morocco, in policy in Iran, globally for the UNEP Governing Council on tourism, and on oil exploration in West and East Africa. We got involved in mining issues in the Philippines, the urgency response to the Lebanon oil spill, and the World Gathering of Nomadic Pastoralists.
Together with WCPA, we did five regional surveys of Community Conserved Areas, and in nine countries of Europe, we began participatory action research initiatives on governance of biodiversity. Some results are yet to come, but in 2006 our Commission demonstrated it remains a crucial thread in the fabric of the Union.
Hillary Masundire, Chair of the Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM)
It is not without pride that I dare to claim that, in 2006, CEM found its way to become a more respected, dynamic and effective community of scientists and practitioners.
We developed an expertise database of our members that allows us to connect better to each other, and which allows us to more effectively service the Union: 80% of our members confirmed their interest to actively participate in IUCN’s work on the science, practice and policy of the ecosystem approach.
And there is much we have to offer. The Convention on Biological Diversity recognized CEM as a key promoter of the ecosystem approach. We trained Vietnamese protected area managers, published Ecosystems, Livelihoods and Disasters with the disaster community, and helped the Union demonstrate the hidden wealth of dryland biodiversity. We started identifying indicators for ecosystem health, and we contributed our knowledge to two major IUCN initiatives, Livelihoods and Landscapes, and Mangroves for the Future.
We will stay on this course to present at the Congress, in Barcelona, a focused and energized commission that effectively develops the science and shares the practice of the ecosystem approach. I look forward to meeting you there.
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