Dr Hillary M. Masundire, Chair of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM)

Focus on translations

“Translations have been a major focus of our work over the past half year. The Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) aims to reach out beyond the international community to the practitioners working at country and field levels. To achieve that, translations into languages other than English are essential.

“French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian – apart from English: our CEM newsletter is now available in all these languages. The translations are done by members of the CEM commission. Take a look at our website – they are all there: http://www.iucn.org/themes/cem/news/newsletter.htm.

“A new Spanish translation will also make the ecosystem approach more accessible in the Spanish speaking world: Angela Andrade, the CEM regional vice chair for South America has translated the publication “The Ecosystem Approach. Five Steps to Implementation”, which is one of the first IUCN publications printed on recycled paper. (Ver publicación completa [PDF])

“Spanish was also the language of a field training course on the application of the ecosystem approach in protected areas in Southern America. Similarly to a second ecosystem approach training course held in the Mekong Delta, practitioners received a hands-on training on how to implement the ecosystem approach in the field.

“These training courses are a very positive step, because they help mainstreaming the ecosystem approach. And they show those practitioners responsible for managing ecosystems on the ground that the approach is actually not that complicated. Using their own language helps a great deal.”

Hilary Masundire can be contacted at masundhmopipi.ub.bw

Keith Wheeler, Deputy Chair of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC)

Developing a toolkit for biodiversity communication, education and public awareness

"Countries who signed the biodiversity convention need resources and assistance to help them use the important tools of communication, education and public awareness (CEPA) in their biodiversity work at the national level. Developing a CEPA Toolkit is a major new project of the Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) and we are working closely with the Convention Secretariat on this process.

"In order to develop a very practical set of tools, the commission has just finished the first set of surveys with the end-users of the toolkit, to identify what they need in terms of the key focus areas and the format of the tools. The survey found that there are many groups who would like to have access to the toolkit and that the format may change for each one.

“For example, government users would like shorter and more policy-oriented tools; while biodiversity educators and communicators could use more comprehensive and flexible tools, such as a clearing house of related resources and an e-learning version of the toolkit.

“The process has already benefited from considerable inputs from many different contributors. At the recent Convention on Biological Diversity conference in Curitiba, Brazil, CEC animated an interesting side event focused on the experiences of governments and NGOs using the CEPA tools, which shared some good practices which can eventually feed into the Toolkit project.

“A Memorandum of Understanding with the CBD for the creation of the CEPA Toolkit has been signed and will become CEC's platform to move forward on this project, with considerable input from CEC members, the eventual users of the Toolkit, and the secretariat to the convention, as well as some related experts from some of the other convention processes.”

Keith Wheeler can be contacted at keithconcord.org

Mr Nik Lopoukhine, Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)

Trying to push protected areas under the Convention on Biological Diversity

“The Convention on Biological Diversity was a major focus of the World Commission on Protected Areas’ (WCPA) work over the past half year. The eigth meeting of the parties to the Convention, which was held in Curitiba in Brazil in March was both a very troublesome and a positive experience at the same time – troublesome, because of targets not being met and sliding resources; positive for wide recognition of the work of WCPA.

“The Curitiba meeting made worryingly clear how the commitments like the 2010 Biodiversity Target are almost impossible to achieve by now. With the Programme of Work on Protected Areas, we have a great document outlining clear actions, targets and timelines to implement the Convention and to meet the 2010 Target. However, implementation is lagging: only 15 countries submitted their interim report on the Programme of Work to the Curitiba meeting – out of 188 parties to the convention. Another worrying sign are the sliding resource capacities for the convention. It will be very hard to meet the targets set for protected areas and for biodiversity conservation as a whole if the funding continues to decrease.

“But Curitiba was also an uplifting experience, because WCPA was being highlighted throughout as the most important partner and constituency in the protected area related work of the Biodiversity Convention. The conference provided a great venue for highlighting our work – we launched the Guidelines on Sustainable Financing of Protected Areas for example. WCPA also worked through various channels to encourage parties to continue and reinforce the work on the Protected Areas Programme of Work and to find potential partners and donors for its delivery. And I think we’ve achieved one important step: the CBD will convene a second Ad Hoc Open Ended working group meeting on protected areas – meaning that the nations of the world continue to recognize the crucial importance of protected areas in the global fight to slow down the loss of biodiversity.

Nik Lopoukhine can be contacted at nik.lopoukhinepc.gc.ca

Ms. Sheila Abed de Zavala, Chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law (CEL)

Giving the Environmental Law Commission a new shape

“Since the last Council, the Commission on Environmental Law (CEL) reconstituted itself by establishing eleven Specialists Groups – energy; law; water law; implementation on CBD; compliance and enforcement; soils conservation; indigenous people; oceans; ethics; and protected areas. The CEL also appointed chairs and co-chairs from different regions to these groups and started the process of engaging new members, all of which was very successful.

“The co-chairs had to agree on a work plan for every specialists group, in order to link them more closely to the Environmental Law Center (ELC) focal points. A legal officer from the IUCN secretariat now provides support to all the specialists groups. As a result, they are now actively working with IUCN as a whole.

“For example, the specialists groups on energy law has been working together with the IUCN secretariat and other partners to develop the Energy Leverage Initiative.

“A second highlight relies on the inter-commission work. The CEL is working together with the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) on identified areas of common concern like transboundary ones.

“Finally, the specialists groups will join CEL’s upcoming meeting from 1-3 June in Iguazu Falls in Brazil.

Sheila Abed de Zavala can be contacted at sheila.abedidea.org.py

Dr. Holly T. Dublin, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC)

Developing the indicators to measure the 2010 Biodiversity Target

“With the 2010 biodiversity target the international community aims to slow the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, is only four years away, yet we still currently lack the means to measure trends in biodiversity. IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC) is therefore developing a suite of indicators to measure biodiversity trends.

“The Convention on Biological Diversity conference in March this year gave the SSC an important mandate to develop a suite of indicators, including the Red List Index, the Sampled Red List Index, indicators on sustainable use on ecosystem goods and services and indicators on alien invasive species.

“These indices will be able to measure trends in threatened species, coverage of protected areas, trends in invasive alien species, biodiversity for food and medicine and sustainable use. For the post-2010 period, SSC is planning to develop indices measuring the impacts of climate change and disease.

“In a more long-term perspective, these indicators should become the tools to measure progress towards environmental sustainability, which we see as the foundation for all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). All the other MDGs – be they on poverty alleviation, health issues or child mortality - can only be achieved in the long run if we live in a healthy environment. The Red List and Sustainable Use Indices are the most powerful tools to show whether we are moving in the right direction – provided that additional resources are made available. At the moment, the IUCN’s SSC is therefore very actively involved in getting the funding together.

Holly Dublin can be contacted at holly.dublinssc.iucn.org

Dr Taghi Farvar, Chair of the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP)

Working for the recognition of community conserved areas

“Since the last Council we have been pushing on a number of fronts, which are being reported on the CEESP web site. Among them the is topic of community conserved areas.

“There are thousands of areas in the world protected by indigenous people, yet they lack official recognition. So CEESP is pushing forward the big breakthrough of the 2003 World Parks Congress when community conserved areas received the greatest attention so far; later on, the Programme of Work on protected areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity included the Parks Congress achievements as an integral part. As this is very new for governments, we are trying to track what they are doing, what kind of legal and policy changes they undertake. We are also providing guidance and advocacy pressure.

“The CEESP co-organized the first International Congress on marine protected areas in Geelong Australia last October. One of the five themes on the agenda was partnerships in the management of marine protected areas: marine community conserved areas and marine and coastal areas that are being co-managed by NGOs, governments, and the oldest right-holders concerned: the local communities.

“However, the important official recognition of community conserved areas is still lagging behind, as many case studies have shown. The Marine Protected Areas Congress showed all the more how communities are involved and how this needs to be taken into account.

“Whereas local communities have been in the business of protected areas for thousands of years, governments are the new kids on the block, mostly since only a century ago! It is acknowledged that some eighty percent of biological diversity occurs outside of the official (government run) parks and protected areas, which means that most of it is under the jurisdiction of the local communities. Indigenous peoples and local traditional communities have always had to protect areas for their own purpose.

“In Australia, we were amazed by the Aborigines. They have some of the oldest tribal memory and beat everybody else in the field of environmental history. They have up to 40,000 years of memory about places in the sea that used to be land, like the “Sea Country” between Tasmania and the mainland. They still remember the sacred sites that were once on land and that are now covered by the sea for tens of thousands of years.”

To learn more on Community Conserved Areas as well as Co-management of Natural Resources, and other areas of CEESP’s work, please visit www.iucn.org/themes/commissions/ceesp.