This issue of our CEC newsletter is devoted to progress and activities within the World Conservation Learning Network, one of CEC's three key areas of work. The World Conservation Learning Network (WCLN) is a unique global mechanism bridging the gap between expert knowledge and on-the-job action that affects the environment. One aim is to build professional capacity. Another is to catalyze new learning about sustainable solutions.

Driven by the demand for real-world solutions to complex environmental problems, the network provides practical short-courses to update on-the-job professionals. It does so via global partnership, brokerage and engagement among higher education institutions and the conservation, environmental protection and development communities. Face-to-face events as well as the internet provide a range of opportunities for interpersonal and virtual learning and exchange.

The WCLN is an initiative led by the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC), and in this CEC newsletter are updates on its development. The most recent news comes from the May 2006 regional event that established a WCLN Southern African network. Like any great idea, the WCLN is driven by people inspired by its vision. Profiles introducing two such leaders, Johan Burger and Arturo Curiel, present their personal and professional motivation for promoting groundbreaking events in their respective regions: Southern Africa and Mesoamerica. In addition, Arturo and WCLN focal point for Latin America - Ana Puyol - describe the actions taken to develop the WCLN Mesoamerican network since its inception in August 2005> -> less than a year ago. Ultimately, lessons learned in Mesoamerica and Southern Africa will benefit the next big regional WCLN events, which are pencilled to take place in South America and in the Arab region in 2007, with several other regions in discussion.

In addition to a WCLN update, this newsletter also includes the first full "CEC Members News" section. Items run the gamut from CEC members involvement in the opening of a new Earth Charter Centre for Education for Sustainable Development in Costa Rica, through a new master's degree in Learning for Sustainability at the University of Plymouth (UK), to children's education programmes on birds in Lebanon. A round-up of other CEC-led activities includes outcomes from the recent meeting of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Brazil related to the Global Initiative on Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA), and a suite of videoconferences for our Environmental Citizenship Project in seven countries in Latin America.

As CEC members, if the WCLN initiative excites you, I would like to invite you to share your views about the WCLN; to share information about your courses, knowledge or research on the WCLN portal; and to join the WCLN working group. The participation of CEC members is invaluable to the WCLN's success, and I invite you to contact cec@iucn.org and visit www.wcln.org for more ideas about how to become involved in this truly innovative project to advance active knowledge exchange for a sustainable future.

The World Conservation Learning Network (WCLN) established a new conservation learning network during a recent three-day event focusing on the Southern African region.

Participants from more than 50 organizations discussed how to build a network that systematically and simultaneously addresses conservation, poverty reduction and sustainable development during a Southern African World Conservation Learning Network event. The WCLN is a project of the World Conservation Union’s Commission on Education and Communication (IUCN CEC).

The regional event, "Innovative Learning for Conservation, Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development in Southern Africa," was held 2-4 May in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Organizers included the WCLN, the Sustainability Institute (a South African NGO) and the University of Stellenbosch’s School of Public Management and Planning, which hosted the event at its campus near Cape Town, with the support of the IUCN Conservation for Poverty Reduction Initiative.

Participants represented institutions of higher education and training, NGOs and governments from the Southern Africa region; national, regional and international IUCN offices; and the donor community. They included experts and practitioners in the inter-related fields of conservation, poverty reduction, sustainable development and "new learning".

Participants discussed the links between these areas and answered key questions, such as: What is the region’s current capacity for conservation learning? How can it be strengthened? What is the demand for conservation knowledge? Where should work focus in the future?

Amongst others, presentations by the Southern African Development Community Regional Environmental Education Programme (SADC-REEP), the National Business Initiative in South Africa, the Sustainability Institute and Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD International) highlighted the importance of partnership.

The meeting resulted in several project proposals to guide the network’s growth in the region. These include: (1) mapping and developing a database of capacity needs assessments and existing capacity building interventions; (2) defining a regional framework for sustainability education; (3) exchanging and building on innovative examples of multi-sectoral, inter-university master’s programmes; and (4) sharing local level land-use planning toolkits throughout Southern African drylands. A project development expert is refining the project proposals, which will be made available in the near future.

The University of Stellenbosch’s School of Public Management and Planning will be the institutional coordinating centre for the Southern African regional network, under the auspices of the Head of the School, Kobus Muller. Professor Muller will lead an interim coordinating group with the following members: Josephine Msangi (Dean, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Namibia), John Kalenga Saka (Professor of Chemistry, University of Malawi) and Johan Nel (Executive Head, Centre for Environmental Management, North-West University, South Africa). Caroline Gwature will participate ex-officio in the group as the IUCN staff liaison in the IUCN Regional Office for Southern Africa.

CEC members comment on the meeting:

"To me the meeting brought to our attention the urgent need to address learning in conservation in the region, and indeed in Africa and the world. Learning institutes and other stakeholders are fundamental in achieving these desires, and therefore should all pull together to achieve bit by bit what is possible. This will make a difference to our region and provide future learning directions in these areas."
- Wazha Tema, Deputy Director, Department of Tourism, Botswana

"The meeting was a great week of learning and making new friends. I sincerely hope the Network will take on a life of its own and that the partnership will continue to make positive differences to the work that we are already doing on the continent."
-Tommy Garnett, Director of Programmes, Environmental Foundation for Africa, Sierra Leone

Interest in replicating the learning event and developing regional networks in East Africa and West Africa will be explored in the coming months.

For more information, please email wcln@iucn.org, visit www.wcln.org or call +41 22 999 0274.

Johan Burger in Southern Africa
Meetings of the WCLN in Gland, Bangkok and Guadalajara convinced Johan Burger that a Southern African meeting “should be organized as matter of priority”. Johan, who is Director of the School of Public Management & Planning at Stellenbosch University, became enthusiasticallz involved in facilitating the establishment of a WCLN Southern African network in 2004 and paved the way for a WCLN conference at his school in South Africa in May 2006.

The meeting in Stellenbosch and at the Sustainability Institute I consider to be one of the highlights of my academic career. I am amazed by the quality of participation, the dedication and enthusiasm of participants and the well-formulated proposals achieved in such a short time and consider it a firm foundation for many new initiatives and partnerships in the region and in the world," Professor Burger says. "The kind of professionalism and enthusiasm that came from the IUCN people involved, in particular Ana, Gillian, Cecilia and Lizzie, together with the willingness of my own colleagues to commit their time, especially Hanlie Coetzee and Christelle Snyman, made it a memorable team effort."

Johan Burger started his career as an architect. He moved to Cape Town in 1984 and worked on education projects before becoming project manager for a number of large state housing projects. He completed a master’s degree in Public Administration followed by a Ph.D. in Housing Management. After joining Stellenbosch University in 1994, he welcomed the development of a master’s programme in Sustainable Development Planning and Management, for which he became responsible in 2004 when he took over the reigns as Director of the School of Public Management and Planning. His research has focused on topics such as tactics of public governance, public finance, and project management in the interest of society and the environment. "What is important for me," he explains, "is that we cannot apply even the harder knowledge applications such as finance and project management without linking them to issues of sustainability."

Although he has stepped down as committee member, he remains "extremely enthusiastic" about the WCLN: "The time is right for a network such as WCLN to make a significant impact on global decision making through the generation and utilisation of conservation and sustainable development knowledge."

Arturo Curiel Ballesteros in Mesoamerica
Arturo Curiel Ballesteros, Director of the Environment and Human Communities Institute and Profesor Investigador Titular at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, contributed his leadership to the first major WCLN meeting at the regional level - the August event that established the WCLN Mesoamerican network.

Arturo links his enthusiasm for the WCLN to the seventh Millennium Development Goal—ensure environmental sustainability—which he views as "a calling for all mankind and to experts on the matter". As a university researcher with a background in soil science research, environmental education and environmental health (water, forests and human health), Arturo knows that his region has a wealth of relevant experience to build on. "I am certain that Mesoamerica has many experiences to share. Mesoamerica also has the power to gather the best conservation knowledge available to offer an integral insight when decisions in the region are made; decisions that often face both technical and economic challenges," he says.

Early CEC experience with the second Ibero-American Environmental Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, and participation in the last IUCN World Congresses and several CEC programmes prepared Arturo for the task of organizing the WCLN event. "The idea of doing a meeting where specialists and important actors in this field would gather came about because we needed to look for the best alliances for this project," he recalls. Three subjects emerged as priorities: water, land use (including wildlife corridors and biodiversity), and strengthening informed social participation in the management of natural resources.

Arturo joined CEC in 1997 and has been involved in its WCLN project since its creation. "I gladly accepted the invitation to join the CEC because the World Conservation Union (IUCN) impressed me as an organization that has experts from virtually everywhere in the planet, and I learned about its support for Environmental Education and the World Conservation Strategy, which were very appealing to me."

A review of existing IUCN learning resources and their potential use in the region was initiated early on and continues today. Ana says a prime example is the review of an IUCN course on water issues. "The University of Guadalajara and the University for International Cooperation have been looking closely at ‘Flow’, a global IUCN course related to water management. They’re examining whether or not this could be of use in the region. They consider the e-learning pedagogy to be very interesting and useful, and find that the technical content needs to be adapted to local stakeholders," she says.

A review of existing resources throughout the region is also ongoing. This takes the form of a capacity assessment that aims to systematically identify gaps in conservation learning. In particular, it will identify organizations and institutions and their relevant resources. Ana says the assessment seeks to answer questions such as "Is there a very good local course in water at a university, and how would we regionalize it? Is a particular end-user being overlooked? What’s out there in terms of existing technologies and innovative methodologies?" Once mapped, the assessment is expected to reveal areas of need and opportunity in conservation learning.

New learning resources specific to the region already are in development. A course for working with water in Latin America will be available online, in Spanish, offering students 92 hours of instruction including a one-day video conference and an electronic forum. Another course will promote the use of the Ecosystem Approach (a strategy for the integrated, equitable and sustainable management of land, water and living resources) in for professional who manage terrestrial and marine protected areas in the region.

The network is actively seeking new partners and opportunities for collaboration. Contacts are made through WCLN events and by participating in meetings hosted by organizations with related interests. Arturo is leading the effort to broaden the network’s constituency, in particular through his work with COMPLEXUS, a consortium of Mexican universities related to sustainable development.

Arturo envisions the WCLN’s future as "a number of courses, experiences and archetypal experiences being offered from and to Mesoamerica". They will be used, he believes, to make better decisions that ultimately contribute to a greater stability of planet earth’s ecosystems.

COP8 Working group 2
COP8 Working Group 2 discussed the Global Initiative on Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) on 22 March. Indonesia, on behalf of G-77 and China, as well as Austria, on behalf of the European Union, set the tone of the discussion. These delegates expressed support for the CEPA work programme as an important element for achieving the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity. They emphasized the importance of CEPA as an integral element of National Biodiversity Strategies. They also noted a need for synergies with the CEPA programmes of other Conventions, as well as the United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development. Funding and human resources for CEPA require more attention, participants said.

The CEC was identified as an important partner for implementing the CBD’s CEPA work programme. The IUCN Count Down 2010 Initiative was identified as a key framework for action. Some delegates said a CEPA toolkit was a priority activity. CITES, UNEP and UNESCO expressed their willingness to cooperate with the Secretariat to implement the CEPA work programme.

CEC side event on CEPA
More than 90 participants attended the CEPA side event held on 21 March by CEC with the CBD Secretariat - nearly double the number expected. More than half of the participants represented government delegations, United Nations bodies, and other Conventions. Denise Hamú, CEC Chair, lead the side event.

Haroldo Castro, CEC Co-Chair for Strategic Communication, presented CEPA strategies through the 4-P Workshop approach. The approach is applied worldwide by Conservation International for planning strategic communication, and described in its new publications series, which was launched by CEC during the side event.

Susana Calvo, also CEC Co-Chair for Strategic Communication, facilitated a panel of speakers sharing examples of CEPA in action “on the ground”. Diane Black-Layne described how the private sector supports CEPA activities in Antigua and Barbuda Island. Sylvi Ofstad of Norway presented CEPA in the context of European priorities. Ana Puyol of Ecuador emphasized the benefits of working with non-traditional sectors based on experience with the Environmental Citizenship Project in Latin America.

A second panel discussion focused on advancing the CEPA work programme, with David Ainsworth from the CBD Secretariat and Peter Bos of The Netherlands. First, David presented a “short list” of priority activities for the CEPA work programme:

• Establish an implementation structure for CEPA activities in the CBD Secretariat;
• Conduct knowledge and awareness audit;
• Develop key messages;
• Implement media relations strategy;
• Elaborate toolkit for implementation of national CEPA strategies;
• Organize workshops for the articulation of national CEPA strategies;
• Convene and host workshops to facilitate the implementation of National CEPA strategies.

Peter’s presentation emphasized that implementation of the CEPA work programme is a responsibility of the Parties, and should be related to the National CEPA Action Plans and to the National Biodiversity Strategies. He stated the need for regional, subregional and bilateral cooperation. He called on the CBD Secretariat to stimulate, facilitate and strengthen the CEPA work programme.

In response the presentations, participants provided a number of arguments about why CEPA is a crucial instrument for the Convention. They noted the need for financial support and training to implement the priority activities of the CEPA work programme, urging the CBD Secretariat to explore GEF funds and other financial mechanisms to support parties implementing CEPA strategies.

For more information email cec@iucn.org.

The Environmental Citizenship Project promotes understanding of the global environmental conventions on biodiversity, ozone depletion, international waters and climate change—and action to support their implementation. National networks join CEC as partners in a region-wide effort to engage citizens in sustainable development, especially through the review of environmental education policy. The networks are comprised of local government officials, parliamentarians, and members of community radio stations, churches and nongovernmental organizations.

The project’s regional leader is Cecilia Amaluisa, a CEC member. She is supported by CEC focal points in each of the seven project countries: Marta Andelman in Argentina; Valeria Fuentealba in Chile; Rafael Bosque in Cuba; José Molina in Costa Rica; Carlos Crespo in Ecuador; Rosa María Vidal in Mexico; Patricia Fernández and María Sofía Brutton in Peru. Marco Encalada, a CEC member from Ecuador, was the driving force behind the project’s strategic planning and its first phase of implementation.

For more information visit http://www.sur.iucn.org/ciudadania or email Cecilia Amaluisa on cec@iucn.org.

New Masters in Learning for Sustainability
A new master’s degree programme in Learning for Sustainability will be offered starting September 2007 through the Centre for Sustainable Futures (CSF) at the University of Plymouth, UK, writes CEC member Stephen Sterling, Schumacher Reader in EfS. More>>

Earth Charter Center Opens in Costa Rica
CEC member Mohit Mukherjee reports on changes following a strategic assessment of the progress of the Earth Charter Initiative since the year 2000, including the functions of a new Earth Charter Center in Costa Rica.
. More>>

Seminar in Italy on Biodiversity and Protected Areas
Three CEC members — Violeta Orlovic, Peter Townsend and Maurillio Cipparone — are involved in “Countdown 2010: People and Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation,” a seminar from 25 September to 14 October 2006 in Italy’s Majella National Park. More>>

Training: ESD for Geography Teachers
CEC member John Bains will be presenting a professional development unit in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for geography teachers on June 24 in London, based on a course of the “Professional Practice for Sustainable Development,” project. More>>

Sustainable Hunting: Boys and Birds in Lebanon
An education campaign in Lebanon has introduced bird conservation issues to public school children aged 8 to 12. CEC member Bassima Khatib of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL), reports. More>>

Ocean Futures Society Offers Outdoor Education
Young people can become “Ambassadors of the Environment” through a programme of Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society. CEC member Richard Murphy explains how the programme uses nature to teach the next generation about sustainable living. More>>

Life After Wildfowl & Wetlands
Doug Hulyer left the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) at the end of 2005, after 22 years at headquarters in Slimbridge, Gloucester, most of them as a Director. Read about his plans to work with English Nature, Natural England and DEFRA. More>>

India’s Rural and Tribal Peoples Depend on Wild Food
Vineet Soni, an Assistant Professor at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Applied Sciences speaks with rural and tribal peoples in Rajasthan, India, about the benefits of conserving biodiversity. More>>

If you have any trouble with the above links to full CEC Member news stories, go to the following web address:
http://iucn.org/themes/cec/newsletters/newsletter_mayjune_member_news_2006.htm

All CEC members are invited to send brief items of interest for posting in “News from CEC Members” – a new feature of CEC newsletters in 2006. Submissions should be sent to cecnews@iucn.org.

Thank you for your participation.

Special Issue Coming soon: Changes in CEC Governance

• Issue 4: June 2006 >>
• Issue 3: March 2006 >>
• Issue 2: February 2006 >>
• Issue 1: January 2006 >>