Story | 17 វិច្ឆិកា, 2017

PANORAMA-Solutions for a Healthy Planet launches new 'Agriculture and Biodiversity' theme at UNFCCC COP23

The initiative 'PANORAMA – Solutions for a Healthy Planet' presented its vision and functions in a side event at COP23 in Bonn, Germany.  With more than 90 attendees, 'PANORAMA' launched a new thematic community on 'Agriculture and Biodiversity'. The global partnership initiative features an innovative knowledge sharing approach in nature conservation and sustainable development linking practitioners across sectors and regions.

 “To address climate change, adapt to its impacts or stop the loss of biodiversity, people need knowledge. Therefore, we have to build on successful approaches and work together. The PANORAMA initiative is an excellent example for such cooperation”, said Dr. Elsa Nickel, Director of Nature Conservation and Sustainable Use of Nature, BMUB at the event. The German Federal Ministry for Environment (BMUB) supports the development of the PANORAMA partnership through a number of projects.

PANORAMA’s concept is simple but intriguing: How can practitioners learn from each other and avoid  re-inventing the wheel? The approach fills a niche and encourages replication, adaptation and upscaling of successful approaches to different geographical, societal and thematic environments.

PANORAMA is currently run by key players in the field of nature conservation and sustainable development: IUCN, GIZ, UN Environment, GRID-Arendal and Rare – all of them with broad expertise and a long work record in the field. The network of PANORAMA contributors and beneficiaries has grown with now around 350 solutions from over 70 countries. All thematic PANORAMA communities are open to anyone for sharing their success stories as solution cases, and each is coordinated by an organization or a consortium.

In addition to leading the initiative jointly with GIZ, IUCN also coordinates the “Protected Areas” thematic community of PANORAMA, profiling a range of solutions for protected area management and governance. During the event, Oscar Guevara of WWF Colombia presented the REDPARQUES Declaration, a regional commitment of 17 Latin American countries for integrating protected areas into climate change policy, as an example solution.

The highlight of the event was the launch of a new thematic community on 'Agriculture and Biodiversity' under coordination jointly by Rare and GIZ. The coordinators presented the first 16 solutions already on the portal. The solutions had been identified through the'Farming for Biodiversity' Solution Search contest which was launched last year. Rare’s CEO Brett Jenks said: “Solutions exist in remote parts around the planet. Local communities are the research and development labs of problem-solving. We just have to find what’s working and make it available where it is needed, because climate change needs behavior change”.

PANORAMA it set up for sustainability. It will continuously expand to cover further themes and engaging other communities of practice, showcasing integrated solutions for nature conservation and development goals. PANORAMA’s next theme, on “Business and biodiversity” (exact title tbc) to be coordinated by IUCN, is already in the pipeline and will be launched early in 2018.