Dear BES-Net Partners and Members

A very happy new year to all of you! As we seek to come out of the profound impacts of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, we mustn’t lose sights of the lessons of the year gone by. 2021 offers us a golden opportunity to reconfigure our relationship with nature- how we interact with biodiversity, how we can sustainably manage natural resources and protect our vital ecosystems. With the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and the upcoming COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, we need to build momentum to act on our commitments to nature.

At BES-Net’s Phase II, with the support of BMU/IKI, we are closely working with countries, policymakers, scientists and practice communities to build evidence on BES, promote dialogue and collaboration among different actors around IPBES’ latest global biodiversity assessments and implement actions on the ground. With an expanded consortium of members leading, with UNDP, UNEP-WCMC and UNESCO, we now bring specialized expertise on a range of ecosystem issues.

In late 2020, BES-Net organized a virtual dialogue session for representatives from seven countries in Francophone Africa, bringing together practitioners and indigenous and local knowledge holders. The dialogue process fostered meaningful conversation around conservation of pollinators, agro-ecological land restoration and local food production in COVID-19 times. With a new methodology designed for virtual times, the signature interactive style and the use of graphical tools, participants had the opportunity to share and learn from each other’s experiences and reflect on mutually beneficial solutions. Click here to see a snapshot of some of the lessons that emerged.

Building on this virtual dialogue, BES-Net plans to organize a wider Trialogue in 2021, bringing together the representatives from policy, science and practice communities from Benin, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, DRC, Senegal and Togo, to crystallize some of the discussions and solutions coming out of the first session.

BES-Net Phase II is also supporting the National Ecosystem Assessments (NEAs) of various countries, with Malawi, Thailand and Dominical Republic being the latest countries to join the process, led by UNEP-WCMC. In the first-second quarter of 2021, we expect the launch of the final assessments in Cambodia, Cameroon and Viet Nam, taking the findings and recommendations closer to shifting national biodiversity strategies, policies and plans. For more information about the inception workshop for the latest assessments, please see here.

2021 also marks the kick-off of the implementation of BES solution funds. Some of our target countries are taking the findings and recommendations from the Regional Trialogues and NEAs forward with their own action plans, implementing conservation measures, public awareness initiatives, policy mainstreaming actions and more.

Continuing the work on networking and knowledge exchange, BES-Net joined hands with Promote Pollinators, the Coalition of the Willing on Pollinators, to organize a two-part webinar series in December 2020-January 2021 on the need to pursue more pollinator-friendly pathways in the pandemic recovery. With nearly 300 people joining the webinar and an array of inspirational examples arising, this webinar set the scene for greater dialogue in 2021 on pollinator conservation. Read more about it here.

We hope 2021 will be  a productive and healthy year for all of you and the network! If you’re interested in a closer collaboration or would like to bring in more partners in the fold, please reach out to us at alexandra.postrigan@undp.org, yuko.kurauchi@undp.org and prashanthi.subramaniam@undp.org!

Photo source: UNDP BES-Net

Tipping the scales for positive (climate) change

Much of the literature on tipping points for climate change and the environment has been negative and often catastrophic – trust me, I have read most of it!  If you don’t believe me, here is a good place to start – Lenton, et al. (2019).

But, in spite of a couple of decades of research on environmental tipping points, some experts still remain positive. As Sharpe and Lenton demonstrated in a recently published article, climate tipping points could play a critical role in catalysing transformative change.

The new article focuses attention on the need to adjust the target, scale, and duration of policy interventions to drive positive change past critical tipping points, which make return to the pre-existing state less likely, and make further positive change, even without maintaining the original policy intervention, more likely. Sharpe and Lenton illustrate this with examples of electric vehicles and the UK power sector.

Similar positive tipping points can be found for biodiversity, taking advantage of the potential for relatively small changes, which can lead to large ecological changes. One example could be the possible trophic cascade following the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park, which has helped regenerate riparian aspen woodland.  Similarly, beavers in the western USA have been shown to reduce wildfire vegetation damage by around 50%. A personal favourite is the “Pleistocene Park” rewilding project in northern Siberia to restore and maintain steppe permafrost yielding both biodiversity and climate benefits. Many more examples of environmentally positive tipping points can be found at http://www.ecotippingpoints.org/our-stories.html.

For far too long we have been working against nature and creating a biodiversity crisis. Can we now find more ways to work with nature to restore and rebuild a healthy biosphere and maintain a  sustainable human economy?  Can 2021 be the year we leverage positive tipping points for nature?

CAMGEW puts women’s rights for forests at the forefront

“Women have the right to benefit from forest resources and participate in forest decision making processes while at the same time bearing the duty to protect the forest,” notes Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch’s project leader Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeki. Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) organized a workshop on 12 December 2020 to share CAMGEW’s experiences in empowering women on forest conservation and keeping forests standing for the present and future generations.

Held at the CAMGEW office in Bamenda, the workshop presented best practices developed by the non-profit in women’s forest rights and looked at ways to encourage local and national actors to mainstream women’s rights in environmental action plans. It also sought to engage more women and girls in forest action and build consensus around a new women’s rights and environmental justice initiative in the surrounding Kilum-Ijim forest. Bringing together stakeholders from the civil society, media, forest institutions, government agencies, local government, traditional authorities, community women, and the private sector, the participatory consultation aimed to empower women to protect the forests. As a result, key stakeholders have jointly endorsed a working document and provided technical insights for the implementation of the women’s rights and environmental justice project. Click here to read more about CAMGEW’s efforts.

 Survey and study shows capacity needs for Eastern Europe and Central Asia to participate in IPBES processes
   

 

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On the occasion of World Cities Day 2020, the World Bank and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) launched the Sustainable Urban Development and Resilience community on the PANORAMA platform.

Through the new urban thematic community, the World Bank, IUCN and their partners intend to showcase pragmatic solutions to pressing urban challenges, drawing on research and project experience from across the world. Their aim is to inform and inspire action to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of cities, where the future of humanity is said to lie. All PANORAMA solutions are carefully reviewed and curated. An initial batch of 125 urban solutions has already been published offering a rich diversity of best practices. For more information, please click here.

     

Earlier this month, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Secretariat has published three documents on georeferencing that, taken together, provide an essential set of tools for improving the practice of spatially representing and interpreting location information.

Georeferencing Best Practices by Arthur Chapman and John Wieczorek offers theoretical background and methods for georeferencing descriptive localities. The Georeferencing Quick Reference Guide by Paula Zermoglio, Arthur Chapman, John Wieczorek, Maria Celeste Luna and David Bloom provides a citable protocol in the form of a practical how-to guide with rules and procedures for determining the shapes of geospatial features and using their outcomes as the basis for georeferencing. Finally, the Georeferencing Calculator Manual by David Bloom, John Wieczorek and Paula Zermoglio lays out instructions for the Georeferencing Calculator.  For more information, click here.

In 2020, GBIF also released a companion publication designed to offer guidance on how to make occurrence data about rare, endangered and commercially valuable species as available as possible and as protected as necessary. To read the publication click here.
Photo source: GBIF

Event Update: 4th meeting of the IPBES Capacity Building Forum puts spotlight on national biodiversity platforms
 
At the 4th meeting of the IPBES Capacity Building Forum, nearly 140 experts, practitioners and policymakers from across the world came together to discuss successes and lessons learned from establishing national and subregional networks and platforms on biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of ecosystem services.Spanning over two days, the forum focused on the role existing formal platforms and more informal/open networks have been playing in supporting the work of IPBES and helping countries move towards their biodiversity commitments. The discussion shed light on how these networks help advocate and influence decisions, how to leverage and engage a wide range of stakeholders in these platforms and the role communications and advocacy can play in taking the messages from the platforms further. Click here to read more.