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E.g. Brooks, Thomas M.
E.g. Brooks, Thomas M.
Conference
Publication Year
    Court, Sarah | Jo, Eugene | Mackay, Richard | Murai, Mizuki | Therivel, Riki

As the World Heritage Convention celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022, over 1100 sites around the world are recognized as World Heritage - places  that are so valuable to humanity that there conservation has been deemed our collective responsibility. Yet many of these exceptional places face  increasing pressure from diverse types of development projects within and around the sites. Assessing the impacts of such projects is essential to both prevent damage to World Heritage and identify sustainable options. This Guidance and toolkit explains the process for achieving these goals. Offering practical tips and tools including checklists and a glossary, it provides a framework for conducting impact assessments for cultural and natural heritage sites.

   

In 2021, IUCN launched the IUCN Flagship Report Series, to help demonstrate the importance of conserving nature for human well-being and all life on Earth. This report, the second in the series, focuses on agriculture and nature. The interactions, synergies, and tradeoffs between the two sit at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for ending hunger and ensuring food security while also mandating the protection and restoration of nature. Whether the two can be achieved simultaneously, and if so how, are crucial questions for humanity and our planet. IUCN therefore explores the positive and negative relationships between agriculture and nature conservation and mobilises new modelling approaches to examine both imperatives within a range of realistic policies.

   

World Heritage properties are internationally recognized as places of Outstanding Universal Value that should benefit from the highest level of management effectiveness. The Toolkit 2.0 offers a self-assessment methodology to evaluate management effectiveness in a World Heritage property or other heritage place. It contains 12 tools that can be used separately or collectively to understand in detail what is working well and what can be done better. The Toolkit supports managers in identifying ways to improve conservation practices, management processes and resource allocation – particularly if used before reviewing or updating management plans. While there is a focus on World Heritage, it can be applied to all heritage places, whether natural, cultural or combinations of both.

   

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. The purpose of the Guidelines for using A Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas is to ensure that KBA identification is based on consistent, scientifically rigorous yet practical methods. The KBA Guidelines provide an overview of the steps for identifying and delineating KBAs, together with explanation of how the KBA criteria, thresholds and delineation procedures should be applied in practice. The KBA Guidelines should be used hand-in-hand with the KBA Standard (IUCN, 2016).

   

The Global Species Action Plan (GSAP) is a critical initiative developed to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), to address the increasing biodiversity loss worldwide. The GSAP outlines strategic interventions and actions to conserve and sustainably manage species while ensuring equitable benefits. Emphasizing the critical role of species in ecosystem stability, human livelihoods, and cultural heritage, the GSAP seeks to prevent extinctions, reduce threats, and ensure equitable benefits from species use. Implementation involves diverse stakeholders, including governments, Indigenous peoples and Local communities, NGOs, academia, and businesses, fostering cooperation at global, regional, and local levels. The GSAP underscores the collective responsibility to safeguard Earth’s rich biological heritage for future generations.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

    Demozzi, T. | Oberč, B.P. | Prieto López, A. | Larbodière, Ludovic, | Borges, Maria Ana

Unsustainable agricultural practices are among the main causes of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution globally. It is thus essential to integrate environmental conservation practices in the agriculture sector when looking at pathways for a sustainable future. In this context, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) could be a critical tool for improving the status of productive landscapes. This publication focuses on the relationship between sustainable agricultural practices and the concept of Nature-based Solutions, and specifically the applicability of the IUCN Global Standard for NbS™ in agricultural contexts. The aim is to provide experts and policymakers with ideas, recommendations, and concrete uses for these tools, in order to outline a potential path to a more sustainable future for the agricultural sector.

   

In the 20 years since the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group’s first status report (2005), much has changed for sharks, rays and chimaeras. This report updates our understanding, and the scope of information reflects the scale of these two decades of change. The breadth of research topics has expanded, mirroring the inclusion of a greater diversity of species, and attention is being trained on the emerging threats and the accelerating global changes to aquatic ecosystems. The 2005 report heralded a sea change for sharks, rays and chimaeras, whose historical obscurity in policy, conservation and fisheries management was a serious concern. In this report, the increased focus that was called for is now apparent in the scale of work happening across the planet.

    Bennun, L. | Fletcher, C. | Cook, A. | Wilson, D. | Jobson, B. | Asante-Owusu, R. | Dakmejian, A. | Liu, Q.

This technical note focuses on spatial planning for wind and solar development with respect to biodiversity. It is intended primarily for government planners responsible for the longterm sustainable roll out and/or expansion of renewable energy and associated infrastructure (e.g. grid infrastructure and facilities such as ports) at regional, national, and sub-national levels. For developers and lenders/investors, this technical note could also help illustrate how these actors could play a role in spatial planning in certain contexts (e.g. emerging markets, providing resources, and supporting governments to identify appropriate areas for development).

    Bennun, L. | Fletcher, C. | Cook, A. | Wilson, D. | Jobson, B. | Asante-Owusu, R. | Dakmejian, A. | Liu, Q.

The key aim of this guidance is to reframe cumulative impact assessment (CIA) to help support biodiversity conservation and the achievement of global biodiversity goals (alongside climate and other societal development goals). This guidance is focused on biodiversity and wind and solar development, and is aimed primarily at government planners and project developers. The report applies approaches for government-led CIA and project-level CAI. However, since it is designed to help tackle some of the existing challenges of CIA, there is potentially broader applicability.

    Schneck, Joshua | Hawkins, Frank | Cox, Neil | Mair, Louise | Thieme, Alison | Sexton, Joe | Gürpınar, Yiğit | Simpson, Megan | Vidal, Adriana

This report presents findings from an assessment of the biodiversity conservation potential of four project sites: Lobaye, Mambéré-Kadéï, Ombella-Mpoko, and Sangha-Mbaéré located in the Bangui region of the Central African Republic (CAR). This assessment was done using the Species Threat Abatement and Recovery (STAR) metric, which employs  high-resolution imagery and an approach to modelling species’ Area of Habitat (AOH) that was revised after June 2020 among other enhancements. This work was undertaken to better inform threat abatement and restoration planning and implementation at the partner project sites, and as part of a wider effort to pilot and strengthen the use of STAR as a  tool for restoration and conservation practitioners, communities, investors, and policymakers.

    Moberg, Tara | Abell, Robin | Dudley, Nigel | Harrison, Ian | Kang, Shiteng | Rocha Loures, Flavia | Shahbol, Natalie | Thieme, Michele L. | Timmins, Hannah

Inland waters – such as rivers, lakes and other wetlands – are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. They are also the most threatened; almost one in three species is at risk of extinction and monitored populations of freshwater species have declined by 85% since 1970. The loss of these ecosystems has cascading effects on human livelihoods, cultures and our overall well-being. While protected and conserved areas can play an important role in bending the curve of inland water biodiversity and ecosystem loss, they have rarely been designed, designated, and managed for that purpose. Motivated by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s inclusion of inland waters in the target to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030, this report provides guidance in employing protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures to benefit these ecosystems and the biodiversity they support. Through a series of case studies and synthesized research, it highlights how integrating the unique needs of inland waters into area-based strategies can improve conservation effectiveness across all realms, build climate resilience and sustain critical ecosystem services.

   

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, provides a framework for the effective implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) through four goals and 23 targets. Target 3 (known as the ‘30x30 target’) calls on Parties to conserve at least 30% of terrestrial, inland waters, and coastal and marine areas by 2030. These guidelines are designed to promote good practices relating to identifying, reporting, monitoring and strengthening OECMs. They are intended for use by a wide range of rightsholders and stakeholders to promote understanding of whether a site meets the CBD criteria for identifying an OECM, how to report OECM data at the national and global levels, and how to monitor and strengthen OECMs.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

   

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

    Prieto López, A. | Odriozola, F. | Oberč, B.P. | Demozzi, T. | Ó Cuanacháin, D. | Cuvillard, O.

Food is one of the basic needs for human life. At the same time, agriculture is a leading cause of biodiversity loss, driving 80% of deforestation and consuming 70% of freshwater resources globally. Conventional farming practices have further contributed to habitat degradation, soil depletion, and species loss. This report aims to provide a general overview of how the relationship between biodiversity and agriculture is assessed. The report also examines how international and European policies address the biodiversity-agriculture nexus, highlighting the need for improved integration and comparability of approaches. The insights provided aim to help various stakeholders, including policy-makers in creating effective policies, farmers in making informed decisions, companies in aligning with sustainability goals, and academics in conducting further research.