WCC 2016 Res 073 - Activity Report

IUCN continues to act as a donor itself facilitating CEPF grant-making in the Indo-Burma Hotpot and supports civil society to analyse the possible/likely impacts of such projects, and propose alternative (less damaging) development scenarios.

IUCN has further provided input in 2018 to the process of updating the IFC Guidance Note for the Biodiversity Standard (PS 6).

In 2018, IUCN has completely redeveloped the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) which is run by the IBAT Alliance (BirdLife International, Conservation International, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre). IBAT is ‘one-stop shop’ data platform where users can access the world’s most authoritative biodiversity data. The data available through IBAT include the World Database on Protected Areas, the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas, and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IBAT users include the International Olympic Committee, the World Bank Group, Shell, General Motors, and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. While IBAT is used by a wide range of sectors, a key audience is the private sector. For the private sector IBAT is a core tool for their environmental due diligence processes. In 2018 company and financial institution users grew from 40 to over 62 (22 financial institutions). New financial institution subscribers include European Investment Bank, Bpifrance, Inter-American Development Bank, Finance in Motion, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

The IUCN Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) which has been developed to check projects implemented by the Secretariat on environmental or social issues, are publically available (www.iucn.org/esms) and could also be used by IUCN Members.
For all GEF or GCF projects where IUCN acts as implementing agency and IUCN members can act as the executing agencies, these members are trained in the ESMS and related tools as part of IUCN’s project supervision role.