Les lacs de haute montagne sont des écosystèmes fragiles, emblématiques et très attirants pour les activités de plein air (tourisme, randonnée, bivouac, pêche, etc.).

Jusque dans les années 2000-2010, ils étaient encore très peu étudiés ; les connaissances scientifiques qui existaient n’étaient pas utilisées pour orienter la gestion ou la protection de ces écosystèmes. Chaque acteur local travaillait isolément (gestionnaire d’espace protégé, associations de pêche, scientifiques, exploitant hydroélectrique, élus locaux).

La création du réseau Lacs Sentinelles a permis de générer un observatoire national, réunissant de nombreux partenaires autour d’un enjeu commun : connaître et protéger ces écosystèmes sensibles et anticiper leur évolution face aux changements climatique et sociétal.

Le réseau Lacs Sentinelles est coordonné par ASTERS-Conservatoire d’espaces naturels de Haute-Savoie. 

Plus d’information sur :

http://www.lacs-sentinelles.org

Fire Island is a barrier island and provides some storm risk protection to the mainland communities of Long Island. Fire Island National Seashore encompasses most of Fire Island and has a variety of management areas. A breach was formed in the Fire Island Wilderness by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.  Since then the wilderness breach has remained opened and studied. This opportunity for natural processes to proceed unimpeded allows biologists to extensively monitor the wilderness breach, providing an opportunity to inform future breach management decisions at Fire Island and elsewhere.

A programme to assess and promote monument- related scientific research and exploration within the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument (MTMNM) was proposed by Presidential Proclamation 8335 to better understand its diverse environments – from subtropical coastal waters, numerous hydrothermal vents, underwater volcanoes and lakes of liquid sulfur, to bubbling vents of liquid CO2 and diverse coral communities – many of which are considered unstudied due to the technical difficulties in accessing them. Forums, webinars and Google hangouts, are being explored to bring together researchers and stakeholders located all over the world.

Many ecosystem services in Morocco are being over-utilised and increasingly threatened by the impacts of climate change. The solution applied includes (a) the development of the legal and institutional framework in support of the Moroccan Government, (b) awareness raising,(c) incorporatiion of ecosystem services and climate change adaptation into regional and municipal development plans, (d) improved environmental monitoring, (e) assistance in making use of Morocco’s biological resources.

The Grenadines MarSIS illustrates how a participatory geographic information system (PGIS) approach supported the development of demand-driven information on marine resources and spatial uses of the transboundary Grenada Bank. Stakeholder engagement not only increased understanding and provided useful and publicly accessible information, but also created ownership of information produced and validated the role of participation in research and governance.

Lack of data on artisanal fisheries landings is a common element in tropical countries. The Participatory Monitoring Program includes the gathering and synthesis of biological information by organized groups of artisanal fishers. Multi-year data gathered by the fishers is presented and discussed with the community to highlight information on species, minimum sizes, volumes, trends and seasonality in the captures.  This process has resulted in significant changes in fishing practices and management.

The solution addresses stakeholder participation for planning and management of Israel’s marine space. An interactive web GIS platform has been developed to visualize the spatial distribution of different resource use in Israel’s marine waters to promote awareness of the marine environment. It also addresses the issues of transparency and knowledge dissemination. Stakeholders are actively involved in the planning process and accompanied by local and international scientific advisory committees.

In Rwanda, Population Media Center (PMC) wrote and produced Umurage Urukwiye (“Rwanda’s Brighter Future”) in Kinyarwanda, one of Rwanda’s official languages. This 312-episode radio serial drama aired April 2007 to July 2009 and was rebroadcast October 2012 to October 2014. One of Umurage Urukwiye’s storylines role modeled the preservation of forests, natural resources, and mountain gorillas, and motivated the audience to protect and rehabilitate the park forests.

In 2013, SMART was launched in ten pilot PAs covering three geographical regions of Vietnam. The tool is aimed to improve patrolling quality and data collection on forest resources and biodiversity. Lessons learned from four years of successful implementation are the following: (1) SMART provides support of PA managers in evaluating staff performance; (2) SMART can be implemented with little costs as it is easy to use and to integrate into existing patrolling plans.

Europe’s Wadden Sea (DK, DE, NL) and Mauritania’s National Park Banc d´Arguin (PNBA) — two World Heritage properties linked through the migratory birds on the African Eurasian Flyway, for which they serve as important wintering and stop over areas — signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2014 to protect the migratory birds. Since, there have been bilateral visits of managers and scientists, a joint action plan and cooperation in bird monitoring. More, PNBA joint the Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative, launched to strengthen waterbird conservation and monitoring along the East Atlantic flyway.

The TEEBAgriFood Initiative developed a unique comprehensive evaluation framework which allows assessing of impacts and externalities of agriculture and food systems – the environmental, health, social and cultural externalities, both positive and negative, and across value chains. It builds and illustrates the case for “systems” instead of “silo” thinking. This holistic approach of ‘true cost accounting’ allows decision makers to better compare different policies and the market to value agriculture and food more accurately. Thereby TEEBAgriFood will help to overcome barriers and effectively upscale agroecology and lead to more equitable agriculture and food systems. For its comprehensive approach providing opportunities to contribute to the majority of the SDGs and offering an effective system of ‘true cost accounting’, TEEBAgriFood was recognized with the Future Policy Vision Award 2018, awarded by the World Future Council in partnership with FAO and IFOAM – Organics International.

Soon after the first offshore oil field was discovered an intense public debate started in Mauritania about environmental and social risks of this sector. That led to the development of the Programme Biodiversity Oil and Gas, which aims, through a collaborative and integrated approach, at collating data in the marine environment, understanding the ecological consequences of human uses, designing and developing technical tools to monitor activities, and implementing corresponding policies. These activities are currently continued and consolidated with the GIZ “Co-management of marine, coastal and terrestrial resources” (CorMCT) program.