The intersection of Web 3.0 technologies and conservation presents new opportunities to enhance transparency, accountability, funding mechanisms, and community engagement. As conservation challenges grow more complex, innovative tools like blockchain, DAOs, IoT, gamification, and tokenisation can provide scalable, verifiable, and impactful solutions. This document explores how these technologies align with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) targets and actions, offering conservation practitioners, policymakers, and innovators a clear roadmap for implementation.

The Navigating Web 3.0 Guide is an interactive and user-friendly resource designed for conservationists to explore how Web 3.0 technologies can support their work. Web 3.0 is used here as an umbrella term for a set of emerging technologies that offer new ways to manage data, funding, and decision-making with greater transparency, accountability, and trust. The guide introduces blockchain, smart contracts, decentralised applications (DApps), decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), Internet of Things (IoT), gamification, the metaverse, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Crucially, the guide was developed to address common barriers that limit engagement with these technologies. These include a lack of understanding of Web 3.0 concepts, the use of terminology that feels misaligned with conservation priorities, and limited access to tailored, sector-relevant guidance. These barriers often prevent conservation organisations from recognising the practical relevance and value of emerging technologies in their work.

The guide identifies 34 potential routes for strengthening data collection and management, resource allocation and financial sustainability, collaboration and communication, and monitoring and evaluation. These four areas reflect core operational functions for effective conservation action. It also presents eight key considerations for adopting new technologies, along with real-world case studies that showcase how these tools are already being applied. A glossary of terms and a reference list support further exploration and learning.

This tool is designed to help organisations ask the right questions, identify technologies that are most relevant to their specific context, and build confidence in navigating this emerging space. It provides a clear and structured entry point for learning and strategic direction. By focusing attention on the technologies most suited to an organisation’s needs, it enables conservation teams to explore further with purpose and clarity, whether independently or through technical support.

While developed for a wide range of conservation applications, the tool can also support species-focused efforts by helping organisations identify technologies that strengthen field monitoring, increase data transparency, and track conservation actions and results. These same approaches can enhance community engagement, real-time data collection, funding transparency, and education, and support conservation impact at local and landscape levels.

What is Web 3.0?

Web 3.0 is the next evolution of the internet. It shifts control away from centralised platforms and gives individuals, organisations, and communities more choice in how they manage information, funding, and decisions. Rather than relying on a single system or company, Web 3.0 technologies create shared spaces where data can be verified, resources can flow directly to results, and multiple partners can collaborate with greater transparency and trust.

These technologies work together as part of a wider shift. For example, blockchain creates records that cannot be changed, while smart contracts can automatically release funding when conservation targets are met. Tools known as decentralised platforms allow users to share and access data directly, without needing a central authority. Digital certificates, sometimes referred to as NFTs, can represent ownership of outcomes or trace the origin of a product. These systems reduce the need for intermediaries and increase the credibility of conservation work.

Web 3.0 also supports more participatory and inclusive ways of working. New digital governance models, such as DAOs, allow communities to have a say in how resources are used. Devices connected through the Internet of Things (IoT) can send real-time data from the field to a shared platform, improving decision-making across teams. Other tools are designed to bring people into conservation through gamified platforms, education tools, or immersive experiences. When combined, these technologies make it easier to engage partners, verify results, and fund conservation in ways that are trusted, inclusive, and scalable.

Why it matters for conservation

Web 3.0 technologies are creating new ways for conservation organisations to work more transparently, efficiently, and inclusively. These tools support real-time data collection, transparent payments, and automatic checks to confirm that conservation work has taken place. They make it easier to monitor progress across different systems, reduce duplication, and scale projects while still ensuring accountability.

A key benefit of these technologies is that they allow information to be stored and shared in ways that are open and trusted. Conservation actions can be tracked over time, with digital records showing who was involved, when actions took place, and what results were achieved. These records cannot be changed after the fact, which helps build trust between partners. They also reduce the need for intermediaries by linking funding directly to verified results through tools like smart contracts.

Web 3.0 also supports better coordination across organisations and platforms. Open systems make it easier to connect different tools, while shared data standards help everyone work from the same information. Organisations can choose the technologies that best fit their needs and adopt them gradually. At the same time, new forms of digital identity can help recognise the role of local communities and individuals, ensuring their contributions are visible and valued.

Together, these functions support the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework by enabling measurable outcomes, strengthening inclusive governance, and unlocking new models of conservation finance. This includes milestone-based funding, biodiversity credits, and regenerative finance models that tie investment to lasting conservation results.

Supporting species conservation

These technologies are also helping conservationists and communities respond more quickly and effectively to threats facing species. Tools such as sensors and trackers can monitor wildlife in real time, giving teams the information they need to act fast. Blockchain systems and smart contracts can verify when key goals have been met, helping ensure that funding is released only when outcomes are delivered. This improves transparency and helps ensure resources are used effectively.

Web 3.0 also makes it easier for people to work together. Shared platforms allow different groups to access and contribute to the same information, while open-source tools reduce the costs of participation. Digital records and reputation systems can help highlight local leadership, showing clearly who is taking action and where. These tools can also support greater public engagement, through gamified systems, digital storytelling, or immersive learning environments that help people connect with conservation challenges in new ways.

These technologies have the potential to protect species more effectively, strengthen partnerships, and build long-term support for conservation because they can directly contribute to key goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. This includes targets on data transparency (Target 21), sustainable funding (Target 19), inclusive governance (Target 22), species monitoring (Target 4), equitable benefit sharing (Target 13), and environmental education (Target 16).

Technologies and Case Studies

Blockchain and Smart Contracts

Blockchain acts as a secure, tamper-proof ledger that enables conservationists to track and verify data, funding, and ownership transparently. It helps prevent fraud, ensures funding reaches the right recipients, and secures land tenure records, preventing disputes that could threaten conservation projects. Smart contracts automate payments for conservation milestones, such as verified reforestation, ensuring efficient and accountable funding distribution. These technologies empower local communities by enabling direct, verifiable payments for conservation efforts, reducing reliance on intermediaries. Blockchain is also valuable in tracking supply chains, authenticating sustainably sourced products, and ensuring traceability from origin to consumer, preventing illegal trade and fraud. Additionally, blockchain can be integrated with monitoring and evaluation frameworks, enabling real-time financial tracking tied to measurable conservation outcomes. Tokenisation of real-world assets, such as carbon credits, biodiversity units, and land rights, provides a new funding model, allowing conservation organisations and communities to unlock financial value from natural assets. While blockchain increases transparency, concerns exist about its environmental impact and integration challenges. However, when used effectively, blockchain strengthens trust, ensures sustainable funding, and enhances accountability in conservation finance.

Discover how your organisation could apply blockchain to build trust, improve traceability, and drive positive conservation impact through the Navigating Web 3.0 Guide for conservationists.

Case Study: GainForest uses blockchain and AI to enable sustainable funding streams for Indigenous and local communities leading environmental projects worldwide. Through a marketplace called Ecocertain, communities create ecocerts to showcase their verifiable conservation work and receive funding directly and in real-time without middlemen. To ensure credibility, GainForest develops an AI impact evaluation system that reviews projects through field data, satellite imagery, and community reports. This system connects donors who want to see real results to local environmental efforts, which enables transparent funding while cutting out bureaucracy. GainForest is also co-creating the Nature Guild, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) that transfers governance to local communities, ensuring nature stewards at the forefront of conservation have final decision-making authority over their own financial flows, knowledge sharing, and resource allocation.

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs)

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations or DAOs enable decentralised governance in conservation by allowing stakeholders to collectively manage funding and decision-making through blockchain-based voting. These organisations improve transparency and reduce administrative bottlenecks, ensuring resources are distributed fairly. By giving local communities a direct voice in conservation decisions, DAOs empower those closest to conservation challenges, ensuring local knowledge guides resource management. They also enhance financial sustainability by enabling self-sustaining funding pools that support long-term conservation efforts without reliance on external donors. DAOs also support collaboration and communication by creating transparent decision-making structures that include multiple stakeholders, ensuring collective accountability. Additionally, tokenised assets within DAOs allow local communities to hold direct stakes in conservation projects, ensuring that they benefit financially from biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management. However, challenges include ensuring broad participation, preventing governance manipulation, maintaining efficiency in decision-making, and addressing legal recognition of DAOs as formal entities within regulatory frameworks. When structured well, DAOs provide an equitable way to manage conservation resources while building trust and accountability.

Discover how your organisation could explore decentralised governance models such as DAOs to support inclusive decision-making and drive positive conservation impact through the Navigating Web 3.0 Guide for conservationists.

Case Study: The Regen Network is governed by a DAO that enables community-led decision-making on ecological asset issuance and land restoration initiatives. Token holders participate in governance, ensuring that conservation funding and carbon credit systems remain transparent, accountable, and science-driven. By using blockchain, Regen Network provides a decentralised marketplace where land stewards can validate and trade ecological credits, fostering financial sustainability for conservation. This governance model reduces reliance on centralised authorities, empowering local communities to take direct action in managing and benefiting from conservation efforts. Regen Network exemplifies how DAOs can create an equitable and verifiable system for environmental stewardship.

Decentralised Applications (DApps)

Decentralised Applications or DApps operate on blockchain networks without central control, providing secure, transparent platforms for conservation initiatives. They can facilitate peer-to-peer carbon credit trading, biodiversity data management, and direct donor-to-project transactions, helping measure and verify conservation impact. By eliminating intermediaries, DApps ensure funds and resources reach intended recipients efficiently and transparently. These applications also enhance decentralised conservation reporting, allowing local communities, scientists, and funders to collectively validate data on biodiversity changes and conservation outcomes. Additionally, DApps improve resource allocation and financial management by enabling conservation organisations to track grants, disbursements, and expenditures in real time, increasing accountability and reducing waste. However, their success depends on accessibility, blockchain literacy, and a user-friendly design. When tailored to conservation needs, DApps enhance trust, accountability, and effective funding distribution.

Discover how your organisation could explore decentralised applications to improve collaboration, data sharing, and positive conservation impact through the Navigating Web 3.0 Guide for conservationists.

Case Study: Open Forest Protocol (OFP) is a decentralised platform designed to increase the transparency, efficiency, and accessibility of reforestation efforts worldwide. Built on the NEAR blockchain, OFP enables local communities and project developers to collect standardised forest data using mobile applications, which is then independently verified through a broad and expanding peer review network of forest-technology companies and practitioners and permanently recorded on-chain. This model enhances trust in reforestation outcomes and promotes greater inclusion in carbon finance, supporting long-term stewardship and livelihood opportunities. While OFP’s current focus is on reforestation under its Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) methodology, the platform’s open architecture offers a blueprint for how decentralised applications can contribute to broader biodiversity goals. By lowering technical and financial barriers, embedding transparency into environmental monitoring, and centring community governance, OFP demonstrates how emerging technologies can support enabling conditions for species recovery and ecosystem restoration.

Gamification

Gamification integrates rewards, challenges, and progress tracking to encourage conservation participation. Gamification is enhanced by using blockchain-based tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralised finance models to verify and reward contributions, such as biodiversity monitoring or citizen science efforts. Tokenisation allows for real-world conservation incentives, such as impact-based rewards. Gamification leverages core principles of immersion, education, and engagement to build communities around conservation efforts. By incorporating interactive learning tools, fun challenges, and game-based storytelling, gamification can enhance environmental education and encourage sustained participation. Immersive experiences, such as conservation-themed digital games and virtual rewards, help connect users emotionally to conservation challenges. This approach ensures that conservation actions feel rewarding while fostering long-term behavioural change. However, gamification must be designed to encourage real-world impact rather than superficial participation. When structured effectively, it can increase engagement, strengthen conservation communities, and create measurable conservation impact.

Discover how your organisation could use gamified tools to engage new audiences, inspire action, and drive positive conservation impact through the Navigating Web 3.0 Guide for conservationists.

Case Study: FathomVerse is a mobile game designed to inspire a new wave of ocean explorers. It invites players to interact with real underwater imagery while contributing to science. The ocean is the largest habitable ecosystem on the planet, yet up to 60% of its species remain undocumented. FathomVerse helps address this gap by turning mobile gameplay into meaningful scientific data. With immersive visuals, research-based mini-games, and a growing global player community, the game draws users into the world of ocean science. It is especially focused on reaching learners from high school age and above, offering a simple and engaging way to learn about marine biodiversity and contribute to real-world research.

Since launching in 2024, FathomVerse has engaged more than 30,000 players across 173 countries and produced over 15 million annotations. The most recent version introduces new features that enhance participation, strengthen community connection, and expand scientific value. Players classify animals, draw bounding boxes, and tag behaviours, helping researchers train artificial intelligence models that improve biodiversity monitoring. With each interaction, users build skills, explore new knowledge, and contribute to a growing body of data that supports ocean conservation. FathomVerse shows how education, participation, and technology can come together to support species discovery and long-term stewardship of marine ecosystems.

Metaverse

The metaverse provides immersive environments for conservation awareness, education, and collaboration. Virtual experiences allow users to explore ecosystems, track migrations, and understand environmental issues in an engaging way. These tools can be used for training, stakeholder engagement, and fundraising, helping conservationists reach a wider audience. Conservationists can also develop virtual twins of protected areas to model ecosystem changes, test interventions, and simulate different conservation scenarios before applying them in the real world. Virtual collaborations create opportunities for cross-border conservation efforts, allowing diverse stakeholders to engage in shared initiatives despite geographical barriers. The metaverse also provides opportunities for financial sustainability through digital assets, sponsorships, and gamification, allowing conservation organisations to generate revenue while fostering engagement. Blockchain integration ensures traceability and accountability, creating new funding mechanisms that support long-term conservation efforts. However, barriers such as accessibility and the energy consumption of virtual platforms need consideration. When used strategically, the metaverse can inspire empathy and drive international support for conservation efforts.

Discover how your organisation could explore immersive platforms like the metaverse to support education, training, and positive conservation impact through the Navigating Web 3.0 Guide for conservationists.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

Non-fungible tokens, NFTs function as digital certificates of ownership recorded on a blockchain. In conservation, they verify the authenticity of scientific records, conservation impact reports, and land ownership documents. Unlike traditional collectibles, NFTs can also be dynamic, updating with real-world conservation progress, such as forest regrowth. By integrating smart contracts, NFTs ensure transparent transactions and fund allocation, helping conservationists create sustainable income streams. NFTs also allow for the tokenisation of real-world conservation assets, such as protected land, carbon credits, or species adoptions, providing new financial mechanisms for long-term funding. Some conservation-focused NFTs incorporate royalty mechanisms, ensuring a percentage of resales continues to fund conservation initiatives. However, concerns exist about speculation and environmental impact, making it essential to use sustainable blockchain solutions and focus on NFTs as verification tools rather than speculative assets. By framing NFTs as digital certification tools, they can help build trust, support sustainable funding, and create transparent conservation impact measurement systems.

Discover how your organisation could apply NFTs and digital certificates to verify outcomes, trace contributions, and drive positive conservation impact through the Navigating Web 3.0 Guide for conservationists.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as GPS trackers and environmental sensors, provide real-time conservation data, helping monitor wildlife movements, habitat conditions, and poaching threats. These tools improve conservation monitoring and evaluation by ensuring accurate, tamper-proof data collection. When combined with blockchain, IoT ensures data integrity and traceability, reducing the risk of tampering and increasing accountability. IoT devices combined with AI can enhance predictive analytics, enabling conservationists to anticipate poaching risks, habitat degradation, and climate threats based on real-time sensor data. This strengthens conservation planning and enforcement while supporting impact measurement. Additionally, IoT devices can enhance data collection and management by integrating diverse environmental metrics into unified conservation databases, providing a more holistic view of ecosystem health. However, challenges include data security, connectivity in remote areas, and ethical considerations in data collection. Used effectively, IoT strengthens conservation monitoring, improves collaborations, and ensures transparent environmental data reporting.

Discover how your organisation could use connected devices and real-time data systems to strengthen monitoring and drive positive conservation impact through the Navigating Web 3.0 Guide for conservationists.

Case Study: Connected Conservation Foundation’s initiative has deployed Africa’s largest IoT-powered network to support wildlife protection and community-led conservation across 3 million hectares in Kenya’s Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT). The system utilises LoRaWAN gateways, high-bandwidth communications, and 600+ IoT sensors to enable real-time monitoring across NRT’s 22 community-led conservancies and four private reserves. These tools help rangers track endangered species, prevent poaching, and regulate tourism and grazing. By integrating technology with local stewardship, the network strengthens community collaboration, ecosystem resilience, and sustainable conservation management. This initiative is a collaboration between Northern Rangelands Trust, Cisco, Actility, Dimension Data, 51 Degrees, EarthRanger, INL, and the European Union.

Alignment of Web 3.0 Technologies with GBF Targets and GSAP Actions

GBF Target 1: Plan and Manage All Areas to Reduce Biodiversity Loss

• Action 1.1: Develop and implement participatory, integrated, and biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning processes.
  • Blockchain
    • Ensures transparent and tamper-proof records of land use and spatial plans, allowing stakeholders to track conservation commitments and prevent land disputes.
  • Metaverse
    • Enables virtual simulations of biodiversity planning scenarios, helping stakeholders visualise and refine conservation strategies before implementation.
  • Action 1.2: Implement awareness-raising campaigns to promote biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning.Gamification
    • Engages the public in conservation planning through interactive storytelling, rewards, and community participation tools.
  • Metaverse
    • Provides immersive education experiences to demonstrate the impact of land-use decisions on biodiversity.

GBF Target 4: Halt Species Extinction, Protect Genetic Diversity, and Manage Human-Wildlife Conflicts

• Action 4.1: Implement monitoring systems to track species populations and health.
  • IoT
    • Uses sensor networks and real-time monitoring to track species movements, detect poaching threats, and assess population health.
    • LoRaWAN networks enable localised, low-power IoT connectivity, allowing conservationists to monitor remote habitats cost-effectively.
  • Blockchain
    • Provides a verifiable ledger of biodiversity data, ensuring data integrity and enabling open access for conservation research.
  • Blockchain & DApps
    • Facilitates payments for ecosystem services, such as human-wildlife conflict mitigation activities, through transparent smart contract mechanisms. A rewards-based system can incentivise conservation-friendly practices by compensating local communities for successful coexistence strategies.

GBF Target 5: Ensure Sustainable, Safe, and Legal Harvesting and Trade of Wild Species

• Action 5.1: Strengthen monitoring and compliance mechanisms to prevent illegal wildlife trade.
  • Blockchain, Smart Contracts & IoT
    • Combining blockchain, smart contracts, and IoT ensures sustainable harvesting practices by enabling real-time monitoring, compliance automation, and transparent trade records. Blockchain provides immutable records of wild species harvesting and trade, ensuring legality and sustainability. Smart contracts automate compliance checks and enforce sustainable quotas through transparent digital agreements. IoT devices capture real-time environmental and species data, enabling adaptive management and informed decision-making to maintain ecological balance.

GBF Target 6: Reduce the Introduction of Invasive Alien Species by 50% and Minimise Their Impact

• Action 6.1: Implement early detection and rapid response systems for invasive species.
  • IoT & Blockchain
    • Uses IoT devices for early detection of invasive species, with data recorded on a blockchain for real-time monitoring and coordinated response.

GBF Target 8: Minimise the Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity

• Action 8.1: Enhance voluntary carbon markets to support climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation.
  • Blockchain
    • Ensures transparency in carbon credit and biodiversity net gain credit trading (including water, biodiversity, and ecosystems) by verifying transactions and preventing double counting.
  • DApps
    • Facilitates decentralised carbon credit and biodiversity net gain credit trading, ensuring equitable participation and direct transactions between buyers and conservation projects.
  • Metaverse
    • Runs simulations and digital twins to better manage resources, understand global systems, and assess their impact. This technology engages a large, diverse audience through virtual and immersive experiences, building knowledge and fostering a stronger connection to climate-related issues.

GBF Target 9: Manage Wild Species Sustainably to Benefit People

• Action 9.1: Promote sustainable management practices for wild species to support local communities.
  • DAOs
    • Facilitates transparent governance, enabling local communities to have a direct voice in decision-making and ensuring equitable management of wild species.
  • Gamification & Metaverse
    • Builds interactive programs to engage local communities, fostering excitement and deeper connections with nature while promoting conservation awareness.
    • Encourages grassroots communities to take action through immersive experiences and interactive storytelling.
  • Tokenised Reward Systems
    • Integrates reward-based incentives through DAOs or credit-based systems, ensuring communities receive fair compensation for their conservation efforts and contributions.
  • Decentralised Platforms
    • Facilitates community-based management of wild species, ensuring equitable benefit-sharing and data transparency.

GBF Target 10: Enhance Biodiversity and Sustainability in Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fisheries, and Forestry

• Action 10.1: Strengthen sustainability practices in agricultural and fisheries supply chains.
  • Blockchain
    • Ensures supply chain transparency, tracing products from farm to consumer to verify sustainable sourcing.

GBF Target 11: Restore, Maintain, and Enhance Nature’s Contributions to People

• Action 11.1: Develop incentive-based approaches to restore and maintain ecosystem services.
  • Gamification & Metaverse
    • Encourages people to engage with the natural world through immersive experiences, interactive education programs, and digital storytelling.
    • Fosters grassroots conservation communities, inspiring collective action and local environmental stewardship.
    • Enables reward-based systems through DAOs or credit-based mechanisms, ensuring individuals and communities are incentivised for positive conservation actions.
  • Tokenisation of Ecosystem Services
    • Develops tokenised systems to value and trade ecosystem services, promoting ecosystem restoration and conservation efforts.

GBF Target 12: Enhance Green Spaces and Urban Planning for Human Well-Being and Biodiversity

• Action 12.1: Manage green and blue spaces to maximise their value for species and connectivity.
  • Metaverse
    • Provides virtual models for urban planners to assess the impact of green infrastructure on biodiversity.
  • IoT
    • Monitors environmental conditions in urban ecosystems, tracking air quality, soil health, and species interactions. Integrates real-time monitoring with AI-driven data analysis and predictive models to assess urban biodiversity trends, identify risks, and optimise conservation efforts.

GBF Target 13: Increase the Sharing of Benefits from Genetic Resources, Digital Sequence Information, and Traditional Knowledge

• Action 13.1: Ensure fair and equitable benefit-sharing of genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
  • Metaverse
    • Traditional knowledge can be shared and brought to life through immersive experiences, education programs, and community-building initiatives that engage wide audiences.
  • Blockchain
    • Ensures transparent and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.

GBF Target 14: Integrate Biodiversity in Decision-Making at Every Level

• Action 14.1: Incorporate species values into whole-government policy and national accounting systems.
  • Blockchain
    • Records and tracks biodiversity metrics, ensuring transparent and immutable data integration into national biodiversity policies. Supports tokenisation of real-world assets, enabling biodiversity credit payments to be verified through blockchain for transparent financial transactions.
  • DApps
    • Facilitates decentralised biodiversity reporting, ensuring real-time accessibility of conservation data and integrating tokenised assets into national conservation finance mechanisms.
  • Action 14.2: Strengthen sustainability standards and corporate accountability for biodiversity impact.
    • Blockchain
      • Enables full supply chain traceability, ensuring products are sustainably sourced and preventing illegal exploitation of natural resources.
    • Smart Contracts
      • Automates fair payments to communities engaged in conservation efforts, ensuring transparency and preventing financial leakages.
    • Tokenisation
      • Creates digital proof of biodiversity-positive supply chains, allowing businesses to verify and showcase their sustainability commitments.

GBF Target 15: Businesses Assess, Disclose, and Reduce Biodiversity-Related Risks and Negative Impacts

• Action 15.1: Require businesses to disclose and mitigate their biodiversity impacts.
  • Blockchain for ESG Reporting
    • Provides immutable and transparent tracking of corporate biodiversity impacts, enabling businesses to verify their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments.

GBF Target 16: Enable Sustainable Consumption Choices to Reduce Waste and Overconsumption

• Action 16.1: Promote consumer awareness and responsible consumption choices.
  • Gamification & Metaverse
    • Develops interactive education programs to engage consumers, making sustainable consumption choices more accessible and rewarding.
    • Encourages community-building through immersive storytelling, fostering collective action toward biodiversity-friendly consumption habits.
    • Uses gamified incentives and virtual experiences to create lasting behaviour change and promote conscious consumerism.
  • DApps for Consumer Awareness
    • Develops decentralised applications that inform consumers about the biodiversity impacts of products, promoting sustainable consumption behaviours. Integrates reward-based systems that incentivise individuals who undertake positive conservation activities, ensuring ongoing engagement and impact.

GBF Target 19: Mobilise $200 Billion per Year for Biodiversity from All Sources, Including $30 Billion Through International Finance

• Action 19.1: Develop and implement financial mechanisms to support biodiversity conservation.
  • NFTs
    • Generates funding through conservation-linked digital assets, with resale royalties providing sustained financial support for projects.
  • Blockchain
    • Ensures transparent tracking of conservation funding, direct payments to local conservation initiatives, and tokenisation of real-world assets for biodiversity financing. Empowers unbanked communities by enabling direct digital payments for conservation work, verified through blockchain-based land tenure systems.
  • DAOs
    • Facilitates community-led funding pools and transparent financial governance, ensuring equitable and sustainable conservation financing through decentralised mechanisms.
  • DApps
    • Supports direct peer-to-peer conservation financing by enabling transparent, automated, and trustless transactions for biodiversity protection.
  • eDNA & Blockchain Verification
    • Enhances biodiversity credit verification by using environmental DNA (eDNA) to authenticate conservation impact on-chain, ensuring credibility for investors and regulatory bodies.
  • Action 19.2: Unlock corporate and investment funding through transparent sustainability mechanisms.
    • Blockchain & Smart Contracts
      • Provide immutable proof of conservation efforts, ensuring corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) funds are directed to verified projects.
    • Tokenised Environmental Credits
      • Allow investors to engage in conservation finance through tradeable digital credits, including carbon credits, biodiversity net gain credits, and emerging credit systems for water and ecosystem services. These credits generate sustainable funding flows and enhance accountability in conservation finance.
    • DApps & DAOs
      • Enable decentralised governance models that hold corporate contributions accountable, ensuring transparent and impact-driven investment.

GBF Target 20: Strengthen Capacity Building for Biodiversity Conservation

• Action 20.1: Support innovation in technology and knowledge-sharing to improve conservation outcomes.
  • Metaverse
    • Provides virtual training environments for conservationists, enhancing accessibility to knowledge-sharing tools.
  • DAOs
    • Facilitates decentralised decision-making and funding mechanisms to support conservation innovation and collaborative research.

GBF Target 21: Ensure That Knowledge is Available and Accessible to Guide Biodiversity Action

• Action 21.1: Promote open access to biodiversity data and information.
  • DApps
    • Enables decentralised data sharing, ensuring open access to biodiversity information without reliance on central authorities.
  • Blockchain
    • Ensures data integrity and traceability, preventing misinformation and ensuring credibility in biodiversity data repositories.

GBF Target 22: Ensure Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice and Information Related to Biodiversity for All

• Action 22.1: Ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in decision-making related to biodiversity.
  • DAOs
    • Empowers communities by enabling decentralised governance, ensuring equitable decision-making processes for conservation initiatives.
  • Blockchain
    • Provides a secure record of indigenous land rights and conservation agreements, preventing disputes and ensuring transparency. Facilitates digital land verification, allowing unbanked communities to securely register land ownership and access conservation incentives.

Conclusion

Web 3.0 technologies have the potential to transform conservation efforts by improving financial transparency, data accessibility, governance, and community engagement. By leveraging blockchain for trust, IoT for real-time monitoring, DAOs for decentralised decision-making, and tokenisation for funding mechanisms, conservation organisations can create scalable, impact-driven solutions. However, successful integration requires collaboration between conservationists, technologists, and policymakers to ensure that these tools are applied effectively and ethically.

This document serves as a reference for those seeking to integrate Web 3.0 solutions into biodiversity strategies and build a more transparent, inclusive, and financially sustainable future for conservation.

The key objectives of this group are (1) to provide the IUCN Species Survival Commission with strategic guidance, support and information on climate change related risks to biodiversity and conservation responses, (2) to promote coordinated responses to climate change within and among the IUCN Species Survival Commission, IUCN programmes and IUCN partner organizations, (3) to catalyse and support sound science, effective policy and evidence-based conservation practice informed by a deeper understanding of climate change, its impacts on biodiversity, and the responses required.

This specialist group was established in 2013 as a Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

The consequences of climate change are now understood to be widespread, affecting many different aspects of the environment.  The impact on cetaceans is believed to be equally broad, and climate change is also likely to exacerbate existing threats, for example habitat loss, pollution and disease.

The first AEWA Strategic Plan was adopted at the 4th Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP4) in 2008 through Resolution 4.7 and covered the period 2009-2017. Noting that MOP7 will not have taken place before 2018, in November 2015, MOP6 decided to extend the Strategic Plan until 2018 as per Resolution 6.14. Through the same Resolution, the MOP instructed the Standing Committee, working with the Technical Committee and supported by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, to revise the AEWA Strategic Plan taking into account the CMS Strategic Plan for Migratory Species 2015-2023, and to present a draft plan for the period 2019-2027 for consideration and adoption by MOP7. The current Strategic Plan for the period 2019-2027 was adopted at the 7th Session of the Meeting of the Parties on 4-8 December 2018 in Durban, South Africa.

La predicción de los impactos del cambio climático sobre la biodiversidad es un gran desafío científico. Se han desarrollado diferentes métodos para la evaluación de la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático (EVCC) de las especies y se está produciendo una gran y creciente cantidad de literatura científica al respecto. Nuestra motivación para realizar este documento es disminuir la magnitud del desafío que enfrentan los conservacionistas al interpretar y utilizar la compleja y frecuentemente inconsistente literatura sobre EVCC.

Using Information Communication Technologies (ICT) tools to facilitate participatory climate change vulnerability assessments addresses the challenge of effectively engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including those at different literacy and capacity levels, to capture local and traditional knowledge as well as stakeholder input on priority needs and opportunities for resilience building in the Caribbean islands.

With summer heat often exceeding 40°C and a population surpassing 1.45 million, Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, faces up to a 2.5°C increase in temperature by 2050. As is the case in most cities, domestic and industrial activities utilise energy to function, generating heat as well as other kinds of pollution. In addition, the high density of large buildings with absorbing surfaces traps and stores heat energy within city streets. Typically, heat stress is addressed using air conditioning to cool indoor spaces. However, air conditioning is extremely energy demanding and cools indoor air by pumping warm air outside thus further exacerbating the problem.    

The International Centre Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas’ (ICARDA) high yielding wheat varieties with resistance to extreme heat, drought and salinity and insect pests and diseases have been adopted throughout the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regions, both highly vulnerable to climate change. It aimed at achieving a widespread adoption and transformative impact in terms of enhancing productivity, farmers’ income, job creation, and value addition all leading towards attaining higher levels of wheat self-sufficiency.  

In informal settlements of the Greater Cairo Region, a rooftop farming project was initiated in 2014. The goal was to reduce ambient temperatures (microclimate) in a densely populated area through green spaces on rooftops, and reduce the impacts of the urban heat island effect and increasing heat due to climate change. In addition to the environmental benefits, rooftop farming has other socio-economic benefits, adding to income generation and reducing vulnerability to price hikes. As many challenges were faced affecting sustainability and continuation, a new project was developed to establish a social business model to strengthen the socio-economic aspects of the project, while looking at rooftop farming from a community development perspective. A Rooftop Farming Hub was established in two informal areas to act as a technical, socio-economic, and environmental driver for change within the participating community members. 

The key objectives of this group are (1) to provide the IUCN Species Survival Commission with strategic guidance, support and information on climate change related risks to biodiversity and conservation responses, (2) to promote coordinated responses to climate change within and among the IUCN Species Survival Commission, IUCN programmes and IUCN partner organizations, (3) to catalyse and support sound science, effective policy and evidence-based conservation practice informed by a deeper understanding of climate change, its impacts on biodiversity, and the responses required.

This specialist group was established in 2013 as a Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

The consequences of climate change are now understood to be widespread, affecting many different aspects of the environment.  The impact on cetaceans is believed to be equally broad, and climate change is also likely to exacerbate existing threats, for example habitat loss, pollution and disease.

The first AEWA Strategic Plan was adopted at the 4th Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP4) in 2008 through Resolution 4.7 and covered the period 2009-2017. Noting that MOP7 will not have taken place before 2018, in November 2015, MOP6 decided to extend the Strategic Plan until 2018 as per Resolution 6.14. Through the same Resolution, the MOP instructed the Standing Committee, working with the Technical Committee and supported by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, to revise the AEWA Strategic Plan taking into account the CMS Strategic Plan for Migratory Species 2015-2023, and to present a draft plan for the period 2019-2027 for consideration and adoption by MOP7. The current Strategic Plan for the period 2019-2027 was adopted at the 7th Session of the Meeting of the Parties on 4-8 December 2018 in Durban, South Africa.

La predicción de los impactos del cambio climático sobre la biodiversidad es un gran desafío científico. Se han desarrollado diferentes métodos para la evaluación de la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático (EVCC) de las especies y se está produciendo una gran y creciente cantidad de literatura científica al respecto. Nuestra motivación para realizar este documento es disminuir la magnitud del desafío que enfrentan los conservacionistas al interpretar y utilizar la compleja y frecuentemente inconsistente literatura sobre EVCC.

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

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.

Overexploitation of forests in the region, overgrazing, forest fires, rapid urbanisationand the impacts of climate change are endangering forest functions in the Mediterranean region. The GIZ Regional Programme ‘Capacity Development for Forest Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change (FEbA)’ is tackling these issues by (a) linking non-forest actors with those engaged in forest management and (b) by capacity development targeting in first instance decision makers.

A pilot was implemented to underpin the incorporation of an EbA approach into the planning tools for natural protected areas. The necessary methodologies and tools were developed, the vulnerability assessment was completed, the specific areas and the measures to be implemented were identified, including the communal management of native grasslands, vicuñas management (a wild relative of the llama), the expansion and conservation of wetlands and the restoration of water infrastructure.

The solution aims at sustainable development in coastal areas of the East Asian Seas region by reducing and preventing impacts of natural disasters, climate change and sea level rise. It provides references and capacity building for national and local authorities in coastal and marine spatial planning. National adaptation activities and best practices for capacity building and field application tailored to needs and priorities of each country are provided.

The catalog compiles best practices that prevent or reduce the impact of climate change on coastal areas in Quintana Roo State, México with focus on land use, construction and ecosystems management. Solution partners systematized the experiences of hotels, dwellers, architects and engineers living and working along the Méxican Caribbean and identified almost 50 best practices. The catalog is a key component of the Climate Risk and Resilience Initiative lead by The Nature Conservancy.

Ecosystem based adaptation (EbA) solutions were identified and selected in a participatory process conducted across low-lying atoll islands and high islands communities of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) was conducted to assess the costs and benefits of each EbA solution, in terms of welfare losses, due to the implementation of projects or policies, and welfare gains associated with the improved provision of ecosystem services.

Due to increasing pressure on vulnerable natural resources from tourism, local development, and climate change, state government planners in Melekeok (Palau) have identified a need to prioritize land use planning. A 3D model of the state was created using a participatory process, utlizing the knowledge of all demographic sectors of the community. The end result is a 12’ x 10.5’ x 6” model of that serves as a tool to help guide decision makers and community members how to plan for climate change adaptation, manage natural resource, and address land zoning issues. 

To face the climate change challenge, the City government embarked to undertake activities they believed would increase the adaptive capacities of the constituents. The Project Maasin City was a beneficiary of a packge of support that consisted of installation of their watch tower, a fish-finder radar system, a radio and communications system that connected the City to its neighboring municipalities along the Sogod Bay of Southern Leyte.

Using Information Communication Technologies (ICT) tools to facilitate participatory climate change vulnerability assessments addresses the challenge of effectively engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including those at different literacy and capacity levels, to capture local and traditional knowledge as well as stakeholder input on priority needs and opportunities for resilience building in the Caribbean islands.

The ‘Valuating Climate Adaptation Options’ study used ecosystem service and cost-benefit analysis to illuminate the trade-offs between different climate adaptation strategies on Placencia Peninsula, Belize. It accounts for coastal-marine ecosystem services like tourism opportunities, protection from storms and sea level rise, and spiny lobster catch to make informed decisions.

This solution promotes the integrated management of coastal watersheds that drain into the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California by aligning the investments of public and private agencies to address climate change impacts and coastal and marine conservation. It is the foundation for enduring cross-sectorial coordination and local participation to maintain and recover watershed functions that deliver ecosystem services, which benefit cities and rural communities.

The project targeted disaster and climate risk reduction as an integral part of an Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) process conjunctly taking place in DRC. Pilot ecosystem-based measures aimed to reduce soil/gulley erosion and flood risk in two sites (upstream and downstream) in the Lukaya Basin, while improving livelihoods and income. Capacity was developed locally and nationally on ecosystem-based measures and national advocacy on EbA/Eco-DRR was supported through IWRM. 

The project took an Eco-DRR approach addressing hazards and vulnerability to reduce disaster risk. However, the project activities also addressed climate change adaptation through working with climate change impacts and people’s vulnerability to change through the ecosystem-based measures involved in IWRM. Thus these measures can be seen as both Eco-DRR and EbA, while the implementation framework was Eco-DRR.

This pilot project aimed to demonstrate how ecosystem-based measures could mitigate climate hazards and reduce vulnerabilities in Haiti through a ridge to reef approach. It implemented revegetation and sustainable vetiver farming to reduce risk of erosion and inland flooding, revegetation of coastal forest to buffer against storm surges and coastal flooding and created sustainable and resilient fisheries to increase local resilience; it also improved capacity and supported national advocacy.

The project undertook an Eco-DRR approach by targeting hazards (flooding, storm surges and erosion) and vulnerability (due to unsustatinable management) and increasing disaster prepardeness (e.g. early warning) to reduce disaster risk. However, these hazards are climatic hazards and impacts that are increasing due to climate change and increasing peoples vulnerability to climate change. Therefore, the ecosystem-based measures in this project undertaken are also EbA.

The páramo – the typical moorland of the high Andes – is an important ecosystem as it provides key ecosystem services to local communities, especially regarding water regulation. Nevertheless, this ecosystem is under severe threat mainly due to overuse and climate change. With a projected reduction in annual precipitation in Tungurahua, it is ever more important to conserve the páramo ecosystem. The solution integrated climate change into planning and strengthened local management structures.

The solution supports Vietnamese government’s efforts to anchor EbA solutions systemically into land use planning law as well as mainstreaming into climate change regional action plans at provincial level in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh. This helps raising awareness on EbA approaches. Many project partners have shown interest and commitments in integrating EbA solutions into current policy elaborating processes and daily works based on vulnerability assessments and capacity development measures.

In the process of revising its municipal master plan, the city of Duque de Caxias decided to include both climate change vulnerability and ecosystem services mapping in its diagnosis. This is expected to lay the foundation for incorporating more EbA measures in the master plan. Both assessments used a participative approach, in order to strengthen capacities and complete missing quantitative data.

CityAdapt promotes climate resilience in urban areas through the implementation of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for adaptation. CityAdapt strengthens the technical capacities of municipalities, policymakers, and citizens to analyze the impacts and vulnerabilities to climate change and identify appropriate nature-based solutions for urban planning. The project’s goal is to reduce the vulnerability of urban communities to current and future effects of climate change (flooding, drought, landslides, etc.) by mainstreaming urban Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in city planning. It is carrying out EbA activities in urban areas and surrounding watersheds of Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico; Kingston, Jamaica; and San Salvador, El Salvador. These activities consist of the restoration of mangroves, forests and riparian areas, implementation of climate-smart agriculture, construction of water retention structures, establishment of community gardens, and installation of roof rainwater catchment systems, among others.

The key objectives of this group are (1) to provide the IUCN Species Survival Commission with strategic guidance, support and information on climate change related risks to biodiversity and conservation responses, (2) to promote coordinated responses to climate change within and among the IUCN Species Survival Commission, IUCN programmes and IUCN partner organizations, (3) to catalyse and support sound science, effective policy and evidence-based conservation practice informed by a deeper understanding of climate change, its impacts on biodiversity, and the responses required.

This specialist group was established in 2013 as a Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

The consequences of climate change are now understood to be widespread, affecting many different aspects of the environment.  The impact on cetaceans is believed to be equally broad, and climate change is also likely to exacerbate existing threats, for example habitat loss, pollution and disease.

The first AEWA Strategic Plan was adopted at the 4th Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP4) in 2008 through Resolution 4.7 and covered the period 2009-2017. Noting that MOP7 will not have taken place before 2018, in November 2015, MOP6 decided to extend the Strategic Plan until 2018 as per Resolution 6.14. Through the same Resolution, the MOP instructed the Standing Committee, working with the Technical Committee and supported by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, to revise the AEWA Strategic Plan taking into account the CMS Strategic Plan for Migratory Species 2015-2023, and to present a draft plan for the period 2019-2027 for consideration and adoption by MOP7. The current Strategic Plan for the period 2019-2027 was adopted at the 7th Session of the Meeting of the Parties on 4-8 December 2018 in Durban, South Africa.

La predicción de los impactos del cambio climático sobre la biodiversidad es un gran desafío científico. Se han desarrollado diferentes métodos para la evaluación de la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático (EVCC) de las especies y se está produciendo una gran y creciente cantidad de literatura científica al respecto. Nuestra motivación para realizar este documento es disminuir la magnitud del desafío que enfrentan los conservacionistas al interpretar y utilizar la compleja y frecuentemente inconsistente literatura sobre EVCC.

Le projet applique des mesures d’adaptation dans les bassins versants vulnérables. Les ressources naturelles, telles que l’eau et le sol, sont gérées durablement afin de réduire l’érosion et d’améliorer les rendements agricoles. Des mesures d’adaptation « vertes », sans regret, telles que l’agroforesterie et le reboisement communautaire sont complétés par d’autres mesures telles que le stockage et la promotion de l’infiltration de l’eau de pluie et le travail de conservation du sol.

The key objectives of this group are (1) to provide the IUCN Species Survival Commission with strategic guidance, support and information on climate change related risks to biodiversity and conservation responses, (2) to promote coordinated responses to climate change within and among the IUCN Species Survival Commission, IUCN programmes and IUCN partner organizations, (3) to catalyse and support sound science, effective policy and evidence-based conservation practice informed by a deeper understanding of climate change, its impacts on biodiversity, and the responses required.

This specialist group was established in 2013 as a Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

The consequences of climate change are now understood to be widespread, affecting many different aspects of the environment.  The impact on cetaceans is believed to be equally broad, and climate change is also likely to exacerbate existing threats, for example habitat loss, pollution and disease.

The first AEWA Strategic Plan was adopted at the 4th Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP4) in 2008 through Resolution 4.7 and covered the period 2009-2017. Noting that MOP7 will not have taken place before 2018, in November 2015, MOP6 decided to extend the Strategic Plan until 2018 as per Resolution 6.14. Through the same Resolution, the MOP instructed the Standing Committee, working with the Technical Committee and supported by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, to revise the AEWA Strategic Plan taking into account the CMS Strategic Plan for Migratory Species 2015-2023, and to present a draft plan for the period 2019-2027 for consideration and adoption by MOP7. The current Strategic Plan for the period 2019-2027 was adopted at the 7th Session of the Meeting of the Parties on 4-8 December 2018 in Durban, South Africa.

La predicción de los impactos del cambio climático sobre la biodiversidad es un gran desafío científico. Se han desarrollado diferentes métodos para la evaluación de la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático (EVCC) de las especies y se está produciendo una gran y creciente cantidad de literatura científica al respecto. Nuestra motivación para realizar este documento es disminuir la magnitud del desafío que enfrentan los conservacionistas al interpretar y utilizar la compleja y frecuentemente inconsistente literatura sobre EVCC.

Using Information Communication Technologies (ICT) tools to facilitate participatory climate change vulnerability assessments addresses the challenge of effectively engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including those at different literacy and capacity levels, to capture local and traditional knowledge as well as stakeholder input on priority needs and opportunities for resilience building in the Caribbean islands.

This solution promotes the integrated management of coastal watersheds that drain into the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California by aligning the investments of public and private agencies to address climate change impacts and coastal and marine conservation. It is the foundation for enduring cross-sectorial coordination and local participation to maintain and recover watershed functions that deliver ecosystem services, which benefit cities and rural communities.

The solution recovered natural conditions and protects 3,900 ha of unique peat swamp forest ecosystem. The conservation of Melaleuca trees found in this forest type is a national priority because they buffer floods, recharge aquifers and provide habitat for endangered wetland species. About 25,000 people living in the park’s buffer zone benefit through the provision of clean water and small cultivated fish.

Le bien-être des habitants de Madagascar dépend de ses ressources naturelles et de ses services, tels que le bois de feu, la nourriture et l’eau. De nombreuses zones sont dégradées dues à l’utilisation non durable des terres. Les aléas climatiques ajoutent plus de risques pour les personnes, la nature et l’économie. La restauration des paysages forestiers (RPF) est une priorité clé de l’AFR100 pour assurer un développement durable. Les écosystèmes résilients améliorant l’économie, la sécurité alimentaire et l’approvisionnement en eau, la conservation et la séquestration du carbone en sont les piliers. Cette solution couvre la mise en place de plateformes multiséctorielles , les mesures de renforcement des capacités des acteurs, le développement d’une stratégie nationale RPF et la priorisation des payasages à restaurer basées sur une évaluation multicritère. Les prochaines étapes consisteront à identifier des sites pour piloter des activités de restauration dans la région Boeny.

La désertification et ses conséquences menacent le bien-être de la population du nord du Cameroun, en particulier des ménages ruraux. Le manque de feu de bois et bois de construction, et l’extrême pauvreté sont des défis majeurs pour la population de Mogazang. Les aléas climatiques comme la modification des régimes de précipitations exacerbent aussi risques pour la population. L’élaboration d’une carte par les membres de la communauté a permis la démarcation d’un terrain dégradé (10,74 ha) à restaurer. En adoptant une approche «d’apprentissage par la pratique», différentes techniques de restauration de la fertilité des sols ont été testées. En attendant que la parcelle soit productive, les femmes ont été formées à des activités alternatives génératrices de revenus et à la construction de foyers améliorés. L’initiative contribue ainsi aux objectifs de l’AFR100 par la restauration des terres dégradées, la réduction de la pression sur les ressources naturelles et la génération de revenus.

La comunidad de Miraflores y el Instituto de Montaña implementaron una medida de Adaptación basada en Ecosistemas (AbE) en alianza con la Reserva Paisajística Nor Yauyos-Cochas y la UICN. Nuestra solución de adaptación combinó el conocimiento tradicional y local con la ciencia más reciente, y comprendió tres componentes: (1) Fortalecimiento de la institucionalidad y la organización comunal, (2) Fortalecimiento de capacidades y conocimientos locales e (3) Infraestructura verde-gris. Trabajando con conservacionistas, ingenieros y antropólogos, los miembros de la comunidad de Miraflores decidieron restaurar un antiguo sistema de gestión del agua diseñado por sus ancestros y que data de hace 700 años. Este sistema renovado es un híbrido de infraestructura verde y gris que aprovecha al máximo la ingeniería antigua y la ciencia moderna. Pudimos restaurar el flujo de agua a los pastizales y mejorar el manejo del ganado y pastos, una adaptación clave al cambio climático.

Le projet « Réserve de biosphère transfrontalière du Delta du Mono » vise la protection et l’utilisation durable de la biodiversité et des services écosystémiques dans le Delta du Mono en contribuant au développement durable surtout des communautés locales. L’introduction des mesures de gestion durable des ressources forestières et halieutiques contribue à augmenter la résilience des populations locales en face des défis climatiques existants tels que les inondations et la sécheresse.

La cuenca binacional del río Sixaola, compartida por Costa Rica y Panamá, fluye hacia el mar Caribe. El área tiene una gran biodiversidad y riqueza cultural con una población afro-descendiente e indígena mixta. Las comunidades enfrentan vulnerabilidad social y carecen de capacidades de adaptación. El área se ve acentuada por el aumento de la fragmentación del hábitat, los cambios en los patrones de lluvia y el aumento de la incidencia de fenómenos meteorológicos extremos, particularmente inundaciones, que afectan a la vida local

La solución combina 4 elementos para fortalecer la gobernanza transfronteriza y mejorar la capacidad de adaptación al cambio climático, trabajando de cerca con la Comisión Binacional de la Cuenca del Río Sixaola (CBCRS) y maximizando la participación pública para aumentar su efectividad y consolidarla como plataforma de referencia de gobernanza.

Para reducir la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático de las comunidades en el paisaje de la Reserva de la Biosfera del Volcán de Tacaná, se implementaron medidas de EbA con dos comunidades: La Azteca y Alpujarras. Las comunidades se organizan como ejidos, que es una estructura de tenencia de la tierra en México.

La solución tuvo como objetivo mejorar la resiliencia tanto del bosque nuboso como de la producción agroforestal de café para enfrentar tormentas y lluvias intensas que causan erosión, deslizamientos de tierra y pérdidas de vidas, impactos en fuentes de agua y producción agrícola.

A mediano plazo, esta combinación de medidas mejorará la captación de agua, reducirá la erosión hídrica y se obtendrán productos adicionales para consumo familiar. Además, se tomaron acciones a través de fondos estatales, federales y de proyectos para asegurar la sostenibilidad en el mediano plazo.

La microcuenca de San Pablo, como bosque protector de nacimientos de agua, constituye una zona estratégica para el Municipio, el cual ha debido arbitrar medios necesarios para su protección a raíz de un nuevo escenario de producción: el cultivo de aguacate y sus consecuencias ambientales como la contaminación hídrica por los pesticidas y fertilizantes utilizados, la disminución de vegetación y bosques y la consecuente pérdida de conectividad ecológica con las demás microcuencas.
Entre las principales acciones de conservación implementadas se encuentran el aislamiento de los sitios de recarga hídrica para el control de daños por ingreso de ganado, la reforestación con especies nativas y la firma de acuerdos entre cultivadores de aguacate e instituciones del Estado en todos sus niveles, a fin de  reducir la presión sobre el recurso hídrico.

El Bosque de San Antonio, aporta a la conectividad ecológica con el Parque Nacional Natural Farallones de Cali. A pesar de su enorme importancia, la zona se encuentra bajo grandes amenazas como la pérdida de coberturas naturales por la creciente construcción de viviendas y la expansión de la frontera agrícola.

A efectos de revertir esta situación, se han desarrollado acuerdos de conservación para el manejo y uso sostenible de sus predios.

En este sentido, se han implementado más de 50 acuerdos de conservación y restauración de franjas de protección hídrica como así también la inclusión del área en los planes de ordenamiento territorial municipales en el marco de un sistema de gobernanza compartida, desarrollando  acciones de planificación integrada y participativa para el manejo sostenible del territorio y para el resguardo de los recursos hídricos que abastecen tanto a la población local como a las zonas aledañas.

A través de investigación cientifica relevante y procesos de colaboración ciencia-productor, se contribuye a la identificacion y creación de áreas de conservacion privadas en predios agrícolas, integran el rediseño de predios y su manejo para que coexistan con la biodiversidad. Este trabajo es Realizado por el Programa Vino, Cambio Climatico y Biodiversidad con el apoyo de 21viñas Chilenas desde el año 2008.

Esta solución se implementó en la microcuenca Huacrahuacho, ubicada en un ecosistema altoandino llamado Puna sobre los 3.800 msnm. Se diseñó frente a los problemas de sequía y disminución de fuentes de agua, durante la época seca, para el consumo humano y el uso agropecuario. Tuvo como objetivos: captar, almacenar e infiltrar agua y recargar los acuíferos; incrementar/mantener el caudal de los manantiales; generar un microclima con mayor humedad; y conservar la biodiversidad.

La qocha, palabra quechua que significa laguna pequeña, fue el centro de un conjunto de medidas que incorporan forestación, zanjas de infiltración, manejo de pasturas naturales y acequias colectoras o aductoras.

Gracias a estas medidas construidas por las familias y a nivel comunal, se cuenta con más agua durante las épocas de estiaje, lo que ha permitido la recuperación de pastos naturales para la producción ganadera y un cambio hacia un paisaje más húmedo con mayor biodiversidad y belleza paisajística.

The key objectives of this group are (1) to provide the IUCN Species Survival Commission with strategic guidance, support and information on climate change related risks to biodiversity and conservation responses, (2) to promote coordinated responses to climate change within and among the IUCN Species Survival Commission, IUCN programmes and IUCN partner organizations, (3) to catalyse and support sound science, effective policy and evidence-based conservation practice informed by a deeper understanding of climate change, its impacts on biodiversity, and the responses required.

This specialist group was established in 2013 as a Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

The consequences of climate change are now understood to be widespread, affecting many different aspects of the environment.  The impact on cetaceans is believed to be equally broad, and climate change is also likely to exacerbate existing threats, for example habitat loss, pollution and disease.

The first AEWA Strategic Plan was adopted at the 4th Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP4) in 2008 through Resolution 4.7 and covered the period 2009-2017. Noting that MOP7 will not have taken place before 2018, in November 2015, MOP6 decided to extend the Strategic Plan until 2018 as per Resolution 6.14. Through the same Resolution, the MOP instructed the Standing Committee, working with the Technical Committee and supported by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, to revise the AEWA Strategic Plan taking into account the CMS Strategic Plan for Migratory Species 2015-2023, and to present a draft plan for the period 2019-2027 for consideration and adoption by MOP7. The current Strategic Plan for the period 2019-2027 was adopted at the 7th Session of the Meeting of the Parties on 4-8 December 2018 in Durban, South Africa.

La predicción de los impactos del cambio climático sobre la biodiversidad es un gran desafío científico. Se han desarrollado diferentes métodos para la evaluación de la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático (EVCC) de las especies y se está produciendo una gran y creciente cantidad de literatura científica al respecto. Nuestra motivación para realizar este documento es disminuir la magnitud del desafío que enfrentan los conservacionistas al interpretar y utilizar la compleja y frecuentemente inconsistente literatura sobre EVCC.

En las últimas décadas, la Jalca, ecosistema altoandino importante para la regulación hídrica, se ha visto amenazada por su mal manejo y los cambios en las precipitaciones asociados al cambio climático. Ante esto, el Proyecto Páramo Andino promovió la conservación de la Jalca como fuente de agua, trabajando con la población un plan de manejo participativo, en el cual se priorizaron medidas de conservación del ecosistema y para aprovechar mejor el agua, que juntas contribuyen a la adaptación al cambio climático. Entre las medidas estan: protección de ojos de agua y manantiales con plantaciones de queñual (Polylepis spp.) y pircas de piedras; agroforestería, viveros forestales y forestación con queñual en macizos y protección de praderas con cercos vivos; construcción de microreservorios e instalación de riego por aspersión. Estas medidas fueran recogidas y financiadas por los gobiernos locales y tomadas en cuenta por el gobierno regional para determinar prioridades de conservación.

La comunidad ubicada en el Parque Nacional Huascarán, está siendo afectada por la contaminación natural de las aguas del río Negro debido a que el retroceso glaciar ha dejado rocas expuestas en las montañas que generan acidificación y disolución de metales en el agua por arrastre de las lluvias. Este fenómeno perjudica a los comuneros que se dedican a la ganadería extensiva en pastos naturales. Esta iniciativa, implementada por la comunidad y el Instituto de Montaña, realizó análisis y monitoreo participativos de la calidad del agua, capacitación de investigadores locales y una búsqueda de alternativas tecnológicas para resolver el problema. Finalmente se optó por la biorremediación, mediante la cual se purifica el agua haciéndola pasar por una serie de pozas rústicas en las cuales se decantan los sedimentos y luego se utiliza la capacidad de plantas nativas para absorber los contaminantes. De esta manera, se logró mejorar la calidad de agua para consumo humano y del ganado.

Esta solución busca asegurar el abastecimiento de agua en la cuenca del río Shullcas amenazada por la progresiva desglaciación del nevado Huaytapallana que viene alterando su régimen hídrico. La solución se diseñó bajo el enfoque de gestión integral de la cuenca, promoviendo una mejor gestión del recurso hídrico tanto en la oferta como en la demanda. Las acciones a nivel local se ajustaron a partir de un análisis de capacidad y vulnerabilidad climática el cual identificó la dependencia entre los medios de vida de la población y los ecosistemas. Las acciones de adaptación comprenden:

• Reforestación y conservación de praderas y pastizales naturales para promover la retención del agua.

• Mejoramiento de prácticas para reducir el consumo de del agua en agricultura.

• Mejoramiento de las prácticas de uso del agua en áreas urbanas.

• Creación de capacidades a nivel local y regional para gestionar un mecanismo de retribución por servicios ecosistémicos que busca la sostenibilidad de la solución.

El Área de Conservación El Imposible – Barra de Santiago tiene una extensión de 90,467 ha, con una elevación de 0 a 1400 msnm; posee diferentes tipos de ecosistemas que van desde costero-marinos, manglares, hasta cafetales y ecosistemas agropecuarios. La degradación en la zona es ocasionada por una alta presión de actividades agropecuarias, malas prácticas agrícolas que producen mayor erosión, pérdida de la productividad y aumento de los sedimentos en los cauces de los ríos. Se propone una solución integral para aumentar los servicios ecosistemicos que brindan los manglares, a traves de combinar el diálogo interinstitucional,  las capacidades locales y acciones en campo para fomentar la reforestación y la regeneración natural del ecosistema degradado. Con organizaciones locales se implementan acciones de Restauración Ecologica de Manglar -REM-, que consiste en recuperación hidrodinamica del sitio, extracción de sedimentos, monitoreo de la biodiversidad y generación de empleo temporal.

En Centroamérica, la producción cafetalera ha sido negativamente impactada por la inestabilidad en los precios, impactando a los pequeños caficultores y sobre todo a los que tienen cafetales en zonas medias y bajas con calidad estándar.

El Silvocafé  es un modelo de negocio agroforestal para cafetales bajo sombra que agrega el manejo y aprovechamiento silvicultural con árboles de perferencia nativos y de alto valor comercial (AVC). La solución esta basada en las experiencias implementadas en Guatemala y Costa Rica.

El modelo Silvocafé al implementarlo, le permite al caficultor restaurar el ecositema mejorando los servicios ecosistemicos (prevención de la erosión, captación de agua, reducción de la frangmentación del paisaje, aumento en la captación de carbono y conservación de la biodiversidad) en su terreno; al mismo tiempo, que produce subproductos de madera con arboles de AVC, con retornos a corto, mediano y largo plazo, según su planificación.

Sierra del Abra Tanchipa Biosphere Reserve is a relevant corridor connecting tropical forest relicts of the Sierra Madre Oriental, a world hotspot of biodiversity. It plays a crucial role in connecting human communities. Due to extreme weather events related to climate change, CONANP is implementing an integrated, socio-environmental adaptation strategy, involving training and promotion of sustainable productive activities; and ecosystem restoration and maintenance,  aimed to develop adaptive capacities within the human and wildlife communities to increase  resilience.

While industrial farming practices contribute to a changing climate, agriculture done right has the ability to save the planet! That’s why Trees for the Future (TREES) helps farmers in the developing world to increase food security, generate sustainable income, and revitalize degraded lands through the Forest Garden Approach (FGA). Each year, TREES works directly with about 5,000 farming families consisting of over 30,000 people and teaches them 14 different agroforestry modules over a 4-year program. Annually, TREES helps farmers plant 20 million trees and cultivate farms to grow, on average, 27 varieties of crops/shrubs on land thought to be infertile. This achieves average income gains of an average 400% over four years. TREES also collaborates with agricultural development and food assistance organizations to train extension experts in the FGA to help others adopt sustainable, climate-smart agriculture programming, amplifying these powerful impacts.

Large parts of the rainforests in Borneo (Kalimantan) have been cleared or are degraded. The degraded areas are subject to erosion, offer little in terms of Ecosystem Services and provide no income to the locals. A solution is Forest Landscape Restoration with native tree species and agroforestry systems, starting with fast-growing, commerically viable pioneer species that stabilize and improve the soil with nitrogen fixing. In a second step, agricultural plants and tree species with longer rotation are added. Organic fertilizers such as compost contribute to the restoration of soil fertility.

Hoa Binh village – located along the coastline in central Vietnam – is seriously exposed to strong storms, sea encroachment, sand moving, drought and coastline erosion. In addition, the village has approximately 123ha of sandy protection forest areas along a 3.5km coastal stretch. The forest was degraded because of bombing in the war, serious storms and over-harvesting of trees for firewood by local people, making the communities more vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather impacts.

Reforestation and rehabilitation of the coastal protection forest along with livelihood development activities for communities proved to be the most effective measure in reducing the vulnerabilty of local people. The pilot measure consisted of reforesting and rehabilitating 10 ha degraded sandy coastal protection forest as well as providing technical trainings and raising awareness among local communities

Forest degradation, loss of biodiversity, declining agricultural productivity and soil erosion, exacerbated through climate variability and change threaten natural resource dependent communities in Mandla district. The project pursues an integrated approach of eco-restoration, sustainable forest management and agriculture, combining ecosystem-based measures (forest restoration, agroforestry) with technical measures (e.g. stone bunds, seed replacement, improved farming techniques).

The establishment of an integrated regional management for the Mesoamerican Reef System, the MAR Fund, provides financial stability for regional conservation initiatives. By encourgaing effective coordination, it helps to strengthen conservation of the area’s ecological functions and aims to develop an interconnected and functional regional network of MPAs.

Sea level rise makes it necessary to raise the dikes of rice fields. However, indigenous people of Guinea-Bissau lack employment, and tend to leave the rice fields. The initiative focuses on helping to restore rice fields and mangroves that were once abandoned. A set of alternative activities (fishing, tourism) and conservation measures complement this shared governance model.

This solution uses scientific information to prioritize sites of importance for conservation that are vulnerable to climate change on the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. A consultative process with participation by residents, fishermen, and local and regional authorities, builds a shared vision for sustainable management of coastal and marine resources. Dialogue platforms establish geographical areas, the governance model and management rules.

The regional strategy addresses coastal erosion due to sea-level rise, policy and operational gaps in six East Asian Seas countries. National authorities assess the national setting, gaps and needs and identify directions and priority actions for addressing coastal erosion. National reports on results and recommendations are presented, discussed and agreed through public participation and a national consultation process with all stakeholders.

Sea level rise has led to coastal erosion reducing the island of Mousuni while population increases. Salinity due to brackish water floods makes impossible cultivation for two years, and the use of high yielding paddy varieties. Community development capacity and re-introduction of traditional but salt tolerant paddy varieties and resistant fish and prawn species reached disaster preparedness, increases the resilience of the community, and secures livelihood.

Local communities in coastal areas were supported to face to erosion and coastal pollution through:
– Awareness raising on vulnerability to these threats;
– Reduction of the effects of coastal erosion on the city of Aného to ensure the integrity of the area and enable sustainable socio-economic development: refection of the west bank of the mouth of the Lake Togo, rehabilitation of the road along the shore and protection of threatened homes and riverside hotel infrastructure.

In this project, ANDES (Asociación para la Naturaleza y el Desarrollo Sostenible) provided support to communities in the mountainous Cusco Region of Peru for the establishment and management of a Potato Park, where communities can engage with, preserve and benefit from biocultural heritage. Communities active in the Association of Communities of the Potato Park are supported to preserve native and locally-adapted crop species and to capitalise on this through agrobiodiversity-based microenterprises. Communities’ resilience to climate change is bolstered ecologically by maintaining availability of locally-adapted food crops, culturally by reviving traditional knowledge, and socially by providing ecosystem-based livelihood generating activities. This solution is published as part of the project Ecosystem-based Adaptation; strengthening the evidence and informing policy, coordinated by IIED, IUCN and UN Environment WCMC.

Rapid urbanization and climate change-related water stress threaten forests in Cumbres de Monterrey National Park. To deal with these challenges and to maintain the ecosystem services that forests provide for the city and its inhabitants, CONANP and other key actors are working to strengthen the Park’s natural resilience by tackling chronic problems such as insect plagues, invasive species, and reducing fire risks. Moreover, awareness raising efforts are being carried out among urban dwellers.

Bontoc is exposed to various disasters including landslides and cyclones. Local government in cooperation with GIZ helped the communities to articulate their needs towards increased adaptive capacities to disasters and the effects of climate change. A mixture of participatory approaches were used to sensitize the local poplulation. Land use conflict analyses were conducted. as well as mangrove rehabilitation actions which were integrated into comprehensive land use and development plans.

An informal network of small holder farmers cultivate high quality organic products in an area of mixed agriculture and forestry in Sweden. Cold winters, recurring dry spells and diseases affect their agricultural production. Ecosystem-based measures are used by these farmers to adaptively respond to climate variability and change to reduce crop damage and failure. Ecological information is transmitted through the network ensuring a reservoir of old and new knowledge for farming practices that enhances their resilience.

Technical and capacity development measures are applied in watersheds threatened by climate change. Relevant professionals are supported in vulnerability assessments. Inclusion of population is ensured through the involvement in stakeholder platforms. Innovative EbA approaches like the “living weir” approach are based on local knowledge and initiatives and are implemented for demonstration purposes. Innovative technical methods, such as drones, were used to evaluate and monitor the project area before, during and after the activities. This approach recently received the International Drone Pioneer Award 2017 for visionary drone applications with global impact. Based on the experiences, EbA approaches are fed into the national level and education format.

To reduce the vulnerability to climate change of communities in the surrounding landscape of the Tacaná Volcano Biosphere Reserve, EbA measures were implemented with two communities: La Azteca and Alpujarras. Communities are organized as ejidos, which is a land-tenure structure in Mexico. 

The solution aimed to improve resilience of both the cloud forest and the agroforestry coffee production in order to face storms and heavy rains causing erosion, landslides and causing loss of lives, impacts to water springs, and agricultural production.

This combination of measures would improve water capture, reduce water erosion, and additional food products will be obtained for family consumption and comertialization. Actions were taken through state, federal and project funds to ensure sustainability in the medium term.

The project used a combination of ecosystem-based measures (re-vegetation and ecosystem protection) and grey infrastructure (rehabilitation of a water retention structure) to increase food security in the face of drought and flash floods, while strengthening environmental governance at the local level. Using a green-grey hybrid approach is probably the most appropriate approach in the dryland context of Sudan.

The project took an ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) approach working within a framework of hazards (drought and flash floods), vulnerability (due to conflict zone and unsustainable practices) to reduce disaster risk (e.g. famine). However, drought and erratic rainfall is increasing due to climate change and thus the ecosystem-based measures undertaken also enable adaptation (thus are also EbA).

The wellbeing of people in Madagascar depends on its natural resources and its goods, such as fuelwood, food and water. Many areas are heavily degraded due to unsustainable land use. Climate hazards add more risks for people, nature and the entire economy. Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is a key priority under AFR100 to ensure sustainable development. Resilient & multifunctional ecosystems improving the economy, food security & water supply, biodiversity protection and carbon sequestration are its cornerstones. Moving rapidly from pledges to practical implementation is crucial. This solution describes this successful process, covering the establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms, capacity building measures of actors, developing a national FLR strategy and prioritizing areas based on a multi-criteria assessment. Future steps will include identifying sites for piloting restoration activities in Boeny region.  

Sixaola binational river basin, shared by Costa Rica and Panama, flows into the Caribbean sea. The area has a ​​high biodiversity and cultural richness with a mixed afro-descendant and indigenous population. 

Communities face social vulnerability and lack adaptation capacities. The area is threathened by an increasing habitat fragmentation, changes in rainfall patterns and rising incidences of extreme weather events, particularly floods, all affecting local livelihoods. 

The solution aims to strengthen transboundary governance and improve institutional adaptation capacities. By working with the Binational Commission of the Sixaola River Basin (CBCRS), promoting public participation, while achieving greater binational cooperation and up-scaling solutions to basin scale. 

A governance model was used that was multidimensional, participatory, flexible and ecosystemic, in order to foster adaptation actions that enhance local livelihoods and healthy ecosystems.

Villages and most productive lands in the lower parts of the Turkestan mountain range are located in the valleys of rivers and streams. Water discharge of streams is seasonally highly variable. After rainfall and during snowmelt extreme flow events happen with discharges several times exceeding the average of the wet season, causing the transportation of large amounts of debris. These debris flows can be much more destructive than ordinary high water events. Local people report about formerly unknown events of flashfloods and debris flows, which can be attributed to land degradation in upper catchment areas in combination with climate change impacts.

The solution brought together the Committee of Emergency Situations, affected local communities and the forestry enterprise. Assisted by experts provided by the project, the situation was analyzed; risks identified and integrated intervention planned. These interventions consisted of green and grey measures and were jointly implemented.
 

The solution describes a pilot process in Brazil with the aim of integrating climate change risks and opportunities as well as ecosystem-based adaptation measures into the management plan of the protected area “Cananéia-Iguape-Peruíbe”. This area is part of the “Mosaico Lagamar”, a network of conservation sites in the Atlantic rainforest. The solution provides insights into the approach and its methodological aspects as well as concrete indications for replication in other protected area planning processes.

Rainwater harvesting („siembra y cosecha de agua de lluvia – SCALL“) is a hydrological technology of peasant farmers with a long-term vision. Its holistic approach is based on the Andean worldview called “water breeding” (“crianza de agua”). It is a collective practice in response to growing water scarcity. The experience combines green infrastructure with cultural, social and environmental practices as part of a program to recover Andean dry farming agriculture in harmony with the territory.

In Tajikistan, forests have suffered from deforestation due to an energy shortage after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today a weak forest governance system and imprecise land use rights lead to mismanagement and consequently a slow reforestation process. A weak financial infrastructure and a steady inflow of remittances have entailed an increase in livestock which has resulted in land use conflicts, enforced by few and partially contradicting regulations. A changing climate, increasing the frequency and intensity of disasters intensifies the pressure on communities and their surrounding ecosystems. Consequently, climate change adaptation, sustainable pasture management, and clear land use rights must form an integral part of forest management. This solution forms a guideline for integrative forest management rooted in the Joint Forest Management (JFM) approach, accounting for adaptation to climate change, sustainable pasture management, biodiversity preservation, and gender equity.

The restoration of Mayesbrook Park in east London was a project to restore the river that originally gave the park its name. A significant driver of the project was to update the park’s 50-year-old flood management infrastructure using a green infrastructure approach that would create natural flood storage while regenerating the park and improving amenity values, increasing urban greening, creating opportunities for access to nature, and benefiting biodiversity.

The project “Transboundary Biosphere Reserve (TBR) in the Mono Delta” aims at the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Mono Delta while at the same time contributing to the sustainable development of the local communities. The introduction of measures for the sustainable management of forest and fisheries resources contributes to increasing the resilience of local populations in the face of existing climate challenges such as floods and drought.

The Nile River Basin is characterized by diverse transboundary wetlands that are crucial for local livelihoods. Our overarching approach is catchment-based water resources management at landscape level. Our solution involves several assessment activities to improve the knowledge base including participatory wetlands assessment, modelling and climate vulnerabilities appraisal for baseline information. In addition the solucion covers various planning and institutional strengthening activities such as strengthening transboundary stakeholders’ forae, transboundary wetlands integrated planning, wetlands zonation and restoration, catchment soil and water conservation. Furthermore, the livelihoods of communities are ‘greened’ through incentives-based conservation agreements models and working with nature-based approaches. 

Guinness Ghana has been involved in conservation efforts in the Densu River Basin, because of NGO A Rocha Ghana proactively engaging & motivating them to do so. At the Densu River Basin Stakeholder Mapping Engagement event organised by PricewaterCoopers and commissioned by A Rocha, Guinness Ghana had shown awareness of the importance of water resources, but couldn’t go further because they were facing a water pollution crisis. To inspire the company, the NGO & the Ghanaian Forestry Commission organised a work visit for the company to Ecuador to witness other organizations’ work on water-related ecosystem services, and A Rocha connected with dedicated individuals within the company. Since then, the business has financially supported riverine vegetation restoration activities in the Densu River Basin and Atewa Range Forest Reserve. A Rocha Ghana also invites Guinness Ghana to share their sustainability efforts at public events &outreach activities, to strengthen their relationship.

Melbourne, Australia, is a fast growing city. As its suburbs expand to meet the needs of a growing population, municipal leaders are looking to protect wildlife habitat, provide green space for recreation and ensure that trees are available to manage the effects of climate change.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Resilient Melbourne have developed an urban forest plan that identifies opportunities to maintain and restore natural areas in the city. The Living Melbourne Strategy presents a transformative approach to responding to urban challenges with nature, and is a result of over two years of collaboration and evidence accumulation on how to connect, extend and enhance urban greening across the metropole.

Living Melbourne is a bold strategy for a greener, more liveable Melbourne into the future. In an unprecedented effort, Living Melbourne has been endorsed by 41 organisations representing local government, Victorian government, water authorities, statutory agencies and industry bodies.

The solution provides sustainable adaptation for people depending on vulnerable coastal areas of India that are further stressed by climate change, particularly sea level rise. Socio-economic and ecological characteristics are used to plan and implement an innovative brackish water  farming system. In this system, mangrove plantation is integrated with aquaculture, with mangroves and halophytes planted on outer and inner bunds (dam)  of the system to protect against rising sea level, cyclones and other natural disasters and water spread area used for aquaculture for income generation.

With summer heat often exceeding 40°C and a population surpassing 1.45 million, Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, faces up to a 2.5°C increase in temperature by 2050. As is the case in most cities, domestic and industrial activities utilise energy to function, generating heat as well as other kinds of pollution. In addition, the high density of large buildings with absorbing surfaces traps and stores heat energy within city streets. Typically, heat stress is addressed using air conditioning to cool indoor spaces. However, air conditioning is extremely energy demanding and cools indoor air by pumping warm air outside thus further exacerbating the problem.    

The Huangguoshu Scenic Area were established in 1980, with the Huangguoshu Waterfalls series as the core scenery which are called “Karst Waterfall Museum”. In order to protect the aesthetic value of landscape diversity, the water resources ecosystem service value, and the sustainable and harmonious development of man and nature, Guizhou Province formulated the Working Plan for the Full Implementation of the “River Chief System” in 2017, which means that the government leaders at all levels shall serve as the “River Chief”, responsible for the management and protection of the corresponding rivers, with a five-level River Chief of province, cities, counties, townships and village. The measures, such as hiring Non-governmental River Chief, establishing Dabang River Basin Management and Protection Plan, etc., have contributed to the poverty alleviation of indigenous people and obtained sufficient water resources, achieving the first and sixth goals of the Sustainable Development Goal 2030.

Mediante una alianza interinstitucional para el diseño, desarrollo e implementación de los “Planes de Acción de Manejo Integral de Cuenca” (PAMIC), se ha creado un instrumento de planeación del territorio con una visión innovadora que usa al elemento agua como hilo conductor entre las unidades de manejo dentro de la cuenca. El modelado de los servicios hidrológicos (provisión superficial de agua y potencial de retención de sedimentos) permite identificar zonas de oferta y de demanda, y conectarlas mediante trabajo conjunto con los actores de la cuenca.

An integrated, dynamic and operative land use and water management planning tool has been created through an inter-institutional alliance for the design, development and implementation of “Integrated River Basin Management Action Plans” (PAMIC, using the Spanish acronym). Its vision is innovative, using water as a conductive element energizing the different management units in the basin. The modelling of hydrological services (i.e. surface water and sedimentation retention potential) permits the identification of demand and supply zones, connecting them through the collaboration of the river basin stakeholders. In addition, a permanent funding scheme has been created and implemented to ensure the continuation of the project´s actions through the subsequent government administrations.

La Coalición de Organizaciones de la Bioregión Jamapa-Antigua (COBIJA) es una iniciativa de 7 organizaciones de base con gran experiencia en el trabajo comunitario y el manejo sustentable de recursos naturales. Su estrategia de trabajo con las comunidades tiene un enfoque de cuenca; combinan el manejo del territorio, el apoyo a los modos de vida locales, y la conservación de recursos.  Su acompañamiento permanente con diversas comunidades fortalece los procesos sociales y productivos de éstas, aumentando su capacidad adaptativa antes los cambios ambientales y sociales.

The solution provides protection of the muddy coasts and the people living near the coast from floods, storm surges and erosion. This is achieved by restoring eroded floodplains as precondition for natural regeneration or rehabilitation of mangrove forests as elements of an ecosystem-based approach to area coastal protection. T-shaped, permeable bamboo fences filled with soft brushwood bundles are effective at restoring eroded flood plains. This solution only works within a specific set of boundary conditions and must be site-specific and appropriate. Developed for the Lower Mekong Delta’s muddy coast in Vietnam, it provides security for people living directly behind dykes.

The Coalition of Organizations of the Jamapa-Antigua Bioregion  (COBIJA from its Spanish acronym) is an initiative of seven grassroots organizations holding, altogether, great experience in community work and sustainable management of natural resources. The work carried out by COBIJA has a watershed approach based on a regional initiative for integrated land use management (https://panorama.solutions/en/solution/dynamic-tool-integrated-land-use-and-water-management), through which they support local ways of life, and conservation of resources. The permanent presence and support of COBIJA to the various communities of the region has strengthened their social and productive processes, increasing their ability to better use ecosystem services to adapt in the face of environmental and social changes.

The high mountain region in the transmexican volcanic belt  has faced great amounts of pasture degradation, deforestration and biodiversity loss. These losses were the product of years of bad agricultural practices, technology exclusion and underrated ecosystem services. Such practices have threatened the rural livelihoods causing a damaged inter-community relationship. Following these concerns a project was implemented in 7 different communities within the natural protected areas of the transmexican volcanic belt. The project focussed on an “ecosystem-based approach” known as “EbA”. The main objective of the project was to reconstruct the local relationships within the communities so people could value ecosystem services through a more holistic perspective, so they could have a better understanding of nature and its importance. Through these main drivers the project aimed to increase the ecological resilience of the area and mitigate climate change impacts.

Since 2012, the Inga Foundation’s simple agroforestry system of Inga Alley Cropping has empowered 300+ families who have planted over 4 million trees dramatically transforming their lives.The ability of the resilient Inga tree to anchor, enrich, and regenerate depleted soil provides food security with 100% success for families with 2 year-old alleys. These fast-growing native Inga species which fix nitrogen in the soil  provide organic cash crops as well as significantly reduce global carbon emissions, protect wildlife and marine habitats, preserve water sources and yield a year’s worth of firewood. The basic grains/cash crops are grown without herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or heavy equipment.  Inga seedlings are planted in rows on steep, degraded slopes and require no technology or heavy equipment.  The Model positively addressing 11 of the 17 United Nations SDGs with NO NEGATIVE IMPACT whatsoever on the remaining 6.

NHS Grampian is using support from the Green Infrastructure Fund to transform Scotland’s largest hospital complex into a site which will demonstrate how a healthy natural environment is good for patients, visitors and staff.

The Foresterhill campus is the site of Aberdeen’s main hospitals alongside the medical school and medical science departments of the University of Aberdeen. The site has historically been developed incrementally in an uncoordinated manner, resulting in a campus that is dominated by vehicular circulation and infrastructure, difficult for pedestrians and covered by impermeable surfacing and lacking usable or accessible greenspace.

The green infrastructure project intends to improve pedestrian accessibility, create ‘destination’ green spaces, sustainably manage stormwater and bolster a green network across the campus

In 2003, two 20 metre breaches were created in an existing eroded sea wall to allow for the tide to re-enter a 25ha field, known as “Meddat Marsh”, on the edge of Nigg Bay. This allowed this area to be reconnected to the sea for the first time since the 1950s and intertidal habitat to be created. A second sea wall behind the field was already in existence and was raised and strengthened.

The coastal realignment was a success, with salt marsh habitat and wintering water birds colonizing the area, as well as improving coastal flooding protection.

High Atlas Foundation (HAF) and its partners focus on restoring native plants and trees to rehabilitate Moroccan biodiversity. Through agroforestry methods, HAF aims to push back against the effects of climate change, including desertification, irregular rainfall, and rising temperatures. Trees grown in HAF’s nurseries are provided to farming families and education centers, who are the sole beneficiaries of the yields. HAF’s tree nursery projects are managed by the people who plant, irrigate, maintain, harvest, and gain income from them. The goal is to integrate communities in land rehabilitation, promote native species and sustainable livelihoods, and systematically monitor trees in the nursery and fields. HAF builds the capacities of agricultural cooperatives and rural people in food safety, financial management, marketing, and the development of agricultural business plans. 

An  Ecosystem based Adaptation (EbA) measure was implemented by the community of Miraflores and The Mountain Institute in partnership with the Nor Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve and IUCN. Our adaptation solution combined traditional (indigenous), local knowledge with the latest science and comprised three components: (1) Strengthening community organizations and institutions, (2) Strengthening local capacities and knowledge and (3) Combining green and grey infrastructure. Working with conservationists, engineers and anthropologists, Miraflores community members decided to refurbish an ancient water management system designed by their ancestors and dating back as far as 700 years. This renovated system is a hybrid of grey (constructed) and green (from nature) infrastructure that makes the most of ancient engineering and modern science. We were able to restore water flow to native grasslands/pastures and improve livestock and pastureland management–a key adaptation to climate change.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is located in a desert region. This initiative exclusively uses the UAE’s indigenous plants to create the “First National Landscape” at the new campus of Umm Al Quwain University (UAQU). The initiative includes two elements: softscapes and hardscapes. The softscapes include native species of trees, shrubs and groundcovers. While the hardscapes consist of coloured gravels, gazebo structures, barbeque facilities, water fountains, jogging tracks and sports areas. Multi-factors were considered to minimize the landscaping requirements (e.g., water irrigation, maintenance and costs), while creating multi-functional areas that add value to the project (e.g., sports, barbeque, meditation and recreational areas), conserve native biodiversity, generate cultural and sustainability benefits, and foster climate-resilience. This initiative is expected to inspire decision-makers and other landscaping projects in arid lands to take similar approaches.