Escalating climate threats, invasive alien species and pathogens leave natural World Heritage at risk

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 is a global call to action, drawing together political support, scientific research, and finance to massively scale up restoration of terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems. It is led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), working with other partners. The website contains a, social media cards, sample messaging, and an animated visual identity designed for users to use or modify according to their needs.

How to use

To obtain information: https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/charting-course-global-restoration

To contribute to the UN Decade: https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/join-movement

Agroecology is integral to FAO’s Common Vision for Sustainable Food and Agriculture. It offers a unique approach to meeting significant increases in the future food needs. Agroecology is an integrated approach that applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of food and agricultural systems. These 10 elements set out the core principles.

The Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI) was established by the CBD to address the lack of taxonomic information and expertise available in many parts of the world, and thereby to improve decision-making in conservation, sustainable use, and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from genetic resources. The GTI was developed by governments under the Convention on Biological Diversity and is implemented by governments, non-government and international organizations, taxonomists, and institutions.

The GTI is specifically intended to support implementation of the work programmes of the Convention on its thematic and cross-cutting issues. The Guide to the GTI includes an introduction, the programme of work, and links to further information. The European GTI Toolkit is a comprehensive tool that covers GTI topics in further detail.

The Declaration is a comprehensive instrument detailing the rights of indigenous peoples in international law and policy. It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity, wellbeing and rights of the world’s indigenous peoples.

The Declaration addresses both individual and collective rights; cultural rights and identity; rights to education, health, employment, language, and others. It outlaws discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them.

It also ensures their right to remain distinct and to pursue their own priorities in economic, social and cultural development. The Declaration explicitly encourages harmonious and cooperative relations between States and indigenous peoples.

This document was produced by the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) in 2016. It provides guidance on enhancing the positive and minimizing the negative impacts on biodiversity of climate change mitigation and adaptation activities, based on recent literature, case studies, and experience.

Section I presents the main principles of enhancing positive and reducing negative impacts of climate change adaptation activities on biodiversity. Section II provides guidance on enhancing positive and minimizing negative impacts of climate change adaptation activities, with specific examples from different sectors and ecosystems. Section III provides examples of tools to enhance the benefits and reduce the negative impacts of mitigation on biodiversity, with references to other reports where additional information can be found.

The governments of the world adopted the following definition of an OECM in 2018: “A geographically defined area other than a Protected Area, which is governed and managed in ways that achieve positive and sustained long-term outcomes for the in-situ conservation of biodiversity, with associated ecosystem functions and services and where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socio–economic, and other locally relevant values”. OECMs complement protected areas through sustained, positive conservation outcomes, even though they may be managed primarily for other reasons. These sites are documented in the World Database on OECMs. This definition was only recently adopted and most countries have not yet provided data, but this does not mean that no OECMs exist in those countries. The World Database on OECMs is available on the Protected Planet website.

How to use

For IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) guidance on recognising OECMs:

https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2019.PATRS.3.en

To search for information on an existing site on the World Database on OECMs:

https://resources.unep-wcmc.org/products/4c1733823f2a451e8d5ecbaaef3f1a06WDPA

Ecosystems are critically important components of Earth’s biological diversity and as the natural capital that sustains human life and well-being. Yet all of the world’s ecosystems show hallmarks of human influence, and many are under acute risks of collapse, with consequences for habitats of species, genetic diversity, ecosystem services, sustainable development and human well-being. The IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology is a hierarchical classification system that, in its upper levels, defines ecosystems by their convergent ecological functions and, in its lower levels, distinguishes ecosystems with contrasting assemblages of species engaged in those functions. This report describes the three upper levels of the hierarchy, which provide a framework for understanding and comparing the key ecological traits of functionally different ecosystems and their drivers. An understanding of these traits and drivers is essential to support ecosystem management.

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is a user-friendly framework for the verification, design, and scaling up of NbS. The Standard contains 8 Criteria and 28 Indicators and  aims to provides users with a robust framework for designing NbS. The Standard is designed to support users to apply, strengthen, and improve the effectiveness, sustainability, and adaptability of their NbS interventions. It also provides a mechanism for developing a consistent approach to NbS.

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

SCTI is a partnership initiative between  several NGOs and ex situ organizations to ensure that new innovations and tools needed for species risk assessment, conservation planning, and population management are developed, globally available, and used effectively. SCTI combines expertise in population biology, computer programming, and planning to build modelling tools essential to guide conservation actions for threatened species in the wild, to facilitate the intensive management of species in ex situ programmes, and to integrate conservation efforts across all types of management approaches.

The One Health Joint Plan of Action was launched by four partners – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE). This initiative seeks to improve the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment, while contributing to sustainable development. The One Health Joint Plan of Action was developed through a participatory process and provides a set of activities to strengthen collaboration, communication, capacity building, and coordination across all sectors responsible for addressing health concerns at the human-animal-plant-environment interface.

The STAR metric assesses the potential of particular actions at a specific location to contribute to reduce species extinction risk / global targets for species. It measures the potential contribution of two kinds of action: threat abatement / reduction and habitat restoration using data on the distribution, threats, and extinction risk of threatened species contained in the IUCN Red List. It helps governments, the finance industry, investors, and companies to target their investments and activities to achieve conservation outcomes for threatened species. The STAR metric can be applied to any location. It is maintained under the authority of the IUCN Red List Committee.