Multimillion-dollar GBFF project to target conservation of Madagascar’s threatened species

As habitats and ecosystems become increasingly altered and populations evermore impacted by human activities, a growing number of species will require some form of management of both individuals and populations to ensure their survival. Ex situ management is one possible option that can contribute to the conservation of threatened species. The aim of these guidelines is to provide practical guidance on evaluating the suitability and requirements of an ex situ component for achieving species conservation objectives.

The IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG) has developed several tools and resources to support planning. Teams are available to support this approach, including the use of modelling tools. Training in species conservation planning tools and processes is available through a combination of in-person and online courses. Training results in a certificate of completion. Extended mentoring opportunities also exist.

The One Plan Approach: requires that all available resources, all stakeholders and all populations of a species, are considered in conservation planning process. This approach is particularly effective at bringing together ex situ and in situ wildlife conservation practitioners and tools. Through CPSG, teams are available to support groups to apply this approach, which may include the application of the IUCN SSC Ex situ Guidelines as well as databases and modelling tools produced and maintained through key partners such Species360 and the Species Conservation Toolkit Initiative.

Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA): is a specific approach that integrates population viability analysis (PVA) into stakeholder-inclusive, multi-disciplinary planning projects. The PVA element helps all stakeholders to understand more a species’ life-history, threats, and the likely efficacy of potential conservation strategies. Facilitator-modeller teams are available through CPSG, to support groups to apply this approach.

Assess to Plan (A2P): is a process designed to bridge the gap between Red List assessment and conservation planning, for speciose groups. Using Red List data, assessors and other experts identify pathways to conservation action for taxa assessed as Threatened or Data Deficient. Outputs include recommendations for further planning or action for multi-species groups of taxa that can be expected to respond favourably to the same kinds of conservation action taken in the same areas and/or by the same groups of conservation actors.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has developed the IPBES ILK Approach  to guide work on indigenous and local knowledge. The IPBES Global Assessment (GA) was the first global scale assessment to engage systematically with ILK and showed that existing knowledge is fragmented and lacks integration between social and natural sciences and that integrating different world views in requires increased dialogue and agreement. IPBES has established an ILK Task Force and Technical Support Unit.

The One Planet Network’s Sustainable Food System (SFS) Programme contributes to a transformation towards sustainable food systems that was called for at the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021. The SFS Programme is a partnership focused on urgent transformation towards sustainable food systems as a critical strategy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The SFS Programme has four objectives and five cross-cutting themes to support its goal of accelerating the shift to sustainable food systems. The Programme has developed a range of tools to providing guidance for the transformation to sustainable food systems.

The SMART platform consists of a set of software and analysis tools designed to help conservationists manage and protect wildlife and wild places. SMART can help standardize and streamline data collection, analysis, and reporting, making it easier for key information to get from the field to decision-makers.

SMART supports a broad range of conservation management activities, including biodiversity conservation, law enforcement, tourism and visitor management, natural resources use, intelligence, and performance and threat level assessments.

Our approach covers three areas: cutting-edge technology, building conservation capacity, and empowering a global network of SMART conservation practitioners. The SMART Approach is supported by a unique, long-term alliance of leading conservation organizations, offering powerful applications in conservation practice to ensure the survival of the Earth’s biodiversity for generations to come.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the greatest threats to marine ecosystems. IUU fishing takes advantage of corrupt administrations and exploits weak management regimes, in particular those of developing countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS). The FAO has produced three volumes in the series Checklists and Technical Guidelines to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing. Volume III is a Checklist of monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) systems, operations, procedures and tools. It provides a list of minimum requirements to ensure that the national MCS systems, operations, procedures, and tools aimed at combating IUU fishing are of the desired standard. Additional information on methodologies and indicators is available on the FAO website.

How to use.

• Further details of the FAO tools are available at: https://www.fao.org/iuu-fishing/en/
• The Checklists and Technical Guidelines can be downloaded at: https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cd0245en

This introductory guide draws on a number of key IUCN Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) papers, case studies and background documents to provide a practical introduction to the RLE. It targets those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the RLE as a risk assessment tool and those who wish to learn more about its possible applications in implementing conservation action. This document draws heavily on Version 1 of the Guidelines for the application of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems Criteria and Categories and provides an overview of the scientific foundations supporting the RLE categories and criteria.

ECOLEX is an information service on environmental law, operated jointly by FAO, IUCN, and UNEP. Its purpose is to build global capacity by providing the most comprehensive possible source of information on environmental law, in an easily accessible form. This is particularly helpful in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, where government officials, practitioners, environmental managers, non-profit institutions and academia may not have easy access to the information they need to develop the legal tools  needed to promote environmental management.

The ECOLEX database includes information on treaties, international soft-law and other non-binding policy and technical guidance documents, national legislation, judicial decisions, and law and policy literature. Users can access the abstracts and indexing information about each document, as well as to the full text of most of the information provided.

The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has developed this guide to assist countries in assessing to what extent government subsidies are having harmful impacts on biodiversity, and to create action plans to repurpose them to become more nature-positive and enhance positive impacts for both people and nature. The BIOFIN Catalogue of Financing Solutions summarizes over 150 possible financing mechanisms to help countries understand which financing mechanisms are already used around the world. Countries can use this Catalogue to determine priorities for their national biodiversity finance plan.

How to use

The step-by-step guide can be downloaded at:

https://www.biofin.org/knowledge-product/nature-subsidies-step-step-guide-repurpose-subsidies-harmful-biodiversity-and

Further information on BIOFIN and the Catalogue of Financing Solutions are available at:

https://www.biofin.org/

This WWF report is part their contribution to boosting nature-positive production at scale. The report outlines changes that are needed to create food systems that support rather than exploit nature, with a focus on agricultural production systems. It also feeds into the advocacy for the UNFCCC 26 (Climate CoP). The report highlights that nature positive production of food can and must be part of the solution for addressing biodiversity loss.

Species360 is a non-profit NGO working in wildlife care to improve animal welfare and species conservation. It mobilizes a network of more than 1,300 aquarium, zoo, university, research, and governmental members in 102 countries. A central part of is the Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS), the world’s leading resource for the collection and sharing of data on animals, enabling ex situ institutions to manage their collections effectively and contribute valuable information to global conservation initiatives. ZIMS is the world’s most comprehensive knowledge database on more than 22,000 species. In 2022, Species360 expanded its mission to include flora and extend its operations to horticultural record-keeping, with the addition of Hortis – a specialized software for record-keeping and management of botanical collections.

How to use

Information on Species 360, ZIMS, and Hortis is available at: https://species360.org/about-us/about-species360/

To access Species 360 data it is necessary to register: https://species360.org/become-a-species360-member/

The GSPC  – A Plan to Save the World’s Plant Species – highlights the importance of plants and the ecosystem services they provide for all life on earth, and aims to ensure their conservation. The GSPC includes 16 targets for plant conservation. An updated GSPC was formally adopted at the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD.