Protecting Europe’s veteran tree hoverflies – IUCN SOS

Approximately one-third of all terrestrial high-biodiversity sites straddle national land borders, yet few man-made boundaries are fixed, and international boundaries often alter over time or disappear altogether. This publication makes the compelling case for transboundary conservation approaches and promotes an array of innovative methods based on contemporary principles. It has been developed primarily to provide transboundary conservation managers with advice on how to work more effectively and how to address the challenges that are specific to transboundary conservation. 

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is a supplementary international agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity which aims to ensure the safe handling, transport, and use of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health. It was adopted on 29 January 2000 and entered into force on 11 September 2003.

The Protocol establishes an advance informed agreement (AIA) procedure for ensuring that countries are provided with the information necessary to make informed decisions before agreeing to the import of such organisms into their territory. The Protocol also establishes a Biosafety Clearing-House to facilitate the exchange of information on living modified organisms and to assist countries in the implementation of the Protocol. The Biosafety Clearing-House is an online platform for exchanging information on living modified organisms and is a key tool for facilitating the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol. It includes national information published by countries (primarily Parties to the Protocol) as well as virtual library of biosafety resources, information on different living modified organisms as well as laboratories for their detection.

How to use

Further information on the Cartagena Protocol is available at: https://bch.cbd.int/protocol

The Biosafety Clearing House can be accessed at: https://bch.cbd.int/en/

The FairWild Foundation’s mission is to enable transformation of natural resource management and business practices to be ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable along the value chains of wild-collected products. The FairWild Standard

includes principles and guidance for use throughout these value chains. Together with its system of certification, it provides assurance of ethical and responsible practices across three dimensions of sustainability – ecological, socio-cultural, and business. The FairWild Standard 3.0 contains 7 Principles and 24 Criteria. Adherence to the FairWild Principles ensures that businesses in value chains for wild harvest ingredients act ethically and sustainably and make a positive contribution to the conservation of biodiversity. The FairWild Standard Performance Indicators outline the factors that contribute to the risk of unsustainable wild collection of target species.

This Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy reaffirms and further strengthens IUCN’s commitment to realising gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment and puts into place requirements for embedding a gender-responsive approach into its Programme and project portfolio. Another publication Gender equality for greener and bluer futures: why women’s leadership matters for realising environmental goals includes new IUCN data on the number of women leading environmental ministries, compared with previous data. It also highlights data on why gender equality and women’s empowerment are essential for global goals on achieving an inclusive and sustainable future.

The Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Practical Guide to Responsible Sourcing of Goods and Services outlines standard procurement steps to appropriate RBA tools and resources, to help give buyers confidence the products that they procure from RBA members are made in socially and environmentally responsible ways.

The database has been developed by the IUCN SSC Species Monitoring Specialist Group with support from Re:wild. It includes 178 global data sources on: monitoring biodiversity state, pressures and threats; monitoring conservation responses to biodiversity loss, and those with multiple uses for biodiversity monitoring. A fact sheet answering frequently asked questions about the database is also available. The Species Monitoring Specialist Group is a voluntary network of experts from around the world and includes specialists on different species and taxa, on different monitoring techniques and issues, and on different types  of data use. The group aims to enhance conservation by improving the flow of species data from collection point to decision-maker.

How to use

Version 3.0 of the database and the fact sheet can be downloaded at:  https://www.speciesmonitoring.org/data-sources.html

A selection of Manuals, Guidelines and Methods Reviews is available at:

https://www.speciesmonitoring.org/guidelines-and-tools.html

To contact the Species monitoring Specialist Group: SpeciesMonitoring@gmail.com

Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is a fundraising and grant-giving nature conservation charity.

Three types of WFN grant enable grassroots conservationists to scale up their work and make a global impact. Whitley Awards provide £40,000 in project funding over one year as well as profile and training. Follow-on grants enable previous winners to expand effective projects, respond to changing needs, and collaborate with other conservationists, with grants worth up to £100,000 over two years. In 2020 WFN introduced a new strand of Continuation Funding for nature-based solutions that will help secure a sustainable future for wildlife, ecosystems and people. The Whitley Gold Award is worth £100,000.

This new tool has been developed by the CITES Secretariat and the United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) to support CITES Management and Scientific Authorities, Customs officials, and all others involved in implementing and enforcing CITES. It contains six volumes: Mammals, Birds, Reptiles-Amphibians-Fish-Invertebrates, Plants, and Parts and Derivatives (2 volumes).

In addition, over 4000 identification resources are available in different formats.

The Encyclopedia of Life (EoL) aims to provide global access to knowledge about life on Earth by collecting and sharing knowledge in an open, freely accessible digital resource. EoL identifies sources of biodiversity knowledge that are legally and practically shareable and enriches their structure with modern data tools to integrate them with other data.

EoL works with open access biodiversity knowledge providers around the world, including museums and libraries, universities and research centers, individual scientists, graduate students and citizen science communities, and a suite of international open data hubs. EOL receive information from many sources, and format and annotate it so that search tools can find similar content from different sources.

EICAT is the IUCN global standard for measuring the severity of environmental impacts caused by alien species. EICAT is a key tool for prioritising alien species that could lead to the most harmful environmental impacts, helping to make the best use of resources to prevent or limit their negative consequences. EICAT classifies alien species into one of eight categories (see figure) according to the severity of their impact on native species and whether the impact is reversible The EICAT Categories and Criteria provide a simple, objective, and transparent classification method. The EICAT Guidelines provide detailed assistance in the application of the categories and criteria.

EICAT can be applied at national, regional, and global levels. All global EICAT assessments are published on IUCN’s Global Invasive Species Database. The EICAT Authority is the governing body coordinating the EICAT assessment process and it is responsible for carrying out the majority of assessments and implementing the review process. The EICAT Authority is composed of experts on specific taxonomic groups or geographic regions.

These guidelines were prepared in 2016 by the Preventing Poisoning Working Group of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. The guidelines cover the impacts from five priority poisoning areas: insecticides, rodenticides, poison-baits, veterinary pharmaceuticals, lead ammunition and fishing weights. Six key recommendations.

The UN Convention on Biodiversity has developed sets of detailed guidance on ILK. These include the Tkarihwaié:ri Code of Ethical Conduct to Ensure Respect for the Cultural and Intellectual Heritage of Indigenous and Local Communities Relevant to the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity; the Mo’otz Kuxtal Voluntary Guidelines for the development of mechanisms, legislation or other appropriate initiatives to ensure the “prior and informed consent”; and The Rutzolijirisaxik Voluntary Guidelines for the Repatriation of Traditional Knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Relevant for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity