Heart of the matter : agarwood use and trade and CITES implementation for Aquilaria malaccensis

As the World Heritage Convention celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022, over 1100 sites around the world are recognized as World Heritage – places  that are so valuable to humanity that there conservation has been deemed our collective responsibility. Yet many of these exceptional places face  increasing pressure from diverse types of development projects within and around the sites. Assessing the impacts of such projects is essential to both prevent damage to World Heritage and identify sustainable options. This Guidance and toolkit explains the process for achieving these goals. Offering practical tips and tools including checklists and a glossary, it provides a framework for conducting impact assessments for cultural and natural heritage sites.

Mongolia’s saxaul (Haloxylon ammodendron) forests stabilize Gobi soils, reduce sand movement, store carbon and support biodiversity, yet browsing and trampling can suppress seedlings. Since 2020, the GEF-funded ENSURE project, implemented by the Government of Mongolia with UNDP support, has combined site-targeted livestock exclosures with paired fenced-unfenced monitoring and practical training for local officers and rangers. The 2023 assessment covered eight fenced and eight comparison plots in four soums; it measured tree density, regeneration, vegetation, biomass, carbon and CO2 storage. Some protected sites showed substantially more young saxaul, while others showed limited differences, proving that fencing must be targeted and evaluated rather than counted as restoration by area alone. By 2024, community-driven regeneration measures covered more than 400 ha, including a 300-ha exclosure in Shinejinst. The approach links natural regeneration, local stewardship and evidence-based scaling for resilient dryland landscapes.

 Developing countries like Nepal heavily rely on biomass fuels, contributing to climate change and health problems. In seeking to mitigate climate change, electric cooking technologies have emerged as a viable solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation while improving household ambient air quality and public health. PEEDA launched this project to combat climate change and improve health. The communities and policymakers were sensitized to adopting clean and renewable energy for cooking. Technical demonstration, live cooking sessions and the  radio jingles has been used in  creating the demands of electric stoves. Over 900 households has been supported with electric stoves and compatiable cookware in the Baiteshwor Rural Municpality. For sustaining the use of stove, 11 local technicians has been provided electric stove repair trainings.  Further at policy level,  Municipal Energy Plan (MEP) for this municipality has been developed to include the adoption of electric cooking over the next five year

Lake Victoria, shared by five East African countries, supports over 45 million people through fisheries, water supply, and agriculture. Declining water quality, rising pollution, and the absence of a shared evidence base made coordinated basin management difficult. To address this, the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC), with GIZ support under the EAC4Nature project, developed the first-ever State of the Basin Report (SoBR).

The approach combines joint water quality sampling at 44 stations across three countries, consultations with all five Partner States – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, and integration of findings into the Lake Victoria Basin Water Information System (LVB-WIS).

The SoBR follows a five-year cycle as a shared baseline for planning, policy, and investment. It identifies Nature-based Solutions – wetland rehabilitation, reforestation, and catchment restoration – as the most cost-effective pathway to improve water quality and build climate resilience. All five Partner States endorsed the report.

In Uruguay, against a backdrop of the loss of habitat critical to biodiversity, the degradation of vulnerable ecosystems and soils due to the intensification and expansion of livestock and agricultural activities, poor grassland management practices, and pollution of water bodies and wetlands, the project aimed to implement actions to strengthen systemic, financial, and institutional capacities for biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management, thereby improving the effectiveness and sustainability of the management of protected areas, associated productive lands, and human well-being. This was achieved through: the establishment of a regulatory, financial, and institutional framework for biodiversity conservation and land degradation neutrality; Implementation of biodiversity and land conservation measures at pilot sites; and Knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation, and learning, to promote dialogue between public and private stakeholders.

Mongolia’s pastoral communities are increasingly exposed to climate-related hazards, particularly recurrent droughts and dzud that cause severe livestock losses and threaten rural livelihoods. To strengthen climate resilience and disaster preparedness, the UNDP ADAPT Project implemented a climate-resilient fodder storage solution in Khovd, Zavkhan, Dornod and Sukhbaatar provinces.

The solution established and rehabilitated hay and feed storage facilities in climate-vulnerable areas identified through risk assessments using climate, vegetation and livestock mortality data. In total, 48 storage facilities were developed to improve emergency fodder reserves and ensure timely access to feed during harsh winter and spring conditions.

The intervention combines risk-informed planning, resilient infrastructure, local participation and institutional collaboration. It has improved herders’ adaptive capacity, reduced vulnerability to climate shocks, strengthened food security for livestock, and enhanced local disaster risk reduction.