The IUCN Urban Alliance

The Urban Alliance is a diverse global coalition of international partners committed to bringing cities into balance with nature. Several resources are available including an IUCN  briefing paper, the Urban Nature Indexes: methodological framework and key indicators, and the IUCN Urban Toolbox. This is a catalogue of IUCN knowledge products on urban biodiversity that provides guidance to subnational governments, municipalities, and urban professionals on nature-positive development in urban environments. The tools featured support assessment, planning, design, implementation, and monitoring.

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The Global Platform for Sustainable Cities

This World Bank initiative presents the scientific basis for why and how incorporating biodiversity and nature into urban design is crucial for achieving sustainability and resilience in cities and beyond. The report defines key terms and concepts, explores what urban leaders can do to promote them, and offers practical tools and approaches for incorporating urban nature and biodiversity into decision-making.

The Ultimate Guide to Eco-Friendly Gardening

Ecologically friendly gardening practices, or ‘eco-friendly gardening’ as they are affectionately known, are forward thinking methods of gardening that are responsive to the global threats of climate change. These innovative outdoor endeavours focus upon reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases that occur as a direct result of modern day gardening practices. Eco-friendly gardening also encourages the absorption of carbon dioxide by soils and plants in order to lessen the effects of global warming.

Eco-gardening

One thing that has inspired Ecospaces the most is the need for more young people, especially within cities to interact physically with the outside environment. Eco gardens are hugely beneficial to learning and physical development of children. Many of the national curriculum core subjects can be taught in Eco garden environments in a practical way which makes learning easy. Subjects such as science,   Mathematics and Art can all be directly integrated into outside learning and discovery in a fun and interesting way.

Our Managing Director Paul is a trained Eco schools assessor and can design eco gardens specifically to lead to the prestigious Green Flag Award.  We design eco gardens understanding that some students learn differently planning garden spaces that are multifunctional and interactive. Ecospaces won and Architectural Community award in 2014 for our school Eco garden. ‘The Welldon Park Nature Trail’.

Manual of procedures for wildlife disease risk analysis

This IUCN–OIE publication provides a ‘how-to’ guide that will be useful to the growing and diverse range of professionals involved in assessment and management of wildlife-associated disease risk scenarios. The document has been co-written by 22 specialists in the fields of wildlife disease ecology, epidemiology, risk analysis, modelling, disease surveillance, diagnostics, wildlife management, research, teaching and conservation planning. These authors have pooled their knowledge and experience to make tools and processes at the cutting edge of wildlife disease risk analysis accessible to a broad global audience in an effort to ensure healthy ecosystems through better decision making. This is a companion volume to the Guidelines for Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis.

Guidelines for wildlife disease risk analysis

This IUCN-OIE publication provides an overview of the science-based processes and tools available for wildlife disease risk analysis and their application to a broad range of contemporary issues, including human-wildlife interactions, domestic animal-wildlife interactions and the impacts of massive ecological change on biodiversity conservation. The guidelines will be of value to those policy makers and decision makers faced with the social, political and technical complexities involved in wildlife-disease-associated scenarios.This is a companion volume to the Manual of Procedures for Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis.

Using camera traps to restore connectivity for wild cats in Central Asia

Located in the central part of the Kopetdag Range in the Ahal Province of Turkmenistan and spanning an area of 497 km2, Central Kopet Dag Reserve incorporates two sanctuaries and two natural monuments.

This Reserve is the most important stronghold in Turkmenistan for the conservation of the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) and recently the presence of the Pallas cat (Otocolubus manul), a relatively rare small wild cat, rediscovered. The Reserve is the gateway between Iran and areas to the north and west into Kazakhstan for the Persian leopard. Since 2018, thanks to the collaboration between protected area staff and international partners, an effort is underway to establish baseline information on all cat species, the status of their important prey (the Urial and Bezoar goat), and to identify threats, including the impacts of the border fence with Iran. Twenty camera traps have been deployed that to date have enabled to identify several Persian leopards as well as record the Pallas cat.

The Jaguar Corridor Initiative: A range-wide species conservation strategy

There are roughly 173,000 jaguar (Panthera onca) individuals left in the world today, with almost 90 per cent confined to Amazonia, especially in Brazil. Based on connectivity models, the species’ corridor range measures 2.6 million km2 for a total conservation network of 4.5 million km2. In order to focus research and conservation efforts across this vast network, jaguar populations and ecological corridors are prioritized using three criteria: ecological importance, network importance and corridor vulnerability. Through coarse-scaled GIS data and expert-derived resistance values, corridors were validated before conducting site-based conservation activities and strategies conducted by the federal to the individual landowner level. Activities include:

  • Developing a local corridor council
  • Working with hydroelectric companies to direct environmental mitigation and restoration projects toward areas of importance
  • Providing science-based recommendations to development projects for maintaining connectivity across the corridor

Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y): Connecting and protecting one the of the most intact mountain ecosystems

Since 1993, a joint Canada–US not-for-profit organisation, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, has brought partners together to achieve a vision of connecting and protecting the region so that people and nature can thrive. More than 400 different entities have been or currently are engaged in collaborative conservation that advances the vision across this ecological network. These include conservation groups, local landowners, Indigenous entities, businesses, government agencies, funders and donors, and scientists. Conservation progress across the Y2Y region is due to the collective work of these different groups. Conservation priorities range from protecting areas important for biodiversity and restoring and maintaining areas between protected areas for ecological connectivity, to directing development away from areas of biological importance and promoting policies and practices for people and wildlife to live in harmony across the region.

Pacific salmon watersheds: Restoring lost connections

Over the last several decades, increased dam removal and mitigation to benefit salmon and other species of fish has become more widespread. Across the USA, more than 2,000 dams have been removed since 1912, with the vast majority having occurred in the past couple of decades. The dam removal process occurs through a decentralized decision-making process that involves numerous stakeholder groups, including federal agencies, state agencies and private dam owners. Although some dam removals have been voluntary, many have been the result of legal proceedings set in place by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Initial removal efforts focused on older dam structures, which cost too much to maintain and no longer complied with modern safety standards. In recent years the focus for dam removal leans towards environmental protection and habitat restoration. In the USA, the Wild and Scenic River Act (1968) is a legal mandate to preserve rivers having natural, cultural and recreational values in a free-flowing state.

Ecological Corridor for the Reunion of Giant Pandas

The Qinling landscape supports a large population of Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). In the 1970s National Road 108 was constructed through the previously intact forest, splitting the panda populations apart into distinct groups in the east and west. The eastern subgroup of pandas is at high risk of extinction. Habitat fragmentation like this limits resources and genetic movement for both groups of pandas. In 2000 a tunnel was built by the government to accommodate the new road and the opportunity to reconnect the panda population. The old roads, above ground, were closed so that habitat could be re-established. In 2003 the Shaanxi Guanyinshan Nature Reserve was legally established, and in 2005 the World Wildlife Fund together with the reserve launched the G108 Qinling vehicle tunnel corridor restoration project. The main activities of the project included baseline surveys of the panda population, bamboo plantings to improve habitat quality, local community engagement and wildlife monitoring.

A Phased Approach to Increase Human Tolerance in Elephant Corridors to promote ecosystem connectivity

Pathfinding elephants are moving through human-dominated landscapes, often across international boundaries. By doing so, they play a vital role in connecting Protected Areas (PAs) but also encounter Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) that threatens lives and livelihoods. Our solution proposes a long-term strategy to conserve elephant corridors whilst incorporating the socio-economic needs of the people that share the landscape with them. GPS tracking of elephants across two transfrontier conservation areas flags where linking corridors exist and thus where to focus resources. We use innovative cafeteria-style experiments to understand which elephant-unpalatable plants would offer lucrative alternative income streams to farmers living in those HEC hotspots. Lastly, we combine food security and people’s safety by deploying Rapid Response Units and soft barriers to protect subsistence crops. This phased strategy enables the protection of bioregions to achieve biodiversity objectives at landscape scale.

Conserving Long Distance Migration for Mule Deer

Mule deer are an iconic migratory species of the western United States. Wyoming has some of the longest, most intact mule deer migrations in the lower 48 states. As anthropogenic influences increase and migrating ungulates continue to decline worldwide, a focus on protecting migration paths must be emphasized.

Mule deer travel across Wyoming to merge with 5,000 more mule deer for the winter where they continue their migration north. A pinch point known as the Fremont Lake ‘bottleneck’ was a serious threat to the migration path; the deer squeeze through a 400m wide area twice a year. The migration path through the bottleneck was blocked by a 2.5m tall woven wire fence. The area was identified as an important area for migration and was purchased by a national non-profit the Conservation Fund. The land was transfered to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and designated as the Luke Lynch Wildlife Habitat Management Area preventing the obstruction of the migration corridor.