Category: Conservation community

Global Forest Coalition by Andrey Laletin and Elena Kreuzberg

Posted on by Elena Kreuzberg

Dr. Andrey Laletin, Coordinator for Central Asia and Easter Europe, ETI campaign and membership coordinator, Russian Federation

In July 2018, we participated in the Fostering Community Conservation Conference, organized by the Global Forest Coalition (GFC) and meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), where the members of GFC took part. Both events were held in Montreal, Canada, where the Secretariat of CBD is located and the meeting of the parties was held. The Global Forest Coalition took a part in the CBD meeting, promoting the ideas of community participation in the post-2020 biodiversity framework. 

Discussion during Fostering Community Conservation Conference

The GFC is a relatively young organization. It was founded in 2000 by 19 NGOs and Indigenous People Organizations IPOs) succeeding the NGO Forest Working Group established in 1995. The Forest Working Group coordinated by Netherlands National Committee of IUCN and the World Rainforest Movement led the multi-stakeholder initiative to address the underlying causes deforestation and forest degradation. Until 2005, the Global Forest Coalition was formally hosted by the World Rainforest Movement. In 2005, it was registered as an independent foundation in the Netherlands. Currently, this is a coalition of NGOs and IPOs from more than 65 countries defending social justice and rights of the forest people. 

The mission of the Global Forest Coalition is to advocate for the conservation and restoration of forest ecosystems, through defending and promoting respect for the rights, territories, traditional knowledge and sustainable livelihoods of the Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women that co-exist with them.

Forest degradation and unsustainable management is a problem in many countries of the world, where natural forests were replaced by mono-plantations

The vision of Coalition is based on several major principles:

  • Protect real forests, and the people dependent on them.
  • Protect the rights of forest peoples, including customary systems of forest governance and conservation, and the territorial rights to land of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
  • Halt deforestation and biodiversity loss. 
  • Recognition that plantations are not forests. 
  • Forests are not a commodity to be traded, forests are for life. 
  • Forests are key to the climate crisis. 
  • Biodiversity through cultural diversity is vital to biodiversity conservation and the protection of forest ecosystems, with an emphasis on inter-generational dialogue and the crucial role of young people.

The Global Forest Coalition’s work is based on its strategy to campaign through its broad membership and in coordination with other allies, alliances, movements and networks, to support the struggles of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women by bring their views, positions and proposals to the forefront of local, national, and global forest-related decision-making processes.

Participants of the Fostering Conservation Community Conference in Montreal, July 2018

The Global Forest Coalition supports and coordinates joint NGO/IPO campaigns for socially and effective forest policy and the rights of Indigenous and other forest peoples. The members of coalition work on campaigns to defend rights, to prevent forest loss and land conversion to mono-culture, to support community conservation. They cooperate with other organizations and allies against unsustainable livestock, raising awareness about impact of such production, promoting more sustainable community-based initiatives. GFC works together with a large number of women’s movements, enhancing  women’s rights and empowerment. The list of activities can be continued. However, the more information about current and past activities of the Global Forest Coalition can be found on its website: https://globalforestcoalition.org/ 

In general, the Global Forest Coalition promotes participatory approach and good governance, which serve as a basic precondition for sustainable development, and facilitates development of the bottom-up approaches for building new scenarios of life within the “planetary boundaries”. 

 

 

UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030)

Posted on by Elena Kreuzberg

Pandemics of Corona-virus showed the vulnerability of our human civilization to natural disasters and unpredictable events. Definitely, in the face of real danger, all of humanity has come together and is developing an ethics of communication both locally and internationally. We are all passengers on the same ship, called Earth, accelerating toward the future. We all understand that our future depends on mutual assistance and support.

The quarantine started in this uneasy time also gave opportunity to sort out urgent and not too much matters. Finally, we had chance to read and think about Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly for 2021-2030 in accordance with its Resolution A/RES/73/284. The resolution calls for support efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide and raise awareness of the importance of ecosystem restoration.

Indeed, lack of awareness and understanding of biodiversity values for sustainable development have been recognized as a one of the main barriers on the way to restoration. The Strategy of UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is presented on the UN website, inviting all interesting stakeholders to take a part in discussion: https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/get-involved/strategy

Any organization or indifferent citizen may take part in the open consultation and review of the Strategy for the Decade and its Communication Strategy and provide feedback through the submission section below on the overall document or specific sections. The deadline for the submission of feedback is April 30, 2020.

Following to the instructions on the website you can provide your comments and suggestions to both documents or to be engaged in the consultation process.

The UN invite you to review The Decade’s Strategy “aims to foster a restoration culture in which restoration initiatives start and scale up across the planet, by establishing a global movement, improving the political will of the Member States and other actors, and by enhancing the capacity for designing, implementing and sustaining ecosystem restoration initiatives”.

Regional Center of Expertise – Kyrgyzstan – by Chinara Sadykova

Posted on by Elena Kreuzberg

The Regional Center of Expertise, Kyrgyzstan was acknowledged on May 31, 2007 by United Nations University (Tokyo, Japan) and since that time it is listed in Global RCE Networking among 168 RCEs around the world  www.rcenetwork.org . On June 26, 2011, the RCE Kyrgyzstan was officially registered by the Ministry of Judges of Kyrgyz Republic as a Public Association of Regional Centers of Expertise on Education for sustainable development the “RCE KG”.The main goal of RCE-KG is “a Promotion of education for sustainable development in Kyrgyzstan”.  From 2007 to present RCE-KG has implemented number of projects supported by  UNESCO Kazakhstan National Office, US Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic, EURASIA Foundation in Kyrgyzstan Republic, HELVETAS Swiss Inter-cooperation, US State Department, USAID and others.

The RCE-KG cooperates with various stakeholders and partners, including  Kyryz State University named after I. Arabaev, State Agency on Environmental Protection of KG, Ministry of Education of KG, State Patent Department of KG, State Agency on Technical and Vocational Education, Bishkek Humanitarian University, Kyrgyz State University, Kyrgyz Pedagogical University, Kyrgyz Republic Children/Youth Environmental and Tourism Center, Ozone Center. The RCE Kyrgyzstan has sufficient experience of work with local communities and local people from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan due to several transboundary projects, which were carried out in the Fergana Valley.

The RCE-KG developed training workshops for promotion sustainable principles in daily life, including Training Manual for Sustainable Development at local level.  The RCE also prepared the training module for educators in high education system of Kyrgyzstan for introducing goals and principles of education for sustainable development. The NGO also carried out 10 training workshops in seven region of the Republic.

The RCE is focused on awareness raising and knowledge sharing, including implemented project on “Research of the Structure of traditional knowledge and sustainable management of Kyrgyz social and natural environment”, supported by US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan . The RCE-KG tries to analyze  and connect the historic ethnic culture of Kyrgyz people, relevant to sustainable use of natural elements and local traditional knowledge of recovery and rehabilitation of natural resources. The traditional knowledge and historic social organization of local economy (including livestock grazing in the various mountain belts during a year) could provide some useful solutions for environmental management to ensure sustainable development for future generations.  

At present, the members of RCE-KG are actively involved in several initiatives, working with partners from Kyrgyzstan and other countries to raise funds for projects relevant to environmental education, public awareness and integration of sustainable development principles in everyday life on local, national and regional levels.  

The Persian Leopard in Kazakhstan: new observations

Posted on by Mark Pestov

Landscapes of Ustyurt Biosphere Nature Reserve provide good conditions for surviving of wildlife, adapted to arid environment

New fact of Persian Leopard observation in Kazakhstan was confirmed in May 2020 due to camera-trap video taken in Ustyurt Biosphere Nature Reserve.   You can find here the short video about Leopard in the reserve:

The Leopard – Panthera pardus – is included on the IUCN international red list as a vulnerable species (VU) .  The Persian Leopard – P. p. saxicolor or P.p. ciscaucasica is a Central-Asian subspecies. It is even more rare and globally endangered (EN). The range of this species covers the Caucasus Mountains (eastern Turkey, southern Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia). It is also found in Iraq, northern Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Until recent, the Persian Leopard did not occur in Kazakhstan. It was known from southern Turkmenistan, mostly from Kopetdag and Badkhyz Mountains. Besides, it was found in southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. But to the end of XX century, the leopard was almost extinct in both these countries. The distance from Kopetdag Nature Reserve in Turkmenistan to Usyurt Nature Reserve in Kazakhstan is 600 km, and from Badkhyz Nature Reserve to Usyurt Nature Reserve is around 1,000 km (976 km). Leopards needed to cross deserts and populated areas that to reach Kazakhstan. It is surprising that it could happen relatively recently – during last decades. 

First reports about findings and observation of Persian Leopard in Kazakhstan looked anecdotical. Time to time shepherds and people living in remote areas reported about observation of large spotted cat, which they called “kaplon” (the name of large cats, like, for example, cheetah). The leopard was not even included in the list of Kazakhstan fauna. However, in 2007 and 2015, the presence of leopard in Kazakhstan was confirmed by skins of two large cats. Shepherds shot the first leopard in the Mangystau region and showed its skin. Another leopard was captured in a trap set for wolves and also killed. More recently, during fall 2018, an alive leopard was fixed on a camera-trap set in the Ustyurt State Nature Reserve in the framework of the project for feeding scavengers (vultures), conducted with the support of the Rufford Foundation.

Cinereous vultures found scavenge. Photo by Mark Pestov

The leopard is not even officially included in the list of of the fauna of vertebrate animals in Kazakhstan.  Accordingly, this species is not listed in the  Red Book of Republic, which provides legal protection status for rare, vulnerable and endangered species. The last findings allow to make the necessary amendments in Kazakhstan that will provide both legislative and territorial protection of the leopard in the country.

Photo of leopard from camera-trap in Ustyurt Biosphere Nature Reserve

Not only leopard, but the presence of other interesting fauna was confirmed due to projects, organized last years, and camera-traps placed in the valleys of Ustyurt. Other interesting animals, found there, are the grey wolf, Central-Asian caracal, goitered gazelle and many others, adapted to severe conditions of life in arid environment.

Night a day visitors captured by camera-trap: from left to right – the wolf (Canis lupus), caracal (Caracal caracal michaelis) and goitered gazelles (Gazella subgutturosa)

Mr. Zhaskayrat Nurmukhambetov,  Deputy Director of the Ustyurt State Nature Reserve and coordinator of the project on feeding of scavengers can provide additional information about this finding.

Studies of fauna in remote corners of Central Asia should be continued and more likely that more secrets of wildlife adaptation and resilience will be discovered in the future.