Tag: Biodiversity Conservation

Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International

Posted on by Svet Zabelin

January 19-21

Digest of SOES
An European Byson (Bison bonasus) in winter

Welcome to the next issue of Positive News. Let you spread it among your friends and co-fighters in your countries and around the Earth. I will be glad to receive and publish your positive news from the fields and offices. Sviatoslav Zabelin, SEU coordinator

A coalition of more than 50 countries has committed to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030 to halt the destruction of the natural world and slow extinctions of wildlife.

The High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People, which includes the UK and countries from six continents, made the pledge to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans before the One Planet summit in Paris on Monday, hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron. Scientists have said human activities are driving the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth, and agricultural production, mining and pollution are threatening the healthy functioning of life-sustaining ecosystems crucial to human civilisation.

In the announcement, the HAC said protecting at least 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade was crucial to preventing mass extinctions of plants and animals, and ensuring the natural production of clean air and water. The commitment is likely to be the headline target of the “Paris agreement for nature” that will be negotiated at COP 15 in Kunming: https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/cop-15-road-to-kunming/ , China later this year. The HAC said it hoped early commitments from countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Japan and Canada would ensure it formed the basis of the UN agreement: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/11/50-countries-commit-to-protection-of-30-of-earths-land-and-oceans.

A herd of 20 kulans Equus hemionus and 8 fallow deer settled in the Tarutino steppe in southern Ukraine to develop the future of the wild Danube Delta. Their further release into nature will increase the biodiversity of the region, reduce the risk of fires and promote the development of eco-tourism. The Tarutino Steppe, part of the Danube Delta’s rewilding region, is one of the few almost untouched steppe territories left in Europe. Like all steppes, it is characterized by large grassy plains and is home to many endangered species. If not for human intervention, it would have been inhabited by herds of wild herbivores such as kulan, saiga antelope and deer, although these species have now disappeared from the steppe, mainly due to hunting. The program of reintroduction of kulans in the Tarutino steppe is carried out by the Rewilding Ukraine team and the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve. To read more: https://rewildingeurope.com/news/kulan-comeback-wild-donkeys-set-to-roam-free-in-the-danube-delta-region-once-again/

  • Digest of SOES
  • Digest of SOES
Kulans (Equus hemionus) are know to live in warm drylands; this is adaptation in northern environment. Credits: https://www.facebook.com/rewildingUA/photos/a.409756383122317/876039173160700/ and Andrey Nekrasov

The European bison (Bison bonasus), Europe’s largest land mammal, has moved from Vulnerable to Near Threatened thanks to continued conservation efforts, according to today’s update of the IUCN Red List: https://www.iucnredlist.org/ . “The European bison and twenty-five other species recoveries documented in today’s IUCN Red List update demonstrate the power of conservation,” said Dr. Bruno Oberle, IUCN Director General. “Yet the growing list of Extinct species is a stark reminder that conservation efforts must urgently expand. To tackle global threats such as unsustainable fisheries, land clearing for agriculture, and invasive species, conservation needs to happen around the world and be incorporated into all sectors of the economy.” “The conservation successes in today’s Red List update provide living proof that the world can set, and meet, ambitious biodiversity targets. They further highlight the need for real, measurable commitments as we formulate and implement the post-2020 global biodiversity framework,” said Dr Jane Smart, Global Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group. https://www.iucn.org/news/species/202012/european-bison-recovering-31-species-declared-extinct-iucn-red-list?fbclid=IwAR0QP9GELNDd5TddpqFEpXpvGD9W82xS-4ArqKFXynzB2QkfOs_raJsMXM4

  • Digest of SOES
  • Digest of SOES
European Bison (Bison bonasus) species moved from Vulnerable to Near Threatened due to conservation efforts. Credits: Rafal Kowalsky and Svetla Baginska

The Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program for Aral Sea Basin (CAMP4ASB) provide  support to adaptation activities in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Providing grants to the most vulnerable communities for climate resilient measures in priority areas, including to the poorest populations residing in risk-prone areas, and marginalized groups such as women. In 2020 the Guide at affordable climate-resilient prices technologies and practices in the Russian and Kyrgyz languages was published.  In frames of the Project in rural areas of Kyrgyzstan, centers for demonstrating eco-technologies on the basis of local communities in seven regions of the republic have appeared. In various centers, you can get acquainted with such technologies as Solar water heating collector, Solar air collector, Solar dryer, Self-assembled solar furnace, Drip irrigation, Vermicomposting, Urban aquaculture, Hydroponics and others. About the project see: https://www.greenclimate.fund/project/fp014

Ecopark “Clear Field” on the border of the Tula and Moscow Regions, Russia is a story about how you can live on earth in harmony with yourself, with respect for nature and each other. Yasnoye Polye is a village of the future, where we invite guests and tourists. We are engaged in agro-tourism, grow berries, fruits, vegetables. We have a farm with goats, cows and other animals to pet. We conduct excursions to the cheese factory, master classes in cheese making, teach our guests horse riding. We also have a cultural and educational center with a theater and a creative workshop. We started building the ecopark by studying how to cultivate the land for agriculture without pesticides, herbicides, and a huge amount of mineral fertilizers. We try to take care of nature and gradually begin to put this knowledge into practice. When you find out what we eat, then growing vegetables on your site or in your farm becomes a factor in caring for yourself and your children: https://yasnopole.ru/en/.

“Time for Nature”- World Environmental Day in 2020

Posted on by Elena Kreuzberg
Red Marmot (Marmota caudata) in the mountains of Central Asia

The UN World Environmental Day is celebrated widely in more than 100 countries since 1974. This is an important day to encourage awareness and actions to protect our environment. The theme for World Environment Day 2020 is, “Time for Nature”, with a focus on its role in providing the essential infrastructure that supports life on Earth and human development.

Biodiversity is a source of our everyday life

We all as a part of environment and a biological species with ability to change the environment at the global scale are responsible to protect biodiversity as a base of our life and prosperity. What means biodiversity in our everyday life? For people leaving in rural or urban conditions of many “developing” and “developed” countries it is just a source of surviving, providing food, fiber and other needs of families and communities. Biodiversity is a source of inspiration and creativity, our art and literature reflect the vision of the world – the vision of environment and biodiversity.

  • Try to shoot monarch in flight
The nature inspiration is in our blood

Because our growing population and increasing consumption, our civilization takes more and more space from nature occupied for our needs. We use all possible resources destructing natural habitats and replacing them by rural and urban landscapes, managed for needs of our growing communities. We reduce space for other species, fragmenting habitats and transforming natural ecosystems. We pollute environment with many new substances changing landscapes and seascapes. We use too much resources that leads to declining of species and their extirpation in many areas. We introduce new species and diseases impacting native flora and fauna. We are changing climate that leads to biotic changes, impacting our lives and lives of all other creatures…

Examples of “unsustainable” behaviour we can find everywhere

Only changing own behavior as individuals, communities, civil societies, countries and regions we can achieve the conservation goals and turn into the way of “sustainable development”. What we can do as individuals or community? We need to reduce own consumption. We need to aware other people. We need to help environmental organizations. We need to be more responsible and responsive and think about own role as a citizen to save the diversity of our green planet for future generations.

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”.