The Environmental Management Group (EMG). in 2004, decided to focus its attention on environmental capacity building, following concerns of UN agencies and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in this area. Consultants were asked to prepare draft studies for the further work of the EMG on capacity building in the areas of biological diversity and chemicals, respectively. The draft studies were further developed following discussions in the EMG and an Issue Management Group established by the EMG. This paper is the result of these discussions for the area of capacity building for biological diversity.
Resource Type: ReportsCoastal and freshwater ecosystems are deteriorating in many areas and at a faster rate than any other ecosystem. Such changes are caused by intertwined factors, making it difficult to identify the problems early on. While progress in integrating these various factors in managing water and ecosystems has been made in some places, the majority of the world and its inhabitants increasingly suffers from a lack of priority given to environmental protection.
Resource Type: ReportsThis is a brief introduction to biodiversity indicators in a forest environment - their definition, source, presentation and uses.
Resource Type: ReportsIn the past few years, a number of analyses have been undertaken to measure progress towards the 2010 and 2012 CBD targets. This report demonstrates how the measurement of progress is influenced by decisions on which protected areas are included (for instance, whether internationally designated sites, or sites without an assigned IUCN category are included) and which biogeographic datasets used (for instance which mountain dataset is chosen), and highlights the need for standardised methods and datasets.
Resource Type: Journal PapersMoving beyond 2010, successful conservation approaches need to be reinforced and adequately financed. More radical changes are required that recognize biodiversity as a global public good, that integrate biodiversity conservation into policies and decision frameworks for resource production and consumption, and that focus on wider institutional and societal changes to enable more effective implementation of policy.
Resource Type: Journal PapersEvidence is accumulating that taking an Ecosystems Services Approach can make development more sustainable by sustaining nature’s capacity to provide needed goods and services.This guide assembles that evidence for use by a decision maker. It details the processes that they can use, beginning with a conceptual framework that links development and ecosystem services and ending with guidance for choosing policies to sustain ecosystem services.
By offering decision makers the conceptual and practical guidance for choosing policies that better attend to ecosystem services, this guide aims to help unite nature and development. Instead of solely working to protect natur from development, we may also begin to invest in nature for development.
Resource Type: ReportsUNEP-WCMC In collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Commission for Ecosystem Management (IUCN -CEM) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) organised and hosted an international workshop on Ecosystem Service Indicators from September 22nd - 23rd 2009. Funded by the Swedish International Biodiversity Programme (SwedBio), the workshop brought together 16 experts from all over the world in the fields of indicators and ecosystem services. The aim of the workshop was to identify a suite of ecosystem service indicators of policy relevance, and the datasets available/necessary to underpin them, that could be applied within assessments and monitoring at different scales.
Resource Type: ReportsThe World Congress for Education and Communication on Environment and Development (ECO-ED), which took place in Toronto, Canada, 17-21 October 1992, was multisectoral in scope, accommodating individuals and groups from business, aid agencies, the NGO community, government, the media, UN agencies (UNEP/UNESCO), educators and education associations.
Resource Type: Journal PapersThe aim of this study was to identify and examine potential benefits of undertaking an ecosystem assessment for England. The need for such a study has arisen largely as a result of the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) which not only demonstrated the importance of ecosystem services to human wellbeing, but also showed that at global scales, many key services are being degraded and lost.
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