Biodiversity blogs
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Decoloniality and the new ethics of climate and nature
23 November 2021"How many planets do we need if everyone on earth were to live just like you?"
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COP27 and the important year ahead
22 November 2021Just over a week on from the end of COP26 in Glasgow and the dust is settling. But as Andrew Norton reflects, any gains made from the event will require ongoing work and citizens demanding more radical action
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Indigenous Peoples and forest communities are central to tackling the climate crisis – but they need finance
5 November 2021Forests, and the communities who protect and manage them, are critical in tackling climate change and nature loss. From COP26, guest blogger Gustavo Sánchez explains why they can no longer be ignored in the distribution of climate finance and describes a new fund that gets money directly to local forest level
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New guide for linking sovereign debt to climate and nature action
2 November 2021During this 'super year', the world is focusing on international summits aiming to tackle global crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. But a third crisis is looming: debt. A new practical 'how-to' guide for innovative debt instruments helps support developing countries tackle the triple crisis of debt, climate and nature
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30x30 – a brave new dawn or a failure to protect people and nature?
21 October 2021The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) negotiations, concluding early next year, include a plan to nearly double protected areas to 30% of the planet by 2030. Joe Eisen and Blaise Mudodosi discuss whether the 30x30 target offers a false solution to the biodiversity crisis
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Improving community attitudes towards conservation
18 October 2021An IIED-led project in Uganda supported community wildlife scouts and microenterprises to mitigate human-wildlife conflict (HWC) and improve community attitudes towards conservation, with the overall aim of reducing participation in wildlife crime
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Locally-led action key to delivering the new global biodiversity framework
7 October 2021Next week’s UN biodiversity conference (COP15) will be a milestone in global efforts to stop biodiversity loss and put nature on a path to recovery. Dilys Roe and Ebony Holland put forward the case that people and locally-led conservation efforts need to be at the centre of this transformation
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A glimmer of hope ahead of COP26 – financing for adaptation
6 October 2021A newly formed group of champion countries committed to ramping up flows of adaptation finance brings promise − provided they can also improve access, explains guest blogger Angelique Pouponneau
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Locally-led nature-based solutions can deliver global leaders’ pledge
28 September 2021One year on from the launch of the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature – when political leaders committed to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 – Xiaoting Hou Jones, drawing on examples from the Least Developed Countries, sets out why locally-led nature-based solutions are indispensable for turning the pledge into action and delivering a green COVID-19 recovery
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Addressing the ‘triple crisis’ COVID-19, climate change and nature loss: a catalyst for business to increase its sustainability?
8 September 2021The role played by businesses will be critical in helping the world to tackle current crises and 'build back better' – and there is lots of evidence that companies that prioritise sustainability can outperform the market
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Does the Global Biodiversity Framework offer a plan B for protected areas?
3 September 2021Ahead of IUCN’s World Conservation Congress, Phil Franks examines why – to date – strategies to halt biodiversity loss have largely failed, and discusses a way forward for protected areas and other forms of area-based conservation that is not only inclusive but also equitable
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Nature-based solutions: building blocks for green recovery and climate action in least developed countries
31 August 2021As international climate and biodiversity talks continue and conservation experts gather this week at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, Ebony Holland shares recent research outlining how nature-based solutions are being placed front and centre by least developed countries
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Lessons for building a natural capital legacy
17 August 2021Musing on the lessons learnt at the end of a project in Uganda about how to use natural capital accounts to inform policymaking, Rosalind Goodrich considers what it takes to build a legacy that will inform decision-making for years to come
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Why traditional knowledge and Indigenous Peoples’ rights must be integrated across the new global biodiversity targets
16 August 2021Biodiversity policymakers negotiating the new international framework at the upcoming global biodiversity summit (CBD COP15) must ensure traditional knowledge and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) are integrated across all post-2020 targets aimed at saving the world’s biodiversity
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CBA15: Four messages ahead of COP26
5 July 2021The annual international conferences on community-based adaptation (CBA) are unique events where adaptation practitioners, researchers, donors and decision-makers come together with grassroots community representatives and engage in open, dynamic conversations about how best to drive locally-led adaptation to climate change. This year’s event, CBA15, saw more than 400 people from more than 60 countries discuss how adaptation that is inclusive and locally led can be delivered in practice. This blog shares highlights from these exchanges
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Turning up the heat – how chilli growing is conserving Uganda’s wildlife
15 June 2021Juliet Aneno explains how chilli-growing enterprises in Uganda are helping households generate non-poaching related income – supporting efforts to mitigate human-wildlife conflict around Murchison Falls National Park
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Lessons from Paris: global biodiversity framework must engage business, grow finance
12 May 2021Decisions taken this year will set the course for nature, climate and development for a decade. We consider some key lessons from the UNFCCC climate change journey so far, and how they might help strengthen the global biodiversity framework being finalised in October
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Practical guide helps negotiators put equity at the heart of the new global biodiversity framework
4 May 2021Conservation efforts, while critical to reducing biodiversity loss, often fail to treat people fairly. This undermines the sustainability of these efforts and can further marginalise already vulnerable people. A new guide offers negotiators practical steps for embedding equity in the new global biodiversity framework
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Here's why Indigenous economics is the key to saving nature
13 April 2021Mainstream Western economics is destroying the environment - and the Indigenous knowledge that has conserved nature for millennia
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Can community rangers help tackle illegal wildlife trade?
12 April 2021Around the world, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are tackling wildlife crime including through working for, or establishing their own, community ranger or patrol programmes. But how effective are community-based rangers at reducing illegal wildlife trade?
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Working with nature to manage water resources in a changing climate
22 March 2021Experiences from South Africa and Uganda highlight how incorporating a watershed approach into the design and implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation activities can help us preserve one of our most treasured resources in a changing climate
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Charting a “path to recovery and wellbeing” on 2021’s International Day of Forests
19 March 2021Guest blogger David Kaimowitz explains why global ambition to restore the world’s forests will only be achieved if the huge potential of forest and farm producers is realised.
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Learning from Paris: what would ‘Kunming-compliant’ look like for development cooperation agencies?
25 February 2021Reflecting on the implementation of the climate Paris Agreement, Dilys Roe discusses what the new global biodiversity framework could mean for development cooperation
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CBA15: Can adaptation be a superhero in the 'super year' for climate and nature?
17 February 2021Innovation will be key in bouncing forward from COVID-19 and delivering on the ambitions of the 'super year' – to protect nature, tackle poverty and accelerate climate action. The CBA community will be ready to hold decision-makers accountable on the commitments they make this year
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The Dasgupta Review needed to engage today's finance ministers: here’s how
11 February 2021Paul Steele sets out ways to spur urgent and immediate investment in biodiversity conservation – complementing recommendations from Dasgupta’s landmark review