IPSI Newsletter, October 2014

2014.11.07

Dear IPSI members and friends,

Greetings from the IPSI Secretariat in Tokyo, Japan. IPSI and its members continue to stay active in a wide variety of projects and activities related to maintaining and revitalizing socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS).

This month's newsletter contains information on the Fifth IPSI Global Conference (IPSI-5) held in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea earlier this month and a look forward to the IUCN World Parks Congress, planned for Sydney, Australia next month. We are also happy to inform you that the official report from the Regional Workshop for the Satoyama Initiative held earlier this year in Florence, Italy has been finalized.

One of IPSI's major collaborative activities, the COMDEKS Programme, has shared news of a new publication and the release of its latest newsletter, and we are also pleased to share a recent case study from the Pogány-havas Regional Association in Romania. We hope you will find this information helpful, and we would like to remind you that, as always, we are eagerly awaiting submissions of new or updated case studies from all of our members. Please contact the IPSI Secretariat with any questions on case study submission or anything else.

We have also received an announcement of a call for applications for the Soil and Land Management Award 2014/15, which we are passing on to you.

We thank you for subscribing, and for your continued support of IPSI.

IPSI Secretariat

Report from the Fifth IPSI Global Conference (IPSI-5)

The Fifth IPSI Global Conference (IPSI-5) was held on 4 and 5 October 2014 in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea, back-to-back with the Twelfth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 12). This marked the third time that a major IPSI event was held back-to-back with a CBD COP meeting, indicating the growing attention that IPSI is receiving from the CBD community.

This year's Global Conference was hosted by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea, an IPSI member, who also provided a great deal of help in the planning and implementation of the conference. The IPSI Secretariat would also like to thank another member, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), for providing a venue in Pyeongchang for various IPSI events, including our Steering Committee meeting and the IPSI-5 conference.

IPSI-5, like other IPSI Global Conferences, consisted of a meeting of the IPSI Assembly and a Public Forum. The Assembly is attended by IPSI members, and is where decisions are made regarding the operations of the partnership. The major development at this year's Assembly was the revision of the IPSI Operational Framework and endorsement of the new IPSI Charter and Operational Guidelines, which are available on the IPSI website here.

Two new IPSI members were also welcomed to the partnership in Pyeongchang:

  • Conservation Alliance International (Ghana)
  • Environmental Ethics Foundation of Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)

The theme of this year's Public Forum was "Furthering action in production landscapes and seascapes for sustainable development", and it featured presentations by IPSI members from around the world in the two general idea areas of capacity building and supporting livelihoods. The event was well-attended by both IPSI members and non-members alike, including a number of national delegates from the parties to the CBD.

A full report from IPSI-5 will be made available soon, but in the meantime presentation files and more information can be found on the IPSI-5 event page on the IPSI website.

The next IPSI Global Conference (IPSI-6) is currently under planning to be held in late 2015 in Cambodia. We hope to see many of you there.

Activities at CBD COP 12

The Twelfth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 12) was held in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea from 6 to 17 October 2014. Many IPSI members are parties to the convention or otherwise related to CBD processes, and both the Satoyama Initiative and IPSI have gained more attention in the community in the past years, so it was no surprise to see many members and friends actively engaged in Pyeongchang.

The Satoyama Initiative was once again recognized in COP decisions, following up on its recognition at CBD COP 10 and CBD COP 11. This time, references were found in the conference's deliberations: on Article 8(j) of the convention regarding traditional and indigenous knowledge; on biodiversity and sustainable development; and on sustainable use of biodiversity.

The IPSI Secretariat and various IPSI members also organized and participated in a wide variety of side events, fora, and other events held parallel to CBD COP 12. Not only national governments who are IPSI members, but also a large number of UN organizations, NGOs, academic and research organizations, and many others were active participants.

Thanks to the support of all members present at CBD COP 12, IPSI was able to raise its profile internationally and facilitate contact between many old and new friends.

IPSI Activities at IUCN World Parks Congress 2014

The IPSI Secretariat and many IPSI members are planning to take part in a number of events and activities at the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014, to be held from 12 to 19 November 2014 in Sydney, Australia.

The World Parks Congress is one of the largest meetings for protected areas and their sustainable management, and is held only once in a decade. IPSI members and the Secretariat have been contributing to the preparation process including attending preliminary meetings such as the 1st Asia Parks Congress in Sendai, Japan in 2013 and the IV Mesoamerican Congress on Protected Areas held in San José, Costa Rica earlier this year.

IUCN describes the World Parks Congress as "a landmark global forum on protected areas", and points out that the congress "will share knowledge and innovation, setting the agenda for protected areas conservation for the decade to come. Building on the theme "Parks, people, planet: inspiring solutions", it will present, discuss and create original approaches for conservation and development, helping to address the gap in the conservation and sustainable development agenda."

The IPSI Secretariat is still interested in hearing about any IPSI members that plan to attend and take part in the World Parks Congress. If you plan to attend, please contact the Secretariat and let us know about your planned activities, so that we can maximize the opportunities for collaboration among the IPSI community.

More information about the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 can be found on its website.

Report Published: Regional Workshop on the Satoyama Initiative in Florence, Italy

We are proud to announce that our final summary report from the Regional Workshop on the Satoyama Initiative in Florence, Italy has been compiled and is now available on our website. The workshop was held from 27 to 29 May 2014, and served as an excellent opportunity for IPSI members and non-members alike to share their experiences and opinions on issues facing production landscapes in the European region. Whether you were able to attend the workshop or not, please have a look at the report for a wealth of information. The report is available for download at the Regional Workshop event page.

Report Published: IPSI Case Study Experts Workshop Yokohama 2014

An Experts Workshop on IPSI Case Studies was held during the 2014 International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP) conference in Yokohama, Japan on 22 and 23 July 2014. We are pleased to announce that the official report from the Experts Workshop has been completed and is available for download at the link below.

Report_CS-Expert-WS-at-ISAP_IGES_UNU

The workshop provided a wide variety of opinions and solutions for the effective creation and use of case studies regarding socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS), and we hope you will find the report useful.

Updates from the COMDEKS Programme

The Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative (COMDEKS) programme is a unique global programme implemented by the UNDP as a collaborative activity under IPSI. Originally launched in 2011 in ten pilot countries (Brazil, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Fiji, India, Malawi, Nepal, Slovakia and Turkey), in June 2013, the Government of Japan, SCBD and UNDP launched the second phase of the project in ten additional countries (Bhutan, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Mongolia, Namibia and Niger), bringing to twenty the number of countries involved in the COMDEKS Programme. This month brought two updates.

Firstly, COMDEKS has produced a new publication, which was launched during an IPSI side event at CBD COP 12 in Pyeongchang. The new publication collates and analyzes results and lessons learned from the ten phase one COMDEKS countries through case studies of programme implementation in target landscapes and seascapes, detailing activities at the local level.

Please click here to download the publication.

Secondly, the ninth issue of the COMDEKS Newsletter was recently published, highlighting:

1) Launch of COMDEKS Publication during CBD COP 12
2) Krishak Mitra Award to COMDEKS grantee in India
3) COMDEKS support to sustainable livelihoods of Malawi youth
4) COMDEKS and the Agroecology approach
5) Portfolio Update: Stories from Kyrgyzstan, El Salvador, and Nepal
6) A COMDEKS Photostory from Ethiopia

To download this newsletter in PDF, please click here.

Recent Case Studies: A grassroots programme to support a traditional Eastern European community managing traditional High Nature Value landscapes in the Carpathians

The IPSI Secretariat is pleased to have received a case study from member the Pogány-havas Regional Association in Romania, a regional development organization founded in 1999 by Hargita County Council and the local councils of six municipalities as well as local NGOs and entrepreneurs. The Pogány-havas Regional Association works on a range of projects to increase local incomes, preserve the region's cultural heritage, develop tourism and conserve the natural environment.

The Pogány-havas area is in the Eastern Carpathians of Transylvania, in Central Romania. It consists of two major landscapes: part of the open mountain basin of Csík and the wild and mountainous Gyimes. Traditional farming created a beautiful and extremely biodiverse landscape throughout centuries, which is now threatened by modernization. Its mountain hay meadows belong to the most biodiverse habitats of Europe, but they are now threatened by abandonment and sheep grazing.

The traditional ecological knowledge of the Gyimes people distinguishes the highest number of habitat types in a local language all over the world. The organization's main challenge is to harmonize the intensification of farming, the increasing income expectations of local people and the traditional and labour-intensive farming methods favourable for nature. One success story so far is that they doubled the milk price by persuading local farmers to set up milk collection points to sell their milk under new EU hygiene rules and world market pressure.

For more information on the Pogány-havas Regional Association, please visit their website.

For the complete case study, please click here.

Call for applications: "Land and Soil Management Award 2014/15"

The Land and Soil Management Award was created four years ago by the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) under the auspices of the European Commission (DG Environment and the Joint Research Centre), in association with IPSI member the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Syngenta International and the Centre for Soil and Environmental Sciences of the Ljubljana University, to encourage new concepts of land and soil protection and their implementation in land management as well as to enhance awareness about the importance of land and soil functions.

This prize aims to reward professionals working in the area of land use and soil management pursuing the EU's soil protection goals, including those of the Common Agriculture Policy and of the Soil Thematic Strategy. We are sure many IPSI members are engaged in relevant work, so for more information visit their website at  www.europeanlandowners.org/awards/soil-land-award.

Contact

Please be sure to let the Secretariat know if there are any changes in your e-mail address or contact information.

Secretariat of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative
5–53–70 Jingumae
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925
Japan

Tel: +81 3-5467-1212
Fax: +81 3-3499-2828

Email: isi@unu.edu

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