IPSI Newsletter, July 2017

2017.07.14

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, we are happy to report on the recent visit of the Executive Secretary of the CBD to our offices at UNU-IAS. This newsletter also contains a reminder of the soon-approaching deadline for the Call for Proposals for SDM 2017, and we would like to share information about our upcoming parallel session at the ISAP2017 conference, plus a report from the recent IPSI Case Study Workshop, both in Japan. We recently received news of the latest "GEF-Satoyama Project" newsletter, and a news article related to IPSI. Finally, we are very pleased to include a profile of one of IPSI's newest members.

As always, we hope you will contact us to submit any new case studies or other information about your activities, or if you have any questions or comments.

IPSI Secretariat

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CBD Executive Secretary visits UNU-IAS

Staff of the IPSI Secretariat were recently honored to meet Ms. Cristiana Paşca Palmer, who assumed office as Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) earlier this year, during her visit to the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) in Tokyo. Prof. Kazuhiko Takeuchi, Senior Visiting Professor at UNU-IAS, had a chance for an in-depth discussion with Ms. Paşca Palmer, in which he explained the Satoyama Initiative and IPSI, and our contributions to CBD processes, and discussed future developments and opportunities for further cooperation.

We look forward to continuing to work closely with the Executive Secretary and other staff at the CBD Secretariat in order to make sure that the Satoyama Initiative is an effective tool for the benefit of biodiversity and human well-being.

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[Reminder] Call for Proposals: SDM 2017

We would like to gently remind readers of the call for proposals for the Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM) 2017, which was recently sent out through this mailing list.

The SDM has been established by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), and the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOEJ) in order to facilitate further implementation of activities that support the Satoyama Initiative.

One or two projects will be selected under each of four project types, and will be provided with a maximum support of approximately 10,000 USD for their implementation.

The deadline for applications is Friday, 4 August, 2017.

Eligibility for applicants is for IPSI member organizations only, and proposals for implementing IPSI collaborative activities are highly welcome.

Please refer to the IGES website here for further details.

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ISAP2017 Parallel Session: “Transformational Changes: Putting Sustainability at the Heart of Action”

The IPSI Secretariat at the United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) are pleased to announce the hosting of a parallel session on “Transformational Changes: Putting Sustainability at the Heart of Action” during the ninth International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP2017), on Wednesday, 26 July 2017 in Yokohama, Japan.

While the Satoyama Initiative functions at all levels from global to local, it is at subnational levels and scales of action that the transformational changes begin. Local policies and actions are required to overcome specific issues that communities and societies are facing as well as to achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including SDGs 14 (‘life below water’) and 15 (‘life on land’). This parallel session will present ongoing work with the goals of sharing knowledge and fostering further action.

For more information on ISAP2017, please see the IGES website here.

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IPSI Case Study Workshop in Tokyo, Japan

A workshop was held by the IPSI Secretariat along with IPSI partner the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) from 28 to 30 June 2017 at the United Nations University Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan as part of the process toward the publication of the third volume of the “Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review” (SITR vol. 3). The theme of this year’s workshop was “Livelihoods and socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)”, covering production activities that are based on natural resources in SEPLS, and that are practiced as subsistence and income generation for the well-being of local people.

The objective of the workshop was to share case studies among the SITR vol. 3 authors and get feedback on their manuscripts for further improvement. Concrete proposals and examples on how and under what conditions livelihood activities in SEPLS can contribute to local socio-cultural and economic conditions, and how they can connect to peoples’ well-being while supporting biodiversity were presented and discussed.

The SITR vol. 3 is planned for publication later this year, and will have the same theme as the workshop, including write-ups of the case studies presented and a synthesis paper aimed at bringing together the various projects and extracting lessons learned.

For more information on this event, please see the IPSI website here.

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GEF-Satoyama Project Quarterly Newsletter

The IPSI collaborative activity “Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management in Priority Socio-ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes”, known as the “GEF-Satoyama Project” is an effort to “achieve societies in harmony with nature, with sustainable primary production sector based on traditional and modern wisdom, and making significant contributions to global targets for conservation of biological diversity” by working in targeted biodiversity hotspots around the world. The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by Conservation International’s CI-GEF Project Agency and executed by Conservation International Japan in cooperation with the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS, the Secretariat of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative) and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).

The GEF-Satoyama Project recently produced its third quarterly newsletter, including recent activities of the Executive Team and updates progress in implementation by partners in the field.

The newsletter is available on the GEF-Satoyama Project website here.

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"Forest-Mountain-Borough-Sea" project featured in Taipei Times

IPSI member National Dong-Hwa University recently informed the Secretariat of a Taipei Times article on their "Forest-Mountain-Borough-Sea" project, which, as the article points out, borrows from concepts of the Satoyama Initiative. The project is an excellent example of bringing together upstream and downstream communities for sustainable management of a terraced-rice-paddy ecosystem for the benefit of local communities.

For the full article, please see the Taipei Times website here.

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New Member Introduction: SWCB, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

The Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB), Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, formally established in 1989, is the Chinese Taipei authority for water and soil conservation. In compliance with the 2012 policy plan of the Executive Yuan, the SWCB is responsible for promoting comprehensive slopeland management and debris flow disaster prevention, improving land use, implementing the Rural Regeneration Act and revitalizing agricultural villages. The SWCB kindly reports that it believes the Satoyama Initiative is a useful tool for rural regeneration, and that it would like to actively participate in IPSI for the benefit of biodiversity and human well-being, locally, regionally and internationally. For more detailed information on SWCB, please access its website here.

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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

If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to SUBSCRIBE, you can do so on the IPSI website here.