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).

We are looking forward to taking part in CBD COP 14 next month, so please see below for more information. This month’s newsletter also contains reports from the recent Seventh IPSI Global Conference, held in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, including a meeting of the IPSI Steering Committee, where ten new IPSI members were accepted and one new Collaborative Activity was endorsed. See below for details. We are also pleased to share the results of the 2018 round of the Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM) project selection, and recent publications: an online compendium on assessing agrobiodiversity, and newsletters from the GEF-Satoyama Project and COMDEKS Project, both IPSI Collaborative Activities.

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

The Seventh IPSI Global Conference (IPSI-7)

The Seventh IPSI Global Conference (IPSI-7) was held from 29 September to 2 October 2018 in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, organized by the IPSI Secretariat and the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOEJ), and hosted by the Ishikawa Prefectural Government. The Conference consisted of the Thirteenth Meeting of the IPSI Steering Committee, a Public Forum, a meeting of the IPSI General Assembly, and an excursion for participants.

The Public Forum is open to the general public for sharing information about the Satoyama Initiative and IPSI activities. This theme this time was "Assessing the Satoyama Initiative’s Contributions towards Achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and Sustainable Development Goals". The General Assembly is primarily for information-sharing and decisions regarding the future direction of IPSI, and is open to all IPSI members. The agenda this time also focused on assessment of IPSI's contributions and achievements to date. The discussion led to the endorsement of the IPSI-7 "Ishikawa Statement 2018", which expresses participants’ commitment to promoting the importance of SEPLS in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

The excursion on 2 October gave participants a chance to see a number of sites on the Noto Peninsula, an area of Ishikawa Prefecture well known for its satoyama landscapes and satoumiseascapes, which are recognized under the FAO's Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme, and are good examples of biocultural diversity and SEPLS in Japan.

We at the Secretariat would like to once again thank all of the participants, and especially our co-organizers at MOEJ and hosts at the Ishikawa Prefectural Government. It is thanks to all of your help and support that the Global Conference was such a success.

A full report of IPSI-7 will be made available in the near future. In the meantime, more information can be found on the IPSI website here.

IPSI Welcomes 10 New Members

We are pleased to announce that at its meeting last month, the IPSI Steering Committee confirmed 10 new member organizations, bringing IPSI’s total membership to 240 organizations. It is therefore our pleasure to welcome:

• Borneo Conservation Trust Japan

• Center for Green Economy Development – Nepal (CGED – Nepal)

• Chinese Society for Environmental Education (CSEE) – Chinese Taipei

• Fostering Education & Environment for Development, Inc. (FEED) – Philippines

• Groupe d’Intervention pour l’Encadrement et la Réhabilitation Intégrale (GIERI) / Landcare Network DRC – D. R. Congo

• Kumamoto Prefectural Government – Japan

• LEAF Co., Ltd. – Japan

• Fundación Semillas de Vida, A.C. – Mexico

• Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (TIP) – Italy

• Committee of Intermunicipal Associations of the State of Jalisco (CAIEJ) – Mexico

We look forward to collaborating closely with all of the new members in promoting the concept of the Satoyama Initiative in the future.

New IPSI Collaborative Activity Endorsed

IPSI Collaborative Activities are activities carried out by at least two IPSI members (possibly in collaboration with other organizations), and approved as such by the IPSI Steering Committee. At its meeting this month, the IPSI Steering Committee approved the proposal for one new IPSI Collaborative Activity, bringing the total number of IPSI Collaborative Activities to 47.

The new activity is:

• Research on development and implementation of National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) toward realization of societies in harmony with nature – by Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S); The University of Tokyo and United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS); and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

IPSI members are encouraged to propose any activities carried out in collaboration with other members as IPSI Collaborative Activities. This is a great opportunity to gain more attention for your activities and to improve IPSI’s functioning as a partnership, as well as to improve SEPLS management through knowledge sharing. Please contact the IPSI Secretariat if you have any activities that may be potential IPSI Collaborative Activities.

More information on IPSI Collaborative Activities is available on the IPSI website here.

SDM 2018 Project Selection Results

In 2013, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOEJ), and the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) jointly launched the “Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM)” as a collaborative activity under the framework of IPSI to facilitate further implementation of IPSI activities by providing seed funding to promising project proposals.The SDM Executive Board recently announced the six recipients of grants offered for the 2018 round.

The selected recipients are as follows:

• Environmental Protection Information Centre (EPIC): "Establishment of Vetiver Grass Nursery and Hedge Rows for control of Eutrophication in Lake Victoria", Uganda

• Fundaciòn para la Promociòn del Conocimiento Indìgena (FPCI): "Conservation and management of biodiversity of cultural, spiritual and food sovereignty importance and recovery of indigenous knowledge in the management of their territory", Panama

• Community Entrepreneur Development Institute (CENDI): "Community implementation of mixed species restoration for livelihoods and ecological function", Viet Nam

• South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE): "Sustainable Intensification of Ecosystem Services for Conservation of Production Agriscape and Biodiversity in Community Conserved Forests of Western Arunachal Pradesh, India", India

• World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF): "Enhancing Upland Adaptation to Multidimensional Shocks and Stressors for Improving Livelihood and Landscape"

• Amis de l’Afrique Francophone (AMAF) - Bénin: "Strengthening Resilience for Community Conservation of Biodiversity and wet ecosystems in Ouémé Valley", Benin

The contents of the activities as well as outcomes of the selected projects will be compiled and shared with all IPSI members during the subsequent implementation phase.

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

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.