GEF-SGP Upgraded Country Programmes Global Workshop

The Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP), administered by IPSI partner the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), held a global workshop from 16 to 19 April in Quito, Ecuador, to explore the implementation of its Upgraded Country Programmes (UCP). The UCP framework is in part an outcome of the IPSI collaborative activity the Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative (COMDEKS) Programme, which developed an adaptive landscape management methodology using the "Indicators of Resilience in SEPLS" to develop and implement a landscape- or seascape-level resilience-strengthening strategy. This COMDEKS methodology is being partially replicated in the UPC countries.

The workshop featured presentations and discussions by experts from UNDP, the IPSI Secretariat, and national representatives of GEF-SGP in a number of countries. An excursion was also provided to give participants a chance to visit project sites related to the Ecuador country programme. IPSI looks forward to continuing to be actively involved in the GEF-SGP UCP in the future.

Action Group on Knowledge Systems and Indicators of Wellbeing

IPSI partner the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, USA, held an Action Group meeting on 21 and 22 April to bring together experts and practitioners working "to create culturally-relevant indicators of wellbeing and capture the linkages between people and place". Staff from the IPSI Secretariat participated to present the IPSI collaborative activity work on the "Indicators of Resilience in SEPLS". The meeting was held during the weekend between the two weeks of the 17th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), and we were happy to see many IPSI members from indigenous peoples' and local community organizations and others at the meeting.

Outcomes from the Action Group are expected to contribute to ongoing efforts related to indicators and biocultural diversity, and to policy-related processes including the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 14), to be held in November 2018 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

SDM 2017 Booklet Published

The Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM) was established in 2013 as an IPSI collaborative activity between the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), UNU-IAS  and the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, to promote activities in line with the IPSI Strategy and Plan of Action through the provision of seed funding to promising projects proposed by IPSI members. Six projects have been selected every year, and each year a booklet is published containing updates on ongoing projects, reports from completed projects, and announcements of newly selected projects. The booklets contain a great deal of useful information on implementation of projects for SEPLS management, and should be very interesting for anyone involved with the Satoyama Initiative.

The booklet for SDM 2017 is now available for download here.

New Video on Satoyama and Satoumi Revitalization

A new video has been produced as a result of IPSI Collaborative Activities, focusing on restoration efforts in the Urato Islands in northeastern Japan. Since 2011, the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), which hosts the IPSI Secretariat, has been involved in activities with Tohoku University and the company e-front that aim to use the concepts of SEPLS (satoyama and satoumi in Japanese) in the islands to create opportunities for people to interact and revitalize local communities.

The Urato Islands are a group of small islands with rich satoyama and satoumi where people have been cultivating oysters and seaweed, and growing vegetables, for years. In the last few decades, the islands’ communities have been facing challenges such as a declining and ageing population, and abandoned farmland. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami badly exacerbated this situation and significantly weakened the social capital of the communities that live on the islands. This video introduces the revitalization project and how it has made an impact on the islands’ people.

This video was made possible in part through the support of the "Ink Cartridge Satogaeri Project". The video can be viewed on the "video" section of the IPSI website here.