Dear IPSI members and friends,

Greetings from the IPSI Secretariat at our new offices in Tokyo, Japan. Please see the bottom of this email for our new address and contact information. As the summer gets hotter and hotter here, 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).

In this month's newsletter, we are pleased to announce two upcoming events, the Fifth IPSI Global Conference (IPSI-5) to be held in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea on 4-5 October and a parallel session to be held during ISAP 2014 in Yokohama, Japan on 24 July 2014, as well as our activities during the recent WGRI-5 and SBSTTA-18 meetings in Montreal, Canada. The COMDEKS Project has also published its July Newsletter. We have also received news from our partner the State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture that the IUCN WCC conference will be held in Hawaii, USA in 2016.

In addition, we would like to introduce two of the newest partners to join IPSI: the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, University for Development Studies (UDS) in Ghana, and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU) in Austria. We are also proud to share information about a recently submitted case study from the Overseas Environmental Cooperation Center (OECC), Japan. The IPSI Secretariat is always looking forward to receiving new case studies and updates to those that have already been submitted, so if any members have any updates for us, please be sure to let us know. You can see all of our case studies on our webpage.

As always, we thank you for subscribing, and for your continued support of IPSI.

IPSI Secretariat

The Fifth IPSI Global Conference (IPSI-5) in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea, 4-5 October 2014

The Fifth IPSI Global Conference (IPSI-5) will be held from 4 to 5 October 2014 in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea. The conference will be held back-to-back with the twelfth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP12), and will be a good chance for many IPSI members and non-members alike to meet in person and discuss further ways to collaborate and promote the principles of the Satoyama Initiative.

The IPSI Global Conference consists of two main events, the Assembly and the Public Forum. Please note that to attend either of these events, it is necessary to register for COP12, as IPSI-5 will be held in the COP12 venue.

The Assembly will be held in the afternoon of Saturday, 4 October 2014. The assembly is primarily for information-sharing and decisions regarding the future direction of IPSI, and all IPSI members are encouraged to attend.

The Public Forum is open to the general public as well as IPSI members, and will be held in the morning of Sunday, 5 October 2014. The Public Forum is an opportunity for non-members to learn about IPSI and its activities as well as a venue for discussion of various topics related to socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS), their revitalization and sustainable management.

The IPSI Secretariat has already sent registration materials to IPSI members. If you have not yet received the registration materials and would like to attend, please contact the Secretariat.

Other planned events related to IPSI include a side event hosted by IPSI during the first week of COP12 and a UNU-IAS side event with information about the Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM), Indicators of Resilience in SEPLS, and others. The exact time and venue for these events will be made public as soon as they are available.

We also invite our members and friends to let us know of any planned events or other activities during COP12 so that we can hopefully attend and let other IPSI-related people know about them.

ISAP 2014 Parallel Session: Benefits and Challenges of Community Engagement for the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, 24 July 2014

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 the “Benefits and Challenges of Community Engagement for the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity” on the occasion of the International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP 2014) on 24 July 2014 in Yokohama, Japan, as well as an expert workshop related to IPSI case studies during the same Forum. The parallel session will aim to showcase some of the opportunities and challenges of participatory ecosystem use, based on experiences accumulated under the Satoyama Initiative, and will be held from 10:45 to 12:45 on 24 July in rooms 511 and 512 of the Pacifico Yokohama Conference Center.

Please click on the link below for details.
ISAP2014ParallelSessionFlyer

July 2014 COMDEKS Newsletter

The Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative (COMDEKS) project is a unique global programme implemented by the UNDP as a collaborative activity under the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative. 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 Project.

The eighth issue of the COMDEKS Newsletter highlights:

(1) Equator Initiative Prize awarded to COMDEKS grantee in Turkey
(2) Eco-tourism gives women a new lease on life in Cambodia
(3) Piloting the resilience indicators in Namibia
(4) Sharing the Seeds of Knowledge-a short film from Turkey
(5) Portfolio Update: stories from Costa Rica, Ethiopia, and Slovakia
(6) A COMDEKS Photostory from Ghana

To download this newsletter in PDF, please click here.

2016 IUCN WCC to be held in Hawaii

IPSI partner the State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) recently announced that Hawaii has been chosen as the host of the 2016 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress (WCC), and that HDOA will be one of the agencies involved in the multi-agency effort to prepare for this global event. Held every four years, the last IUCN WCC was held in Jeju, South Korea. The HDOA is excited about this opportunity and looks forward to working with the partnership in preparation and to ensure that IPSI will play a role in this extraordinary event.

For more information about the announcement, please see the press release from the Governor of the State of Hawaii here: http://governor.hawaii.gov/blog/worlds-largest-conservation-gathering-coming-to-hawaii-in-2016/

Last month, Hawaii also wrapped up its legislative session and one of the pieces of legislation that was passed was Senate Concurrent Resolution 69 that endorsed and supported the Aloha + Challenge. The Aloha + Challenge sets statewide goals for greater sustainability in the areas of energy, food, natural resource management, waste reduction, sustainable communities, and green workforce. The HDOA has agreed to take on the goal of doubling local food production in Hawaii to reach the goal of 20-30 percent local food consumption by 2030. The exact language of the resolution can be found here: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2014/bills/SCR69_SD1_.htm

Satoyama Initiative Represented at WGRI-5 and SBSTTA-18

Intrepid members of the IPSI Secretariat's staff recently traveled to Montreal, Canada to take part in events related to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP): the fifth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Review of Implementation (WGRI-5) from 16-20 June, and the eighteenth meeting of Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-18) from 23-28 June.

As official representatives of the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), Mr. William Dunbar and Mr. Yohsuke Amano read statements during plenary sessions, engaged in discussions at side events and contact groups, and held an informal meeting for delegates from IPSI member national governments. As a result of their efforts and the cooperation of our partner governmental ministries, landscape and seascape perspectives and the principles of the Satoyama Initiative were included in a number of the documents resulting from both events (see here, here and here).

Notably, a document on the background of IPSI, entitled "The International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) from Formation to Current Practice: A Progress Report" (found here and here) was included as one of the official information documents for both events. All of these results have helped to raise awareness of IPSI around the world, and we hope they will lead to a broader partnership and greater collaboration in the future. We look forward to working closely with many of our partners within the CBD COP process.

New Member Introduction: Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, University for Development Studies (UDS), Ghana

The Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources is located at the Nyankpala Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS), about 20 km West of Tamale in Ghana. Previously known as the Department of Renewable Natural Resources under the Faculty of Agriculture, it was transformed into a fully-fledged faculty in 2009.

The faculty is involved in teaching, research, and extension services, and training the needed manpower for sustainable management and utilization of the country’s renewable natural resources for national development. It currently runs a four-year programme for B.Sc. in Renewable Natural Resources, and plans are far advanced to introduce relevant Undergraduate as well as M.Sc., M.Phil. and PhD programmes.

Research activities to conserve and manage renewable natural resources in the local communities encompass wildlife, forests, protected areas, sacred groves and watersheds in Northern Ghana and the country as a whole.

The Faculty's objectives are to:

• Train well-qualified and skillful manpower through lectures, research and field work to manage the renewable natural resources in the country.
• Conserve and manage renewable natural resources in the local communities in our catchment area by assisting them to preserve wildlife, forests, protected areas, sacred groves, and watersheds.
• Sustain the conservation and development of renewable natural resources by conducting state of the art investigations in the forest and wildlife reserves in northern Ghana and the country as a whole.
• Encourage the establishment of aquaculture, plantations, herbaria, aquaculture facilities, game farming, and beekeeping for the promotion of alternative livelihoods among the fringe communities of natural areas.
• Promote consultancy services in renewable natural resources to both government and non-governmental agencies.

New Member Introduction: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Austria

The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), which began as a small agricultural college founded in 1872, is a modern, international University of Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria, with 9 Bachelor and 25 Master programmes for more than 10.000 students.

BOKU, perceives itself as a teaching and research center for renewable resources, which are necessary for human life. It is BOKU's objective to help make a considerable contribution to the conservation and protection of resources for future generations by providing diversity in its fields of study. Connecting natural sciences, engineering and economic sciences, its wish is to increase knowledge of the ecologically and economically sustainable use of natural resources, to provide a harmoniously cultivated landscape.

An important feature of BOKU's research lies in its recognition of future problems and efforts to provide and stimulate practical relevance, internationality and among disciplines. Interdisciplinary cooperation of scientists on an international level should help create comprehensive questions about the future of our planet and lead to innovative problem-solving.

BOKU's teaching is designed holistically and in a coordinated manner. It leads graduates to knowledge, understanding and flexibility. From this program, they gain the willingness to face future challenges and the capability to meet them in a competent way. We teach state-of-the-art content and current issues based on dynamic research and a high level of practical relevance using modern didactic methods. This motivates students and graduates to develop their own ideas. The cosmopolitan scientific vocational education and training enables them to understand complex interdisciplinary relationships.

In order to reach these objectives, cooperation that is based on mutual trust and flexibility is necessary. Whenever possible, those concerned are integrated into decision-making processes, so that all BOKU members can identify with the university and its objectives. This also opens up the possibility for decentralized decision-making, effective acting and the ability to respond to new challenges in a flexible manner.

For the public, BOKU is also a competent and self-conscious partner. It combines the willingness to accept criticism with the readiness to take the responsibility of taking a clear position. BOKU is also developing a Satoyama research platform.

Recent Case Studies: Participatory, Learning and Action (PLA) Project for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management in Lao PDR

The Technical Committee of the Overseas Environmental Cooperation Center (OECC) in Japan commenced a scheme called “The SATO Village Framework Development Plan in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos)” in fiscal year 2008. This scheme was conducted independently by OECC to facilitate the Satoyama Initiative, proposed by IPSI.

Based on the SATO Village Framework Plan, OECC solicited applications from the public in Laos, and the judging committee consisting of Japanese and Laotian experts selected “Participatory, Learning and Action (PLA) for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management (in Don Kham, Xieng Khouang)” proposed by the Faculty of Agriculture, National University of Laos as the supporting project. The project was carried out for six months starting in June 2011.

During the project implementation, OECC provided advice to follow the concepts of the Satoyama Initiative, and dispatched a research team to assess the project’s performance and outcomes to identify lessons learned on a practical basis.

For the full write-up of OECC's case study, see this page on the IPSI website.

Contact

The IPSI Secretariat recently moved from Yokohama to the UNU headquarters building in Tokyo. We ask that you update your files with our new contact information as below.

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.