The Ministry of Environment of Japan (MOEJ), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations University (UNU) jointly propose the below-mentioned Community Development and Knowledge Management activities aiming at the promotion of the Satoyama Initiative would be considered as a contribution to the partnership work of the IPSI.

Name of the Activity: Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative (COMDEKS)

Partners to be Engaged:
Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOEJ),
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD),
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
United Nations University (UNU)

Overview of the activities:

Goals and Objectives: The vision of the Satoyama Initiative is to realize societies in harmony with nature. To achieve this vision, COMDEKS will support activities in the field in developing countries through small grants and knowledge management to attain the following objective:

To develop sound biodiversity management and sustainable livelihood activities with local communities in socio-ecological production landscapes to maintain, rebuild and revitalize landscapes in accordance with the following five perspectives of the Satoyama Initiative.

• Resource use within the carrying capacity and resilience of the environment
• Cyclic use of natural resources
• Recognition of the value and importance of local traditions and cultures
• Natural resource management by various participating and cooperating entities
• Contributions to local socio-economies

COMDEKS, in pursuing its objectives, will give due consideration to building climate resilient ecosystems. As elaborated below, these objectives would be met through a network of country-level programmes in the areas of mutual strength and interest of the MOEJ, SCBD, UNDP and UNU, as well as at a global level through institutional collaboration.

Activities:

COMDEKS, implemented by UNDP and supported by MOEJ, SCBD, and UNU, comprises two components. One will focus on community development through small grants making for communities in developing countries (relevant to IPSI activity cluster 5) by using the existing small grants delivery mechanism implemented by UNDP. The other will focus on the Management of knowledge (relevant to IPSI activity cluster 1) to be eventually used for capacity building, replication, and upscaling.

Community Development component will leverage existing experiences, resources, and networks in sustainable human development for the long-term benefit of local communities and ecosystems. MOEJ and SCBD will support UNDP through providing advice and sharing information on the current issues and relevant policy/political environment in the international scene with respects to CBD and related agenda in order to maximize the impacts of community development activities and the use of their output in knowledge management.

Knowledge Management component will codify and manage outputs (replicable and up-scalable practices) from the Community Development component to promote sustainable socio-ecological production activities, based on the five perspectives of the Initiative. UNDP, with support from UNU, will manage knowledge to build on the experiences and results to be produced and collected through the community development component.

Cooperation with other activities:

Generating and disseminating best practices and lessons learned is critical in maximizing the impact of COMDEKS through capacity building, replication, and upscaling. SCBD and UNU will implement [Activity Name], a distinct collaborative activity with COMDEKS, for developing a systematic and costefficient, knowledge codification and dissemination strategy. This will include reviewing, analyzing and codifying the results of activities and efforts that are to be financed at the community level including the lessons learned in COMDEKS. COMDEKS and [Activity Name] will coordinate closely to generate maximum impacts for achieving the vision of the Satoyama Initiative.

Clusters to be allocated: Cluster 1 (knowledge management) and Cluster 5 (community development
activities)

Timeframe: 2011 –2015

Contact details:

MOEJ: Daiji Kawaguchi, Assistant Director, Global Biodiversity Strategy Office
SCBD: Director, Scientific, Technical and Technological Matters Division
UNDP: Fumiko Fukuoka, Senior Technical Advisor, Environment Finance, Energy & Environment Group,
Bureau for Development Policy
UNU: Fumiko Nakao, Satoyama Initiative coordinator, International Satoyama Initiative, UNU-IAS