Conservation International and UNU-IAS, host of the IPSI Secretariat, co-organized a side event at the 2^nd Asia Parks Congress on 26 May 2022 titled “Making OECMs Work – Landscape Approaches for Effective Area-based Conservation”. The event explored the potential of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) in the designation and management of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs).

OECMs are a new mechanism being developed under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to ensure biodiversity conservation in a larger proportion of the landscape. OECMs are expected to allow a wider variety of human land-uses and interactions with the natural environment than are found in many parks and other protected areas.

To contribute to the OECM policy process, UNU-IAS and Conservation International initiated a project to collect information and ideas from their years of experience working with landscape management and apply lessons learned to OECM designation and implementation.

A panel discussion featuring William Dunbar (Conservation International), Makiko Yanagiya (UNU-IAS), Kathy MacKinnon (IUCN-WCPA), Yoji Natori (Akita International University), and Bhavya George (Keystone Foundation) explored the importance of participatory processes, working in cooperation with local communities, and recognizing and maintaining “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs).

The speakers stressed that because of the greater human influence found in many potential OECMs, working with the local community is important to ensure biodiversity conservation and social equity. Some also pointed out that a landscape approach is an effective way to implement an inclusive participatory process.

This side event was the second in a planned series of Expert Dialogues being organized under the joint project. You can watch the first event on the Conservation International Japan YouTube channel.