IPSI Newsletter, March 2021

2021.03.26

Dear IPSI members and friends,

Greetings from the IPSI Secretariat in Tokyo, Japan. As we approach the end of this year full of challenges, we hope all of you are staying healthy and safe whatever your current situation. As always, IPSI and its members continue to stay active in a wide variety of projects and activities related to landscape and seascape approaches towards “societies in harmony with nature”, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This month’s newsletter contains information about a new article drawn from the “GEF-Satoyama Project”, a new video on women and climate change, and a new website for the Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM), as well as a reminder of the application deadline for the UNU-IAS doctoral programme in sustainability science, an announcement of a survey on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and an introduction to a recent IPSI case study from Save A Seed for the Future (SAFE) in Uganda.

As always, please feel free to contact us to submit any new case studies or other information about your activities, or if you have any questions or comments.

IPSI Secretariat

New Article: Enhancing synergies in nature’s contributions to people in socio‑ecological production landscapes and seascapes

An article was recently published in the academic journal Sustainability Science, including outputs from the IPSI Collaborative Activity “GEF-Satoyama Project”. The article is a good resource for information about valuation of nature and nature’s contributions to people including dealing with trade-offs through food-centred approaches entailing organic agriculture, eco-labelling, branding and improved agricultural practices, and habitat-centred approaches included participatory biodiversity monitoring, ecosystem restoration, co-management and conservation agreements with landowners. Lessons are drawn from ten project sites of the GEF-Satoyama Project.

The article is available at its DOI here.

New Video: "Women and Climate Change: Global Scenario and the Grassroot Reality"

A new video was recently developed by Dr. Himangana Gupta, JSPS-UNU Research Fellow at the IPSI Secretariat at UNU-IAS, highlighting issues of women and climate change, in particular how women are disproportionately affected by the negative effects of climate change and biodiversity loss.

The video can be viewed on YouTube here.

New SDM Website

The Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM), an IPSI Collaborative Activity, has recently been updated with a new website for better communication and information sharing. The new website offers better functionality and more compatibility with the IPSI website. Perhaps most importantly, users can now easily search implemented SDM projects according to project type, global targets, organisation type, etc. The SDM Secretariat is looking forward to further enriching the new website content for even better information sharing in the future.

The new SDM website can be accessed here. For any questions regarding SDM, please contact the SDM Secretariat directly at sdm@iges.or.jp.

Applications Open for UNU-IAS Doctoral Programme

As posted in last month’s newsletter, UNU-IAS, host of the IPSI Secretariat, now has a call open for its PhD in Sustainability Science postgraduate degree programme. The application deadline is 9 April 2021 for the programme starting in September 2021.

Please visit the Degree Programmes section of the UNU-IAS website to find out more about application requirements and procedures.

Survey on UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

A survey related to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is now being conducted by the UN Environment Programme and FAO. The survey is intended to help provide a baseline of existing capacities; help identify strengths, gaps, needs and barriers to achieving global restoration goals; and guide the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’s system-wide capacity development efforts. The coming decade has been designated as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and landscape approaches are expected to have a great deal of relevance for restoration as well as biodiversity and development, so members of the IPSI community are encouraged to actively engage with activities of the Decade.

The survey is available on the UNU Decade on Ecosystem Restoration here.

Recent Case Study: Save A Seed for the Future (SAFE)

We are happy this month to share one of our recent case studies from Save A Seed for the Future (SAFE) in Uganda. The case study is titled “Direct use values and nutritional potential of selected wild edible plants from Teso-Karamoja Region, Uganda”, and was also included as a chapter in the Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review vol. 5.

According to the case study, the use of wild edible plants is steadily being limited by biodiversity loss. This study therefore sought to investigate the instrumental value of nature in terms of wild edible plant species, their direct use values and the nutritional potential of selected wild edible plant species in the landscapes of the Teso-Karamoja region of Uganda. An assessment of the opportunities, challenges and biodiversity benefits of maintaining these landscapes was also made. A high diversity of wild edible plant species with potential to enhance human well-being exists in the Teso-Karamoja region. This implies that various opportunities can be harnessed from the biodiversity benefits of maintaining landscapes in this region. However, the deteriorating state of the landscapes due to anthropogenic activity is one challenge that needs to be overcome. This inevitably requires adoption of methods to conduct regular assessment and monitoring of the impacts on these landscapes.

For the full case study, please see the IPSI 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

United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS)
5–53–70 Jingumae
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925
Japan

Tel: +81 3-5467-1212
Fax: +81 3-3499-2828
Email: isi@unu.edu

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