Over 400 youth-led or youth-serving organizations make up the UN MGCY, a dedicated space for children and youth in the UN to address issues ranging from the environment and human rights to peace and security. Those MGCY organizations that share a focus on the environment and sustainable development can receive UNEP accreditation and engage through the MGCY to UNEP.

In the last decade, the off-grid solar industry has become a key solution to quickly deliver clean energy access to low-income and hard-to-reach communities. It currently serves 420 million people and has helped mitigate over 150 million metric tonnes of CO2e (according to GOGLA estimates), while enabling remote and vulnerable populations to adapt and become more resilient to climate change.

Despite taking place online “for reasons that we would have preferred to avoid,” as Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw noted, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification’s (UNCCD) Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC) made good use of the opportunity to share experiences on issues to be addressed at the next session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP 15).

Polar regions attract increasing public interest and attention with respect to climate change, mainly because of the visible effects. Climate-induced changes, such as ice melting, are regularly reported in the media, sometimes accompanied by important information on the significance of the frozen world for the global climate and human socioeconomic development. Environmental changes in the Arctic and the Antarctic are accelerating, affecting local species and ecosystems, and impacting the broader climate and ecological systems far beyond the polar regions.

Assessing the value of secondary forests in Peru is vital for designing policies that recognize the benefits they contribute to sustainable ecosystem management efforts and restoring tree cover in a cost-effective manner, while including livelihood benefits and climate mitigation. Defined as natural forest regrowth after clearance, secondary forests are estimated to make up 13.3 percent of forest cover in the Peruvian Amazon. They provide 63 percent of forest cover in Southeast Asia, and 34 percent across the lowland Neotropics.

The approval plenary for the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the Working Group II (WGII) contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) continued throughout Tuesday, with delegates gathering in plenary and contact group sessions.

UNCCD COP 15 -IISD

We relay below the press release from Bureau Veritas announcing this first training session. We inform you of the imminent holding from March 28 to April 1, 2022 of the first training session for auditors on the PAFC Congo Basin certification scheme in the sub-region. The organization of this training is the result of the collaboration between Bureau Veritas and the organizations that are PEFC International, PAFC Congo Basin, ATIBT and PPECF.

The President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) outlined priorities for the remainder of the 76th session (January-September 2022). Among the high-level meetings convening in the coming months, he noted the ‘Moment for Nature’ that will take place in July.

New research from IISD highlights what could be at stake for climate action as negotiators continue discussions on modernizing the Energy Charter Treaty. As one of the world’s most controversial international investment agreements on energy cooperation is put back under scrutiny this week, new research from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) highlights what could be at stake for climate action.

The UN’s High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (HLG-PCCB) met to review implementation of the Cape Town Global Action Plan for sustainable development data, in light of needs for capacity development and financial resources for national statistical offices (NSOs).

 

The Timber Trade Federation is changing its name to Timber Development UK.

During the official opening of the ECOFAC6 Regional Programme’s Steering Committee, (organized in Douala, Cameroon from 4 to 6 May) EU Ambassador, Ms. Rosario Bento-Pais, recalled that the EU invests more than 80 million Euros in the ECOFAC6 Programme. The other 17 million are invested by the partners. Amounting to approximately 100 million Euros, the investment makes ECOFAC6 the largest European environmental programme in Central Africa and a one-of-the-kind initiative in the world.

We, the Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) met on 17–18 February 2022 under the Co-Chairpersonship of H.E. Mr. Charles Michel, President of the European Council and H.E. Mr. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairperson of the African Union. We recall the 5th AU-EU Summit held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on 29-30 November 2017 and the 2nd AU-EU Foreign Affairs Ministerial Meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda, on 25-26 October 2021.

Countries are increasingly using their NAP processes to realize gender-responsive climate action and act on the Gender Action Plan (GAP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Fair&Precious brand, which supports the FSC and PAFC-PEFC certification schemes, intends to better interact with civil society actors, who will convey the 10 Fair&Precious commitments in the Congo basin and in Europe. These two spokespersons are joining the Fair&Precious program at the beginning of 2022: we welcome Edwige EYANG EFFA and Norbert GAMI, whom we introduce below.

2022 will be a significant year for governing the 2030 Agenda and other global frameworks on protecting the environment. While 2020 was anticipated as a super year for nature, and 2021 was considered all the more crucial for biodiversity after the pandemic froze many global discussions, 2022 now holds the cumulative need for high-level negotiations driven by renewed political will to adequately tackle environmental issues. It also inches the world closer to key deadlines for human and planetary wellbeing.

A TRAFFIC report highlights threatened species are still commercially traded in open bushmeat markets despite legal protection in Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo. The report suggests that less protected animal substitutes may be at risk of overexploitation in the future as a result.

The Adaptation Fund has launched a new USD 10 million pilot small grants programme (Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator, AFCIA) to foster innovation in adaptation in developing countries at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid. Two of the Adaptation Fund’s accredited Multilateral Implementing Entities (MIEs), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), have been selected as implementing entities of the AFCIA.

The first trainings of the actors of the sector for the year 2022 took place in Gabon from January 12 to 28 with the full satisfaction of the beneficiaries and the government authorities. The two training sessions aimed at providing forestry and wood industry actors with the capacity to better understand the upcoming forestry resource exploitation contexts ended in Gabon on January 28.

ATIBT expresses its deepest condolences to his family and friends. Franck Bisiaux did not need any other diploma than his agricultural BTS to lead a brilliant career for more than 20 years in West and Central Africa.

Rwanda is set to host the regional headquarters of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) following a presidential order signed by President Paul Kagame and issued in the national gazette. Founded in 1895, Wildlife Conservation Society is an NGO with headquarters in New York with the aim to conserve the world's largest wildlife and wild places in 14 priority regions home to more than 50 percent of the world's biodiversity.

A visit from World Forest ID to the ATIBT gave us an insight into this interesting approach. Tackling global deforestation and degradation requires that the actors involved in global supply chains have the means to accurately verify the identity and geographic source of both timber and deforestation-related agricultural commodities.

In December 2021, the consortium formed by Eticwood and Nature+, both members of ATIBT, was selected for the Technical Coordination of the AFD EU FLEGT Program. Presentation of the Program. This program focuses on eight priority countries (Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Liberia, Central African Republic and Vietnam) and will last for a period of 4 years (2022-2025). The main objective of the Program is to contribute to sustainable forest management, with 3 sub-objectives: operationalization of the VPA, capacity building of civil society organizations, and support to the private sector in the implementation of the VPA.

The Ocean is of vital importance to current and future generations. There is only one Ocean. Every State, every economic player, every community of people and every individual has a responsibility to conserve it and to use it sustainably. We, Heads of State and Government and the European Union, are deeply concerned about the continued degradation of the Ocean from human activities escalating the devastating effects of the climate change and biodiversity crises.

The year 2021 ended with excellent news for the Congo Basin PAFC project: the scheme is now recognized by the PEFC Council!

For decades, Fern and partners have campaigned to strengthen the rights of forest peoples and protect and restore forests. There have been locust years, when things went backwards, and harvest years, when plans come to fruition. Gratifyingly, 2021 was a year in which the forest movement achieved outstanding successes and we enter 2022 energised and ready to defend and build on them.

She succeeds Olman Serrano, whose term of office was coming to an end. On the same day, an extraordinary general assembly allowed for certain modifications to be made to the statutes of our association. The new statutes will soon be available on the ATIBT website.

UN Biodiversity Convention to host series of webinars prior to the resumed sessions of its two subsidiary bodies and working group on post-2020 global biodiversity framework.