Following the first ministerial meeting of the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue, 24 countries have endorsed a statement committing to working together to protect the world’s precious forests while also promoting sustainable trade.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has launched a new report on how global finance can be aligned with sustainable development in order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and deliver a COVID-19 economic recovery.

Fiscal policies with the right incentives can be a powerful tool to help governments reduce deforestation and forest degradation and promote the sustainability of forests, according to a new report from the CIF Forest Investment Program (FIP) and the World Bank, commissioned by the CIF Evaluation and Learning (E&L) Initiative.

Biodiversity is under immense threat. According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 1 million species of plants and animals are facing extinction, many within decades, unless action is taken to tackle the drivers of biodiversity loss (IPBES 2019). Moreover, without such action, the rate of species extinction will accelerate.

April was a busy month for the park, with new radio systems installed for security and ranger operations across our field posts, with ongoing checks during the month of May. This new system will permit permanent, voice contact with all our key sites, and even ranger teams in the field!

Thank you for your interest in our webinar series, “Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Change: Reconciling the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Recordings of both webinars are now available...

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, the Africa Union Commission and the African Tax Administration Forum will launch the  2021 Tax Transparency in Africa (TTIA) report on 26 May 2021 at 9:00 GMT.

Ensuring corporate accountability for environmental impacts in the upcoming EU directive on sustainable corporate governance. As the European Union develops its future sustainable corporate governance directive, a number of civil society organisations published a briefing that outlines why and how environmental protection must be integrated into companies’ due diligence requirements alongside respect for human rights.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) today published a new energy scenario. It models for the first time how the world can achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and limit global warming to 1.5ºC. A group of environmental and social NGOs campaigning to stop the EU burning forests for energy says this is a step forward; but they also criticise the IEA for relying heavily on bioenergy to meet climate goals and for failing to halt the use of land for energy production. Bioenergy is a false climate solution that adds emissions to the atmosphere, exacerbates biodiversity loss and negatively impacts food security.

This year's Carbon Pricing Leadership Report comes as much of the world continues to grapple with the global COVID-19 crisis that has ravaged communities , overwhelmed health care systems, closed borders, and brought economies to a near halt over the past year. As future generations look back at this time, they will see this pandemic as one of humanity's greatest tragedies, but they will also see our resilience.

Leaders from the UN, the private sector, national and local governments, youth and other organizations have called for countries, businesses, cities, and civil society groups to put forward “Energy Compacts” to show how they will contribute to achieving the goal of clean, affordable energy for all by 2030 (SDG 7) and net-zero emissions by 2050.

There has been intense criticism of the European Union (EU) Renewable Energy Directive (RED) for leading to adverse impacts on forests in Europe and beyond. To tackle these concerns, the EU developed sustainability criteria that forest biomass must meet to be counted towards EU renewable energy targets (and therefore be eligible for subsidies).

Land is the foundation of our societies and is a cornerstone to global food security and environmental health, zero hunger, poverty eradication and affordable energy. It underpins the success of the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Developmen, and yet this finite resource is under existential threat. On 14 June event will be broadcast live on UN WebTV and streamed to UNCCD Facebook page 14.00-17.00 and 19.00-22:00 GMT.

This journey for ELYX, the UN’s Digital Ambassador, begins on World Bee Day, 20 May 2021, with more stops ahead – the International Biodiversity Day on 22 May and World Environment Day on 5 June, and finally a celebration of Desertification and Drought Day on 17 June

The briefing reflects on progress after a decade of implementation including looking at multi stakeholder participation, increased transparency and reduced illegal deforestation. It suggests concrete ways to address challenges and step up current efforts including increased enforcement of just laws, enhanced policy coherence, and inclusive decision making. If the proposed changes are taken on board, VPAs will continue to effectively contribute to governance improvements, forest protection and sustainable local livelihoods.

On 18 May 2021, the Wilson Center organized a discussion focused on the role of the Green Climate Fund in scaling up finance for climate action.  Ambassador Mark Green, the President of the Wilson Center, opened the discussion with a call to action :  “the climate crisis is already here, and so is our opportunity to respond. The world will face huge costs in adapting to climate change, up to $500 billion per year by 2050.”  He then raised the biggest unanswered question in climate finance : why does adaptation currently attract only 20% of all climate finance?

...but trade, environmental protection and  social justice don’t have to be mutually exclusive, says Chiara Vitali. The doubts about the climate crisis that Boris Johnson used to express in his newspaper columns are a thing of the past.

The pandemic has reminded us how much we depend on each other. How much we depend on nature. How much our fate depends on our relationships with nature. How much we need a good political will, combined with collective action, and sustained investment. When these come together, we can make a difference.

Protecting and restoring nature can help drive a green recovery and prevent future pandemics. Investing in nature-based solutions, specifically land restoration, will allow us to build forward better, greener, healthier, stronger, and more sustainably.

Initially scheduled for June 2021, the end of the project "Implementation of a regional approach for the development of PAFC certification systems" is postponed until the end of June 2022.

The CMS Secretariat would like to draw attention to a call from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) to take part in the review of the second order draft of the chapters and the first order draft of the summary for policy makers of the IPBES sustainable use of wild species assessment.