Vol. 2, No. 4 July 2014  Dear  CEM  Regional  Members,    USA to host 2016 Conservation Congress IUCN has selected Hawaii as the venue for the 2016 IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC), the world’s largest conservation event held every four years. This will be the first time the WCC has been hosted by the USA, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the US National Park Service. The US has 85 IUCN member organizations and 2,200 IUCN Commission members. With 112 members, CEM membership in the US is the largest globally, followed by India with 85 members.   Global Ecosystem Restoration Conference at US National Academy of Sciences brings CEM leadership to Washington DC

CEM’s North America & Caribbean Region hosted a reception for CEM chair Piet Wit during the International Conference on Ecosystems, Economy and Society: How Large-Scale Restoration Can Stimulate Sustainable Development in Washington DC in late May. Piet was in Washington to present at the conference held at the US National Academy of Sciences and hosted by Veolia Institute, Agence Française de Développement, and IUCN. A paper by Edmund Barrow, Director of IUCN’s Global Ecosystem Management Programme, appears in the June issue of Sapiens, Veolia Institute’s journal, along with selected conference papers.

Partners for the CEM reception were the IUCN Global Forest and Climate Change Programme, the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), IUCN-Washington DC, and World Resources Institute. WRI and IUCN are partners on the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration. (See photos, page 3)

 

     Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu

 CEM reception, Washington DC. From left: Emmanuel Cohen-Shachem, Ecosystems Services; Steve Edwards, Steering Committee; Charlotte Moser, NAC Regional Chair; Piet Wit, CEM Chair; Brock Blevins, NAC Membership Coordinator; Keith Bowers, Ecological Restoration.  

 Coral reef grazers help sustain Caribbean economy The US Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the northern Gulf of Mexico, Bermuda and Bonaire, all regional CEM countries, have among the healthiest coral reefs in the Caribbean, thanks to restricted or banned fishing practices that harm parrotfish. A new IUCN publication Status and Trends of Caribbean Coral Reefs: 1970-2012 reports that the loss of parrotfish and sea urchin – the area’s two main grazers – has been the key driver of coral decline in the region, not climate change as previously thought. Caribbean reefs, spanning a total of 38 countries, are vital to the region’s economy. They generate more than US$ 3 billion annually from tourism and fisheries and over a hundred times more in other goods and services, on which more than 43 million people depend. Barbuda will soon ban all catches of parrotfish and grazing sea urchins, and set aside one-third of its coastal waters as marine reserves as part of an aggressive marine management program. Reefs where parrotfish are not protected have suffered devastating declines, including Jamaica, the entire Florida Reef Tract from Miami to Key West, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.        

   IPBES seeks nominations for Multidisciplinary Expert Panel, deadline August 15 Individuals from IUCN member organizations and commissions are encouraged to seek nominations from their governments for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Multidisciplinary Expert Panel. The deadline for nominations is 15 August. For information, click here. IPBES has also issued a call for comments on the full IPBES work program available online. Please send comments by 15 September to Ms. Laurence Perianin who joined the IUCN Secretariat on July 1 as the new Liaison Officer for IPBES on secondment from the Ministry of Ecology of the Government of France.      CEM’s Arctic Ecosystems Thematic Group Scheduled to Launch in Fall 2014 Jean Thie, Ottawa, head of CEM’s Arctic Ecosystems Task Force, has been invited to discuss CEM’s new Arctic Ecosystems Thematic Group at the Arctic Biodiversity Congress in Trondeim, Norway, in December. The launch of CEM’s newest Thematic Group is expected in Fall 2014.        

 

CEM Lead Named UNESCO

Chair in Community Sustainability

Liette Vasseur, lead of CEM’s Thematic Group on Climate

Change Adaptation, has been selected by the Canadian

Commission for UNESCO as its first Chair in Community

Sustainability. A biologist, Liette is a faculty member at the

Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) of

Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.  

   

   

More photographs from CEM reception in Washington DC, May 2014

Partners for the CEM reception included the IUCN Global Forest and Climate Change Program and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). Photo left: Carole Saint-Laurent (left), Deputy Director,

IUCN’s Forest Programme, based in Toronto; Martha McConnell (right), Manager, IUCN Polar Programme, based in Washington, DC. Photo right: Cara Nelson from Montana, Board Chair of SER,

talks with CEM chair Piet Wit.  

Regional Membership Nominations Nominations for CEM membership are made at the regional level. CEM members can submit nominations for people working in North America & the Caribbean to Charlotte Moser, Regional Chair, at cm.iucn.cem.nac@gmail.com. Please attach a candidate’s CV and a completed CEM Membership Application Form available at http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/cem/cem_join/ Regional membership coordinator Brock Blevins will follow up and update CEM membership records at the IUCN Secretariat in Gland, Switzerland. We thank you for your continued support and interest in furthering the priorities of the Commission and IUCN. Best wishes, Charlotte Moser Regional Chair IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management North America & Caribbean Region