IUCN

In 2021, IUCN launched the IUCN Flagship Report Series, to help demonstrate the importance of conserving nature for human well-being and all life on Earth. This report, the second in the series, focuses on agriculture and nature. The interactions, synergies, and tradeoffs between the two sit at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for ending hunger and ensuring food security while also mandating the protection and restoration of nature.

World Heritage properties are internationally recognized as places of Outstanding Universal Value that should benefit from the highest level of management effectiveness. The Toolkit 2.0 offers a self-assessment methodology to evaluate management effectiveness in a World Heritage property or other heritage place. It contains 12 tools that can be used separately or collectively to understand in detail what is working well and what can be done better.

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. The purpose of the Guidelines for using A Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas is to ensure that KBA identification is based on consistent, scientifically rigorous yet practical methods.

The Global Species Action Plan (GSAP) is a critical initiative developed to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), to address the increasing biodiversity loss worldwide. The GSAP outlines strategic interventions and actions to conserve and sustainably manage species while ensuring equitable benefits.

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are sites outside protected areas that deliver effective and long-term in situ conservation of biodiversity. Biodiversity conservation may be the primary objective of the site, a secondary objective of a site that is managed for other purposes, or it may be an unintended consequence of the way the site is managed.

Unsustainable agricultural practices are among the main causes of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution globally. It is thus essential to integrate environmental conservation practices in the agriculture sector when looking at pathways for a sustainable future. In this context, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) could be a critical tool for improving the status of productive landscapes.

In the 20 years since the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group’s first status report (2005), much has changed for sharks, rays and chimaeras. This report updates our understanding, and the scope of information reflects the scale of these two decades of change. The breadth of research topics has expanded, mirroring the inclusion of a greater diversity of species, and attention is being trained on the emerging threats and the accelerating global changes to aquatic ecosystems.

This technical note focuses on spatial planning for wind and solar development with respect to biodiversity. It is intended primarily for government planners responsible for the longterm sustainable roll out and/or expansion of renewable energy and associated infrastructure (e.g. grid infrastructure and facilities such as ports) at regional, national, and sub-national levels.

The key aim of this guidance is to reframe cumulative impact assessment (CIA) to help support biodiversity conservation and the achievement of global biodiversity goals (alongside climate and other societal development goals). This guidance is focused on biodiversity and wind and solar development, and is aimed primarily at government planners and project developers.