International Land Conservation Network Newsletter, May 2020
In this newsletter:
China Issues First Conservation 'Easement Certificate' in Baishanzu National Park
Necessity Sparks Invention: How COVID is Catalyzing New Approaches to Conservation Monitoring and Technology Adoption
The New EU Biodiversity Strategy - Reason for Hope?
NatureVest Founder William Ginn Discusses Valuing Nature: A Pathway for Impact Investing
ILCN/ELCN 2020 Webinar Series
Eurosite Webinars
China Issues First Conservation ‘Easement Certificate’ in Baishanzu National Park
Photo Credit: LQNews On April 10th, 2020, China issued the first “easement certificate” in Baishanzu National Park in Zhejiang Province, marking a milestone of several planned steps to enable collective land conservation throughout the country. On the local government-issued certificate, collective forest farmers in Longquan City, Zhejiang Province agreed to transfer the management rights of the forests to the management unit of the Baishanzu National Park, giving the national park managers the ability to conserve 307-mu (approximately 50 acres) of collective forestland in Guanpuyang Village within a proposed national park. While agreements for conservation easement-like relationships have been created previously (for example, Qianjiangyuan National Forest Park, Zhejiang Province, in 2018), this Zhejiang Province easement certificate is the first of its kind issued in China.
Necessity Sparks Invention: How COVID is Catalyzing New Approaches to Conservation Monitoring and Technology Adoption
Photo Credit: Upstream Tech As land conservation organizations grapple with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their work, how can organizations adapt to the challenges for land management and monitoring? Upstream Tech, a Cambridge, MA – based company, developed its Lens service for remote monitoring of easements and conservation properties using satellite data to help land trusts save time and resources through the use of remote monitoring to target or in some cases replace field visits for large, remote, or difficult-to-access properties. Carolyn duPont of Upstream Tech, a Cambridge, MA-based company that provides remote monitoring solutions for the conservation community, reflects on the role that conservation technology might play, and shares how the company has been engaging with a broad range of land trusts in recent months to understand how they’re managing field visits, team coordination, and other practices in the context of the COVID crisis.
The New EU Biodiversity Strategy – Reason for Hope?
Photo Credit: Getty Images User johnnorth On May 20, the EU published an ambitious new Biodiversity Strategy committing to protecting 30% of land and sea across its member states. In the post-COVID context, the Biodiversity Strategy aims to build societies’ resilience to future threats such as climate change impacts, forest fires, food insecurity or disease outbreaks, including by protecting wildlife and fighting illegal wildlife trade. As a central element of the European Green Deal, the Biodiversity Strategy will also support a green recovery following the pandemic. Tilmann Disselhoff, Project Coordinator of the European Land Conservation Network, shares his perspectives on this achievement, challenges that lie ahead in its implementation, and what this new target means for the European land conservation community.
NatureVest Founder William Ginn Discusses Valuing Nature: A Pathway for Impact Investing
Photo Credit: Island Press As the world faces unprecedented change and evolution wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and biodiversity loss, what are the needs and opportunities for private capital to tackle our conservation challenges? Valuing Nature author William Ginn addressed this and other questions in a webinar co-hosted by Island Press and the Conservation Finance Network on “Valuing Nature: A Pathway for Impact Investing” on Thursday, May 21st. Ginn noted that the cost of addressing the issues countries, regions, and communities will face around the world in coming decades exceeds the current and combined capital resources of government and nonprofits, and that increased private capital, led by impact investors, will be key to protecting nature at a scale that matters. In his book and during the webinar, Ginn makes the case for an “ecosystem” of government policy, private investors, and nonprofit resources working together to invest in natural assets such as green infrastructure, forests, soils, and fisheries. In conversation with Peter Stein, Managing Director of the Lyme Timber Company and ILCN co-founder, Ginn shares his perspectives on the tools available for investors and organizations hoping to develop their own projects, no nonprofits can successfully navigate this space, and the importance of emerging organizations finding ways to create this new ecosystem.
View the webinar in full on Island Press’ website here.
ILCN/ELCN 2020 Webinar Series
The International Land Conservation Network and the European Land Conservation Network invite you to participate in the 2020 Webinar Series, which will continue with an additional set of webinars through June. Over the past 6 weeks, more than 500 private and civic land conservation practitioners from around the world have joined us virtually for webinars covering key experiences and insights into conservation finance, law and policy, land stewardship and management, and large landscape conservation. As regions, communities, organizations and individuals continue to face the challenges wrought by COVID-19, the ILCN and ELCN look forward to continuing to bring together the global civic land conservation community using the tools at hand to build our capacity, trust, and shared commitment to voluntary private and civic action for the conservation of nature.
View the full schedule of upcoming webinars below.
Legal Tools for Private Land Conservation in the European Union June 3, 9:30am Eastern Time (US)
This webinar will address how private land conservation is being implemented under existing EU and national legislation, across differing national legal frameworks. Panelists will discuss the legal tools currently used in specific countries, as well as how new legal instruments may be applied to advance private lands conservation in the future. Attendees will come away with examples of tools currently in use, and to discuss with the panelists the contexts and tools used in their own jurisdictions.
A Global Survey of Conservation Finance June 10, 8:00am Eastern Time (US)
This global survey will explore a range of case studies to examine different approaches to conservation finance around the world and ask practitioners what regionally-unique political, social, and economic opportunities and challenges they have faced. Framed by the aggregate experience of practitioners, the session will give attendees a distilled understanding of creative solutions to challenging problems around the world.
Reclaiming Our Freshwater Resources June 16, 12:00pm Eastern Time (US)
In the age of climate change, maintaining water quality and quantity for human and wildlife populations is increasingly difficult due to many factors, including watershed fragmentation, pollution, invasive species proliferation, and water rights conflicts. To rise to these challenges, water funds and other conservation and restoration mechanisms are pioneering methods to protect the places and natural processes that provide fresh water, flood protection, wildlife habitat, and other elements of water security. Participants will learn about several such efforts from North and South America, Europe and Australia, and will have the chance to discuss key issues with experts leading these efforts.
Symbiosis - Inspiring Partnerships in Stewardship June 24, 4:00pm Eastern Time (US)
This session will take an in-depth look at novel and inspiring partnerships in land restoration and management, and how they may be replicated elsewhere. These include community trusts in South Africa combining rural development with biodiversity stewardship, large-scale land and biodiversity restoration efforts by citizen volunteers in New Zealand, and partnerships between rural landowners and hunters in Spain. Panelists will discuss the advantages of such partnerships, their added value for landowners, and their impact on nature conservation. Key questions are how mutually beneficial partnerships can be forged, how shared conservation visions can be built, what motivates the partners to join, and how they remain committed.
Eurosite Webinar: Drone potential for vegetation monitoring Thursday, June 4, 11-12pm CET
This webinar focuses on the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in vegetation mapping. This quickly developing technique enables the decrease of costs of field work, and increases its accuracy accordingly. The drones and their software are nowadays quite user-friendly, even for beginners. The drone results mappings are developed in close cooperation with botanists, validating the results on the ground – and can therefore be a powerful tool in monitoring and management planning. In this first webinar, optical remote sensing data expert Lucie Kupková provides a unique opportunity to fly over subalpine and alpine vegetation in Krkonoše Mountains.
Integrate Webinar: The European Green Deal - What is in it for forests and forestry in the times of Covid and Greta June 24, 2:00pm CET
On 24 June, the European Forest Institute (EFI) is hosting a webinar on the Green Deal and its implications for forests and forestry. At this event, the keynote speakers will give presentations on how Europe can successfully manage its forests to achieve the transitions as proposed by the recently published Green Deal.
The following questions will be addressed:
What approach should Europe take on forests in the Green Deal?
How to deal with climate change, biodiversity, bioeconomy and the demands of society
How to evaluate the impact of Covid in relation to forests
What is the role of integrated forest management approaches.
Webinar Series: Nature-based Solution - Digital Dialogues July 7-9, 2020
The Nature-based Solutions (NbS) Initiative (based at the University of Oxford) is hosting a series of Digital Dialogues on NbS that will serve as a primer to the NbS Solutions Conference, now set for July 2021.
The Digital Dialogues series will provide six 90-minute sessions spread out over three day. During these session, the four key guidelines for successful, sustainable NbS (see www.nbsguidelines.info) will be discussed, as well as the main challenges around the implementation, financing and governance of NbS. Furthermore, the fifth session will also look at how NbS are relevant for international green-economic-recovery from COVID-19.
Each session will consist of 3-5 short presentations by leading experts in the field of climate change, biodiversity and development, a panel discussion and a Q&A sessions with the audience. Outcomes from these sessions will be presented at UN meetings in late 2020 and early 2021 in the form of policy briefs, as well as made available through an outreach campaign.
We are excited to share stories from ILCN members. If you have a successful conservation initiative, story, event, or webinar to share, then please contact us at ILCN@lincolninst.edu.
The mission of the International Land Conservation Network is to connect organizations and people around the world that are accelerating voluntary private and civic sector action that protects and stewards land and water resources.
Learn more at landconservationnetwork.org.
On April 10th, 2020, China issued the first “easement certificate” in Baishanzu National Park in Zhejiang Province, marking a milestone of several planned steps to enable collective land conservation throughout the country. On the local government-issued certificate, collective forest farmers in Longquan City, Zhejiang Province agreed to transfer the management rights of the forests to the management unit of the Baishanzu National Park, giving the national park managers the ability to 
As land conservation organizations grapple with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their work, how can organizations adapt to the challenges for land management and monitoring? Upstream Tech, a Cambridge, MA – based company, developed its Lens service for remote monitoring of easements and conservation properties using satellite data to help land trusts save time and resources through the use of remote monitoring to target or in some cases replace field visits for large, remote, or difficult-to-access properties. 
As the world faces unprecedented change and evolution wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and biodiversity loss, what are the needs and opportunities for private capital to tackle our conservation challenges? 
