Biodiversity and Ecosystems
Biodiversity is our natural capital, but we often take it for granted as its market values are not immediate and direct. Our partnership supports countries in managing their biodiversity in line with their own priorities and needs. Through projects like the EU-China Biodiversity Programme, EU and UNDP have shown that biodiversity makes an essential contribution to socio-economic development, income generation and poverty alleviation. The programme demonstrated the importance of local communities in conservation work at local levels. It raised the awareness on biodiversity in the government and within the public, and improved biodiversity conservation and management at all levels across middle and western China.
Recently, the UNDP and EU engaged on a programme to support climate change mitigation and adaptation in Russia and Eastern Neighborhood countries. Through innovative pilot projects under the ‘Clima East’ programme, the hope is to demonstrate that ecosystems can have a strong, positive and cost-efficient effect on climate change mitigation and adaptation. The programme focuses on Ecosystems such as peatlands, permafrost landscapes, boreal forests and pasture-land – which all have an important role to play in climate change mitigation and adaptation. They also support the resilience of local communities that are dependent on natural resources.
Through the Guiana Shield Facility (GSF), UNDP, with financial support from EU and other donors, helps Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela to conserve ecosystems, protect biodiversity, and to sustain human livelihoods within the Guiana Shield eco-region.
The EU was also an important partner to a UNDP-Global Environment Facility programme in support of the Black Sea and the Danube River Basin. The programme was able to achieve demonstrable reductions in pollution loads and improvement in the ecological status of the Danube river and the Black Sea, includint the return of a number of key species.
In Kazakhstan, our partnership supported the development of pilot villages for ecological tourism development.
Yu Zerun, a farmer from Daping village in the Sichuan province, Western China, used to harvest rare medicinal plants in protected areas of the Upper Yangtze River Basin, an area internationally recognized for its biodiversity value. The caterpillar fungus Yu Zerun traded at the local market provided a valuable source of income for him and his family, but over-exploitation and unsustainable harvesting by local residents endangered species and degraded habitats. more
For the last two decades the Guiana Shield Facility (GSF) has emerged as the primary motor of sustainable development of the Guiana Shield eco-region, covering more than 2.5 million ha. The region extends from Colombia in the west to the Brazilian state of Amapá in the east, including the Venezuelan states of Delta Amacuro, Amazonas and Bolívar, encompasses all of Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana and continues into the ecologically associated areas of the Brazilian states of Pará, Roraima and Amazonas more
EU and UNDP partner on biodiversity and climate change in Europe
4 december 2012
The EU and UNDP have signed an agreement to support climate change mitigation and adaptation in Russia and Eastern Neighborhood countries. Through innovative pilot projects under the ‘Clima East’ programme, the hope is to demonstrate that ecosystems can have a strong, positive and cost-efficient effect on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
UNDP launches new global framework
UNDP has developed a new Biodiversity & Ecosystems Global Framework 2012-2020, positioning the organization to respond to future challenges, including implementing the global Aichi Biodiversity Targets set out in the CBD Strategic Plan.