By Samantha Green and Geraldine Brown A global bioblitz opportunity for engaging in nature recording and thinking about our local nature and biodiversity ‘City Nature Challenge’ is a global four-day nature-recording extravaganza in April where citizens worldwide compete to record nature and wildlife sightings in their area, usually recording species by using the iNaturalist app. Recordings can be of any wild plant, animal, fungi, slime mould or evidence of life found in the city. Last year, worldwide, nearly 2.5 million [...]

Current main trends in the five key sectors —agriculture, education, the fashion industry, finance, and trade— contribute to biodiversity loss by driving resource exploitation and overuse through globalised, standardised systems. However, given their vast influence, these sectors also have the potential to drive positive change. The preservation of diverse cultivated species, innovations in education, the promotion of sustainable fashion, the growth of green and ethical investments, and stricter trade regulations can all play a crucial role in shaping decisions that [...]

How do experiental learning methods promote understanding the complexity of ecosystems? Beyond practical knowledge: what are the benefits of school gardens? Interactive teaching methods: do they really work in schools? […]

This year’s Nature Action Dialogues, hosted by UNEP-WCMC, brought together almost 300 leaders from business, finance, and conservation to explore how companies can drive meaningful action for nature. As part of PLANET4B, a colleague from UNEP-WCMC joined discussions with sustainability teams to understand their challenges and strategies for promoting pro-nature behaviors within their organizations. Source: UNEP-WCMC The discussion has taught us many lessons, so we share some key insights: Barriers to action include lack of legal requirements, monetary [...]

By Julia Leventon On 10th December, 2024 in Windhoek, Namibia the global science-policy platform IPBES launched its Transformative Change Assessment. For the assessment, more than 100 experts worked for three years, to draw on more than 7000 sources of evidence, to assess the current state of knowledge on what transformative change is, why it is needed, and how it is created. I was privileged to be one of these experts and serve as a Coordinating Lead Author to Chapter 1 [...]

Who needs to be convinced that children with disabilities should have opportunities to connect with nature and experience its closeness? Can a local chef, a religious leader, or a school principal play a key role in preserving biodiversity? Can Amazonian Indigenous communities influence the ecological footprint of Europeans? What could replace fast fashion if we want to protect the planet? […]