Centre Will Support
a Strengthened UNEP by Promoting Science-Policy
Interface, Providing Capacity Building and
Facilitating Policy Setting on Ecosystem
Management in all Developing Countries.
Beijing, 1 February,
2013 - The UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
have established a new global centre on
ecosystem management in Beijing, which is
aimed at promoting ecosystem management
in developing countries.
UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner
and Professor Chunli Bai, the President
of CAS signed an agreement to establish
the International Ecosystem Management Partnership
of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP-IEMP).
FURTHER RESOURCES
UNEP and Ecosystem Management
Mr. Steiner said he regards the UNEP-IEMP
as the only UNEP initiative of its kind
in the South and for the South to mobilize
science to support policy setting for sustainable
ecosystem management of all developing countries.
He also emphasized that it is a foundational
pillar of UNEP's South-South Cooperation
Exchange Mechanism, an initiative designed
to enhance UNEP's ability to deliver environmental
capacity building and technology-support
activities in developing countries and regions
of the South.
Professor Bai would
like to see the UNEP-IEMP become a true
international center on ecosystem management
in the south and for the south, providing
technical and policy support for all developing
countries within the framework of South-South
Cooperation. He also hopes that UNEP-IEMP
could become an important global platform
for promoting ecological civilization.
UNEP and CAS have mandated
the centre to support relevant UNEP sub-programmes
such as Ecosystem Management and Climate
Change, promote an ecosystem approach in
the green economy in addition to supporting
the South-South Cooperation initiative.
UNEP-IEMP will focus
on monitoring and capacity building, integrated
knowledge management and science for policy.
As a UNEP collaborating centre, it complements
and contributes to the work of UNEP divisions,
regional offices and other collaborating
centres. It also supports multilateral environmental
agreements and mechanisms, in particular
the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform
for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
(IPBES), for which technical support for
assessments and capacity building in developing
countries are expected.
China, a leading emerging
economy, possesses a wealth of experience,
good practices, knowledge and technology
in the domain of ecosystem management, which
could be shared with other developing countries.
The Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN),
an arm of CAS, is undertaking ecosystem
monitoring, research, demonstration and
policy support. Its unique approach of integrating
science with policy setting is of particular
importance to other developing countries.
The establishment of
the centre comes at a critical time - following
on from Rio+20, where world leaders granted
ecosystem management unprecedented political
weight and recognized the importance of
South-South Cooperation and working with
the science and technology community. UNEP-IEMP
is also entering at a strategic moment,
as China recently announced it would give
ecological civilizationa more prominent
position by incorporating it into the country's
overall development plan.
To prepare for the establishment
of UNEP-IEMP as a fully fledged centre,
UNEP and CAS launched the initiative in
November 2011 in Beijing as an international
programme. UNEP-IEMP has already developed
a multi-national team and a comprehensive
programme. Work has begun on the ground
in Africa and Asia-Pacific, where Mauritania,
Nepal, Rwanda and Seychelles are pilot countries.
In support of Rio+20 and its follow-up actions,
UNEP-IEMP completed eight policy papers
on ecosystem management and green economy
and organized two high-level fora engaging
ministers, world science and business leaders,
parliamentarians and principals of international
and UN organizations.
The UNEP-IEMP is based
in the Institute of Geographic Sciences
and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR)
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
