The Global Biodiversity Standard (TGBS)’s Post

🌱 The Global Biodiversity Standard (TGBS) is in the spotlight! A recent Estadão Imóveis article showcases how TGBS is transforming global reforestation efforts, featuring insights from our Brazilian hub, Jardim Botânico Araribá. 🇧🇷 Key highlights: 🌳 Local expertise, global impact: Jardim Botânico Araribá leads the way in implementing TGBS in Brazil, demonstrating how biodiversity restoration can align with local needs.  🌍 Beyond carbon: TGBS prioritises restoring ecosystems and enhancing biodiversity, setting a new benchmark for reforestation projects.  🤝 Community empowerment: TGBS certification ensures benefits for local communities, supporting sustainable and equitable development. Read how TGBS and Jardim Botânico Araribá are raising the standard for biodiversity-focused restoration in Brazil and beyond. 📖 https://lnkd.in/eyZMswyc #Biodiversity #Reforestation #Restoration #TheGlobalBiodiversityStandard #Brazil #Sustainability Guaraci M Diniz Jr Luiz Henrique Rondina Baqueiro

In a world where renewable natural resources are becoming scarce, forests are undoubtedly essential to societies' future. Societies in tropical forest regions can protect forests early or wait until it is too late. Starting early means: * It is cheaper * People are more open to it * Local development can be built around forest conservation Waiting too late means: * It costs much more to protect and restore * People fight against it * Those making money from cutting trees will push back hard Here is a success story: Amapá, a state in Brazil. Amapá has 143,000 km2 and is home to 750,000 people. It harbors forests, savannas, and America’s most pristine mangroves. In 1995, Governor João Capiberibe had a simple idea: build a new development model around forest conservation. When the next governor, Waldez Goés, took over, he did not abandon the vision despite being from an opposition party. He expanded it with the Amapá Biodiversity Corridor. Since then, all governors maintained the same development model. The article below shows that Amapá has protected 73% of its forests within protected areas and indigenous lands and is the first state in the Brazilian Amazon to achieve zero deforestation. This shows that conservation is development and that development is conservation. This was not just good fortune—it was strategic foresight. I am happy to have contributed to this outstanding achievement. Amapá is not without problems. The state needs help advancing a different development model. Unfortunately, public and private resources for conservation and sustainable urban infrastructure continue to flow to those places that lost their forests. In the Brazilian Amazon, these places always seem to win. To committed entrepreneurs and genuine conservationists looking to make a real impact in conserving the world's largest tropical forest, Amapá is not just a success story—it is an invitation. #amazon #conservation #climatechange #amapá #amazônia #biodiversity https://lnkd.in/eD7xiMJU

🌍 How is the progress of global biodiversity goals tracked? At COP16, further work will be done to refine the monitoring of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which forms the foundation for protecting nature worldwide. 🌱 In our latest blog, we dive into the monitoring framework. Why is this framework so important? How does IUCN contribute to biodiversity monitoring? And what steps is the Netherlands taking to restore nature? 🐾 Read more via this link 👉 https://lnkd.in/eWss86Tf #COP16 #Biodiversity #Sustainability #NatureRestoration #IUCN #Monitoring #KunmingMontrealFramework #COP16

This is yet another MYTH! Eucalyptus farming is sometimes criticized for creating a “green desert”, where a single monoculture crop negatively impacts the biodiversity and ecological balance of an area. While this concern around monocultures might be true in some cases, when eucalyptus farms are managed sustainably, as at Suzano, we know that animals transit through the farms and are able to find shelter, refuge and food. Suzano carefully tracks and records all the flora and fauna on our land. This allows us to monitor the health of the biodiversity and take actions to support this. We have logged approximately 4,300 species of flora and fauna in our areas, with 10% of these classified as being threatened with extinction. This happens because we deploy a mosaic planting technique in our lands, interspersing eucalyptus farms with conserved areas of native vegetation, promoting the free passage and natural spread of flora and fauna. Around 40% of the company’s areas are set aside for conservation, which is 1.1 million hectares of land (9X the size of Hong Kong or approximately the size of New Jersey state). Moreover, considering that one of the main threats to biodiversity loss in Brazil and worldwide is habitat fragmentation, by 2030, Suzano will connect 500,000 hectares of ecosystem fragments (an area 4X the size of the city of Rio de Janeiro or the size of the state of Delaware) across the Amazon, Atlantic Forest, and Cerrado biomes to contribute to biodiversity conservation. This commitment goes beyond our own operations, targeting priority areas where biodiversity is most threatened, as identified by Brazil’s Ministry of Environment. Ecological corridors will connect these isolated areas, increasing vegetation cover and enabling animals to travel, resulting in the regeneration of biodiversity. (Learn more in our Sustainability Center: https://lnkd.in/eAsmDRNc) As a nature-based company, the eucalyptus planted and used in pulp production depends directly on natural resources. Thus, the ecosystem services balance is fundamental for Suzano and acting to conserve biodiversity and restore ecosystems not only benefits society and the planet but also ensures the perpetuity of our own business. #WePlantTheFuture #biodiversity 📸 Green-headed Tanager / Tangara seledon / Saira-sete-cores

Namibia celebrates biodiversity action day: International Biodiversity Day, celebrated annually on 22 May, raises awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the urgent need to protect the variety of life on earth. This year’s celebrations took place at Lüderitz, with environment, forestry and tourism minister Pohamba Shifeta delivering the keynote address. Shifeta said the celebration was “a momentous occasion that underscores the profound importance of preserving the rich tapestry of life on our planet”. “As we reflect on the intricacies of living organisms that inhabit earth, we are reminded of our collective responsibility to safeguard this precious diversity for generations to come.” According to an article in The Herald, the day was established by the United Nations (UN) to highlight the critical role diversity plays in sustaining the planet’s ecosystems and the myriad services they provide, from clean air and water, to fertile soils and pollination of crops. “Biodiversity is not merely a concept confined to textbooks or scientific journals. It is the very heartbeat of our planet, sustaining ecosystems, providing vital resources, and enriching our lives in countless ways,” said Shifeta. He further called on people to work together as a nation to protect our environmental diversity. “As individuals, communities and nations, we must work together in solidarity to address the root causes of biodiversity loss and chart a course towards a more sustainable and equitable future.” The post Namibia celebrates biodiversity action day appeared first on The Namibian.

The state of Switzerland’s biodiversity is officially “a cause for alarm” And for good reason. Switzerland has some of the highest percentages of threatened species and habitats in the OECD. 242 species are already extinct 1/3 of all species are endangered, including 79% of reptiles and 62% of amphibians 1/2 of all habitats are under threat 90% of alluvial zones have been destroyed since 1850 95% of dry meadows and pastures have been lost 42% of cropland plant species are threatened 35% of habitat types in agricultural areas are threatened As of 2022, only 6.7% of Swiss territory was protected for the purpose of conserving biological diversity, placing it at the bottom of the European table. Switzerland’s unsustainable level of consumption doesn’t help either. Our biodiversity footprint is 4 time higher than the planetary boundaries. Yet poll after poll show the majority of those surveyed believe biodiversity is doing well. Climate change is also a problem. Switzerland is warming at twice the global average. Natural ranges are shifting. Plants have moved on average 8 metres higher... within only 8 years. If nothing is done to halt biodiversity decline and mitigate climate change by 2050, the loss of ecosystem services could exceed CH14 billion per year. Yet Switzerland spends a pittance on biodiversity, just 1,3 ‰ of all public expenditure in 2007, equal to CHF 24/inhabitant. Cue the biodiversity initiative spearheaded by the mainstream NGOs with its cute little bee logo. The proposal calls for adequate resources and more space for nature. It will be put to public vote in September. The last time Swiss citizens voted in a national referendum in favour of nature was back in 2020. We said no to the revised hunting law that would have lowered the protection of certain animal species. The government didn’t listen and changed the law two years later anyway to allow the shooting and culling of protected but “problem” mammals including wolves, beavers and ibex. 36% of Swiss mammals are threatened. Wolves and beaver are keystone species that could help boost biodiversity and provide low cost and multi-faceted nature-based solutions. But Switzerland is not listening to science or reason. Nor, it would seem, to the letter of international treaties. It is though currently holding a consultation on the matter which anyone can contribute to. Not that many people know about it. No doubt by official design. The fate of our iconic wolves, beaver and ibex aren’t being championed by Switzerland’s mainstream NGOs either. Worse, these associations actually endorse the preventative culling of wolves despite non-lethal measures to protect livestock being available, subsidised and indeed successful. While their involvement in spearheading the biodiversity initiative is commendable, their reluctance to speak up for certain protected and iconic species is not. It is time the cute little biodiversity initiative bee had some company.

Insightful article in the Trouw newspaper today. An article published in Science shows that nature protection works and improves the biodiversity! And we need to do more. #biodoversity #natureconservation https://lnkd.in/dUf3TFbt

What I like about Peoples Biodiversity Registers is how they make the relationship between human well being and ecological integrity so tangible. When you develop a huge document that exhaustively lists out all the benefits you get from your local biodiversity, the next step - i.e., thinking of what you can do to secure these benefits - follows automatically.

On International Day for Biological Diversity, it's important to consider not just the myriad ways in which biodiversity materially benefits us, but also the immaterial, less tangible but still very real impacts of biodiversity on our well-being, which until recent times have received far less attention. This may be partly symptomatic of our Western societal disconnect from nature, where we may be more inclined to view biodiversity as a material resource. This capacity of nature to support health and healing has been described as a ‘forgotten ecosystem service’. Not all natural areas are equal in their ecological complexity or their capacity to support biodiversity, and these factors are not only important for wildlife and provision of ecosystem services, as they also underpin some of the mental well-being benefits linked to contact with natural settings. Contact with areas harbouring a greater diversity of natural features (such as trees, birds, plants and waterways), “natural sounds with a higher species richness”, wildlife gardening practices that support biodiversity and encourage active, engaged contact with it, and nature-based mindfulness practices have all been associated with greater well-being benefits when linked to contact with nature, through deepening the potential for people to connect with it. This research bears particular relevance to the UK, which is considered one of the most biodiversity-depleted parts of the world, and one of the most nature disconnected nations in Europe. Despite this bleak picture, there is hope however, highlighted by a recent review of conservation activities demonstrating that biodiversity loss can be be effectively reversed or reduced. Safeguarding our existing biodiversity while undertaking ecological restoration activities to create and enhance habitats to push back against biodiversity decline offers us a huge bank for our buck in terms of environmental, ecological and well-being benefits. If we cannot stem the loss of life from our lands, then our capacity to marvel at the world, and to be nourished by experiences of wonder and awe will be diminished, to both its and our detriment. Ensuring that biodiversity can flourish in a broad range of contexts and scales - be it in urban greenspaces and parks, in the form of mini Miyawaki forests, gardens, nature reserves and national parks - can not only safeguard wildlife and ecosystem services, but it can also nourish human well-being, and maybe even play a role in amending our deepening disconnect from the natural world. There can be no well-being without nature’s well-being, and this is built on a foundation of biodiversity.

Insightful article on the front page of the Trouw newspaper today. An article published in Science shows that nature protection works and improves the biodiversity. And we need to do more! #biodiversity #natureprotection https://lnkd.in/dUf3TFbt