The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016, "Planet at the Crossroads," takes place September 1 through September 10, 2016 in beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii. This influential conference, held once every four years, brings together several thousand leaders and decision-makers from government, civil society, indigenous peoples, business, and academia, with the goal of conserving the environment and harnessing the solutions nature offers to global challenges.
NatureServe will add it's expertise and resources to the conference by participating in a variety of activities. See below to learn about all the conference activities where NatureServe is participating. If you are attending the conference, come visit us!
Celebrating North American Conservation Accomplishments in the Centennial Year of the U.S. National Park Service - #WCC_12327
Activity Type: Event
Date: Friday, September 2
Time: 10:30 - 11:30 A.M.
Location: U.S. Pavilion
Description: In the 100 years since the creation of the National Park Service (NPS), through the collective efforts of many agencies and organizations, and across international boundaries, a substantial portion of the natural heritage and biodiversity of North America has been protected in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. This network has grown over time and includes lands managed by the NPS and other government and non-government organizations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. To ensure that this legacy persists, cooperative conservation at landscape scales must continue. While ecosystems face unprecedented environmental changes and challenges, it is critical to identify, conserve, and restore the biodiversity, ecological processes, and connectivity necessary to secure our natural heritage.
NatureServe Staff: PAT COMER, Chief Ecologist at NatureServe - PARTICIPANT
Measuring the Conservation Values of North American Working Forests - #WCC_12293
Activity Type: Event
Date: Friday, September 2
Time: 2:30 - 3:30 P.M.
Location: Forests Pavilion
Description: A new initiative to measure conservation values over 113 million hectares of North American forests certified by SFI has been launched. A science-based understanding of the carbon, water and biodiversity benefits delivered by certified working forests in the US and Canada will strengthen the business case for independent performance verification, enhance resource management practices and illustrate the value of investing in nature based solutions like sustainable forest management.
NatureServe Staff: HEALY HAMILTON, Chief Scientist and Vice President for Conservation Science at NatureServe - SPEAKER
Measuring Progress and Challenges to Conservation - #WCC_15472
Activity Type: Event
Date: Friday, September 2
Time: 7:30 - 9:00 P.M.
Location: Room 316C (Hawaii Convention Center)
Description: Achieving global biodiversity targets relies on the ability to measure, visualize, and communicate both environmental trends and the effects of conservation actions. There is high demand for indicators of biodiversity status and trends at multiple spatial scales, but easy, intuitive, and centralized access to biodiversity indicator data remains a challenge. Designed to tackle these challenges, the Dashboard can help track progress toward global conservation goals, support national monitoring and reporting, and inform outcome-based policy making for sustaining biodiversity.
Attendees are invited to learn about and try out the Biodiversity Indicators Dashboard, an interactive tool that visualizes the health and trends of biodiversity, and tracks conservation performance at regional, national, basin, and site scales. Come and experience the Dashboard first-hand and learn how this tool can help you attain your conservation goals.
NatureServe Staff: HEALY HAMILTON, Chief Scientist and Vice President for Conservation Science at NatureServe | BRUCE YOUNG, Direct of Species Science
Status and Trends in Terrestrial Ecosystems of the United States - #WCC_9818
Activity Type: Poster*
Date: Saturday, September 3
Time: 1:00 - 1:30 P.M.
Location: Screen 15 (Hawaii Convention Center)
Description: The interactive poster session will aim to engage researchers, policymakers, and educators on a range of challenges and opportunities associated with red listing ecosystems at national or regional scales. We present initial findings from applying IUCN Red List criteria to upland and wetland ecosystems in the USA. Using an established classification of several hundred ecosystem types, data sets from the continent were integrated to rate types as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered.
NatureServe Staff: PAT COMER, Chief Ecologist at NatureServe
A Landscape Approach to Temperate Grassland Conservation in the North American Great Plains
Activity Type: Poster*
Date: Saturday, September 3
Time: 2:00 - 2:30 P.M.
Location: Screen 8 (Hawaii Convention Center)
Description: Analyses of 12 major temperate grassland types across the North American Great Plains and Chihuahuan Desert regions show historical loss due to agricultural conversion, infrastructure development, or other factors and assessed efforts to jointly manage functionally-resilient landscapes. Further work identified alternatives to augment grassland conservation and to advance conservation towards CBD 2020 target 11 for continental scale temperate grasslands resilience and representation.
NatureServe Staff: PAT COMER, Chief Ecologist at NatureServe
*Posters will also be accessible in the poster areas throughout the World Conservation Congress.
IUCN SSC Best Practice Guidelines For Assessing Species Vulnerability to Climate Change - #WWC_12446
Activity Type: Event
Date: Saturday, September 3
Time: 6:00 - 7:00 P.M.
Location: Species Conservation Pavilion
Description: For effective climate change adaptation planning, conservation practitioners must understand how their species and areas of concern are likely to be impacted by climate change. Based on inputs from across the conservation community and broad literature review, the IUCN SSC’s Climate Change Specialist Group has developed guidance for selecting and applying methods for assessing species’ vulnerability to climate change and interpreting their results.
NatureServe Staff: BRUCE YOUNG, Director of Species Science at NatureServe
Partners in Knowledge: Celebrating the Launch of the Key Biodiversity Areas Partnership and the Red List Partnership - #WCC_12447
Activity Type: Event
Date: Saturday, September 3
Time: 7:30 - 9:30 P.M.
Location: Species Conservation Pavilion
Description: Celebrate two exciting partnerships in conservation: the new Key Biodiversity Areas Partnership and the Red List Partnership. The former aims to identify, document and promote the conservation of a network of sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity, on land, in freshwater or on the seas; the latter promotes and advances the development and use of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the most authoritative resource on the global status of species.
NatureServe Staff: BRUCE YOUNG, Director of Species Science at NatureServe
Red List of Ecosystems: : Do We Need a Comprehensive Typology of Assessment Units? #WCC_9794
Activity Type: Knowledge Cafe
Date: Sunday, September 4
Time: 11:00 - 1:00 P.M.
Location: Room 311-6
Description: This brainstorming session was designed to facilitate exchange of perspectives for fostering a common understanding on the implications of having or not a comprehensive typology of ecosystems prior to applying the RLE methodology. This genuine dialogue will be crucial for bridging theory and practice, building collective knowledge on potential practical solutions for the strategic adoption of the tool as an instrument of political incidence.
NatureServe Staff: PAT COMER, Chief Ecologist at NatureServe - SPEAKER
Responding Under Uncertainty: What Does it Take to Act on Climate Change? - #WCC_9746
Activity Type: Knowledge Cafe
Date: Sunday, September 4
Time: 5:00 - 7:00 P.M.
Location: Room 311-4
Description: Climate change adaptation is a new and rapidly evolving conceptual framing for conservation and protected area management. Climate change is a global issue, but one with important local context and is thus being addressed in a variety of ways across a large number of disciplines and regions. The available tools, guidance, and techniques to respond to climate change similarly vary broadly. One commonality, though, is the need to address the uncertainties that are part of and a limit to our understanding about the effects of climate change and how the future may play out. The aim of this session is to share adaptation experiences – successes, failures, and lessons learned in the face of uncertainty – and facilitate future progress and collaborations for current adaptation practitioners and those interested in engaging in adaptation in protected area planning and management. Come share your stories about adaptation and bring your questions.
NatureServe Staff: BRUCE YOUNG, Director of Species Science at NatureServe
Biodiversity Indicators for End Users - #WCC_12447
Activity Type: Knowledge Cafe
Date: Sunday, September 4
Time: 5:00 - 7:00 P.M.
Location: Room 311-7
Description: How can global biodiversity indicator providers best connect indicator end users with the information they need? This question will be explored by both practitioners in need of indicators and indicator developers during a facilitated roundtable discussion, co-lead by the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership and NatureServe. Participants will share experiences from both sides of the indicator equation.
NatureServe Staff: BRUCE YOUNG, Director of Species Science at NatureServe