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The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has announced that the start of the first external review of the thematic assessment of the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, determinants of transformative change and options for achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity (transformative change assessment) is open from 3 February to 17 March 2023 (6 weeks).

The first external review, which focuses on the first draft of the chapters of the assessment, is one of the most important phases in the IPBES assessment process and is addressed to interested and qualified experts (referred to as “the expert reviewers”). The widest possible participation and most diverse engagement of interested and qualified experts, including scientists, decision-makers, practitioners and other knowledge holders from all relevant disciplines and backgrounds, is vital to ensure the scientific quality, credibility and policy relevance of the assessment. Interested and qualified experts are invited to comment on text according to their knowledge and experience. The names of all expert reviewers will be acknowledged in the reports.

If you would like to participate as an expert reviewer in this external review, please follow these steps:

Register as a user of the IPBES website if you have not already done so;
Register to review the draft assessment at https://ipbes.net/registration/transformative-change/fod
Once registered, you will receive an email providing confidential access to the draft chapters and glossary of the assessment;
Comments must be submitted in English using the Excel comment template available on the same webpage as the chapters;
The secretariat has a new system for submitting comments electronically; when you are ready to submit your comments, please upload your completed Excel template no later than 17 March 2023 at https://ipbes.net/transformative-change/fod (you must be logged in to upload your template);
If you encounter any technical issues uploading your comments template, please contact ipbes.registration@ipbes.net

Two online dialogues with stakeholders, including practitioners, are scheduled during the review period:

8 March, 10:00-12:00 CET
8 March, 16:00-18:00 CET

National focal points are welcome to attend the dialogues. Please note that you need to register as a reviewer to participate in the dialogues (step 2 above). The dialogue registration link will be made available by email after a successful registration as a reviewer. Please contact the technical support unit on capacity-building for technical questions regarding the online dialogues (tsu.capacitybuilding@ipbes.net).

Finally, as a reminder, with reference to notification EM/2023/01, the first external review of the thematic assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health (nexus assessment) is closing on 19 February 2023. Two online dialogues with stakeholders, including practitioners are scheduled during the review period for those registered as external reviewers on 9 February 2023, 9-11 a.m. CET and 6-8 p.m. CET.

We would like to congratulate Ricardo Safra de Campos, part of the MISTY project, on having been selected as one of the UK Young Academy’s first cohort of Members.

The UK Young Academy, an initiative of the Royal Society (UK), recognizes innovative and proactive individuals in all key sectors of society including entrepreneurs, researchers in academia or industry, engineers, professionals in the arts and creative industries, lawyers, teachers, clinicians, along with individuals working in new and emerging fields.

The membership last for five years and starts from January 2023. Selected members have 3-12 years’ experience in their fields and a track record of excellence.

Find out more about the UK Young Academy, and view Ricardo’s full profile here.

Journal articles, books and other publications

Adger, N. 2022. Operationalising ‘adaptation limits’ in a policy context – Background document for UNEP workshop on Loss and damage: taking stock and identifying areas for support, 5 December 2022. Available for download together with other background documents from the meeting here.

Beck, S., Forsyth, T., & Mahony, M. (2022). Urgent need to move toward solution-orientated environmental assessment. One Earth, 5(6), 586–588. https://doi.org/10.1

Beck, S. & Siebenhuener, B. (2022). Organisational Learning. In K. De Pryck and M. Hulme (Eds.), A Critical Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press

Jasanoff, S.: “A Stress Test for Politics: A Comparative Perspective on Policy Responses to COVID-19” (with S. Hilgartner), in J. Grogan and A. Donald, eds., Routledge Handbook on Law and the COVID-19 Pandemic (London: Routledge, 2022).

Jasanoff, S.: “Knowledge for a Just Climate,” Climatic Change, Vol. 169, pp. 36-44 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03275-x.

Jasanoff, S. “Preparing for the Long Journey,” Congreso Futuro, Chile, January 18, 2022 (online).

Jasanoff, S. “Memory, Recall, and Repair: the Politics of Time in the Anthropocene,” Series on STS, Political Order and Maintaining Planetary Life, WITS Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), South Africa, April 6, 2022 (online).

Jasanoff, S. “Captain or Captive: Human Agency in a New Machine Age,” Newman Lecture, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, April 7, 2022 (theoretical talk, raising questions of constitutionalism)

Jasanoff, S. (speaker), Symposium on “Climate Change in South Asia,” Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, May 18, 2022.

Fisher, Luning, Obodai et al., 2023. Gold Matters: Visualizing Mining Worlds, Nordic Africa Institute: Uppsala, Sweden. ISBN: 978-91-7106-889-7

Massaro, L., Calvimontes, J., Ferreira, L. C. & de Theije, M. 2022. Balancing economic development and environmental responsibility: Perceptions from communities of garimpeiros in the Brazilian Amazon. Resources Policy, 79, p. 1-11 11 p. 103063.

Luning, S. & Pijpers, R.J. 2022. Drawing on words and images: collaborations in the anthropology of the underground, In Anthropology and Photography No. 16.

Morrison, T.H., Adger, W.N., Agrawal, A. et al. 2022. Radical interventions for climate-impacted systems. Nature Climate Change 12, 1100–1106. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01542-y

Adger, W.N., Barnett, J., Heath, S. et al. 2022. Climate change affects multiple dimensions of well-being through impacts, information and policy responses. Nature Human Behaviour 6, 1465–1473.

Chapin, F.S., Weber, E.U., Bennett, E.M., Adger, W. N. et al. 2022. Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts. Ambio 51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01721-3

Videos

The Gold Matters project has produced three films in the final months of 2022:

Sheila Jasanoff, who is a Principal Investigator for the Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations (GoST) project, was awarded the 2022 Holberg Prize for her groundbreaking research in science and technology studies (STS):

Watch the 2022 Holberg Lecture: “Democracy in an Unknowable World” (8 June 2022).
Watch the 2022 Holberg Symposium: Expertise and World-Making (8 June 2022).

Harvard Kennedy School Events: The Impact of Science and Technology on Society with Sheila Jasanoff (17 May 2022).

Blogs and other publications from around the web

Delaney, N. Sheila Jasanoff, a pioneer of science and technology studies, looks back on how the field has matured and forward to how it might evolve (2 November 2022).

Stirling, A. & Johnstone, P. Why is support for nuclear power noisiest just as its failures become most clear?. OpenDemocracy (9 January 2022).

Stirling, A. Is the naming of ‘climate change’ a dangerous self-defeat? Brave New Europe (14 January 2022)

Stirling, A. Does the delusion of climate control do more harm than good to climate disruption?. Brave New Europe (21 January 2022)

Stirling, A. Betraying the climate? Has environmentalism succumbed to a modernity it hitherto resisted? Brave New Europe (28 January 2022)

Stirling, A. Thriving in an ever-changing world: from technocratic control to emancipatory care? Brave New Europe (4 February 2022).

Header image: Janko Ferlič on Unsplash.

By Marlon Howking, TRUEPATH.

Between October and November 2022, the network of climate monitors accompanied by Nitlapan in the framework of the TRUEPATH project in Nicaragua held meetings at each of the weather stations, inviting nearby producers to analyse the data collected. There was one visit per station (10 stations) and a group workshop, involving more than 70 people in total. In these meetings they reflected on the behavior of the climate in their communities and the impact (positive and negative) on the production of beans, corn, cocoa, coffee and livestock. They also analysed the effects of climate variations on the lives of families.

The analysis of climate data is complemented with data from climate bio-indicators (behavior of plants, animals, wind, clouds, moon, sun, rainbows, etc.) used by the community members to determine the behaviour of the climate in the community, for example, whether it will be sunny or rainy. This knowledge is part of community science, as it is knowledge proven by experience and passed on over generations. The meeting emphasized the importance of understanding bio-indicators, as living beings react, adapt and warn about climate changes. Bio-indicators allow them to prepare for upcoming climate events.

In the year 2022 there were moments of intense rainfall in some sites, high humidity, and variation in temperature and winds. In some places, which is usually affected by drought, rainfall was favorable for growing crops. The entire country was affected by tropical storms and hurricanes that resulted in losses in agricultural activities. Coffee was affected by a greater increase in coffee berry borer and rust; cocoa was affected by flowering and by diseases such as monilia and black pod. Maize and beans were affected by viruses and pests. Diseases and pests also affected the health of livestock, reducing milk production and damaging pastures. The change in climate affected the food security of families in places where rainfall intensity was higher, although in other areas where rainfall was moderate, families achieved better production. For this reason, understanding and being alert to climate changes has become a necessity and a challenge for farming families.

Weather observation allowed us to have an Early Warning system and to make decisions in the face of meteorological events such as hurricanes Bonnie and Julia. They allowed Nitlapan to provide more appropriate technical assistance for crop and livestock conditions.

At the end of the meetings, there was consensus among participating producers that climate change action is everyone’s responsibility; and as one of them pointed out, “we must understand that I depend, you depend, we all depend on the climate, so we must understand it.”

The kick-off meeting of the project LINKAGES – Local and Indigenous Knowledge for an Amazonian Grounded (Bio) Economy – took place in 21-25 November 2022 in Brazil.

LINKAGES is a 5-year research programme funded by NWO (The Netherlands) and FAPESP (Brazil), coordinated by four former project PIs from the T2S Programme – Fabio de Castro, Celia Futemma and Eduardo Brondizio (AGENTS) and Marjo de Theije (Gold Matters). The project is built on a transdisciplinary research team composed of researchers, practitioners and local producers, and addresses how value-chains of sociobiodiversity products grounded in local knowledge can support sustainable, inclusive, and fair economies in the Brazilian Amazon.

The project is currently looking for an enthusiastic, committed, and socially engaged young scholar to join the team as post-doc. The ideal candidate has an interdisciplinary background and research experience in sociobiodiversity products’ value chain. This Post-Doctoral fellowship is funded by FAPESP, and will be carried out at the Environmental Studies and Research Center (NEPAM) at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil.

Application deadline is 20 January 2023 (deadline extended). For more information, please see the announcement here.

The Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a global safety charity, invites organizations to apply for grant funding in the range of £250,000 and £750,000 under three calls related to data and findings of the World Risk Poll carried out in collaboration with Gallup in 121 countries. Proposed project might address an issue which affects a specific community/-ies that has been identified by the Poll or might embed the data in the proposed work.

The deadline is 28th February 2023. The three calls can be accessed here.

• “A Changed World? Perceptions and experiences of risk in the Covid age”

• “A Resilient World? Understanding vulnerability in a changing climate”

• “Digital Word – Perceptions of risk from AI and misuse of personal data”

Applicants are encouraged to get familiar with the Reports accompanying each call.

Related to the funding opportunity are risk profiles of 121 countries that can be accessed here: A world of risk: 2021 country overviews – The Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll (lrfoundation.org.uk)

Over the past two decades, the Environment Support Group (ESG), part of the GoST project, has systematically worked with communities, administrators and the judiciary to build a deep understanding of how water and rain shape cities and their futures. As part of this process, ESG has advanced a major Public Interest Litigation to advance the need to reclaim Bengaluru’s lakes and water commons, which found deep and systematic support from the judiciary. However, the administration did not implement the court orders.

A major consequence has been that Bengaluru, a metropolis with a population exceeding 14 million, has been repeatedly flooded, every time it rains. In 2022 the rains have been extremely intense and over the month of September almost half the neighbourhoods of the city flooded, resulting in extensive loss of property and loss of homes, and threatening the status of the metropolis as the IT Capital of India.

The ESG has played an important role in contextualising why these floods are recurring with intensifying damage in a series of articles and news stories. This has influenced debate, with individuals and companies affected questioning the popular idea that the flooding is simply the consequence of too much rain in a short span. What is resulting is an unique process where ground-up democratic planning is being demanded as a structural way out of this mess.

For ESG, the learnings from the GoST project of the fundamental importance of developing imaginaries that are inclusive and resilient has worked stolidly in engaging with various decision-making bodies, and also encouraging local communities to work structurally for transformation rather than merely be satisfied by reactive schemes.

Journal articles, books and other publications

Butsch, C.; Chakraborty, S.; Gomes, S.L.; Kumar, S.; Hermans, L.M. Changing Hydrosocial Cycles in Periurban India. Land 2021, 10, 263. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10030263.

Chakraborty, Shreya. (2021). Periurban Water: Recognizing the Margins for Sustainable Urban Water Futures. In: Clean Water and Sanitation (pp.1-13). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-70061-8_174-2.

Luft S and Butsch C. 2022. Planning for Livelihoods Under Hydrosocial Uncertainty in Periurban Pune. Front. Water 4:831464. doi: 10.3389/frwa.2022.831464

Gomes, S.L. (2022). Interventions to Strengthen Institutional Capacity for Peri-Urban Water Management in South Asia. In: Narain, V., Roth, D. (eds) Water Security, Conflict and Cooperation in Peri-Urban South Asia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79035-6_8

Calvillo, N., Garde-Hansen, J., Lima-Silva, F., Trajber, R., & Albuquerque, J. P. de. (2022). From Extreme Weather Events to ‘Cascading Vulnerabilities’: Participatory Flood Research Methodologies in Brazil During COVID-19. Journal of Extreme Events. https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737622410020

Marchezini, V., Porto de Albuquerque, J., Pitidis, V., Rudorff, C. D. M., Lima-Silva, F., Klonner, C., & Martins, M. H. da M. (2022). Flood risk governance in Brazil and the UK: facilitating knowledge exchange through research gaps and the potential of citizen-generated data. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 31(6), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-01-2022-0016

Pajarito-Grajales, D., Degrossi, L. C., Barros, D. D. R., Khan, M. R., Lima-Silva, F., Cunha, M. A., Trajber, R., & Porto de Albuquerque, J. (2022). Enabling Participatory Flood Monitoring Through Cloud Services. Proceedings of the 19th ISCRAM Conference – Tarbes, France May 2022, 1–11.

Sucharita Sen, Anshika John, Shreya Chakraborty, Manoj Jatav. 2019. Geographies of Drinking Water (In)securities in Peri-urban Hyderabad. Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 54, Issue No. 39, 28 Sep.

Policy briefs

Check out four new policy briefs from the CON-VIVA project:

Blogs and other publications from around the web

See the TAPESTRY project’s ‘New Catch in Town’ multimedia website and video and the ‘Catching plastic: Mumbai’s Koli community uses fishing-nets to tackle pollution’ blog.

The IPACST project has created a teaching kit on intellectual property and sustainability transition. The kit is available Open Access, and includes slides, reading lists, and selected case studies on IP and sustainability.

Videos

Watch the documentary series: Waterproofing Memories [Memórias à Prova D’Água] produced by the Waterproofing Data project [available in Portuguese with English subtitles].

Watch the series of films ‘People who transform‘, from the AGENTS project.

Environment Support Group (ESG), a partner in the GoST project, organized the ‘ESG Imaginaries to Make Cities Work’ webinar series. Watch the videos and read the associated reports here:

Podcasts

The Transformations to Groundwater Sustainability (T2GS) project has shared a series of four podcasts:

In the press…

Eduardo Brondizio gave an interview to the local TV channel in Santarem, Brazil, where he talked about the AGENTS project, the relevance of local initiatives in the region, and promoted the public seminar organized by the project in the city. The interview (in Portuguese) is freely available here.

Bombay61’s initiative to catch plastic in fishing nets, and the report ‘New Catch In Town’, created with the TAPESTRY project, received over 30 pieces of coverage in the media, including:

The ‘forgotten’ water ecosystems of Mumbai, Down to Earth, 5 September 2022

There’s a new catch in town, and it’s not fish. The Hindu Businessline, 18 September 2022

How Climate Change And Pollution Of Creeks Are Threatening Mumbai’s Aboriginals – The Koli People, India Times, 30 August 2022

The ESG group, a partner in the GoST project, has worked with communities, administrators and the judiciary in building a deep understanding of how water and rain shape cities and their futures. At part of this, the group has recently published a number of

How Caste and Class Divisions Caused Bengaluru’s Flooding, Leo F. Saldanha, The Wire, 15 September 2022

Fire, Foam and Now Floods, Bhargavi S. Rao, News Click, 12 September 2022

Why did Bengaluru get badly flooded? (video) Express Dialogues, 16 September 2022

Journal articles, books and other publications

Videos

Blogs and other publications from around the web

Related links:

Journal articles, books and other publications

Policy briefs

Blogs and other publications from around the web

Videos

Podcasts

In the press…

T2S Coordination Office

Visiting address

Grant Agreement

Links