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The just-concluded 2008 World Conservation Congress (WCC) offered a unique opportunity for The Nature Conservancy to influence global conservation work. And we took advantage of that opportunity.
The Conservancy and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity signed an agreement at the WCC to support governments that are striving to achieve their international conservation commitments — an agreement that exemplifies the Conservancy's leadership in establishing and maintaining protected areas worldwide.
Mark Tercek, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, talked with nature.org about why it’s important for the Conservancy to be a part of these conservation meetings — and what this means for the future of our work.
Nature.org: Other than signing agreements, does real conservation work get done at these international conferences?
Mark Tercek: Absolutely. Meetings like the World Conservation Congress are a vital opportunity to get together with the global conservation community and move forward on the top priorities and best approaches for achieving our shared conservation goals. It’s critical that The Nature Conservancy be there to learn from and influence the ideas that are coming out of the Congress.
Given the status of negotiations on both the climate change and biodiversity conventions, this WCC was a crucial time for demonstrating the linkages between biodiversity and climate change and forging specific action plans for the next few important years.
Nature.org: The sessions you were most involved in at the WCC revolved around protected areas, local community leadership and rallying our finances and efforts towards the fight against climate change. Why these three topics?
Mark Tercek: These areas are so closely linked: Protected areas need local community leadership to succeed. Local communities receive benefits — like water and food security and sustainable jobs — from protected areas. And of course, all of this takes money.
At the same time we need to be investing tremendously to address climate change. Fortunately, we can combine these efforts to design and make our investments so they consider human needs, climate change and conservation simultaneously. If we can pull this off, we have the opportunity to invest in triple-benefit solutions.
Nature.org: What does the agreement with the CBD mean for conservation globally?
Mark Tercek: This agreement will help us make significant progress toward achieving our conservation goals by formalizing and strengthening the protected areas work we’ve been doing around the world.
We’re currently supporting implementation of various CBD programs across five continents and in more than 30 countries, and have worked with governments and other organizations under the provisions of the CBD to create more than 22 million hectares of new protected areas and train over 700 protected area managers. This agreement will help take this approach to other areas — such as island conservation and freshwater conservation.
Nature.org: What are some of those linkages, and what can conservation do to address the climate change problem?
Mark Tercek: The fact is, worldwide deforestation accounts for over 20 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions that cause climate change — more than the entire transportation sector. So we must address climate change by reducing emissions from deforestation.
By reducing these emissions, we’ll also preserve the rich biodiversity stored in the world’s forests, which in turn supports many people — urban and rural dwellers alike — with services such as clean water, food and flood protection.
In order to reduce deforestation to the scale we need, a wide range of financial instruments and resources will need to be brought to the table. Ultimately, that includes providing developing countries with economic incentives to preserve their forests.
Also, while it’s crucial to mitigate climate change, the hard truth is climate change is taking place now. The Nature Conservancy is dealing with this reality by demonstrating and communicating how healthy, intact ecosystems provide resilience against climate impacts. Protected areas provide us with one of the best opportunities to ensure natural areas can adapt to climate change and help humans withstand the worst of its impacts.
Nature.org: At the WCC, you also co-hosted the Equator Prize ceremony, which recognizes local efforts to reduce poverty through conservation. What did you learn from meeting with these extraordinary local leaders?
Mark Tercek: I learned so much from meeting with these people and am inspired that our conservation goals can be achieved because of their incredible work.
Local leaders have to balance the very basic needs of their communities — where they get food and water, how they earn a living, what health care is available, how to deal with disasters, where their children will get educated. Global leaders need to learn to integrate themselves within local communities to better serve them.
Nature.org: Looking back on the entire event what was the most interesting, inspiring or just plain striking thing you heard or saw during the Congress?
Mark Tercek: I've had the opportunity here to spend a lot of time with the leaders of local community groups and indigenous people. We always say at The Nature Conservancy, in order to be successful our programs in developing countries will have to be ones whereby we collaborate well and work well with local people so the benefits of our programs flow to these local communities and indigenous people.
So it's been really useful for me to meet the leaders of these groups and hear first hand how we're doing. Broadly speaking, these people are telling us we're doing a pretty good job. But again, they have ideas on how we can cooperate even more effectively going forward.
So, this has been a great learning opportunity. It's also been gratifying to hear how well the efforts of the Conservancy are appreciated by the international conservation community.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Scott Warren (palms, Brazil); Photo © Mark Godfrey (Mark Tercek).
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