During the IUCN World Conservation Congress – held online and in-person in Marseille, France, from 3 to 11 September 2021 - we had an amazing time meeting solution providers and seekers from across the globe. PANORAMA hosted two major sessions during the congress, daily clinics for open discussion about the PANORAMA platform with newly recruited ambassadors, held the successful launch of the publication Solutions for Development Challenges – Insights from protected and conserved areas, and witnessed the signing of a new cooperation agreement between IUCN and GIZ.
Knowledge Product info session: PANORAMA – Solutions for a Healthy Planet
Our first session of the congress set out to teach participants about how they can contribute their good practice as a PANORAMA solution, the benefit of doing so, and how they could unlock the knowledge captured in 900+ solutions from all around the world, which form the PANORAMA portfolio.
“PANORAMA helps us to bring our grassroots work to the global stage,” said B. Vedharajan from the OMCAR Foundation in India.
Naturally Beneficial: PANORAMA – Solutions for a Healthy Planet
Naturally Beneficial was PANORAMA’s flagship event during the IUCN Congress. The two-part event highlighted the broad themes and applications for the PANORAMA platform. In addition, the event included:
- Hearing from PANORAMA Solution Providers working in Brazil and Kenya
- The publication launch of Solutions for Development Challenges – Insights from Protected and Conserved Areas. Read the publication here
- Showcased the Pathfinder and Blue Champions Awards
- The signing of a new cooperation agreement between GIZ and IUCN
The second half of the event was an informal cocktail reception, which offered an opportunity to meet and greet the PANORAMA Team and the Solution Providers on the ground. The event was a huge success, and GIZ and IUCN’s renewed commitment to cooperate was greatly strengthened.
GIZ’s Managing Director, Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven, had this to say: “PANORAMA is a fascinating global network and platform. It provides a lot of flexibility… We are here for the long term".
Director General of BMU, Christiane Paulus, was also at the event. “(Panorama) brings together real people in real situations... I cannot praise it enough. I am a fan!” she said.
PANORAMA partners also organized a virtual Campus session titled “Scaling, not failing: Building on existing solutions for a healthy planet through PANORAMA”. In this interactive session, participants were exposed to a number of “flagship solutions” from PANORAMA, from Viet Nam, Honduras, Kenya and Zambia. In groups, they explored the potential of these solutions to be applied more widely.
Our Blue Solutions event on knowledge exchange and matchmaking experiences
The event took place at the Oceans & Islands Pavilion and aimed to present different approaches that Blue Solutions has used to disseminate solutions, foster replication of solutions and promote peer to peer exchanges, in order to accelerate positive impacts around the world. Speakers showcased how targeted peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges have informed decision-making.
The event at the capacity development hub constituted the soft launch of two PANORAMA Solutions in Focus publications: Governance in Protected and Conserved Areas Volume I: Exploring Concepts and Themes and Volume II Actions and Approaches. The PANORAMA Solutions in these collections come from Protected and Conserved Areas (PCAs) including Green listed sites, ICCAs and World Heritage sites from around the world, with diverse values, contexts and governance approaches. Collectively, they highlight considerations for two important, inter-related aspects of PCAs governance – diversity and quality, and offer practical approaches to improve governance for readers. They will be published end of October 2021.
PANORAMA Ambassadors
The PANORAMA Secretariat recruited ambassadors throughout the Congress duration to source inspiring solutions and help promote PANORAMA onsite but also during hybrid daily clinics. The title of PANORAMA Ambassador is a status awarded to practitioners who fully support the PANORAMA initiative and well-connected within their community. To keep the momentum, the ambassadors programme is being developed for everyone to volunteer for 2 years. Contact us if you’d like to know more!
In total, the IUCN World Conservation Congress, held every four years, had nearly 6,000 registered participants on site and more than 3,500 online participants. Over 25,000 members of the general public visited the openly accessible parts of the Congress.