Innovative knowledge exchange

PANORAMA – Solutions for a Healthy Planet shows how learning from success matters and expands to promote sustainable agriculture solutions

The initiative “PANORAMA – Solutions for a Healthy Planet” presented its vision and function in a side event at COP23 in Bonn, Germany with more than 90 attendees and launched a new thematic community on “Agriculture and Biodiversity”. The global partnership initiative features an innovative knowledge sharing approach in nature conservation and sustainable development linking practitioners across sectors and regions.

The Federal Ministry for Environment (BMUB), with its International Climate Initiative (IKI) supports the development of the PANORAMA partnership through a number of projects. “To address climate change, adapt to its impacts or stop the loss of biodiversity, people need knowledge. Therefore, we have to build on successful approaches and work together. The PANORAMA initiative is an excellent example for such cooperation”, said Dr. Elsa Nickel, Director General, BMUB at the event.

PANORAMA’s concept is simple but intriguing: How can practitioners learn from each other and avoid to re-invent the wheel? The approach fills a niche and encourages replication, adaptation and upscaling of successful approaches to different geographical, societal and thematic environments.

PANORAMA is currently run by key players in the field of nature conservation and sustainable development: IUCN, GIZ, UN Environment, GRID-Arendal and Rare – all of them with broad expertise and long work record in the field. The network of PANORAMA contributors and beneficiaries has developed with now around 350 solutions from over 70 countries. All thematic PANORAMA communities are open to anyone for sharing their success stories as solution cases, and each is coordinated by an organization or a consortium.

The IKI funded Blue Solutions project, together with support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has been the nucleus of what is now PANORAMA. More IKI funded projects have joined PANORAMA bringing more themes and partners to the partnership: one on Protected Areas solutions and one on Ecosystem-based Adaptation solutions.

During the event at the COP23 a new thematic community on “Agriculture and Biodiversity” has been launched under coordination jointly by Rare and GIZ in the context of two IKI funded projects. The coordinators already presented the first 15 solutions on the portal. They had been identified through the “Farming for Biodiversity” Solution Search contest which was launched last year. Rare’s CEO Brett Jenks said: “Solutions exist in remote parts around the planet. Local communities are the research and development labs of problem-solving. We just have to find what’s working and make it available where it is needed, because climate change needs behavior change”.

PANORAMA it set up for sustainability. It will continuously expand to cover further themes and engaging other communities of practice, showcasing integrated solutions for nature conservation and development goals. PANORAMA’s next theme, on “Business and biodiversity” (exact title tbc) to be coordinated by IUCN, is already in the pipeline and will be launched early in 2018.

For more information see www.panorama.solutions