New solutions for Ecosystem-based Adaptation

Conservation solutions platform PANORAMA launches new portal on Ecosystem-based Adaptation Solutions.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)’s 13th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Cancún, Mexico provided the stage for two side events of PANORAMA, a recently launched initiative that showcases conservation and sustainable development success stories worldwide. The events included the official launch of the 3rd thematic portal of the PANORAMA web platform, which profiles "Ecosystem-based Adaptation Solutions".

Tanja Gönner, CEO of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH commented that “PANORAMA is an efficient knowledge management system, intended for both practitioners and decision-makers”; and Trevor Sandwith, Director of IUCN’s Global Protected Areas Programme  added that “The partnership aims to identify replicable core components of successful approaches and feed them into a searchable global database, in such a way as to connect people around success stories and scale them up. Ms. Gönner and Mr. Sandwith represent the two PANORAMA managing institutions. 

Since its inception, the partnership and web platform have been rapidly expanding. Starting with two thematic portals with more than 140 “Protected areas solutions” and over 110 “Marine and coastal” solutions, the platform is now being complemented with the first 25 solutions on Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA).

The EbA portal was launched in the Rio Conventions Pavilion with a countdown and a ceremonial “cutting of the ribbon”. The thematic host for this portal is GIZ, through its global project “Mainstreaming EbA”, which is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Environmental Ministry (BMUB). It is the first portal to be opened after the launch of the new PANORAMA platform. PANORAMA will be continuously expanded to cover further thematic portals that showcase integrated solutions for nature conservation and development goals. All PANORAMA portals are open to anyone who wishes to share a success story as a “solution” case study.

A 2nd PANORAMA side event featured interventions by representatives of all PANORAMA managing and development partners, as well as a lively debate with some “solution providers”. Dr. Elsa Nickel, Director General for Nature Conservation and Sustainable Use of Nature at the BMUB, said she welcomed the fact that “more than 250 institutions have already contributed solutions. It is important to reflect what doesn’t work, as well as what does”.

The COP also saw the launch of Rare’s Solution Search “Farming for Biodiversity”, a global contest to find biodiversity-friendly agricultural solutions and one in PANORAMA is proud to be a partner.

PANORAMA is very relevant to the theme of this year’s COP “Mainstreaming biodiversity for well-being”, because dialogue between different constituencies is needed if the mainstreaming of biodiversity into sectoral policies is going to be achieved. . PANORAMA enables such dialogue, since it is based on a broad and growing partnership and promotes cross-thematic learning from success.