Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network - BES-Net

02/09/2026

🌎 Climate action has a pretty big talent pool.

Researchers. Entrepreneurs. Educators. Innovators. Community leaders.

In the Arab region, a United Nations Development Programme - UNDP accelerator programme has helped 150 young entrepreneurs develop 60 sustainability solutions, and businesses have gone on to adopt many of them.

In Bangladesh, young farmers are taking up climate-smart techniques such as saline-resistant rice and spirulina farming.

Across these examples, the wider lesson is what young people need to take ideas further: access to funding, mentors and genuine routes from participation to implementation. UNDP's Climate Promise explainer looks at the conditions young people can actually build on.

📑 See what else made the difference:

Young people have crucial roles to play in tackling climate change. We explain how they are helping build more resilient and sustainable societies.

01/09/2026

The latest BES-Net Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) special issue is out, with new stories, videos, publications and learning resources from across the network. 🌿

✅ Kenya’s journey, spanning pollinator conservation, restoration, ILK documentation and science-policy-practice dialogue
✅ Two new videos from Thailand on the value of bringing different knowledge systems together
✅ A new CABES-UNESCO publication on Indigenous knowledge and science-policy-practice interfaces in Africa
✅ New UNESCO resources on Indigenous participation in the Ocean Decade
✅ New work on pastoral systems, climate resilience and ecosystem restoration

There is much more to explore across the full issue.
📖 Read it here: https://besnet.world/newsletter-3

01/09/2026

A future that works for people and nature depends on three connected shifts.

🌿 Value nature so its contributions are reflected in decisions.
💰 Align finance so conserving and restoring ecosystems becomes possible.
✅ Put commitments into practice so they lead to meaningful change on the ground.

Each shift strengthens the others. Together, they can help move biodiversity from recognition to investment and action.

Follow BES-Net and The Biodiversity Finance Initiative - BIOFIN as we explore what these shifts mean for governments, businesses, financial actors and communities.

01/09/2026

📌 One training model. Six tools. Two counties in Kenya rethinking who does what on the land.

Landscape Alliance Global, African Wildlife Foundation and FAO Kenya built this set of community dialogues, funded by UK PACT, to help households in Taita Taveta and Makueni counties talk through gender roles before planning land restoration work together.

From role-play to household mapping to goal-setting, each tool opens a different door into the same conversation.

📄 See the full framework and what shifted once people used it: https://www.landscapealliance.org/knowledge/publication/46386/

29/08/2026

💰 More conservation funding alone won't fix this.

The real imbalance isn't just how little goes towards protecting nature; it's how much keeps flowing towards activities that damage it. 🛑

Closing that gap means changing where the bigger pool of money goes, not just growing the smaller one. 🍃

28/08/2026

🧪 A plant, seed or microorganism may become part of research. Traditional knowledge may help researchers understand its properties or possible uses. When benefits arise from that work, who shares in them?

requires that the sharing of benefits be addressed through mutually agreed terms, rather than left until research is complete or a product reaches the market.

Under the , benefits may be monetary or non-monetary.

Find out how fair benefit-sharing can help prevent communities and countries from being excluded from the benefits arising from their resources and knowledge. 👇
https://www.cbd.int/abs/gbf.shtml

27/08/2026

Starting 31 August, Bhutan will host the first Global Conscious Food Systems Summit, five days bringing together the Royal Government of Bhutan, Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA), our UNDP Bhutan colleagues, heads of state and communities working on the ground.

The Summit treats culture, values and inner well-being as real drivers of food systems change, along with site visits to local conscious food initiatives, storytelling and shared practices like meditation and mindful food rituals. Bhutan itself is featured as a model of how culture and spirituality can support nature-friendly agriculture.

You don't need to be in Bhutan to take part. Join online here: https://consciousfoodsystems.org/bhutan-summit-2026/

27/08/2026

What does it actually mean for biodiversity knowledge to have an impact? 🎯

In this video from the BESPIN Regional Trialogue for Europe and Central Asia, participants discuss a broader view of measuring progress – a shift in how people understand an issue, a change in attitudes or in how a community relates to its environment.

They also examine where translation from science to practice tends to break down and what practitioners say they actually need to close that gap.

▶️ Watch the video:

In this video from the BESPIN Regional Trialogue for Europe and Cen...

26/08/2026

A coastal hotel depends on a healthy reef to keep tourists coming. A textile company depends on a stable water supply to keep production running. Neither decision was ever filed under “biodiversity” until something put it at risk.

The IPBES Assessment looks at exactly these moments and what it would take to see them coming sooner.

Our new feature with The Biodiversity Finance Initiative - BIOFIN walks through what that means in practice: https://www.besnet.world/nature-is-everybodys-business/

25/08/2026

🌱 Restoring land means recognizing the people whose knowledge and daily decisions help sustain it. Women herders and pastoralists play a vital role in managing grazing, water and communal resources, yet their contributions are often overlooked in data and land policies.

That gap matters for gender equality, but also for restoration and resilience. As brings global attention to rangelands, pastoralist livelihoods and the theme “Restoring Land, Restoring Hope,” making women’s work visible is essential to building stronger, more inclusive land stewardship. 🐐

Learn more about the realities behind women’s work in rangelands. 👇