Summary of discussions and decisions made
1. Quick round of presentations by EABRN members on the situation of their respective networks during COVID-19
Republic of Korea: In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Republic of Korea’s accession to UNESCO and the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the MAB National Committee of the Republic of Korea, the Korean MAB NC and National Commission for UNESCO are collaborating to realize interviews with some experts who actively participated in the MAB programme before 2000, and to publish a small interview book on MAB activities in the Republic of Korea that could also include the EABRN. The COVID-19 pandemic still requires severe control measures, and all travels and meetings are still limited. The country is also facing an African swine fever epidemic, and in this context their activities have been limited to the nomination of 2 new BRs since 2019, and on-line training. Their national MAB Youth Forum is postponed to further dates.
China: The country is recovering very well from the COVID-19 outbreak, and the MAB NC carried out many activities. The local governments at Chinese BRs highly appreciated the support of the NC to improve their management, and they have also conducted 10 year evaluations on the Huanglong, Jiuzhaigo, Baishuijiang BRs. Several new sites would like to apply to become BR, in particular Eerguna National Wetland Park in inner Mongolia. The national MAB meeting and award to young scientists will be held soon, and a national training programme is under preparation for the second part of November. They have enjoyed a fruitful cooperation with CCTV for live streaming of BRs which were discovered by a large audience in the country. This was made also in order to compensate for the decreasing number of visitors to tourist spots in the country because of the pandemic, and 10.000.000 people visited the BRs in 2020. MAB China was also pleased to join the cooperation with UNESCO Beijing Office and Bytedance Inc for further information campaigns and training on e-commerce tools and communication strategies.
Mongolia: The MAB NC completed a field survey on BRs during COVID-19, showing in particular that many BRs were experiencing economic losses due to the reduction of incomes from international tourism. The country has now removed any restriction to international travels, and it is hoped that this will still be the situation when the 16th EABRN should be held in Mongolia next Spring.
Japan: The MAB NC reported that their 10 BRs passed through strong emergency situation in Spring, with remote work imposed to all, as local governments were very busy with the pandemic and needed to work remotely. The national network of BRs managed to hold various online training activities and to support exchange of experience. They reported that there are still language barriers for BR representatives to attend international exchanges, and also recommended that more cross-cutting activities should be promoted inside UNESCO between Geoparks, WH sites, as well as programmes like IHP, education, culture.
Kazakhstan: The country faced a serious situation with COVID-19 until May 2020, with strong quarantine measures and closure of cities. They expect a second wave that could come in December, but the country is now better prepared to face it. The MAB NC submitted a new nomination request concerning an area close to Almaty, and continued to translate documents in domestic language in order to support the work of their BRs network. These efforts included the production of a brochure on the management of BRs in both Russian and domestic language, and the holding of webinars with Russian colleagues on ecological tourism and environmental education. They have also realized panels to advertise BRs at their entrance, as well as a new platform for their website. Representatives of the MAB NC took part in many webinars and conferences, and also delivered training to 20 young BR administrative staffs. The Kazakh NC finally launched a new project named “Ambassadors of MAB”, with young people having received dedicated training.
Russian Federation: The pandemic changed many things, and in particular, cancelled many interesting meetings so far. Activities of the Russian MAB NC were concentrated on preparing the 50th anniversary of the MAB Programme. A national meeting was held, and the preparation of a monograph on the achievements of the MAB Programme in Russia during the last 50 years was initiated. Interesting to note that the Ministry responsible for participating in COP15 started asking Russian BRs to explain what they did/do related to Biodiversity Conservation. Even if much has been done already, there are still many areas for improvement. One of those concerns ecotourism and its growing impact on protected areas which would need to be mitigated and/or better managed. The MAB NC is working at 3 new BR applications which will bring their total number at 50, a perfect number to celebrate the MAB anniversary in 2021. 2 of those new BRs will belong to EABRN. The Russian MAB NC will be present with some BRs at COP15, where they are ready to present posters and would like to promote a side event to be dedicated to transboundary cooperation. The Russian MAB NC is developing guidelines on TBR cooperation and would be happy to receive more inputs on this subject from EABRN members. They would like also to propose that an EABRN meeting could be dedicated to this subject. Russian MAB NC representatives finally expressed great appreciation for the TBR application finally submitted to the MAB Secretariat by the Mongolian colleagues.
2. Open discussion on various options for EABRN’s presence at COP15
Based in the suggestions received through the questionnaire, participants in the meeting finally agreed on the following:
- To produce a booklet for CBD COP15, which will summarize achievements in biodiversity conservation of the EABRN members, with facts and statistics, as well as good stories from BRs and, therefore;
- To provide the necessary inputs for the booklet (the Secretariat will send out a list of needed inputs in the coming weeks);
- On the same bases, to produce short videos to be showed at CBD COP15 and other major events in 2021;
- To provide good visual materials for the preparation of the booklet (photos, graphs) and videos.
It was underlined that these materials prepared for COP15 could also be used for the celebration of the 50’s anniversary of MAB. The EABRN Secretariat will also check with the MAB Secretariat about UNESCO’s overall involvement in CBD COP15, to inform then EABRN members about concrete possibilities for them to display materials and organize side events. He shared with all EABRN Members that UNESCO will have for sure a side-event with MAB youth, co-organized with the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN). EABRN members were therefore invited to nominate one MAB Youth representative per country (actively involved in the work of BRs and MAB at the country involved) to be involved in this side event (with expenses covered by the Beijing Office).
3. Open discussion and suggestions on various options for training activities in 2021
Re-calling the 2019 report on training needs and opportunities for EABRN, the Secretary summarized the more recent results from the questionnaire which was disseminated in order to collect further inputs on these issues, on which the following decisions could be made:
- EABRN members agreed on the principle that, ideally, training workshops should be held at the same location where EABRN meetings are held, in order to make savings on the budget while allowing for more members to be involved in these activities (as both experts and/or beneficiaries);
- EABRN members also agreed that the training activities in 2021 will be held in Mongolia, back to back to the 16th EABRN meeting;
- EABRN members finally agreed that the focus of 2021 training activities would be on ecotourism development, as this topic allows for an integration of many other expressed needs related to improving planning and management of BRs.
The Secretariat will start working on the preparation of all these activities, and was finally asked to further explore the possibility to also support in 2021 training activities dedicated to Transboundary BR development and management, which could benefit in particular Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia as they are sharing TBRs.
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