IUCN CEC/WCPA NatureForAll Intercommission
IUCN COMMISSION GROUP

IUCN CEC/WCPA NatureForAll Intercommission

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Overview and description

A global movement to inspire, celebrate and restore love of nature. Share your love of Nature!

Description:

IUCN CEC NatureForAll Specialist Group leads the #NatureForAll global initiative in a continued partnership with the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) to connect people with nature and ...

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IUCN CEC NatureForAll Specialist Group leads the #NatureForAll global initiative in a continued partnership with the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) to connect people with nature and inspire broad-based public and cross-sectoral love, support and action for its conservation. Specialist Groups lead the CEC Networks and will encourage different groupings based on thematic areas, work priorities and/or regional scope to develop as appropriate to meet local needs for education and communication.

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Group leadership

Ms Karen KEENLEYSIDE
Co-Chair
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Thematic Vice Chair, People and Parks/Nature for All. 

An ecologist by training, Karen has over thirty years’ professional experience in the environmental field in Canada and internationally, both in the private sector and with the Canadian government. During 15 years with Parks Canada, Karen led the development of evidence-based strategic approaches to ecological restoration, climate change, and urban parks, among other topics. Most recently, she has been bridging natural and social-scientific disciplines to develop collaborative relationships and find solutions for building and diversifying the constituency of support for conservation.

Karen led the Inspiring a New Generation Stream of the IUCN World Parks Congress in 2014, which was the foundation for the subsequent launch of #NatureForAll in 2016. Since then, she has been instrumental in shaping the strategic direction of #NatureForAll and contributing to its growth and influence. Karen was the Vice Chair responsible for #NatureForAll for both the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas from 2016 and 2021. She continues to play a leadership role on both Commissions and is currently one of three global Co-Chairs who are collaboratively leading #NatureForAll.

Thematic Vice Chair, People and Parks/Nature for All. 

An ecologist by training, Karen has over thirty years’ professional experience in the environmental field in Canada and internationally, both in ...

Dr Cheryl CHARLES
Co-Chair
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#NatureForAll Co-Chair

Cheryl Charles is an innovator, entrepreneur, educator, author and organizational executive. Throughout her career, Cheryl has focused on the well-being of children, families, communities and the environment that supports us all. She is the Co-Founder, President and CEO Emerita of the Children & Nature Network (www.childrenandnature.org), an international NGO with its mission to connect all children, their families and communities to nature in their everyday lives.

Cheryl serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Commission on Education and Communication (CEC). A member of the Commission since 2005, she previously served on the CEC’s Steering Committee from 2006—2012 and again beginning in 2018. Deeply committed to the importance of connecting people of all ages with nature for their own health and well-being and that of the Earth itself, she is one of those who helped develop the concept for IUCN’s #NatureForAll and serves as one of its three international co-chairs. She was lead author and coordinator of #NatureForAll’s report, Home to Us All: How Connecting with Nature Helps Us Care for Ourselves and the Earth.

Cheryl currently is Research Scholar and founding Executive Director of the Nature Based Leadership Institute at Antioch University New England (AUNE), and an elected school board member. She is a member of the board of trustees of both the Brandwein Institute and the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. She served as foundation National Director of the pioneering K-12, interdisciplinary environment education programs, Project Learning Tree and Project WILD.

Cheryl is author, editor and designer of a wide variety of publications including books, articles, and educational materials. Cheryl has given hundreds of public presentations and workshops including scores of keynote addresses; and has facilitated a wide variety of civic, business and educational meetings on a range of topics from developing community leadership to leading the worldwide effort to reconnect children with nature. Cheryl has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Washington. She lives near her son, daughter-in-law and nature-based grandchildren on a forest family farm in southern Vermont, USA.

#NatureForAll Co-Chair

Cheryl Charles is an innovator, entrepreneur, educator, author and organizational executive. Throughout her career, Cheryl has focused on the well-being of children, families ...

#NatureForAll is a global movement to inspire, celebrate and restore love of nature. It is not an entity but rather a community of interested organizations and individuals who are inspired to work together to effect positive change. At its core is a very simple idea: the more people connect with, learn about and share their love, the more support and action there will be for its conservation.

#NatureForAll aims to foster enabling environments to reduce barriers and connect people with nature in different regions, contexts and realities. Through partnership, we share knowledge, strategies, and actions – amplifying our collective reach and impact to engage new audiences.

#NatureForAll aims to facilitate the development of communities throughout the world where partners connect and learn with the shared purpose of facilitating a love and actions for nature in urban and other environments. This includes the creation of communities (communication spaces/conversation circles/action pools, etc.) where partner organisations and individuals can facilitate action. #NatureForAll helps connect people with nature so that the future is one in which everyone, everywhere, loves and cares for nature.

Objectives

  • Raise awareness of nature and its important values and benefits
  • Deepen understanding of the relationships between nature conservation and climate resilience
  • Increase the numbers of people with empathy, care and connectedness with nature, across the diversity of human cultures where connections have been lost
  • Inspire opportunities for all peoples to experience and connect meaningfully with nature, in ways rooted in their cultures and languages
  • Help drive policy and support action that enables safe access and enjoyment of nature on a daily basis, inclusive of the full diversity of communities
  • Grow a cohesive community of shared commitment, collaboration and action worldwide

Thematic Areas

Youth and Nature

Children, education and nature

Regular time outdoors is essential for children’s healthy development. However, today’s youth are less connected to nature than ever before. #NatureForAll promotes nature as a setting for fun and adventure. Nature promotes health and wellbeing, acts as a laboratory for endless scientific exploration, and connects young and old generations to cultural roots. When young people forge personal connections to nature, the benefits to individual and societal health are lasting and they lay a foundation for lifelong support of nature conservation.

Urban Nature

Urban Nature

There is a growing global consensus that open green and blue spaces in our urban centers are critical in supporting people’s mental, physical, and social wellbeing, as well as increasing economic opportunities. These “urban nature” spaces assist in tackling pressing environmental challenges such as storm water management, pollution reduction, and climate resilience. Additionally, the shift to an increasingly urbanized population has contributed to negative health outcomes, like obesity, diabetes, anxiety and depression.

Health and Nature

Parks and Protected Areas

Personal experiences and connections with nature provide powerful benefits for individual and societal health, well-being, and resilience and are also the foundation of a lifelong support for nature conservation, including parks and protected areas, and the achievement of biodiversity and sustainable development goals and targets. #NatureForAll brings together a diversity of players to share actions, collaborate, and amplify our collective reach to engage new audiences to connect with and fall in love with nature, and ignite action for conservation.

Health and Nature

Health & Nature

Nature-derived health services have irreplaceable potential to individuals and society. #NatureForAll partners are actively working with the health sector and other key partners to make access to nature and its benefits available to all. Connecting with nature is a potential public health strategy that is accessible and affordable for many populations, with research demonstrating not only protective values but restorative benefits as well. Personal experiences and connections with nature provide powerful benefits for individual and societal health, well-being, and resilience. 

#NatureForAll Resources

How to get involved?

Weaving communities is about focusing on building the community with existing partners while welcoming new partners, especially those not traditionally part of the conservation sector. In order to do that, #NatureForAll supports the global dissemination of tools that partners already have or are working on collaboratively, and promotes existing platforms to facilitate knowledge sharing within and outside the #NatureForAll community.

IUCN Commission members are already doing their part for #NatureForAll by inspiring others to connect with, experience and ultimately fall in love with nature. Members are invited to:

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