Knowledge sharing journey of the BIOPAMA and BEST 2.0
IUCN Oceania, through the financial assistance of the EU funds, has sponsored 10 participants from the Pacific to attend the knowledge-sharing workshop from the BIOPAMA and BEST 2.0 Projects implemented by IUCN in the African, Caribbean and the Pacific. The participants are from Kiribati, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Palau, Fiji and Samoa, with a mix of government and non-government organizations associated with BIOPAMA Grants. The participants selected are engaged with various projects related to protected areas and biodiversity management, climate change adaptation and community awareness, and education-related interventions under the BIOPAMA Grant managed by the IUCN Oceania office in Suva, Fiji. The Knowledge Sharing Workshop is held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 2 – 7 May 2023.
The workshop intends to promote learning and knowledge-sharing opportunities between grantees from BEST 2.0 and BIOPAMA Action Component with IUCN grant management teams and produce communication products that demonstrate the results achieved, good practices and the lessons learned from the grants' implementation in respective regions.
The Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) Programme assists the African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries in addressing their priorities for improved management and governance of biodiversity and natural resources. BIOPAMA provides various tools, services, and funding to conservation actors in the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries. The BIOPAMA programme contributes to improving the long-term conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific regions in protected areas and surrounding communities through better use and monitoring of information and capacity development on management and governance. BIOPAMA is an initiative of the Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States financed by the European Union's 11th European Development Fund.
BEST 2.0+ is to promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of ecosystem services, including the ecosystem-based approach to climate change adaption and mitigation, in Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs).
According to Rahul Chand, the IUCN Oceania Coordinator for Protected and Conserved Areas who is leading the team to the workshop in Nairobi,
The workshop will provide opportunities for the Pacific Grantees to share and exchange their experiences with participants from other regions.”
Mr. Chand added that the idea of the capitalisation workshop has been developed in view of giving individuals and organizations opportunities to reflect on their experience, identify practices that can be scaled up, describe and analyse them in detail, and share the learnings that they derive from it. Rahul Chand also added that in addition to the learning outcomes, networking opportunities will be offered to the participants, and potential future partnerships and collaboration links can be strengthened.
As a general outcome of the workshop, participants will be capitalizing on the experiences from BEST and BIOPAMA grant projects to guide future grantees' field interventions and new grant opportunities for protected areas and biodiversity conservation based on results, lessons learned and good practices identified.
The knowledge-sharing journey includes online preparatory events that were held in April and a hands-on in person workshop in May to actively engage grantees from different areas to reflect on their experiences, analyse them, and identify good practices and lessons learned.