 My name is Gabriela Flores, I'm a senior associate at the International Institute for Environment and Development, and I will be your moderator today. This session is organized by Conservation South Africa and TMG Research with participation from IUCN Uganda, the Watershed Organization Trust, GIZ, and IIEB. As the session's title says, EBA works, as those of you in this room will know very well. However, we also know that EBA is a complex concept and that sometimes explaining it can be a little bit complicated, particularly to engage different stakeholders and to gain their support for EBA approaches. In today's session, we're going to be looking at some experiences in the communication of EBA, and we're also going to be inviting you to talk to us about the experiences in the communication of EBA. We think this is essential because if we cannot communicate properly and efficiently and effectively about EBA, we cannot build a level of support that we need in order to mainstream it and bring greater benefits for conservation, for local communities, and to support adaptation to climate change. Now, we're all very curious to get to know each other during this session, but before we kick off, just a very quick housekeeping announcements, which by now we're all very familiar with, but it never hurts to listen. First of all, we invite you to keep your mics on mute during this session. All questions and comments are very welcome on the chat at all times, and we will open the discussion to all in a short while, but in the meantime, do keep those comments and questions coming. If you are on Twitter and would like to tweet about the session, please use hashtag EBA works and hashtag CBA 15, which is the hashtag for the overall conference. Lastly, the session will be recorded, and a summary of the session will also be published on the conference website. So we're all very curious to know who is joining the session today. So we have prepared a couple of questions on Mentimeter for us all, and I'm going to leave you now with Arjuna Srinidhi from the Watershed Organization Trust in India, who's going to guide us through this shortfall. Over to you, Arjuna. Thanks a lot, Gabriella. So it's great to see that we are almost close to 30 people in the room, and it's essentially what we would be doing in a physical meeting in a coffee break before the session. Just meet and greet, get to know who is there in the room, where we are from. So in the interest of having a virtual one of that sort, let's have a couple of questions which I can see people have already started fitting in. So for those who are just getting warmed up, please go to www.menti.com and enter the code 86973156. We won't take too much time for this. It's just two questions to understand where you're joining us from. And another one about what kind of work do you represent? So you can see the results of the first question on the screen. It's great to see that we have a good mix of people from both the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere, people from Europe and Africa and Asia. And yeah, we have more than we have about half the people have responded to this question. So we could maybe just take another few seconds to see if a few more responses come in. I think the time of the session also makes a difference as to why we're probably having less from North America and Latin America. So there's more of Asia and Africa and Europe. But that's good to see that we have some mix of the north and the south. So let's move to the next question. And this is essentially to understand like what kind of organization or work do you represent? I'm sure we have with us people. This this this conference is focused on practitioners. So there must be a large number of people from NGO and nonprofit background. But I suppose also a number of researchers and academic institutes here and from the government funding agencies, donors. I think as expected, the group representing NGOs and nonprofits is the largest in the room. But that's great to see because that's the focus of this conference to talk to practitioners. But it's nice that we also have representation from others stakeholders. I mean, I think nearly everybody you answer the first question has done it for the second one also. So with that, I hand it over back to you, Gabriella, to take us through the rest of the day. And a warm welcome to everybody for the session. Thank you very much, Arjuna. It's always great to know who's in the room. So before we begin, we wanted to give you a very quick overview of what we will be covering in the session in in a moment. We'll have keynote presentation from Heisan Naginda. And climate operation. We're then going to hear about three case studies sharing good practices and experiences and lessons learned and the communication of EBA. We will then be breaking that, breaking into small groups just to hear more closely from each other about our respective experiences, communicating EBA. We'll then have a very quick recap from what people said in the breakout groups. And we'll also have a couple of closing statements from speakers from UNEP and from IKI. So without further ado, let me invite our very first speaker. It's my pleasure to introduce Heisel Naginda. Heisel is a climate and environmental activist from Uganda. She is the founder of climate operation youth led organization working to educate Ugandan children and communities about climate change and its interests. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you, Heisel. Perhaps we could put the spotlight on Heisel. Thank you. Please come. OK, so hi, everyone. My name is Heisan Naginda. And as Gabriela briefly introduced me, I'm the founder of climate operation and basically what we do is that we educate school-going children and young people and communities about the climate crisis and how it's intersected with other social issues. Then because we don't want this to just be about education, we always involve them in tri-planting activities as a way of connecting them with nature. So when we start talking about ecosystem-based adaptation solutions and how to communicate about them, something that always comes to mind is we always have to figure out which stakeholders we're actually going to engage. And the stakeholders vary, for example, from the communities themselves, which are usually the subject. Then you look at the NGOs, the international non-profits and the companies, media. Then you also look at the policy makers and very many other stakeholders. And when you're looking at these stakeholders, you also have to recognize and acknowledge that usually with these stakeholders, certain stakeholders actually have a higher interest and some have low interest and also some have higher influence and others have a low influence. So when it comes to communities, something that climate operation does is we always ensure that we are very transparent with them and directly engage with them. And something that we love to do is that we engage them with, for example, the projects that we are doing. So basically they are the decision makers in the projects that we are doing and to ensure that this communication is very effective. The message that you always try to pass on, you always make it very digestible to them because right now when it comes to information about the climate crisis, it's very scientific. So always making it digestible for them to understand is a very amazing thing that we do. Then we also ensure that we humanize the issue because right now the climate crisis, we're always talking about, like, for example, degradation of ecosystems, like, for example, wildlife, of trees. But then we never really look at the fact that this because of all this degradation, most people are actually their social issues, the negative social issues are exacerbating. So we always ensure to bring in the human impact because that then actually humanizes the issue to them. Then something else we always love to do is we monetize the project because, like, for example, young people, we always like communicating with young people. And, for example, in Uganda, young people are facing a problem of unemployment. So because we actually want them to get involved with this project, we always ensure that whatever project that we are doing is monetized whereby to actually be a source of employment for them or a source of income for them. So that is always something that we love to do, always monetizing the project so that young people are encouraged to join in with that project. Then another policy, another stakeholder that is crucial when it comes to ecosystem-based adaptation is the policymaker. So this is kind of a challenge because, as I was talking about, the level of influence and the level of interest. So policymakers usually have a high level of influence but have really low level of influence. So something that we have recognized because we actually want to with climate operation, we are trying to further climate education. And the only way that can happen is if our policies are improved, our education policies. So something that we have found to be very effective is engaging with, for example, international NGOs and companies because their interest and influence is high so they can actually influence the policymakers. Then also strategically engaging with the media because the media can actually further our message to the public and then the public can pressure the policymakers. So that is how we have actually managed to start conversations with policymakers here in Uganda in regards to our message. So when it comes to the policymakers, it's a bit challenging. But if you strategically position yourself on which policy on which stakeholder you're going to exactly engage, then that would be very amazing. Then, of course, when it comes to the international NGOs and the international companies because their interest and influence is really high, then it's very easy to engage with them because you have like-minded emissions. So for these specific stakeholders, what climate operation has done is that we're always collaborating with those who have a very similar mission to ours, which is furthering climate education in that country and also engaging with them in regards to dialogue and ensuring that we are creating holistic solutions to our communities. Because another thing that happened, it's not that challenging, but it's just a lesson that we are learning from is that so many of the climate solutions are very Eurocentric and they are actually not specific to the country itself and to the communities, so always engaging. And that's why it's also very important to engage with the communities themselves because you get to know what's needed in that specific community. So that is how we actually engage with the international NGOs. Then I talked about how we engage with the media. It's a very strategic type of engagement because they can influence the public and they can also ensure that they continue to pressurize the policy makers when it comes to the solutions that they need to actually implement. So I guess in conclusion, when it comes to ecosystem-based adaptation and communicating it, it works and to a point, you might face some challenges, but I guess you just need to be a bit more patient and strategic in that way. You engage different stakeholders and in the end, it actually does work and it will prove to be very effective. Thank you very, very much, Hazel, for sharing your thoughts with us. There's certainly a lot that I'm sure people in the audience can relate to. Some of those challenges, just how we need to tailor the information to make sure it suits the needs and interests of our different stakeholders. And I particularly like, I take away from you this issue about making it digestible and also making it relevant to people. Presenting it in the context of the issues that matters to your audience, in your case, young people. Thank you very much and we very much take to heart your final advice about being patient because we do need to be patient. We know this works and we want to see it work, but sometimes we need to slow down and make sure we bring older stakeholders with us. So thank you so much for sharing those words with us, Hazel, and I hope you continue to join us for the rest of the session. Thank you so much. Thank you once again. And now it's time to hear from fellow practitioners about how they are tackling the challenge of communicating EBA. Our first presentations are from Africa. Let me welcome Sarshan Skorgi, who is Climate and Strategy Advisor at Conservation South Africa, an affiliate of Conservation International, and Harid Rani, who is the Program Officer at the IUCN Uganda Country Office. Over to you, Sarshan and Harid. We look forward to hearing from you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much, Gabriella, and thank you really for the opportunity to be able to share today how Conservation South Africa is implementing EBA and how we are communicating the impact of our work. So we are doing this, as you can see from the slide, we're doing this EBA work by securing and restoring South Africa's range lands for food security with rural and poor communities. So some of you may not be aware that 80% of South Africa's land is covered by range lands. Of these range lands, communally owned range lands are home to 76% of the poorest people in South Africa, with only these communal farmers only having 5% of access to the red meat market. So this really demonstrates to us why it is so important to assist these farmers and also to help them in building the resilience to climate change. On the next slide, you'll see a map of the different landscapes where Conservation South Africa is working in three different regions and across three climatic spectrums in South Africa. We will be focusing on the communications tool that I'll be sharing with you just now and then the macro land region on the left-hand side of the slide. And just to demonstrate the type of range lands that these three areas cover, you'll see on the next slide, there's a picture of the savanna region, the grasslands region and the semi-arid. So you get a sense of the different types of range lands that we are covering. So what is Conservation South Africa doing? If you see on the next slide, Conservation South Africa is working with small scale livestock farmers on communal range lands, helping to restore their land using livestock management and restoration methods for enhance sustainable production through a stewardship approach. And essentially we're using a conservation agreement approach, which also has incentives such as market access. So what are the benefits of this approach? And they are obviously both livelihood and environmental benefits, including improving grazing services, water services, enhancing production, empowering and building the adaptive capacity of these communities and ensuring that they also have food security. So now we're going to move into showing you a video of some of the EBA work that we're doing in Namakwa land. And we hope this also is able to share with you some of the voices from the ground in South Africa. We hope you enjoy it. The Namakwa District Municipal Area has been identified as particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change with already harsh conditions predicted to worsen in terms of a less rainfall and increasing temperature. Our world sees us as a greener facility there, but I'm also a citizen of one of the many small villages in our area where people depend on nature to make their loving roots. The Namakwa District Municipality is responsible for the management of a large area out of land in the arid areas of the northern can. The EBA is responsible to formulate and implement policies which will ensure the safety and well-being of all its constituents. The farmers and all people here need to have enough water and healthy range land for themselves and their livestock in order to be resilient to the impacts of climate change. That is why it's important to the people in our area that ecosystem-based adaptation is firmly a part of their policies. It's the management of ecosystems and their services to reduce the vulnerability of human communities to both the impacts of climate change at the local level and local government and that is very critical for both the human and environmental well-being. I hope you enjoyed the video and then just really to end off my presentation, I wanted to share the sort of reasoning behind why we developed such a video and one of those is that we really started to experience the challenge that many of the decision makers and communities where we're working weren't always seeing the links between what they're doing and the impacts of climate change as well as the role that nature can play in helping them to adapt. So this is why we wanted to develop case examples. We wanted to find a tool to be able to also hear some of the voices from the communities where we're working so that they could also start to see the links to nature and how nature is helping them on the ground. So this really has provided us an opportunity. We've also been using other tools, not only videos but ecosystem-based adaptation maps that you'll see there on the slide which are now integrated as part of the vulnerability assessments in our districts and used to support the climate change response plans. Another way that we've been able to interact with our communities, being able to use tools such as the maps as well as videos to help in workshops and to also help with decision makers to prioritize EVA and to know where to focus. So I'm now going to say thank you very much for the opportunity and hand over to my colleague Harriet Brani who's going to share another tool that she's been using with IUCN that we did in collaboration around communicating EVA. Thank you very much. Thank you very much Sashen and good morning everyone and good afternoon everyone. My name is Harriet Brani from Uganda and I'm going to share with you this morning about the lessons that we have learned over time in using the Story Map as a tool for communicating EVA and watersheds as a way of trying to improve household food security but sustainable livelihoods. So just briefly about our EVA project, it's implemented in the eastern part of Uganda in the Mount Elgon ecosystems where we are working with small scale agricultural farmers but also natural resource dependent communities piloting approaches and ensuring their upscaling to increase the resilience of livelihoods and also ecosystems to the impacts of climate change. So through various approaches especially integrated like you see on the photos where we use restoration, promotion of nature-based enterprise development to mention but a few where all these lessons are documented in order to inform and inform policy. So I would like to straight away take you to the Story Map which is a web-based application that we developed satisfactorily with IIED and Conservation Africa mainly to communicate EVA and watersheds. So as it's getting uploaded, yeah, so this is the Story Map that we developed participatory and mainly to communicate about EVA in watersheds. And like I have said, it's a web-based application that uses GIS tools with just partial data that is used to produce interactive and visual maps but also combined with other contents like the text as you see it scrolling down but also with photos and videos in order to communicate about how EVA works across the different watershed scales to help in improving household food security and sustainable livelihoods. So this very Story Map we have used it as a tool greatly helping us to initiate discussions in workshops but also in trainings to help to initiate discussions between farmers and local communities and their leaders to show experiences but also lessons on how EVA works across the different watershed scales in order to improve household food security but also increase resilience of ecosystems and livelihoods. And this Story Map is also a great tool that we've used for public engagement because it can be easily shared across a different social network platforms like the Facebook, the Twitter. So it's merely easy for different stakeholders to be able to access information on EVA and be able to utilize the lessons and experiences in order to replicate but also the upscale for improving their agricultural productivity but also improving on sustainable natural resources management across the different watershed scales. So over time we have realized that this Story Map is a great tool once it is facilitated in the most appropriate manner. So that means that it is a facilitated session that requires skills, specific skills in order to be able to achieve its objective of communicating EVA effectively across the different stakeholders especially at the local community level. So one of the limitations that we have experienced over time in trying to communicate EVA with this Story Map is that it requires internet access so especially for individuals like farmers who do not have access to internet-based devices like smartphones, sometimes it becomes very difficult to really timely access the information that would require them to take informed decisions. And one of the benefits of this Story Map are from the time we uploaded it on the website at the end of March until this week we had this Story Map has actually attracted a total of 1,712 viewers that are get accessing information about EVA and watersheds and I'm sure that it's helping them to make informed decisions but also to increase on their knowledge base. So one of the challenges that we encountered in terms of trying to have this widespread we realized that we can actually have this information converted into PDF and made available for utilization for any stakeholder that does not have any access to internet-based gadgets. So in conclusion, just like the way the heizel highlighted very well, given the complexity of stakeholders with varied priorities and varied entrances and at different watersheds scales we would love to hear from you and have ideas on how we can communicate about EVA, especially at community level going forward. I would like to thank you so much for listening. I would like to hand you over to Gabriela. Thank you. Thank you very much, Sarsha. Hang with us your experience materials which look great and how you are using them and adapting them to the needs of your audiences and in particular to the needs of communities in order for them to become more engaged with EVA approaches. Thank you very, very much. Now, we will hear from another experience this time from India. Let me invite Larissa Steenbathia who leads the Nature-based Solutions Pro-Search based in Berlin, Germany. She will be joined by Arna Srinidhi, associate thematic lead for ecosystem-based adaptation and head of communications at the Watershare Organization Trust in India. Over to you both. Thank you. Thank you, Gabriela. Yeah, my name is Larissa. I'm working at TMG leading the Work on Nature-based Solutions there. And at TMG, we are implementing a global project on ecosystem-based adaptation as part of the International Climate Initiative funded by the German Federal Ministry for Environment. And this project is being implemented with a consortium of partners, namely with Water in India and with Adini and WWF in Guatemala. And the project started off in 2018 inspired by the question of what role can EVA play as a multi-benefit strategy supporting the synergetic achievement of the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement. And against this background, we aim to jointly develop a roadmap to promote and scale EVA in the two partner countries. And to develop this roadmap, we conducted a series of activities including the building of evidence on the effectiveness of EVA. And we used then this evidence in our communication to get the relevant stakeholders on board and to create the required support for EVA. And today, we will focus on our project activities in India which is under leadership by our partner, the Watershed Organization Trust, also known as WATER. And my colleague Adruna, Cindy from WATER will share with you our experiences in communicating about EVA to diverse stakeholders that then resulted in the participatory development of a demand-driven and evidence-based roadmap for scaling EVA in India and specifically in the state of Maharashtra. But before I now hand over to Adruna, we would also like to share some voices from the community level about EVA specifically in agriculture such as showing how EVA helps local communities to build their agricultural assistance to make them more resilient and fight their but also food security. So I hope you enjoy the short film from Maharashtra, India. Kishan has minimized losses in agriculture by following an ecosystem-based adaptation approach to climate change. He uses indigenous seeds with multi-cropping, applies biopesticides and organic manure to cultivate more than a dozen variety of crops across three cropping seasons. Food and nutrition security is important in an ecosystem-based approach to adaptation and Kishan has ensured the same. Apart from farming, Kishan has planted a diverse range of fruit trees and he also rears livestock to supplement his income. Balasai, Bangalai is WOTR's field in charge of Purushwadi and he has been working in the village since 2009. He points out the challenges posed by climate change. To solve these issues between 2009 and 2017, WOTR implemented the climate change adaptation and WOTRs towards reprograms in Purushwadi. So that short film that you saw covers one of the case studies that we assessed in detail during the EBA project that Larry suggested introduced. We have a slightly longer version of that film that is also a part of the CBA short film contest. So if you like this, then do check the longer version out also. Now, I will walk you through our experience of developing a roadmap for upscaling EBA in Maharashtra and especially through a multi-stakeholder and participatory process that Larry also mentioned. Next slide. Maharashtra is located in the west of India, where you have the city of Mumbai. We are today focusing on the tri-land areas of the state. So let us try to understand why EBA is so relevant here. Over 75% of the state is under tri-land agriculture and over 40% of which is degraded. The frequency of droughts, unseasonal rain, and floods have been increasing. Monocultures of cash drops, water-intensive cash drops, is aggravating the risk of crop failure. And over 80% of the farmers here are small holders for whom losses result in distrust, migration, and also suicide in extreme cases. Next slide. So against this background, we started our work by assessing challenges and opportunities for upscaling EBA in a scoping paper that we published last May. One early insight that we had was considering the scale that we are dealing with in India, upscaling has to involve mainstreaming EBA into government policies and programs while also engaging with other actors. Studying the government programs further showed us that a number of them are specific to a certain sector like water resources, agriculture, biodiversity, and often operating in silos. Some of the other challenges that we encountered were standardized project guidelines that don't recognize locale-specific issues, trade-offs between things like agriculture productivity and sustainability, and the lack of financial resources and capacities of implementing agencies. We saw some opportunities too. Watershed development is one well-accepted response to the challenge of dry land areas that also has the potential to integrate several areas of intervention. Water itself has pioneered a number of innovative approaches as shown in the film that you saw earlier. But upscaling such success stories would require bringing together several stakeholders to see the value of such an integrated approach and also finding the resources both technical and financial. Next slide. So to address this big gap, that is the lack of an integrated approach with cross-sectoral collaboration, we started working on an evidence-based and demand-driven roadmap for promoting and upscaling EBA. We went through a series of steps planned in the project from assessing case studies to capacity-building workshops and state-level dialogues. There were challenges, especially because of the COVID situation in the last two years and the lack of mobility, and so we had to adapt even at the project management level. We converted a lot of the planned interactions into online meetings, which was perhaps easier to organize given the lesser logistics involved. We also set up an expert committee and several thematic groups that met virtually but frequently to help us identify opportunities and entry points to arrive at a roadmap. Next slide. So this is what the multi-stakeholder engagement to develop the roadmap looked like, consisting of several Zoom and WebEx sessions, included people from research institutes, state and central government officials from the local community, practitioners, donors, and media. Next slide. And while we don't have time to go into the details of the roadmap, I can briefly share with you the six basic elements that all the stakeholders agreed upon. One was to have a shared understanding and vision of EVA, mainstreaming the actions into government programs, building capacities of practitioners and local administration, identifying financial support for these measures, having M&E mechanisms throughout the lifetime of the initiative, and identifying the relevant links to global calls such as SDGs, Paris Agreement, et cetera. We also indicated that it would take Maharashtra at least 10 years until the end of this crucial decade to fulfill its roadmap and need these calls. The implementation of this would hopefully be supported by additional financial resources or a new project to help mainstream the EVA approach. And in the final slide, I would like to highlight the key messages and the key takeaways for us. What we see is that the multi-stakeholder and collaborative initiative led to a buy-in from different actors from an early stage in the project. We found an uptake for even the term EVA increasing. It was used by several key government officials during important meetings where water was also invited. A customized outreach strategy for different stakeholder groups also really helped, like case studies and tailored key messages for policymakers, capacity building workshops for practitioners and local administration, blogs and films for media and civil society in general. So all of these multi-stakeholder dialogues resulted in a holistic understanding of barriers and context-specific solutions. It strengthened the acknowledgement and support for EVA and the most important result that we were looking for, which is the cross-sectoral collaboration for developing a roadmap. Last slide. So we really hope that we can sustain this initiative through to the end of this decade and not stop at this critical juncture where the momentum for EVA is building up. Thank you for your time and please do write into us with any comments and feedback that you have. Back to you, Gabriella. Thank you very much, Larissa and Arjuna, for sharing with us such an interesting experience of mobilizing the range of stakeholders in Maharashtra to create greater ownership of EVA and to work with such a diverse group and to improve how EVA is understood by each of these groups that are so crucial for the success of the implementation of EVA approaches. Clearly, there's a lot to reflect on and to learn from and now it's time to hear from each other. We're going to now be going into breakout groups which have been randomly assigned and this slide will tell us what exactly we invite you to do during the breakout groups. We know that everybody here will have experiences about what has worked, perhaps some of the challenges that you have encountered, but we'd also like to reflect on the voices of communities and whose stories we're sharing, how are we enabling communities to share their own stories and their own perspectives, but also we'd like to perhaps invite you to consider what you may need in order to put into practice some of the ideas that maybe you've been perhaps inspired you today or things that you really would like to do that you think would be really successful but that you haven't been able to do for whatever reason, it'd be great to hear from you. These questions are of course indicative and feel free to discuss whatever you feel it's important, but we do feel that it does help when people have some of a common structure for their discussions. So we're going to be splitting up into four groups in a couple of seconds. The first group is going to be with Sarshan. Group two will be with Harriet, group three with Arjuna, and group four with Larissa. Now in each group, we're going to be using Neural for this exercise. If you haven't used Neural before, do not worry. There will be a rapporteur in each breakout room ready to notate and take down any ideas that come up. If you are a Neural connoisseur and would like to input into the board yourself, a link to your board will be shared during your breakout group. In the meantime, do please don't forget to keep some questions and comments going on the chat. We'll try to get to those after we come back from the breakout session. So without further ado, I think we can begin to move people into the rooms. And I look forward to seeing what you come up with. See you in a bit. Fantastic, thank you very, very much. I hope that was a good discussion. I've been behind the scenes taking a look at those mural boards and it looks like it's been a very, very rich discussion. So perhaps we can now just, we're not going to be inviting a readout from each of the meetings because we want to maximize the time that we spend opening the floor for discussion. So perhaps we could project the first board, please, Harry, just so that we can very quickly show people what breakout group number one got up to. Thank you. Gladly, but you'll need to just send me the link and then I can share my browser. Oh, you have those, you should have those, but. Yes, I should. I do. Let me try to do that myself. Can people see that? Yes, thank you. Oh, okay, fantastic. So very quickly, we're going to take a look at what group number one got up to. Some of the tools that people say have worked include multimedia materials, videos, story maps, digital storytelling. There's a sense that the discussion also focused on high quality, multimedia materials like pictures, perhaps using drones and satellites to really show the scale of the areas where EVA approaches are at work. And clearly there's a sense that it's important to move into the digital space and make communications punctures. When it comes to the stories that we can tell, particularly from a community perspective, there's certainly a sense about engaging local groups, local villages, perhaps learning exchanges for sharing and reflecting together, maybe having more people join sessions like CBA and other similar events. When it comes to challenges, what group number one seemed to have been discussing is really how complicated it can be. And this is perhaps something that a lot of people can relate to, to get policymakers to see the link between service delivery and nature and how to really create spaces for the different groups to interact at different levels and to tailor communications materials to each of those audiences, which from experience can be so time consuming and challenging in its own way. It looks also that there's a sense that perhaps there's not enough data and evidence to portray specific issues. So something perhaps for colleagues in the research community to continue to consider as data is seen as essential in order to make the case. When it comes to what people may need to move forward with EVA, it looks like training on how to use digital effectively. It's probably among what this group really wanted. So we're gonna quickly move on to group number two and hopefully this works, sorry. Okay, so group number two told us that one of the areas that has worked are sort of taking a closer look at your audiences at your stakeholders, understanding those stakeholders, engaging the private sector, building evidence, clearly for group number two, this issue of preparation of understanding audiences of aligning the data and the evidence is really important as is dialogue, engagement and clearly policy briefs. We see a lot of stars in the policy briefs which clearly people have identified as an effective way of communicating EVA messages. When it comes to whose voices are brought to the fore, there's clearly a sense that the participation is ensuring participatory approaches is a way of ensuring that some local voices are part of the discussion as is to work together with grassroots organizations. It sounds like it's also so much about how the project is told. It's something about the how stories are shared. It seems to also matter for group number two as well as using participatory methodology such as participatory video. When it comes to some of the challenges, it seems to me here that there is a sense that it's complicated as group number one shared earlier to persuade policymakers of the benefits of EVA approaches how sometimes some people have said here something that I can certainly relate to is that EVA is a very abstract term and it can be very difficult to understand. Say we have different sort of terms. We have EVA, we have CSA, we have CVA and some of them can have overlapping actions and of course that can make our messaging complicated to different stakeholders. In terms of what group number two has identified that they would like, the national adaptation processes can be a good entrance point for mainstreaming, uniformity and guidelines and clarity around the different concepts for example, EVA, NBS, CBA, et cetera but also perhaps beginning to communicate around particular issues such as ecological, financial and livelihood benefits of EVA could also be helpful. Now let's have a quick look at group number three. So for group number three what has worked is once again, multimedia material using different networking platforms such as FIBA for example, Friends of EVA outreach to communities at the micro level again, once again, numbers, data evidence and to also think about the regularity of communication and the strategy that connects different levels. In terms of bringing in local voices there certainly seems to be part of the discussion and need to discuss stories that are centered on the experiences of communities and to try to identify ways to connect community needs to the planning that is being led by policymakers on the government side. In terms of challenges, it looks like group number three finds the engagement of private sectors being potentially quite challenging as well as the integration of EVA programs into private and government programs for conservation. It's also complicated as we all know to communicate where power inequalities exist and to bridge the discussion from the local to the global remains a big issue for everyone. Another challenge identified which is I think quite interesting is this issue about how we're talking about very long-term issues. So clearly this isn't something that can be addressed in the short term but that requires continued engagement and support in order to bear fruit. And lastly, in terms of what group number three identified as what they would need, it sounds like developing connections with different stakeholders perhaps understanding each other better, connecting more and beginning to forge more collaborative ties and relationships is something that people would find helpful. And lastly, we're gonna have a quick look at group number four. So in terms of what has worked connecting to people's needs, as Hazel was telling us not remaining on the scientific or the abstract, perhaps also working with community members as brokers engaging the range of stakeholders like local faith communities, for example, and to present EVA issues in the context of local beliefs, local priorities, faith and other issues. When it comes to whose stories people have talked about how important it is that the experiences of communities are recorded and are fed into reports and to perhaps take a closer look at the power dynamics in how NGOs work and how many times the stories begin with the international and international story and that these should start really from a local story. We're talking also about local languages and the importance of communicating in local languages. In terms of challenges, people are talking about different issues related to education at the syllabus once again, sort of the challenge of defining a complex issue like EVA, the inclusion of women and young people in leadership processes and another challenge is understanding policy processes and how to make an impact of them because if we don't understand them, we can of course not influence them. Also recognizing some of the human and social factors that drive environmental degradation and recertification and it looks like big marks there for making information digestible, accessible, relevant, understanding for our stakeholders. And lastly, when it comes to what people for me great for research and action funders to recognize the importance of building relationships and of social impacts, perhaps a little bit more support for communications, also understanding our gaps in communications, what we need to do a little bit more strategically, perhaps a bit more funding for approaches that recognize the need for communicating. EVA may be working with local media partners as well and also perhaps more resources for language and community knowledge and to take account of multilingual and multicultural context. So lots of great issues. I'm wondering now if we want to perhaps just leave minutes for those of you who have been with us from the start, if there's anyone who would like to share a particular experience, maybe something that has really inspired you or has really struck you from what's been discussed and shared today, studies of the different discussion in the small groups or from this brief readout from the other working groups. The floor is yours if anybody would like to say anything or to share any issues. If not, I think we can probably move on to another brief maintainer and that might be another way to get your views and to see what are the kinds of things that you have found more inspiring and more interesting or that you'd really like to take away from this discussion. Harry, could we perhaps have that slide please? Thank you. So a quick reminder to go back to menti.com and use code 86973156 and perhaps have a look at the first question. I think we have a couple of questions there. And I think that the answers are beginning, we'll probably begin to show live. And the first question is where are the challenges in communicating EBA and food security? So one of the challenges that we find is that there's insufficient context-specific evidence on how EBA supports food security, communication about the effectiveness of EBA is often not tailored to the target audience and that sometimes we lack the tools and skills to communicate about EBA. It looks like we're fairly even in terms of what people find challenging about the communication of EBA. But in any case, it seems that perhaps the issue of tailoring information about EBA to our different audiences is an issue that people are finding particularly challenging. Of course, this involves a better understanding of different groups, more resources to do that, more dialogue, different cuts of materials to be shared working in different spaces in different locations and in different languages oftentimes. A lot of this was reflected in the breakout groups. Great, thank you very much. Could we perhaps go to the second question? So once again, in Mentimeter, just a quick recap of from everything that you've heard today and from your own experience, what tools work best to communicate EBA to decision makers? And I think here we're inviting you to do a bit of a word cloud. So perhaps some of these, so we've heard for example, a lot about policy briefs, we've heard about videos, we've heard about meetings, about dialogues. It'd be great to hear from you about some of the approaches that you have found helpful. So those are beginning to pop up. Looks like understanding of the different audiences is something that keeps on coming back. Videos look like they're quite popular as our resources, as photos, videos, films, what an interesting set of words coming up there. Thank you very, very much for that. Looks like there's quite a lot of, quite a lot of agreement on some of the communications tools and certainly the challenges that we have to overcome as a community in order to communicate EBA more effectively and build greater support for EBA approaches. So now we are nearing the end of our session and it's my pleasure to invite two major supporters of EBA to share with us some final reflections. So first, let me invite Dr. Kloser-Zuwa, head of department, Climate Policy. Excellent, yeah, thank you so much. And thank you so much for this truly interesting session, which I really enjoyed and I'm very honored and pleased to be able to speak today on behalf of the International Climate Initiative and perhaps to share some thoughts and some reflections also from the breakout group just now, which I found very productive. So thank you for organizing it also in such a participating way. I mean, you're most probably aware that the German federal ministry for the environment has been quite supportive and instrumental in promoting and consolidating EBA especially through the International Climate Initiative, the IKI. And we have done a cross check and since 2008, actually their EBA has been integrated in the top priority within the IKI adaptation portfolio. By the way, with a very strong focus on food security issues, but not only and there are over 60 projects currently ongoing with a funding of more than 350 million euros, which are actually focusing on EBA. So that is quite a large amount within our IKI portfolio and therefore also underlines the important of EBA within the International Climate Initiative and that will definitely stay. And I mean, what we have discussed in the breakout group but also what was underlined in the presentations is of course the need and the importance to integrate the different communities, including also the indigenous communities into the IKI projects. And that for us is a priority when we look at our IKI projects that the communities are playing a very strong role in that communities and that we have the communities at the core and in the center of the EBA activities because otherwise it will not work because local communities, indigenous communities, they hold the knowledge, they drive the change obviously in their communities that was also very well presented in the different presentations by the panelists and actually local communities ensure the sustainability of IKI projects for sure. Nature-based solutions were mentioned and they are gaining more importance also because now the new UN decades on ecosystem restoration have started recently. So on nature-based solutions in this regard also, EBA is becoming more important and therefore, I mean, most probably not a big surprise is that EBA within the IKI portfolio will stay a high priority. And we want to continue to raise awareness also with our IKI funding on the importance of EBA. Something that we discussed is the topic of upscaling. So how to upscale EBA and also communication-related issues. And I mean, there might be various elements but I would like to point out three main elements on how to upscale EBA and how crucial it is. First of course, it's not a big surprise but what we need to find and where we also need to get better at is how to strengthen and establishing policy and legal frameworks that connect to EBA. So that can really trigger progress on EBA. EBA is happening very often on the community level. How can we get it integrated into policy and legal frameworks on governmental and state level is one of those upscaling priorities. Secondly, it also important to mobilize investments and to enable the scale of projects and we have discussed this at least in our breakout group how to integrate public and private stakeholders more into EBA activities as well. And thirdly, it's also important to think about how to use what kind of information in particular how to better integrate scientific knowledge scientific information also to convince different stakeholders to invest in EBA. By the way, we also should turn our attention to perhaps other overlooked areas and ecosystems and explore also new constellation of actors. I mean, it's a repeating message often since years that we have to attract also non-traditional alliances and how to integrate the private sector. And I guess we are still a little bit too short on how to integrate the private sector, but this is a priority. Let me finally also summarize a little bit of communication. I mean, we have discussed this now how to communicate better on EBA. For the IKI, this is already since years a priority communication, learning, the exchange is a key priority for the IKI. There is an IKI financed Friends of EBA. Many of you hopefully know it's a network, a Friends of EBA network, global network of stakeholders, organizations that are already involved in the implementation of EBA and also how to integrate it on a policy maker level. And this is, I guess, quite important because there's a missing link very often that of course, EBA is a people and community-centered approach, but the link to the governmental planning is often missing. But when we talk about communication, we also need to think about how to bring the communication from a community perspective on board. So not only to talk about how can we enable communication for the communities, but also how can we involve the communities into such communication activities into communication products. So also to ask communities how communication should look like, for example, when we talk about EBA. In the past 12 years, I mean, what we have tried and we will continue to try is within the IKI and through the IKI to support partner countries in mainstreaming EBA in policy and legal frameworks to make the connection to this missing link between community-based EBA activities and governmental policy plans. And also looking at the end of this year with the COP26 in Glasgow, but also with the CBD COP15, I think there is a momentum again to focus stronger on EBA and how we can promote EBA for us at IKI Secretariat. It's going to be a priority at the COP as well, how to enable EBA into national planning, adaptation planning, the NDCs of course, but also other sectorial policies. So perhaps that's already enough for some closing remarks from my side. Thank you so much to the International Institute for the Environment and Development for hosting. This truly interesting CBD. And I also would like to thank TMG Research for inviting me to this interesting session. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Dr. Kloso-Zuba. IKI has been a great supporter of EBA and it's great to hear of its continued support for this agenda. And we're very grateful to you for having taken such an active role and participated throughout the session. Thank you very, very much. Now, let me invite me Cecilia Kinuti and Jenga, who is the head of the sub-regional office and regional program coordinator in Southern Africa, UNEP. Cecilia, over to you. Thank you very much. It's indeed a great pleasure for me to join you and even to listen in and just be part of this sharing of the role of communities and the role of information, communication and engagement, real engagement of communities in our actions to address the climate change action but also biodiversity conservation. I'll start with the words of my mentor. I had the opportunity early on in my career to work with Professor Wangari Madai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner. And I learned a lot from her as I started my career as a community activist and particularly bringing the role of women, the heart of environmental protection but also of conservation but also ensuring of the mainstreaming of community action and women's contribution to the core of policymaking. And one of the things she always said was that you cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, unless you inform them and unless you involve them and help them understand that these resources are their own and they must also participate in protecting them. This meeting and this conference is also being held at the backdrop of Mr. Thorsten from IKI said, the backdrop of the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration which we launched last week. What we are looking at is the need for accelerating real action in reversing land degradation that's negatively affecting the well-being of about 3.2 billion people. The loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services is really glaring at our forefront in terms of calling for action as we are continuously annually losing about 10% of our global GDP. Moving on to just talking about the forests cover, we have lost since the year 2000 about 70 million hectares of forest land across the world and also lost about 70% of the world's wetlands in the last century. We've also seen a drastic decline of coral reefs and seagrass beds. And therefore with the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration, we are calling for some actions in the strategy and I'm really glad listening into the feedback from the group discussions that many of these actions have actually been talked about. We are calling on all of you to be part of a global movement and also calling just like we have, whether it is in the Paris Agreement or it's in the 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, an increase in financing to ensure that we are able to do real restoration on the ground of course using EBA approaches. We are calling for this setting up of the right incentives but also celebrating leadership and the videos that I watched from Namakua to Maharashtra was really encouraging and seeing how community leadership is playing a significant role in the whole area of EBA. We're also calling for our shifting behavior but also the importance of us investing in research and building capacity but also celebrating the culture of ecosystem-based adaptation and the restoration actions that we are taking place. We are calling on all of you to build the next generation of EBA practitioners, EBA knowledge generators, EBA tools, EBA mainstreaming and EBA evidence-based decision-making. But more importantly, we need to listen and learn and I really enjoyed just listening and learning from all of you. For UNEP, ecosystem-based adaptation is a strategy for adapting to climate change that harnesses on nature-based solutions and also ecosystem services. And we've all listened to examples from you about protecting coastal habitat, also looking at the importance of natural flood defenses. Also the whole importance of restoration which can hold back on desertification and recharge groundwater supplies in terms of drought. We have also heard about water bodies like rivers and lakes providing natural drainage to reduce flooding. Currently, UNEP in collaboration with many partners and including the CSA at the moment here in South Africa, we are supporting over 54 ecosystem-based adaptation projects. And these combined projects that are aiming to restore around 113,000 hectares of land benefiting 2.5 million people around the world. Even though green-green outcomes and ecosystem-based adaptation protect vulnerable communities from extreme weather, it simultaneously provides a variety of ecological benefits, so crucial for human well-being, water, food, energy, et cetera. And so we know that when we talk about EBA and I just, I had one of the reporters talking about the whole complexity of definition. I would not like us to get lost in the definition of what EBA is. We do know that primarily, even though we are focusing on adaptation approaches, EBA also contributes simultaneously to climate change mitigation by reducing emissions that transpire from habitat loss and ecosystems degradation. I would like to very quickly highlight some lessons that are critical. First is in which you have echoed is a critical nature of an inclusive and a full engagement process. Whether it's in policy, whether it's in action, whether it's in financing, whether it's capacity-building. Communities and people are at the heart of policy-making. They are at the heart of research, research findings and research uptake and research action. They're also at the heart of participatory methodologies we have so much talked about. We need to leverage from the tools, from community marketing that I heard from Uganda, including the utilization of artificial intelligence and drones in order for us to inform and have evidence that can impact and influence their decision-making. These definitions should not limit our work. We should leverage from multimedia and multi-partner platforms. Let us also have the culture of storytelling. Let us share our stories. Let's not be shy about our stories and bring them out to the limelight like we have done today. Gender mainstreaming and youth engagement are also central to the success of the work we are doing. I also want to highlight the tensions that exist. For those of us that work in the EBA sector, we do know the tensions between communities and private sector. Let's confront those tensions. Let's not be shy of it, but let's highlight in a very constructive way the importance of nurturing our ecosystems and ensuring that private sector approaches, whether it's the extractive industry or any other industries that impacts on our ecosystems and the livelihoods of communities. Let's get to the table. Let's engage them and let's highlight the plight and the impacts, but also the benefits of a collaborative approach that would be significantly beneficial to all parties. Let's work with local governments to integrate EBA into the planning processes or not just integrating into planning, but let's ensure that local plans, national plans adequately budgets for our initiatives. Indigenous knowledge is central and let's not forget or you call it backward. Let's make Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous systems, Indigenous processes and actions as being very central in the way we undertake EBA. I cannot forget about entrepreneurship opportunities. The innovations and business innovations that are emerging through nature-based solutions, integration as part and parcel of the process. Let's get our young people out there experimenting, innovating, coming up with entrepreneurship opportunities that not only builds on creating new green jobs but also in protecting our ecosystems. In conclusion, I'd like to say that in this process and in this whole conference, you're hearing more about the Global EBA Fund. This is an opportunity for you to seek grants for innovative approaches to EBA. If you do not have that information, we can share that. But the first call for the proposals of course posed in March, but this is a continuing process and you can be able to continue process of media participation. We are encouraging catalytic initiatives to help overcome identified barriers for upscaling EBA. And we do hope that by supporting catalytic interventions, this Global EBA Fund will contribute to enhancing strategic policy, mainstreaming and incentivize innovative finance mechanisms and private sector investments. This fund will collect knowledge, evidence and stories about EBA initiatives along with lessons for upscaling the practice. So on behalf of IUCN in Europe, I really encourage you and invite you to seek that opportunity. In conclusion, I'll always conclude with a statement and one of the greatest quotes of Professor Wangari Madai. She said that today, we face the challenge that calls us to shift our thinking so that humanity stops threatening its life support system. We are called to assist the earth to heal our wounds and in the process, heal our own. Indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, its beauty and its wonder. Our world's ecosystems are in danger, but they can be restored and it will be the collective steps we take together with communities that will ensure that we are given a space to thrive. Welcome you to also join Generation Hashtag and join Hashtag Generation Restoration, which is the tag word for the UN Decade for Ecological Restoration. Thank you very much and it's indeed a great pleasure to IED to CSA for inviting us, to inviting me as representing UNEP to be part and parcel of this very, very exciting session. Thank you very much and have a great day. Thank you so much Ms. Jenga for that most inspiring and energizing closing remarks. I think I speak on behalf of all of us that it's been fantastic to have you with us, to you and to Dr. Closer for your participation and for really sending us off feeling so inspired and energized. Now, before we let you get on with the rest of the conference, we would love to do a very quick group photo with everybody who's around. So if we could ask you to please turn on your cameras just for a few seconds and we're gonna do a cute little collage just for us to keep us a souvenir. Well done everybody. Don't be shy, please, those of you remaining. I think I've got a few screenshots, so. Fantastic. Thank you so much Arjuna. Thank you so much to everybody for joining us. Thank you to our organizers, Conservation South Africa and D&G Research and to CBA and to the CBA conference for giving us this platform to discuss this fascinating topic. It's been my pleasure to be your moderator today. I hope you've had a good and insightful and fruitful session. And now I'm going to leave you with Arjuna Sporgi from Conservation South Africa who will close the session on behalf of the organizers. Thank you very much. Thank you very much Gabriella and it really is my honor to be able to close the session and firstly thank you Gabriella for your amazing moderation and to all of the speakers and then to all of you for your amazing inputs. It really had an incredible energy. I'm hugely inspired and I really also wanna thank the two closing remarks Klaus and Cecilia, I think you really left up with some inspiring messages. So the last thing I just want to say is that in terms of next steps, two things that obviously all of the information that we have generated through this very fruitful discussions will be captured in a report that the team will co-late shortly and will be available on the CBA website as well as of course the recording of this event. And then just one other resource that will be available is Gabriella is going to lead us through developing a blog which will provide some reflections some more personal reflections about her and the team's participation in such an event and about how we are communicating EBA effectively. So you please look out for that blog also on the ID website. So with that, I'd like to thank you all for your participation and enjoy the rest of the conference and have a lovely day. Thank you, bye bye.