 Bingo! Climate change beyond outrage. I'm Jay Fiedel. The lady at my left is Anu Hiddle. She's the ordinary host of climate change beyond outrage. But we're going to do it this way today because we need to have a special report from her. Now, it seems that 10 days ago we had a meeting of the IUCN and they were conducting their World Conservation Congress for the first time in the United States and certainly the first time in Hawaii. And Anu was there the whole time reporting for ThinkTek. Amazing. She took footage. She talked to people. She ran around. She examined the whole thing. She met the people. She found the essence, okay? And that's why we're going to give Anu the opportunity to present to you. She's made a presentation. She's going to look right in the camera and she's going to present her rendition of what happened subject to, you know, further discussion. You'll see. Anu, all yours. Thank you, Jay. And thank you. It was a pleasure to be there and an honor to be there from ThinkTek. So I wanted to just mention that I will talk a little bit about the IUCN and the World Conservation Congress and then maybe we could talk more if you have questions. So I wanted to bring you the special edition and to talk about how conservation at the global level is really making a difference on the ground, okay? So on Saturday was the end of the biggest conservation event ever called the World Conservation Congress. 10,000 people, heads of organizations, country ministers and young people gathered for 10 days to talk conservation. This is the biggest event ever in conservation. So you, like many other people, Jay, might be wondering what a behemoth of a meeting can really do. What effect does it have on anything, especially a meeting whose organizing body is headquartered in Switzerland? At first glance, it reeks of bureaucratic inertia, overblown budgets and of course a huge carbon footprint. So in this segment, let's talk a little bit about what it actually does and accomplishes. But first, a little bit about what is the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and what is the World Conservation Congress. Funny you should say that because I was going to ask you, what is it? What are they? How are they related? What's going on here? Right. So it's like the Olympics on the presidential elections, all kind of combined in one. The World Conservation Congress takes place every four years. This year in Hawaii, right in our backyard, the IUCN or that International Union for the Conservation of Nature, it's like the organizing committee of the Olympics. And according to IUCN, it supports scientific research, manages field projects all over the world and brings governments, NGOs, the UN and companies together to develop policies, laws and best practice. So it has almost 1300 government and NGO members and more than 15,000 volunteer experts in 185 countries. In some ways, it's like the intergovernmental panel on climate change. I do all the climate change stuff, so I thought I'd throw that in there. But it's like that only for biodiversity and sustainable development issues. So the first part of the Congress is like the Olympic Games themselves. People come together to Hobnab, do some serious work and learn more about their fields. There's an opening ceremony, socials and events and that is something that already happened. And then the second part, which started about halfway through, is called the members' assembly. And I think of that part as the elections, the business of the organization. And it sounds boring maybe, but before I try to convince you otherwise, let's look at what the IUCN actually does. So believe it or not, it actually creates action on the ground. The IUCN is most known for its red list. And a red list tells us how endangered a species is, how vulnerable is it? And IUCN likes to say that red list is like a barometer of life and a critical indicator of the health of the world's biodiversity. Since 1964, it has been cataloging the conservation status of everything that lives, fungi, plants, animals. The IUCN red list now includes 83,000 species of which 24,000 are threatened with extinction. So the red list helps governments, organizations and groups make their own priority lists and their funding lists. So having the Congress come here to Hawaii meant that there was action on the ground for groups here, especially in preparation for the meeting. Plant experts got together to bring Hawaiian endangered species into that red list process to give them more attention and funding. So let's meet some of the species on the red list. And we've got three of those right here that maybe Zuri can put on. This cute little bird, the Oahu Elepayo, is found only in the mountains of Oahu, nowhere else in the world. It is in the monarch flycatcher family. Development and disease have taken their toll on this bird. Since humans arrived in the Hawaiian islands, the species has declined by 96 percent. By last count in 2010, there were only 300 birds left in the Waianae mountain on the western side of Oahu. On the red list, the Elepayo is endangered. The Hawaiian monk seal is one of the most endangered marine mammals in the world. The Hawaiian name means dog that runs in rough waters, which is appropriate since the seals are found spread all over the Hawaiian archipelago. Their numbers have been declining steadily. Oceanographic changes affect their food, which in turn affects their numbers. Only about 1200 individuals are left in the wild. The monk seal is endangered on the red list. Okay, I always thought geraniums were grown in suburban gardens until I came to Hawaii. This geranium called Noa Anu grows only in east Maui, mostly around the volcano Haleakala, nowhere else in the world. It is threatened by feral pigs and goats, fire and invasive species. Last day looked botanists only found 40 of these plants in the wild. On the red list, it is critically endangered. Okay, we're back. We're here with Anu. Anu Hiddle. We're talking about climate change beyond outrage. And more specifically, we're talking about what happened at the World Conservation Congress just a few days ago. So you were actually in the in the act of making a presentation. I was enjoying it very much. Why don't you resume the presentation, Anu? I reserve the right, however, to interrupt you at any time. Well, so those species that you just saw, those are Hawaiian species that are already on the red list. And what happened was that 780 of the 1375 native plant species in Hawaii were targeted as candidates for that red list. About 400 or so, maybe a little more, were assessed as threatened to some degree or another by the IUCN committees. And we'll see a little video of one of our my colleagues from the Royal Botanical Gardens queue. So there's been some great, great, great activities going on. There's just so much to try and fit in and do. But I've been really looking at some of the red listing work, because we've been involved in that very, very closely. And in fact, this evening, we're going to be signing the red list partnership agreement, which is the red list partners going forward for the next five years. But also just integrating a whole great number of case studies as well. And I'm meeting old friends. I mean, that's the other I just bumped into at lunchtime, Yongsik Kim, who's a professor from South Korea, who spent six months working with us at Cune. And so it's the forum where you can really see and bump into people from all over the world. One of the major outcomes of this year's red list assessment was that four out of six great ape species are now critically endangered, only one step away from becoming extinct, with the remaining two also under considerable threat of extinction. And then on September 3rd, IUCN launched a new guide, launched new guidelines for assessing species vulnerability to climate change. And these guidelines update the methods and tools available to the conservation community and draw from some case studies. So about 30 scientists from around the world have been involved. And the important thing is that this is not just for polar bears, but also for corals, butterflies, wildflowers, anything that lives. There are species that have been downlisted in case you think this is all doom and gloom and downlisted means that they're no longer as threatened as they were, such as the giant panda, which moved from critically endangered to vulnerable. So it's not like it's in the clear, but it is somewhat better off than it was. It means, as the director general of IUCN put it, conservation works. But overall, the state of the world's biodiversity is not good. And the forecast also not good. So how did we counteract some of this gloom and doom at the conference? There were superstars of conservation to inspire young and older like Jane Goodall, best known for her work with chimpanzees, speaks for all species, including humans. So if we have a photo here, and of course, I got to have a photo with her and cow. And she says, the small actions can make change. My challenge is every day, think about the small choices you make. There's a little video I had of her saying that. As I think it was Alison who said they feel I'm one person, what can I do? So they do nothing. And the point is that small actions in cumulatively as they go around the world can make change. Alison said that. But my challenge is every day, think about the consequences of the small choices you make. What do you buy? Where did it come from? Did it come from? Was it made by child slave labor in a faraway place? What do you eat? Does it come from intensive agricultural farming? Terrible industrial animal factory farms. You know, these just think about the consequences of the little things you do, which means I suppose this is the second point, you have to learn a little bit more about these things. And now we've just had a bill passed that says, we can't decide whether to buy genetically modified food or not because we're not allowed to label the foods. That is wicked. But she obviously has a point of view. She said something like, I loved when she said, that's just wicked. Also to inspire us was E. O. Wilson, father of the term biodiversity. We have a photo of him as well. Here he is. Whoops, that's Jane Goodall. So the next one. Yeah, so there's E. O. Wilson at the head of the table. And he's with all of us media folks. So again, E. O. Wilson is he's a professor now at well now retired from Harvard University, but he basically coined the term biodiversity. And he also is an entomologist. So he he waxes eloquent about the most beautiful animal in the world, the ant. So when I asked him what IUCN could do to be most effective, his response was basically habitat conservation. We need to make more protected areas because we have so few left. Check out his new book, by the way, it's called Half Earth, which talks about protecting half the earth and how to do that. So in addition to all these celebrities, I also got a sense of excitement and anticipation from participants. Of course, the big news was the expansion of Papa Hanau Mokua Kea Marine National Monument. It has quadrupled in size. And this was a great time to celebrate that. And there's a I have a clips, some clips here from the conference talking about all the the participants who loved, who are interested in and what's going on. So you can get a sense of the excitement here. Tell me about the conference. What are you excited about? My God, marine protected areas, conserving our oceans. I've got great hopes and expectations. We've made a prox statement, expanding Papa Hanau Mokua Kea is a good way to kick things off. That's why you're here. Well, I've never been to an IUCM conference and I've always been a big admirer of IUCM. So I thought it would be really interesting to stay with them. IUCM is very unusual to be together at DOs and government. And so they play a very unusual role in their household environment issues, because they're, they're environmental advocacy but they're also very impractical because they bring together all this great experience. So regarding the environment, the challenges facing the environment, that is very, very important. And I think that it is the opportunity to make together to talk about what is ahead, regarding the conservation, regarding the state of the nature and all those things that are very important, not only now but for the future generations. That's why I'm very excited to be here and also people in Hawaii. Thank you. Aloha. And you're from where? I'm from Senegal. And what organization are you representing? I represent the Municipal Environment of Senegal. Very nice. Because I'm the governor of the state of Senegal. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. And what you're most excited about? This is a huge event and it talks about the global issues and the global issues all and different ethnicities and different religions and different diversity. So we are really excited to learn all about. And at the same time to share a few things from Sri Lanka to the global women. Very nice. Thank you. The great thing about this conference is meeting people, practitioners from the field, hands-on knowledge and cross-pollination of ideas. I think there is a huge amount of, I think we are meeting from 9000 beautiful people, very rare on this planet, under one roof. So there you are, 10,000 beautiful people from all over the world. Let's take a break but don't go away. There'll be more to come in this segment. We'll continue to demystify the IUCN and the Congress in the second segment. This is Climate Change Beyond Outrage. I'm Anu Hiddle with my Uber host, Jay Fidel. We'll be back. Hi and thanks for watching Think Tech Hawaii. My name is Justine Espiritu and I host the Hawaii Food and Farmer series with my co-host, Matthew Johnson of Iwahu Fresh. Every week we bring on farmers as well as all the other individuals and organizations that help support the thriving sustainable food system. In fact, it's interesting to learn what others are doing so you don't have to be a Hawaii resident or producing food on Hawaii to be featured on the show. Like today's guest, Wyatt Bryson of Jewels of the Forest and Michael Lab Solutions. Aloha, thank you. It's been a pleasure being on the show. I love seeing what you guys do and I really support your mission and it's really nice being back in Hawaii and thank you again. It's an honor. So you can see guests like Wyatt every Thursday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. Thank you. Okay, we're back. Anu Hiddle is giving us a complete report on what happened at the World Conservation Congress. She spent every day of the Congress there and she reported back a number of times by Skype at the end of the day. That was great. We called it five minutes at five and now she's giving us a wrap up of what she learned and what she saw who she talked to. Please continue on it. Well, thank you, Jay. I know you're not enjoying this because I'm not letting you talk. I'll find a way. All right, so now as you know, IUCN has a history of working on global agreements. Back in 1980, it coined the term sustainable development to include poverty alleviation, food security and biodiversity conservation. In fact, it's had its hand in a lot of global agreements, convention on international trade of endangered species which is fondly known as CITES, convention on biological diversity, the Ramsar convention on wetlands, you name it. So it's also been very insistent that it is all about people. It is the international union for the conservation of nature, yes, but nature includes people. I suppose it's trying to counter a criticism that traditional conservation has faced in the past, that there is a dichotomy between people and nature, people as separate from nature. So to try to overcome this dichotomy, IUCN has been advancing the sustainable development agenda. And if you would like a little refresher, let's take a quick look at those 17 goals and I've got a photo here of them. Now if you just look at them, Jay, if you look at it, goal number one is no poverty and in all of these, no zero hunger, good health, well-being, etc., these are all things that have to do with people. I mean when you look at really you're going down to 13, climate action which is my favorite one, 14 you're looking at life below water, 15 you're looking at life on land. So you're really starting to incorporate a little bit more of nature, but really you're looking at people, right? They have the debates about this. I mean for example, they have a debate about the no poverty one where you know some people on one side debate said no, we don't want poverty anymore on the other side, said yes, we need poverty in this world. I mean was there any disagreement about these things? No and that's the good thing about this, is that they're trying to forward this agenda. So they've put forward these goals to achieve them by 2030 that was the UN that did it last September and the IUCN you will notice you know it's working with the UN on all of these issues. So it's been it's sort of the first I would say the first time that they've really come together to push this agenda forward and at the congress a high level session with the UNFCCC head which is and I'm sorry you're going to ask me, I know you're going to ask me this question. What UNFCCC? Is that like OCCC? No, what is it? Is the United Nations something? Yes, you got the first part right, so that's the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. So I was hoping you would catch me but you didn't so I caught myself. Well anyway the head of the Framework Convention Patricia Espinosa and the Rams are Wetlands Commissioner and others they all discuss these nature-based solutions so IUCN really is about these nature-based solutions and the fact is that these representatives of global treaties there's Patricia Espinosa and all of the panel there so the fact that they're meeting means that there is cross-pollination going on between these agreements and IUCN and really so IUCN also helps you know with mobilizing data through its members and it helps to monitor projects works with policy groups at local national global levels does all of these things and that red list that I mentioned earlier I just wanted to say but through that red list IUCN works with goals of the Convention on Biodiversity which is the sister convention that was drafted and signed in 1992 at the same time as the UNFCCC but to deal with stemming biodiversity loss and the Bionerds and the policy wonks among you might want to know that it addresses target 12 of the strategic plan for biodiversity for this decade. And what exactly is target 12? For the rest of us it's just comforting that these big agreements talk to each other and that IUCN members are governments, NGOs, businesses and more and so here you know you see what's target 12? You're going to keep on with that I'll come back to it. So here we've got a sampling of people who I interviewed and to try and figure out you know why are they there? And this is Malia Nobrega Oliveira from Kaua'i and I'm here at IUCN and I'm hosting the Indigenous Women's Biodiversity Network. We're a network of Indigenous women that raise the issues around Indigenous women and just bringing it to these discussions because many times women are left out of the discussion and we're here to make sure that we're heard, our voices are heard. So yesterday I was a part of six Indigenous Hawaiian women presented about our climate change work and using traditional methodology based around the lunar calendar to raising awareness about it we're teaching people how to use it and we feel that it's an adaptation methodology from a traditional perspective on just being able to observe our beautiful environment and really teaching our young ones to connect with it so through these methods we feel that we can really become more related and just aware and be able to predict and know what the trends are to come especially with our changing climate. What's DOD doing here? My name is Marking Oli I'm the environmental chief for the Air Force for the Pacific Region I work for the Air Force Civil Engineering Center and this is our poster addressing recent critical research on Wake Island. Wake Atoll is one of the most isolated Atolls in the world and it has a lot of Indian species we have critical operations, we have barge operations that have to get in there quarterly or semi-annually so to ensure that we don't impact any of these sensitive species in the area we are doing extensive surveys in cooperation with the Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA and one of the unique aspects of Wake Island and Wake Atoll is that we have the largest population of bumphead para fish in the US So finally and as importantly the congress is also a place where you can observe democracy and a civil society in action so this is what I call peace at work where members exercise their rights and influence the conservation agenda around the globe. The main business of the meeting after all the events and the sessions were done was to pass a series of motions that the congress the organization itself endorses and 85 motions were debated online for the first time all were approved to be voted on the floor of the assembly some with amendments these were voted on on block and then passed 14 were put forward for discussion and debate at the assembly itself some of the most exciting ones were on closing domestic markets for elephant ivory which went on till the last session of the last day and the congress did vote all members I think about 91 members actually voted to close down the markets I'm sorry 91% of the vote and for me the IUCN's endorsement of the Paris Agreement was worth noting and the motion to set aside 30% of the world's oceans and protection so these motions are what make up what is called soft policy or soft law they're not actually law yet and that soft policy is something that will eventually become action it's taken up by governments, organizations community groups, people just like those red lists and that's really what this was about well it sounds like a real kumbaya I mean everybody coming together everybody agreeing on everything everybody all the conservationists there including a lot of activist type conservationists all concerned that the planet is being deteriorated all concerned that we have to take some kind of collective action but it's sort of an example of like pre-international law international law has questionable force nobody's willing to go out there and enforce it with the traditional methodology of enforcing things and in this case it doesn't have the force of law so my question to you and I hope you can give me some answer my search, my pilgrimage here is to find out where this all really goes and how does it affect me how does it affect the people in our community and other communities in Minnesota what does it mean to us or is it just a lot of social engagement well there is the social engagement but of course I don't care about that part I want the real meat of it yes and so really what I think happens with this if you're a local activist group or just a local group trying to take action that you have the weight of the global community behind you saying yes this is what needs to happen and you can say to your policymaker at the local level that the whole world thinks we should be doing X so the proof of the pudding is somebody goes to the legislature at the end of December early January here in Hawaii we've passed this these 90 resolutions and we had some very lofty thoughts to protect all aspects of the environment here's a bill pass the bill and then you gotta see what happens that's where the rubber meets the road and the bill is not just a feel nice bill it's a real action bill with real teeth in it real sanctions in it and it says you will save the planet to money somebody is going to be inconvenienced economic interests are going to be unhappy about it but you will pass the bill and then see what happens are you going to be involved in that? well I'm more of an academic than an activist these days right but thank you for Uber hosting me alright well why don't you close and make some grand statement about this what this all means right so what this all means is that Hawaii actually for Hawaii and with this wonderful announcement of the Marine National Monument expansion and Hawaii has got several of its plants now on the red list which means that it will draw attention both for priority listing as well as for funding the conservation activities around these plants and I think that is really exciting and in between all of those events it will spawn a whole bunch of other conservation work that's going on already going on it will strengthen that work will you cover it? I will certainly cover it when the opportunity arises but my next coverage is of the natural areas conference in October and they will be focusing on climate change issues wow we learned so much Anu Hiddle the host of climate change beyond outrage checking in at the WCC World Convention World Congress World Conservation Congress thank you so much Anu thank you