12 October 2023|News
The UNEP-IEMP team visited Nepal during Sep 25-30th, 2023 for implementing the joint UNEP-NSFC project entitled "Developing Nature-based Solutions for Nepal following a Nexus Approach towards Sustaining Forestry, Water Resources and Livelihoods". The project team surveyed the study area of Phewa watershed in Pokhara, and visited the local research partner-Nepal’s Institute of Forest, and successfully conducted the International Symposium on the Forests-Water-Livelihood Nexus in the Lesser Himalaya.
During this field survey on September 26-27th, the social-economic and ecological baseline study of the Phewa watershed conducted by the Nepal’s Institute of Forest was shared and participants further explored on the coupled issues of forests, water and local livelihoods in the context of Nepal’s community forestry programme. There were also field investigations at the Pudi watershed, Shorea forest and abandoned agricultural land through discussions with local communities. An exchange seminar and field visit were organized at Nepal’s Institute of Forest and its restoration sites and spring sheds.
Project team’s field survey in Pokhara, Nepal
During the International Symposium on the Forests-Water-Livelihood Nexus in the Lesser Himalaya on September 28-30th, about 50 experts, government officials, UNEP and International organization representatives participated. Its aims were to share research and exchange experiences and ideas, develop a synthesis of the state of knowledge on the forest-water-livelihood nexus in the Lesser Himalaya region, and further identify outstanding knowledge gaps on community forestry-water-livelihood interactions and define pathways and collaborations towards closing these gaps.
UNEP-IEMP Director, Ms. Linxiu Zhang, gave opening and closing remarks at this symposium, emphasizing the science for policy interface and importance of understanding livelihoods and social-economic drivers when understanding the natural changes. Ms. Zhang also requested the project team to act locally but think globally, enhance our work’s science-policy interface and make contributions to UN SDGs, carbon neutrality, Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and UN Decade on Ecosystem restoration.
Through such exchange events, UNEP-IEMP’s partnership was strengthened, and a few follow-up actions on science for policy were identified to share these project results.
This joint project was led by the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and UNEP-IEMP, and participated by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal government, Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University of Nepal, USDA Forest Service, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
26 September 2023|News
The 5th UNEP-IEMP Science Advisory Group Meeting and the 7th UNEP-IEMP Steering Committee Meeting were organized back-to-back on 11 and 12 September 2023, respectively, in Beijing, China. These two meetings were led by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In these meetings, UNEP-IEMP`s programme and institutional development progress were reviewed and guidance on the work plan received. The highlighted progresses on science for policy, South-South cooperation, solution-oriented actions, and power of partnership were highly praised for its value added as the UNEP`s first collaborative center in the Global South. Recommendations on sustainability and impacts of current work, fundraising and strategic focus for current global agendas were well discussed. It is expected that UNEP-IEMP will be better geared up for supporting the member countries on the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and Nature-based Solutions.
Group photo of the UNEP-IEMP 7th Steering Committee Meeting
At the 7th Steering Committee Meeting, the UNEP-IEMP Work Plan 2023/2024 was approved with its 41 projects in 4 thematic portfolios and institutional development component.
21 September 2023|News
During September 8th to 10th, 2023, Ms. Susan Gardner (Director of Ecosystems Division, UNEP) and Ms. Linxiu Zhang (Director of the UNEP - IEMP) paid a visit to the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Yunnan Province, China.
During this visit, a fruitful seminar on "Biodiversity Conservation Efforts towards the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework" was held, where Ms. Susan Gardner expressed her purpose in exploring the endeavors of the XTBG in the realms of biodiversity conservation, ecological monitoring, and restoration. The event offered a platform for the XTBG to present their progress in various fields, including research on human-elephant conflicts, collaboration project between the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and UNEP, ecological monitoring at field stations, scientific research activities, and environmental education initiatives.
Both Ms. Susan Gardner and Ms. Linxiu Zhang lauded the remarkable research accomplishments achieved over the years by the XTBG in the fields of biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. They further encouraged researchers to seamlessly integrate research and practical applications in biodiversity conservation. This integration, they believed, could serve as a valuable scientific reference for sustainable utilization of regional land resources, the enhancement of community livelihoods, and the promotion of regional socio-economic development. At the same time, the participants engaged in in-depth discussions on how to promote biodiversity conservation and restoration under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The Venue for the Seminar
Apart from that, Ms. Susan Gardner and Ms. Linxiu Zhang also conducted on-site inspections of specialized botanical zones, scientific outreach facilities, and the Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem Research Station. All of these demonstrate the ecological preservation and restoration efforts within the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
This visit signifies the importance of international collaboration in addressing critical ecological challenges that could support on science for policy for UNEP in fostering partnerships for a sustainable and biodiverse future.
28 August 2023|News
From August 18 to 21, 2023, the China Agricultural and Forestry Economics and Management Annual Conference was successfully held in Yangling, Shaanxi Province. With the theme of "Building a Strong Agricultural Country and Realizing Comprehensive Rural Revitalization", the conference invited nearly 600 experts and scholars at home and abroad to give keynote speeches and reports on academic frontiers, and arranged various forms of academic exchanges, such as the Forum for Agricultural Entrepreneurs, the World Forum on Agricultural Economics, organized symposium, and selected sections.
Six members of UNEP-IEMP were invited to participate in this conference. In the afternoon of August 19, Dr. Yunli Bai organized a symposium titled "Rural Human Capital and Employment" and invited Professor Min Liu of Lanzhou University and Associate Professor Dingde Xu of Sichuan Agricultural University as discussants. There were 4 papers presented in this session and they were presented by Prof. Yu Bai from Minzu University of China, Xinrong Li, from China Agricultural University, and Jiaojiao Wu, as well as Yutong Qiu from UNEP-IEMP. Jiaojiao Wu presented the paper titled "The Evolution of Employment Quality and Occupation Types: Evidence from Rural China", which provided an empirical analysis of the differences in the employment quality of rural labor force among different occupations. Yutong Qiu gave a presentation on "The impact of Human Capital on the Employment Choice of Rural Laborers", which estimated the impact of education attainment on the formal and informal employment of rural labor.
Dr. Xiangbo Xu gave a presentation titled "Land operational scale and carbon emissions from cultivation: An analysis based on national rural fixed observation data". This study identified a U-shaped relationship between land operational scale and carbon emissions from crop cultivation, and analyzed the evolutionary pattern of optimal land operation scale. Xuanye Zeng gave a presentation on "Off-farm Employment, Agricultural Production Activities and Household Dietary Diversity: Evidence from Environmentally and Economically Vulnerable Regions in Asia". This study investigated the role of off-farm employment in improving household dietary diversity through the substitution, complementarity and income effects of agricultural production activities.
Dr. Bai Yunli and Dr. Xu were invited to serve as discussants for the sessions on "Human Capital" and "Ecology Governance", respectively.
With above activities, UNEP-IEMP members had in-depth exchanges with scholars from Peking University, Zhejiang University, Renmin University of China, Minzu University of China, China Agricultural University, and other universities and institutes. All their research perspectives were broadened, academic researches and exchange abilities were improved. The conference laid the foundation of cooperation between UNEP-IEMP and other institutions and universities.
24 August 2023|News
The Annual Meeting of the Association of American Agricultural and Applied Economics (AAEA) was held in Washington, DC during July 23-25, 2023. The AAEA Annual Meeting is one of the most authoritative conferences in the fields of agricultural economics, development economics and resource economics. The purpose of the China Section is to promote cooperation between AAEA members and other researchers in the fields of agriculture and applied economics related to China, to disseminate knowledge and mentor young scholars interested in these field, and to serve as an academic bridge between AAEA and other scholars around the world who are interested in China's agriculture, development, and resource economics. More than 140 papers were submitted to the China Section of this annual meeting, and 32 papers were selected for the annual meeting report.
Dr. Yunli Bai from the UNEP-IEMP research unit was invited to attend the China Section. Dr. Bai chaired the session on the theme "Public Policy and Inclusive Development in Rural China" and gave the oral presentation entitled "Off-Farm Employment, Agriculture Production Activities, and Household Dietary Diversity: Evidence from Five Developing Countries in Asia". This paper built a conceptual framework based on the household decision model. Based on the data collected by the UNEP-IEMP at the level of farmers and their family members in typical environment-economic fragile zones in five countries of East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, the paper estimated the impact of off-farm employment on the household dietary diversity and analyzed the role of the crop diversity and livestock and poultry raising from income effect, the substitution effect and the complementary effect between agricultural and off-farm activities. After the assessment of experts, this paper won the 2023 AAEA China Section "Excellent paper Award", one of the two awarded papers.
Dr. Yunli Bai was awarded the 2023 AAEA China Section "Excellent paper Award"
In addition, Dr. Bai also participated 3 keynote presentations and 6 session presentations, as well as had interactive discussions with scholars from many universities in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. She said that her research perspective was broadened, research method was improved, and established contacts with young scholars from many universities, laying a foundation for further exchanges and cooperation in the future.
24 August 2023|News
From 22-23 August 2023, the 1st Youth Innovation Forum on Digital Earth was successfully held in Beijing. With the theme of "Digital Earth in Support of Global Sustainable Development", the Forum aims to promote academic exchanges among young scientists in the field of Digital Earth and related disciplines and contribute their ideas and strength to global sustainable development. The Forum was hosted by the International Society for Digital Earth, the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, and the Aerospace Information Research Institute Chinese Academy of Sciences, and organized by the International Society for Digital Earth - Young Scientist Innovation Network (ISDE-YSIN) and Nanjing Normal University. The Forum included 1 distinguished lecture, 6 keynote speeches and 13 sessions. A total of 90 oral presentations were conducted, attracting more than 150 attendees on site.
Dr. Chao Fu from the UNEP-IEMP’s Research Unit was invited to attend the session of "Excellent Paper Award" at this Forum and made a presentation on a research paper titled with "Women's intra-household decision-making and household dietary diversity in environmentally and economically vulnerable areas of Asia: The role of crop diversity". In this paper, the UNEP-IEMP research team analyzed data collected through face-to-face interviews with more than 1,100 farmers in typical vulnerable areas of five Asian countries, including Nepal and Cambodia, and found that women’s intra-household decision-making on crop choice was highly associated with the household dietary diversity score. The finding implies that women’s intra-household decision-making on crop choice can enhance both agrobiodiversity conservation and food security. The paper was reviewed by experts and announced to be one of the four winners of the "Excellent Paper Award" at the closing ceremony of the Forum.
Participants of the session themed by "Regional Sustainable Development and Strategy Analysis"
In addition, Dr. Chao Fu attended sessions such as that themed by "Regional Sustainable Development and Strategy Analysis" and had interactive discussions with the speakers. He expressed that the Forum broadened his research perspectives and help establish contacts with young scholars from ISDE-YSIN and various universities and research institutions, laying the foundation for further exchanges and cooperation in the future.
23 August 2023|News
The United Nations Environment Programme-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP) successfully held its 7th Climate-Ecosystems-Livelihoods seminar titled "Climate change and low-carbon transition pathways" in the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences on 22 August 2023. The seminar was given by Dr. Jing Meng, Professor of University College London, research fellow of Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance in Cambridge University, and facilitated by Mingxing Sun, senior researcher of UNEP-IEMP.
Under the background of pursuing sustainable development, Prof. Meng shared the current research results from three aspects. Firstly, based on the inventory analysis research, the impact of economic globalization and trade on carbon emissions is modeled. The reduction pressure and unfairness of carbon emissions caused by increased demand are calculated from the demand side, and the impact of multinational corporations on carbon emissions in the industrial chain is concerned from the company scale. Secondly, from the perspective of policy, the socio-economic factors affecting carbon emissions are discussed. Taking emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region as an example, the heterogeneous roles of different energy policies in energy transition are compared. Finally, to explore how to achieve coordinated emission reduction of carbon and other pollutants, Prof. Meng pointed out that emission reduction requires the efforts of various industries, among which the path of emission reduction is more important. Emission reduction depends on technological progress. However, the current prediction model is difficult to accurately describe the development of technology. In the future, it is necessary to incorporate the uncertainty of technological development into the model and pay attention to developing countries.
During the interactive session, Prof. Meng answered questions about the effects of emission reduction policies in different countries and the embodied carbon emissions in the industry, and fully discussed with the participants on topics such as technology forecasting and policy formulation.
Low-carbon transformation is the way to promote sustainable development and achieve economic and environmental decoupling. It is closely related to the goal of UNEP-IEMP's Flagship Programme on Climate, Ecosystems, and Livelihoods (CEL) to adopt integrated approaches to achieve win-win of ecosystem protection and livelihood improvement. The seminar increases the understanding and thinking on how to achieve low-carbon transformation under the current social and economic background, builds a platform for interdisciplinary academic exchanges, and further strengthens the communication and exchange between the center and domestic and foreign scientific research institutions and universities.
21 July 2023|News
On July 19, 2023, UNEP-IEMP received Mr. Mahesh Pradhan, Coordinator of the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA), as part of his mission to China.
During his visit, Mr. Mahesh Pradhanwas warmly welcomed by the UNEP-IEMP team. He briefly explained about the COBSEA, which is a regional intergovernmental mechanism bringing together nine countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Viet Nam) in development and protection of the marine environment and coastal areas of East Asian Seas. COBSEA is one of 18Regional Seas programmes,administeredby theUnited Nations EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP)and the Secretariat is hosted byThailand. COBSEA focuses on addressing marine pollution,strengthening marine and coastal planning and management,and strengthened regional governance for marine environmental management. Then, Ms. Linxiu Zhang, Director of UNEP-IEMP, introduced the work of UNEP-IEMP. Discussion was followed on potential cooperation, for example on land-based pollution from agriculture, habitat conservation, sustainable blue economy and marine and coastal biodiversity conservation under the Global Biodiversity Framework in China and other COBSEA countries.
18 July 2023|News
On June 10-11,2023, the Third Taklimakan Desert Forum and the Second African Green Great Wall Capacity Building Workshop were successfully organized in Korla city of Xinjiang, China, with over 180 participants from China and 14 developing countries. Ms. Linxiu Zhang, Director of UNEP-IEMP, was invited to givea keynote presentation on "Ecosystem Restoration with Nexus Approaches: Actions, Impacts and Implications".
Ms. Linxiu Zhang emphasized the importance and progress of promoting nexus approach for sustainable development, and introduced some UNEP-IEMP actions, impacts and implications of nexus approach. Through the cases of building ecological green belt in Mauritania and empowering women on climate smart-agriculture in Ningxia, China, they well reflected the required efforts for multidisciplinary and cross-sector coordination, traditional wisdom and community participation, action-research to enhance science-policy interface, and women empowerment. Ms. Zhang elaborated on the important global opportunities and linkages towards the United Nations Decade of Ecological Restoration, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the UN Food System Transformation.
Director Linxiu Zhang gave a keynote presentation
The Forum was jointly organized by the Bureau of International Cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Association for Science and Technology of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Alliance of International Science Organizations and the Secretariat of the Pan-African Green Great Wall. The conference aims to share China's desertification control technologies and experiences, promote cooperation and exchanges between China and other countries in the field of land degradation and desertification control, and contribute to these goals like land degradation neutrality by 2030 and reduce degraded land by 50% by 2040.
During this conference, UNEP-IEMP also had discussion with different teams from Africa, Central Asia and China on the cooperation opportunities.
For more, please go to
Chinese, African experts call for collaboration against desertification-Xinhua (news.cn);
Interview: China's anti-desertification experience conducive to global green development, UN official says-Xinhua (news.cn)
17 July 2023|News
8-9 July 2023, the Eco Forum Global Guiyang 2023 was successfully held in Guiyang International Ecological Conference Center. The sub-forum on "Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains are Invaluable Assets: Innovations in Practice" hosted by the Guizhou Provincial People's Government, organized by the China Research Academy of Environmental Sciences and the Guizhou Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the China Environmental Protection Foundation was held in the afternoon of July 8. The sub-forum focuses on the practical innovation of the "Green is Gold" concept and is organized around two topics: "Ecological Civilization and Modernization of Harmonious Coexistence between Humanity and Nature" and "Practicing the Idea of 'Green is Gold' and Promoting Green and Low Carbon Development". In total, the Eco Forum Global Guiyang attracted more than 3,200 delegates from 42 countries and regions around the world.
Director Zhang Linxiu was invited to host the first dialogue "Ecological Civilization and Modernization of Harmonious Coexistence between Humanity and Nature". In the second dialogue "Practicing the Idea of 'Green is Gold' and Promoting Green and Low Carbon Development", she introduced the UNEP The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) agri-food system assessment in the national "Green is Gold" practice innovation base Tengchong City, Yunnan Province.
Director Zhang Linxiu began by emphasizing that TEEB's work in Tengchong is part of UNEP's efforts to support its member countries in their green transformation and achieving the SDGs. By conducting an economic assessment of different policy pathways in Tengchong’s agriculture and food systems, both visible and invisible costs and benefits are revealed to support the development and improvement of sustainable agriculture policies for agri-food system transformation. Five key messages from the TEEB Tengchong assessment were shared with the audience:
1. Tengchong City is rich in the values of ecosystem regulation services such as water regulation and purification, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration, and they are insensitive to different agricultural development pathways. This indicates that the ecosystems in Tengchong City are resilient enough to resist exogenous disturbances. Natural capital is one of the foundations of local economic and social development. For years, the forest cover in Tengchong has been maintained above 75%, which is related to the long-term protection of natural ecosystems by national and local policies.
2. Tengchong City's forest system has a strong natural carbon sink function, with carbon sequestration of 37.5 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 2020. In contrast, the greenhouse gas emissions from Tengchong City's agricultural system are relatively small: in 2020 agriculture GHG emissions account for about 2.67% of its annual carbon sequestration; by 2050, the proportion is expected to be around 5%. Different agricultural development paths will not change the fact that Tengchong functions as a carbon sink.
3. Nitrogen and phosphorus emissions from water pollution in agricultural systems need to be taken seriously. The nitrogen consumed by the water purification function of the natural ecosystem accounts for less than 7% of the total nitrogen discharge, and the phosphorus consumed accounts for less than 25% of the total phosphorus discharge. This indicates that the water pollution caused by the agro-food system far exceeds the purification capacity of the natural ecosystem itself. Therefore, the management of manure wastewater from beef cattle breeding should be strengthened, and the leaching of fertilizers should be further reduced.
4. Comparing the different agricultural development paths, it is found that the total net value of the natural, economic, and social effects of the "positive" development path is higher than that of the "baseline" and the "negative" paths. For example, in the 2050 simulation scenario, the total net value of the "positive" pathway is 7% higher than that of the "baseline" scenario and 10% higher than that of the "negative" scenario. From a health point of view (spillover effect), the "positive" development path leads to fewer negative impacts on human health, especially in the long term.
5. Analyzing the decision-making of farmers, who are the main actors in the transformation of the agrifood system, it was found that choosing a more ecologically friendly way of farming does not entail more economic pressure than other ways of farming when only considering farming expenditures and revenues; and that in the long run, their net income can still increase by a small amount.
Director Zhang Linxiu introducing the UNEP TEEB Agri-food system assessment in the national "Green is Gold" practice innovation base Tengchong City, Yunnan Province
At the end of the sharing, Ms. Zhang Linxiu conveyed the expectation of Mr. Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment of China and President of COP15, on the work of TEEB in China: to further enrich the application in specific fields and scenarios, to make the socio-economic activities more biodiversity friendly. This was raised during the TEEB side event held last year in Montreal during the second phase of CBD COP15.
