Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are undertaking a scoping exercise for national ecosystem assessments - NEA InitiativeNEA Initiative

Originally appears on UNEP-WCMC’s LinkedIn here.

Last week, UNEP-WCMC held a virtual workshop to introduce country partners to the NEA process and guide them through the scoping exercise. The workshop was one of the activities under the Norwegian Environment Agency funded project “Supporting decision making and building capacity through national ecosystem assessments.”

Different components of the scoping exercise were discussed:

• Approaches to mapping stakeholders
• Identifying key policy questions on biodiversity and ecosystem services
• The benefits National Science-Policy Platforms can provide for decision-making and knowledge exchange

Cameroon shared their NEA process experience and imparted advice and suggestions to support country partners with their scoping process.

UNEP-WCMC’s NEA Initiative works with UNDP and UNESCO within the framework of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network (BES-Net) to support countries around the world to implement a national-scale ecosystem assessment.

NEAs deliver critical knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services and the role of biodiversity in ensuring human well-being.