Webinar: Coral Reef Red List of Ecosystems: A Global Standard for Conservation and Collaboration

Tuesday 3rd December 2024

Agenda

Introduction and Housekeeping

Margaux Monfared, ICRI Secretariat

Opening Remarks

Marina Anselme, MSC Foundation

Introduction to the Global Coral Biodiversity Assessment Project

Marcos Valderrábano, IUCN

Overview of the Red List of Ecosystems and the Global Biodiversity Framework (.PDF)

Emily Nicholson, Co-lead of IUCN CEM RLE Thematic Group / The University of Melbourne

Case Study – Western Indian Ocean Coral Reef RLE (.PDF)

Mishal Gudka, CORDIO East Africa / The University of Melbourne

Expanding the RLE Assessment: Supporting GCRMN Regions Globally (.PDF)

David Obura, CORDIO East Africa

Technical Tools for the RLE: Online Code Repository and Data Standards (.PDF)

Franzinho Smith, Technical Consultant

Question and Answer

Moderator: Margaux Monfared, ICRI Secretariat

Closing

Marcos Valderrábano
Red List of Ecosystems at the Centre for Science and Knowledge of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Marcos Valderrábano is the Programme Manager of the Red List of Ecosystems at the Centre for Science and Knowledge of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). As a young graduate in Forest engineering, Marcos started his career leading specific projects on the ground in different parts of the world including Peru, Egypt and Lebanon, before joining IUCN in 2010. During the next 10 years, Marcos was supporting different initiatives around the Mediterranean region, where he led the ecosystem programme of IUCN MED until he joined the Global Programme of IUCN in 2020 to support the Red list of Ecosystem Programme, fascinated by the interface between science and practice.

Emily Nicholson
Professor in Conservation Biology,  ARC Future Fellow School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne

Professor Emily Nicholson is a conservation scientist, whose work has impacts on conservation policy and practice at global and local levels. Her research interests include biodiversity monitoring and risk assessment, conservation decision-making, and ecosystem science. She co-leads the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems thematic group in the Commission on Ecosystem Management, and is a member of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, and UN Statistics Division working groups on ecosystem accounting. She has >100 scientific publications, including in Nature and Science, cited over 7800 times, and has been awarded $9M in external competitive grants, including an Australia Research Council Future Fellowship, Discovery grant, and four Linkage grants.

Mishal Gudka
CORDIO East Africa / The University of Melbourne

Mishal is a coral reef ecologist currently pursuing his doctorate at The University of Melbourne, Australia. He is also a Senior Scientist at CORDIO East Africa. His PhD investigates tools for evidence synthesis that utilize monitoring data to inform management action, such as the Red List of Ecosystems, and evaluates how they can be strengthened to improve the reliability and relevance of information for decision makers. He has led regional data aggregation initiatives through the Nairobi Convention Coral Reef Task Force and the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) which has led to the production of the 2019 Red List of Ecosystems of coral reefs of the WIO, 2017 WIO GCRMN coral reef status report and the 2016 post-bleaching assessment.

David Obura
Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean (CORDIO)
Chair, Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

David Obura is a Founding Director of CORDIO East Africa, chairs the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES, 2023-2026) and is on the Earth Commission (2019-2026). CORDIO is a knowledge organization supporting sustainability of coral reef and marine systems in the Western Indian Ocean. David’s primary research has been on coral reef resilience, biogeography and climate change impacts. His interests are turning now towards sustainability science pivoting around coastal, African and societal needs and priorities, in the broader sustainable development paradigm. David works from the local scale, through fostering innovative action to promote sustainability, through regional scale alignment and integration, to global scales. David was a Co-Chair of IPBES’s Nexus Assessment and was active in compiling science inputs into the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. David was awarded Kenya’s national honour, Moran of the Burning Spear in December 2021, and the Coral Reef Conservation Award of the International Coral Reef Society in 2022.

Franz Smith
Technical Consultant

Franz Smith is a data scientist focused on applied analytics for natural resource management, biodiversity and climate change in New Zealand and developing countries in Latin America. Professional work includes leading cross-disciplinary projects for regional biodiversity and ecosystem service evaluations, spatial planning, data integration and operationalising resource management plans and implementation of international conventions (e.g. UN SDGs, UNESCO World Heritage). This portfolio follows a strong commitment to interdisciplinary, collaborative work and a keen interest in knowledge management, institutional learning and storytelling through data, including the design, teaching and mentoring of early career researchers and practitioners of the Global South, leveraging technology to reduce barriers for better environmental stewardship globally. Recent work with Māori groups in New Zealand has included indigenous perspectives and the use of traditional knowledge to advance integrated management of socio-ecological systems.

Marina Anselme
MSC Foundation

Margaux Monfared
International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) Secretariat

Margaux has experience in managing and organising marine conservation projects in diverse reef environments around the world, including Honduras, Cambodia, and the Maldives. Her experience focused on increasing coral reef resilience to climate change. Margaux’s most recent research focused on the reproductive patterns of Acropora in the Maldives, as well as coupling asexual propagation methodologies with the use of coral larvae for restoration. Margaux joined the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) Secretariat in May 2023 and works at the interface between science and policy. She also supports ICRI’s members in the implementation of the Plan of Action 2021 – 2024: Turning the Tide for Coral Reefs.

Introduction

IUCN’s Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) is a global standard for assessing risks to ecosystems. It allows us to identify common symptoms (both spatial and functional) to understand the level of risk that an ecosystem is facing. The RLE is a scientifically robust, transparent, evidence-based support tool that helps to understand ecosystem dynamics, as well as which ecosystems are healthy, and which are at risk of collapse in the near future and why.

Resources

IUCN Red List Ecosystems:

• IUCN Red List of Ecosystems webpage
• IUCN Red List of Ecosystems Database
• IUCN Global Ecosystems typology

Free courses:

• Introductory course – Learn the foundations of assessing ecosystem risks with the RLE framework.
• Specialised course – The Red List of Ecosystems for Assessors – with a bonus module on how to use the RLE in restoration.

Publications:

• Guidelines for the application of IUCN Red List of Ecosystems Categories and Criteria : version 2.0. (Keith et al., 2024)
• Roles of the Red List of Ecosystems in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Nicholson et al., 2024)

CORDIO – WIO Coral Reefs RLE:

Story map:

WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN CORAL REEFS

Publications:

• Vulnerability to collapse of coral reef ecosystems in the Western Indian Ocean (Obura et al., 2022)
• Leveraging the Red List of Ecosystems for action on coral reefs through the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Gudka et al., 2024)