Several members of the Global RCE Secretariat attended a meeting with RCE Kitakyushu, its stakeholders and the Kitakyushu ESD Council, including local government officials. The meeting, held in June 2017, allowed for constructive exchange on current projects of RCE Kitakyushu and their plans in the coming year.

Once a year, institutions, networks or individuals can receive the official acknowledgement by the Bavarian State, Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection. The Award is given for outstanding work in the area of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Environmental Education. 

Photo: Dr. Kazuhiko Takemoto (UNU-IAS) and Dr. Anne Larigauderie (IPBES)

On 24 July 2017, the United Nations University – Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) entered a Letter of Agreement (LoA) with the Intergovernmental Science - Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).  The LoA highlights the nature of the collaboration in all its terms and conditions.

The first Interagency Liaison Group on Biodiversity and Health (ILG), jointly organized by the Secretariat of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the World Health Organization (WHO) was held in Geneva on 4-5 May 2017. The core objective of the meeting was to strengthen the collaboration and policy coherence between key agencies that work at the intersection of human health and biodiversity.

Photo: Courtesy IPBES

The fifth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES) Task Force on Capacity-building, was held at the Norwegian Environment Agency, in Trondheim, Norway, on 26-28 April 2017. Naoya Tsukamoto and Unnikrishnan Payyappallimana represented UNU-IAS at the meeting. 

In 2016, researchers from around East Asia proposed to further strengthen teacher education on education for sustainable development (ESD) through a research project looking at both pre-service and in-service teacher training programs.

Asia Pacific Coordinating Committee Agrees to Close Inter-RCE collaboration in the Region

On May 12-14, 2017, the Nigerian Regional Centers of Expertise (RCEs) organized a Forum to commemorate the visit of Charles Hopkins to Nigeria. The programme brought together RCEs across Nigeria, people from academia, government, secondary schools, traditional institutions, NGOs and Media organizations.