Two EU-funded biodiversity research projects—BIOTraCes and CLEVER—are teaming up to host an exclusive, one-hour ‘speed dating’ session connecting journalists with leading biodiversity researchers.
In this fast-paced format, selected journalists will have the unique opportunity to meet with biodiversity researchers in one-on-one breakout rooms. Each conversation lasts 5–10 minutes, allowing journalists to explore biodiversity topics relevant to their coverage, while researchers share insights from their current work. After each round, participants rotate to meet someone new. This continues for the full hour, and both researchers and journalists are welcome to request follow-up information after the session.
This session offers journalists a valuable chance to:
Build connections with biodiversity experts in Europe
Stay up to date on cutting-edge research
Discover new story angles for future reporting
Participation is free, but places are limited. Interested journalists can register their interest here.
We look forward to bringing researchers and journalists together to spark new ideas and stories for nature!
The aquaculture sector has the potential to positively influence biodiversity through sustainable practices and the farming of species like seaweeds, which enhance water quality by filtering nutrients and sequestering carbon. However, the sector also poses environmental risks, such as increased demand for fishmeal and fish oil for feed, chemical use, and pressures on land and coastal ecosystems. Similarly, the forestry sector faces challenges such as overlogging, deforestation, infrastructure expansion, and monoculture plantations which threaten biodiversity hotspots. Strategies like sustainable forest management, reforestation, agroforestry, conservation initiatives, and efforts to combat illegal logging are crucial for minimizing the sector’s environmental impact.
Two expert stakeholder workshops focused on the aquaculture and forestry sectors were conducted online on December 4th and 5th, 2024. Co-organized by CLEVER project partners IIASA, Bonn.realis, and UNEP-WCMC, these events brought together a diverse group of 25 participants representing public, private, and civil society stakeholders.
The goal? To co-design modeled scenarios that illuminate the future impacts of the aquaculture and forestry sectors on the environment and biodiversity.
The process? IIASA colleagues, David Leclere and Fulvio di Fulvio, presented their methodology for creating scenarios using the GLOBIOM model and the preliminary scenario results regarding both sectors. Through an interactive method, participants provided feedback regarding the scenario assumptions, indicators, desired outcomes, and potential policy impacts. They also exchanged insights about future trends, risks, and open questions that we may be looking at in the sector by 2050.
The outcome? Researchers will now return to their drawing board to incorporate the input provided by stakeholders and continue their scenario modeling. Further exchanges and workshops are yet to come.
The CLEVER workshops highlighted the urgency of reimagining how the aquaculture and forestry supply chains interact with the environment. The environmental impacts are not limited to what happens within these sectors, but also depend on how other sectors, such as agriculture, develop and potentially improve their own sustainability practices. We all look forward to the final results of the modeled scenarios. Stay tuned!
Written by Rafaella Ferraz Ziegert from the University of Freiburg/Bonn.realis, Heli Sihvonen and Juan Vargas from UNEP-WCMC, David Leclere and Fulvio di Fulvio from IIASA.
The Central African region is home to approximately 80% of Africa’s biodiversity1. Forestry is a significant contributor to the national gross domestic product of these countries. Despite progress in regulating logging and promoting sustainable resource management2,3, timber value chains in the region continue to face multiple challenges—ranging from technical and political complexities to issues of transparency and unsustainable practices4,5.
Photo credit: Juan Manuel Vargas.
The UNEP-WCMC team travelled to Yaoundé (Cameroon) and Libreville (Gabon) in October 2024 to work with local partners in two workshops for the Horizon Europe Projects CLEVER and RAINFOREST. The broad objective of these workshops was to contribute to a better understanding of how legality and sustainability can be strengthened along timber value chains in Cameroon and Gabon.
Traveling from the West Coast of Cameroon to the capital Yaoundé, the view of the Congo Basin rainforest through the bus window was striking, as was the sight of logs loaded onto trucks and the long line of vehicles waiting at the port. This direct experience underscored the importance of moving beyond desktop research to engage with local partners to really understand and incorporate on-the-ground realities.
Photo credits: Left (Agenda): Dominique Tessa. Right (Group work): Heli Sihvonen.
Our approach was to engage directly with stakeholders, creating an opportunity for co-design with those most affected by legislation such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). We invited stakeholders from ministries, industry, NGOs and research institutions to participate in an open discussion about solutions for deforestation and forest degradation. The goal was to collaboratively validate, shape, and inform our research and project outputs.
Coming from a very different background, it was valuable to hear and incorporate local perspectives. Participants demonstrated a deep understanding of the local context —highlighting incentives, disincentives, challenges, and potential solutions. The discussions revealed that many environmental and economic challenges are surprisingly universal, including issues related to financial incentives and supply chain complexities.
Photo credit: Dominique Tessa.
The UNEP-WCMC CLEVER team is leading the development of an innovative public and private governance toolkit, and these workshops were crucial for gathering insights. A key finding was that stakeholders generally prefer improving existing solutions over creating entirely new approaches. Participants from both workshops recommended enhancing established traceability and certification schemes and aligning them more closely with forestry legislation.
Our key takeaway was that innovative governance solutions can be effective not just through their design, but also through their communication, application, and enforcement. Importantly, innovative solutions do not necessarily need to be complex or overly nuanced.
The workshops were made possible through the support of CLEVER partners —the European Forest Institute (EFI), the University of Dschang, and our local host, FSC Gabon. We extend our sincere thanks for their hard work and local expertise, which were instrumental in making these workshops invaluable. CLEVER is funded by the European Union and UK Research and Innovation, UKRI (UNEP-WCMC’s share) and coordinated by the University of Bonn. We acknowledge the contribution of the EU Horizon project RAINFOREST to the workshops.
By Heli Sihvonen and Juan Manuel Vargas, UNEP-WCMC
Cover photo credit: Dominique Tessa
Literature:
1 P. Mayaux, J.F. Pekel, B. Desclée, F. Donnay, A. Lupi, F. Achard, M. Clerici, C. Bodart, A. Brink, R. Nasi, A. Belward, State and evolution of the African rainforests between 1990 and 2010, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 368 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0300.
2 R. Eba’a Atyi, S. Assembe-Mvondo, G. Lescuyer, P. Cerutti, Impacts of international timber procurement policies on Central Africa’s forestry sector: the case of Cameroon, For. Policy Econ. 32 (2013) 40–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2012.12.006.
4 J.A. Worah, C.M. Yobo, I. AKPACA, D.M. Iponga, S.N. Maghiengha, H.C. Ndoume Engone, Analyse de la gouvernance et de la légalité d’attribution des titres d’exploitation artisanale du bois d’œuvre au Gabon: revue de littérature, Int. J. Progress. Sci. Technol. 16 (2019) 14. https://doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v16.2.1014.
5 P.O. Cerutti, J.N. Poufoun, A. Karsenty, R. Eba’a Atyi, R. Nasi, T. Fomete Nembot, The technical and political challenges of the industrial forest sector in Cameroon, Int. For. Rev. 18 (2016) 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1505/146554816819683690.
On June 6, 2024, the CLEVER project hosted the Narrative Co-design Workshop, led by our partner, the European Forest Institute’s communications team. The workshop brought together participants from EU-funded projects CLEVER, BioValue, BioNext, and PLANET4B, with the aim of co-creating a unified project narrative that effectively communicates the goals and impact of each initiative.
The session focused on developing key messages by incorporating four essential elements: context, problem, solution, and value proposition. Participants were divided into small groups to craft and refine elevator pitches for the projects, ensuring that the narratives would resonate with a diverse range of stakeholders.
The resulting narratives were consolidated and will be used to develop a script for an upcoming video on the lifecycle of trade products, which will soon be available on this website. The workshop was a successful step in enhancing the communication strategies of these projects, ensuring that their innovative solutions for a more sustainable economy are clearly understood and supported.
For more details, check out the agenda. Stay tuned for the upcoming video and further updates on the CLEVER project.
Written by Fernanda Martinelli from the University of Bonn.
Understanding who are involved in each stage of the global biomass value chain is not an easy task. For the success of stakeholder engagement, however, we believe that stakeholder mapping acts as the foundation to bring together a wide range of voices, both from exporting and importing countries.
This is why in February 2023, we kicked off the CLEVER stakeholder work with a vital step – a comprehensive mapping exercise. Our goal was to ensure diverse representation and engagement across the trade supply chains of timber and soy in Brazil, timber in Cameroon, and global fishmeal and fish oil flows heading to the EU. Our stakeholder maps (see the map for Brazil below) encompass various actors, from biomass producers and traders to policymakers and local communities. Now we are set to delve deeper into our value chain maps and engage with our extensive impact network, gathering vital insights for our empirical research.
Figure 1. CLEVER’s impact network for soy and timber trade focused on Brazil. The green background indicates that the group is related to soy, and blue is used for timber. Organizations relevant to both commodities are marked in grey.
The next step from mapping stakeholders is to get them involved in our project, to refine our research questions, facilitate knowledge sharing, and foster co-design that leads to innovative policy recommendations and governance instruments. This is where co-design comes into the picture. At the end of the first year of the project, in August 2023, we made significant strides in defining the essential role of stakeholder engagement and co-design for the project.
The CLEVER Stakeholder Reference Group takes center stage in this co-innovation landscape, steering us towards transformative change. Our researchers will also conduct content-related interviews with key stakeholders, contributing to our shared goals.
The project aims to provide a holistic view of the relationship between international trade and biodiversity. Our modelling simulations delve into the impact of trade-related interventions on biodiversity outcomes. This enables us to identify potential leverage points for positive change. We produced a user-friendly, transparent presentation of the Modeling Framework (see below) to invite stakeholders to join us in this essential research journey.
Stay tuned for more exciting updates as we continue to explore the complex web of global biomass trade and its impact on our environment!
Figure 2. Modeling Components of CLEVER and the research bodies leading them. UFMG = Universidade Federal De Minas Gerais, UPV = Universitat Politecnica De Valencia, UBO = Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, IIASA = International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Design by Rosa Castañeda (European Forest Institute).
