Government and international organization representatives attended a two-meeting organized by EOC to explore collaboration opportunities for improving the management of Transboundary Biodiversity Landscapes (TBLs) in the GMS.

Seven TBLs in the GMS are the geographic focus for much of CEP work, including the establishment of biodiversity corridors within which conservation, livelihood development, and climate change adaptation activities are ongoing.

Between them, the seven TBLs cover more than 30 million hectares of the GMS and contain much of the subregion’s remaining natural capital stocks (forest, land and water resources), including  Southeast Asia’s most important biodiversity. The natural resources and ecosystem services from these landscapes underpin water, food, and energy security in the GMS; however rapid and poorly managed development is placing an increasing strain on the natural capital, and livelihoods in the TBLs.

Many actors are working within the TBLs and other GMS landscapes to protect biodiversity, promote stronger, more sustainable livelihoods, and improve planning and management processes. There is huge potential for closer collaboration and knowledge sharing which in turn could lead to more cohesive and effective interventions in the landscapes and ultimately more effective sustainable management.

In an effort to stimulate greater collaboration, this regional consultation brought together actors with the objective of:

• Identifying who is working where in the landscapes
• Sharing knowledge on the work undertaken or planned in the landscapes
• Reviewing CEP’s biodiversity monitoring framework and agreeing on a common set of indicators
•  Identifying an informal mechanism for collaboration on strategic planning, management, and monitoring of the landscapes.

Apart from representatives from GMS environment ministries and EOC, attendees included Conservation International, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Wildlife Conservation Society, United Nations Development Program, World Wildlife Fund, Birdlife International, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, and Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariate.