Summary

The session focused on how the "socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)" approach can facilitate transformative change for a nature positive society through integrated, inclusive, and localised actions.

After the opening remarks and the introduction by IGES, four speakers presented each of their cases which recently completed projects funded by Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM) as part of the Satoyama Initiative. The first speaker made a presentation on the results of participatory research with the indigenous and local communities around the Sundarbans mangrove forest in Bangladesh. The second speaker talked about conservation sustainable seeds in Mexico through establishing seed banks and producing conservation manuals. The third speaker focused on the conservation of traditional agricultural knowledge for the young generation in Chinese Taipei. The fourth speaker explained his organisation’s efforts on restoration and conservation of endangered woody species in the drylands of Ethiopia. Building on these cases, the panel discussion further shared examples from the field of how the SEPLS approach has helped to promote integrated, inclusive and localised activities, how natural disasters and pandemics have affected these activities and how they have been overcome. They also discussed how the business sector can foster the SEPLS conservation. The session concluded with closing remarks from an officer from the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, which oversees SDM.