THE IUCN COMMISSION ON EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION

The IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) assists IUCN to achieve its goals of restore and maintain ecosystem integrity and a shared responsibility for the extinction crisis. The IUCN programme contributes to these goals in an approach that works on mobilizing knowledge, empowerment, and influencing governance. This approach is put into practice through field projects as well as advising on policy and institutional mechanisms.

CEC advocates for communication and education to be integrated instruments in achieving biodiversity policy from the outset. In particular, CEC advocates the use of interactive communication with stakeholders to develop acceptable policies and strategies and appropriate instruments to support implementation. In such processes stakeholder groups become key actors in implement communication and education and their role is managed and supported by communication.

In relation to the Convention on Biological Diversity, CEC has:

• Mobilized policy recommendations from its expert network;
• Generated knowledge on effective communication and education to draw out lessons and case material in workshops at the Global Biodiversity Forum, and regional conferences;
• Transferred knowledge through publications, web site, help desk, workshops and through communication training programmes: e.g. for five Central European countries, a programme of three years, government and NGO staff involved in natural resource management and national biodiversity strategies and action plans; South America to assist biodiversity plan managers to manage communication in the strategy process; training proposed in Asia, Southern Africa and Eastern Africa;
• Transferred knowledge through development of tools e.g. for integrating biodiversity and gender in development training in Latin America; and biodiversity information materials in Arabic.