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Recognizing the value of large marine ecosystems (LMEs) and other transboundary water systems (open ocean, groundwater aquifers, lakes and reservoirs, and river basins), their continued degradation, the fragmented approach to their management, and the need for better prioritization of interventions, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) embarked on the Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme (TWAP) from 2009 to 2015. TWAP objectives were to undertake global assessments of the five transboundary water systems to assist GEF and other international organizations set priorities for interventions; and develop formal institutional partnerships for periodic assessments of these systems.

Powerpoint presentation on priorities emerging from the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014

As environmental problems continue to increase at an ever more rapid rate, exacerbated by the major threat of global climate change, the need for widespread remedial action is becoming ever more pressing. Scientific consensus on both the root causes of these problems and the measures required to tackle them is growing, while mass media and public interest has reached fever pitch. Of course, while this has put pressure on decisionmakers to take positive action, the realisation of the gravity and extent of the environmental problems has encouraged all those concerned about the state of our world to search for partners around it: one such significant partnership to e­merge in recent years is between those concerned with the conservation of nature –and of its biodiversity– and the custodians of sacred sites, representing both indigenous beliefs and mainstream faiths.

Ice, snow and climate change are closely linked. The Global Outlook for Ice and Snow investigates those linkages. It also presents information on the trends in ice and snow, the outlook for this century and beyond and the consequences to ecosystems and human well-being of these changes. It covers all parts of the cryosphere (the world of ice): snow, land ice, sea ice, river and lake ice, and frozen ground. The Global Outlook for Ice and Snow was written by more than 70 scientists from around the world.

Protected areas are areas of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection of biological diversity, natural and cultural resources, which are managed by government or nongovernmental agencies. Protected areas include, but are not limited to: National Parks, National Reserves, Game Reserves, Forest Reserves, Forest Parks, Marine Reserves, Marine Sanctuaries, and Nature Reserves.

Protected areas are areas of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection of biological diversity, natural and cultural resources, which are managed by government or nongovernmental agencies. Protected areas include, but are not limited to: National Parks, National Reserves, Game Reserves, Forest Reserves, Forest Parks, Marine Reserves, Marine Sanctuaries, and Nature Reserves.

Protected areas are areas of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection of biological diversity, natural and cultural resources, which are managed by government or nongovernmental agencies. Protected areas include, but are not limited to: National Parks, National Reserves, Game Reserves, Forest Reserves, Forest Parks, Marine Reserves, Marine Sanctuaries, and Nature Reserves.

Protected areas are areas of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection of biological diversity, natural and cultural resources, which are managed by government or nongovernmental agencies. Protected areas include, but are not limited to: National Parks, National Reserves, Game Reserves, Forest Reserves, Forest Parks, Marine Reserves, Marine Sanctuaries, and Nature Reserves.