The Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) within the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been building since 1948, bringing together over 13,000 specialists from 160 states and 1200 organizations, including from institutions, NGOs, private, or governmental entities, who cooperate through 6 thematic committees, with the goal of providing “public, private, and non-governmental organizations with the knowledge and tools that allow human progress, economic development, and conservation of nature to coexist.” It is considered the primary authority in the field—”an incubator and a depository of the best practices, conservation tools, and international guidelines and standards; as the only environmental organization with the official observer status at the United Nations, IUCN ensures the conservation of nature at the highest level of international governance.”
The conferences of IUCN, held every four years, have produced extremely important results over time—such as the World Heritage Convention (within which IUCN officially advises on natural heritage) or the crucial Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), within or through which important stages of the concept of biodiversity or ecosystem services were defined or validated, for which related materials are prepared by TEEB, IPBES, SGAN, and ESP.
The general objective of the Commission on Ecosystem Management is “improving the body of knowledge on ecosystem services and their values and promoting the integration of this knowledge into planning and decision-making for the sustainable management of ecosystems,” accompanied by three specific objectives: 1. Stimulating research on the capacity and resilience of ecosystems to provide goods and services in a sustainable manner and developing tools and guidelines for practical applications and integrated assessments of ecosystem services. 2. Highlighting the importance (value) of ecosystem services for governments, communities, and corporations
