This month, the CEO of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), Daniel Schaffer, attended the UN Biodiversity Conference: COP15 in Montréal, representing Blue Flag and the other FEE programmes.
The 15th Conference of Parties was focusing on setting up new goals for nature protection and solutions to fight biodiversity loss and developing an action plan on how the goals can be achieved worldwide within the next decade.
Various topics were covered during the COP15 such as the role of education to enhance biological diversity and the importance of collaboration and partnership in reversing biodiversity loss.
© UN Biodiversity Nature and Culture Summit at COP15 on 12th December 2022
The institutional partner of Blue Flag, ICLEI- Local Governments for Cities, shared examples of how partners and local governments commit to preserving nature and introduced CitiesWithNature, which is a shared platform for cities who want to work together towards a more sustainable world by committing to reconnect the communities with the nature.
Daniel Schaffer spoke about how cities commit to restoring beaches with an example of how the Blue Flag, together with ICLEI and CitiesWithNature, work on this commitment. On top of that, he announced that ICLEI became a member of the Blue Flag International Jury.
The CEO of FEE also attended The Nature and Culture Summit 2022, aimed at sharing the experiences and knowledge on the connection between biological diversity and culture, and at finding new ways to integrate nature and culture through global partnerships . During this event, Mr Daniel Schaffer discussed new approaches to communication, education, and public awareness raising, linking biological and cultural diversity.
© Pablo Ferrero, FEE’s CEO Daniel Schaffer at COP15
In 2021, FEE launched a GAIA 20:30 Strategy to address the climate crisis and to drive positive action on critical environmental issues. The strategy includes three main goals, including one on the protection of global biodiversity. Therefore, COP15 provided a lot of valuable information on how the FEE and Blue Flag can make a contribution to the conservation and protection of biodiversity and of the ecosystems supporting life.