The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a publication on biodiversity loss in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), highlighting the state of biodiversity in the region particularly in the context of climate change, and presenting some outcomes of its biodiversity work funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The publication, “Biodiversity: Delivering Results in Europe and the CIS,” presents 30 case studies from UNDP’s work in 20 of the region’s 26 countries, including on forests, tundra, peat lands, freshwater systems, and ecosystems functioning as storehouses for genetic diversity in wild crops related to commercially important or threatened species. It highlights strategies for addressing climate threats, such as schemes undertaken in the Russian Federation, Belarus, the Baltic countries, and Ukraine for raising groundwater levels to trigger peat land recovery and the associated accumulation of carbon.