Environmental governance is a critical factor in enabling effective, equitable and sustainable conservation. It is central to human relationships with nature, including in its care and use, and the ways that related decision-making impacts human wellbeing. 

There is a growing body of research, guidance and action focused on understanding, recognizing, supporting, and improving environmental governance. This includes frameworks, methodologies and initiatives for assessment and responsive change. Diverse approaches are being developed and led by Indigenous peoples and local communities,  national and sub-national civil society organizations, international networks and organizations, and academic institutions and researchers, among others. 

At the same time, many such efforts are fragmented or siloed and the reach of knowledge about and action from them is often limited. While there are many existing networks and platforms currently focusing on governance in different contexts, these tend to be specific to a region, sector, and/or sub-set of governance concerns. At this point in time, there is space to more broadly connect governance actors to support shared learning. This includes creating inclusive and equitable opportunities to foster dialogue, share experiences, and inspire meaningful action to improve environmental governance. 

The Learning for Governance initiative is led by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Commission for Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, under the Theme for Governance, Equity and Rights in collaboration with Melanie Zurba’s Community Engaged CoLab at Dalhousie University. The initiative seeks to build a learning network with diverse practitioners around the world who are taking action to understand and improve environmental governance. 

Our initiative is also developing tools to support our communication and learning, highlight diverse governance stories, and promote power sharing and equity within and beyond our network. The first tool being developed through the initiative is this online Learning for Governance portal, which features a story map highlighting governance stories, approaches and frameworks from across the globe. 

Our goal is to create inclusive and equitable collaborative learning spaces and tools to foster dialogue and inspire meaningful action. We will engage across scales and on equal terms to learn about and from diverse approaches to governing and to understanding and improving governance. These are bold aims; however, they are also increasingly necessary in light of the multiple and intersecting socio-ecological crises we face. These aims are also increasingly possible, in light of the diverse knowledge and leadership of the many actors already learning and taking action for environmental governance, at many scales and in many ways. 

If you are interested in learning more please explore the resources on this portal or reach out to us under our contact us page.