Indigenous peoples are the time-immemorial guardians of many of the world’s remaining biodiversity-rich landscapes – and of the spirituality, values and worldviews embedded in these physical spaces. As human encroachments threaten Indigenous ways of life and connection to land, the world urgently needs to find ways to support this guardianship to help ensure the health of the planet and diversity of species. This interactive plenary will amplify the voices of Indigenous guardians, and will provide a platform for civil society groups, the private sector, policy-makers, local authorities and youth to discuss and explore processes that draw from Indigenous peoples and local communities’ knowledge to generate scalable solutions to contemporary challenges. These solutions will be rooted in reciprocity, will help to achieve human and ecological well-being, and will promote just and sustainable decision-making that restores harmony between people and nature.
Find this session’s white paper here.
Event Category: GLF Event
Harnessing the Power of Nature: Building Resilient Food Systems Through Greater Agrobiodiversity
The session will envisage what the next steps should be for SDG 2.5 in the post-2020 Agenda. Where do we go from here? It will seek to demonstrate why agrobiodiversity is essential to ensure food and nutrition security for current and future global populations. The greater the diversity, the more resilient the system. Protecting crops and livestock from pests and disease, and ensuring they have improved resistance to increasing climatic shocks is essential. But how do we get there?
Array ( )Harnessing the power of nature: Financing diversity – How financial institutions integrate local community perspectives
Agricultural supply chains are the leading driver of deforestation globally, contributing to the depletion of biodiversity and natural ecosystems. In this plenary, the audience will get an inside look at the interrelation between finance for biodiversity and sustainable land use and healthy landscapes and sustainable, inclusive value chains. A discussion among experts will place local communities at the heart of the discussion while exploring the innovative financial instruments that are needed to spark a bioeconomy, grounded in the rights and expertise of local communities.
Array ( )Talking global science, policy and innovation: UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Why now? What’s next?
This participatory plenary will be framed around the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the Paris climate goals and the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, all of which call on the global community to ‘bend the curve’ on these critical issues. Key global policy makers, scientists as well as business and community leaders will inform the audience about plans in place for the new decade, and engage in critical discussion. Through constructive debate, we will explore how the new policy frameworks can spark a vivid societal dialogue, consolidate next steps and pave the way for direct global action from individuals, civil society, local authorities and the global business community.
Array ( )One World One Health: setting the scene and the mood
The variety of life on Earth is being lost at an unprecedented rate. Now more than ever, the health of our planet requires us to recognize our complex, interdependent relationships with nature. During this opening plenary, keynote speakers will interact with the online community to frame the wicked problems of biodiversity loss alongside land degradation, climate change and the emergence of zoonotic pandemics. We kick off the conference with a call for a One Health approach, spotlighting the essential role of biodiversity and setting the scene for building back better.
Array ( )Landscape biodiversity for healthy people and healthy economies: tools for preventing future pandemics and for re-establishing nature-based tourism
The COVID pandemic has brought new attention to the importance of landscape health for human health in addition to economic resilience. The transfer of zoonotic diseases from animals to humans makes clear the interdependence of human and animal health on terrestrial ecosystems, and the risks of ecosystem degradation due to human activity. Healthy landscapes are also critical for healthy economies, providing essential ecosystem services such as water, fertile soil, and erosion prevention. In many places, nature and wildlife provide the basis for nature-based tourism (NBT) that provides important income for protected area management and for jobs for local communities.
This session will look at pathways for spillover of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19 from animals to humans, what actions can manage or stop spill over and how a One Health approach that looks at human, animal and environmental health together can make a difference. The session will also explore tools that can help bring back NBT as the world recovers from COVID-19, how restoration is important to human health, and how approaches to landscape management are evolving to encompass health considerations.
Array ( )The Nature of Business – What can Resilient Landscapes do for you?
Biological diversity celebrates its 3.7 billionth birthday this year. From common ancestors, all forms of life sprang up from a few grams of the same chemical building blocks. But “biodiversity” as a word is only 35 years’ old this year having been coined by E.O. Wilson and other ecologists in 1985. The term “biodiversity” is now co-owned by scientists, politicians, philanthropists and civil society – but has only recently become a priority of the corporate sector and private investors.
Biodiversity is a bit nebulous. Few convincing answers are evident for the commercial world on questions such as: what are the most important assets of biodiversity and what is the return on investment in biodiversity? At the same time, businesses do understand emerging risks and liabilities if biodiversity is ignored. We have not adequately answered the related question on how can business and biodiversity mutually benefit each other? Resilient Landscapes seeks to answer that question in agricultural and forest landscapes through engaging with interested private sector and investment actors.
Today, agriculture accounts for 70% of the projected loss of terrestrial biodiversity. It contributes to 50% of the topsoil lost. We use 40% of Earth’s land surface to produce food, making it the single largest cause of deforestation, habitat and biodiversity loss. Yet with the world’s population rising, we will need to double food production by 2050. Given the arable land available, current “business as usual” models are insufficient.
At the same time, half of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), €40 trillion, depends on nature.[1] The world already loses an estimated €5.5-10.5 trillion per year from land degradation and biodiversity loss further puts our food systems and nutrition at risk[2].
Addressing the current biodiversity crisis is crucial to planetary and ecological health. Preliminary research indicates that significant biodiversity loss results in a greater transmissibility of human diseases, which can be seen from a substantial increase in zoonosis, including SARS, Ebola, Lyme and COVID-19. In doing so, public-private partnerships will play a crucial role in supporting commitment to action toward financing biodiversity.
Furthermore, there is growing recognition that public funds are insufficient to reverse biodiversity loss. A report recently released by the Paulson Institute shows that the funding gap for biodiversity is $700 billion per year for the next decade. The financial sector has a critical role in addressing the global biodiversity crisis, while governments and regulators hold the key to harnessing the power of the financial sector to mobilize private finance at scale to protect nature[3].
[1] EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
[2] EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
[3] Mobilizing Private Finance for Nature, World Bank Group Report
Introduction & Welcome remarks: Leona Liu, Deputy-Director, Resilient Landscapes (03:00)
Keynote Address by Video: Prof. Thomas Lovejoy, University Professor of Environmental Science and Policy of George Mason University (02:17)
Keynote Address: Gonzalo Munoz, COP25 High-Level Champion – (03:00)
Panel One: Natural Capital Appreciation
Moderator Introductions: Christopher Knowles, Senior Advisor, Environment & Climate Finance
Resilient Landscapes (05:00)
Facilitated Panel: Supporting biodiversity and resilient landscapes through innovative finance mechanisms
1. Jaspreet Stamm, Director, Finance in Motion (05:00)
2. Andre van den Beld, Head Sustainability – Cocoa at Export Trading Group (ETG) (05:00)
3. Martin Geiger, Director Sustainability and Corporate Governance, DEG Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (05:00)
4. Fabian Huwlyer, Founding Partner, Posaidon Capital(05:00)
Closing Remarks & Transition to Panel Two: Christopher Knowles, Senior Advisor, Environment & Climate Finance, Resilient Landscapes (03:00)
Panel Two: Supply Chains & Biodiversity in the post COVID-19 Era
Moderator Introductions: Howard-Yana Shapiro, Senior Advisor, Private Sector & Markets, Resilient Landscapes, Distinguished Senior Fellow, CIFOR-ICRAF (05:00)
Facilitated Panel: Biodiversity & Agricultural Landscapes
1. Jason Clay, Senior Vice President, Markets, Executive Director, Markets Institute, WWF (05:00)
Topics: 1. Nexus between biodiversity and resilient landscapes; 2. Improvement of certification through the new Agricultural Performance System
2. Susan Chomba, Project Manager, Regreening Africa, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) (05:00)
Topics: 1. Re-greening Africa and the new Agricultural Performance System; 2. Biodiversity & Resilient Landscapes
3. Mette Wilkie, Director, Forestry Division, FAO (05:00)
Topics: 1. Value of forests in terms of benefits to livelihoods; 2. FAO’s SOFO 2020 and the need for the call to action on biodiversity efforts
Closing remarks: Tony Simons, Director General, World Agroforestry (ICRAF) , Executive Director, CIFOR-ICRAF (05:00)
Peatlands, a Super Nature Based Solution – home and refuge for unique and threatened biodiversity
Peatlands, a Super Nature Based Solution (Spanish audio)
Peatlands, a Super Nature Based Solution (French audio)
This session will take you on a two-part peatlands journey to some of the most rare, remote and unique places in the world. Many peatlands offer a safe haven for rare and threatened biodiversity – from the orangutan of Indonesia to the golden sphagnum moss of Northern Ireland. Transport yourself to the remote forested swamps of the Congo Basin and then onward to the tip of the South American continent. Peatlands also offer vital stopping-off points for migratory species – connecting species to special places across the globe. Peatlands can also be carbon-packed micro-rainforests that house bizarre creatures and tales of the past. UNEP invites you to discover why peatlands are a critical habitat for biodiversity and what they offer to our climate and our health. This world tour will provide examples and share experiences and strategies, while highlighting the important role that partnerships can play in safeguarding biodiversity.
Find this session’s white paper here.
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Rights-Based Ecosystem Approaches for a Green, Just Recovery
The environment, climate change, biodiversity, health, the economy – we face multiple crises. Deforestation and ecosystem degradation have not lost their momentum – we are losing biodiversity fast, reducing our ability to use land-based solutions. Mono-causal solutions have not worked for these interconnected problems. This interactive and informative session will invite the audience to learn and explore, with experts from science and indigenous peoples, how to deliver a green, just recovery: How are biodiversity and climate change linked? How can rights-based approaches protect and fully restore ecological functionality? Which policy processes and finances are needed? Where are the priorities?
Array ( )For forests’ sake: Transforming extractive industries and infrastructure to achieve NYDF Goal 3
The New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) aims to halt natural forest loss by 2030, contributing to climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development goals. The session will cover the findings of the 2020 NYDF Assessment on extractive industries and infrastructure. A panel discussion will address the urgent need for transforming approaches to planning and implementing large-scale development projects and the role of forests and the NYDF post-2020. The discussion will focus on promoting transparency and accountability in mining and infrastructure sectors; safeguarding Indigenous peoples’ rights; building incentives for responsible sourcing; and reshaping the NYDF and international commitments.
Read the White Paper here.
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