Mission

To develop an action agenda for scaling nature-based solutions effectively and ethically so that they can support social-ecological flourishing and promote positive change

Approach

Over three days and nine sessions, we will bring together interdisciplinary researchers with practitioners and decision makers from the public and private sectors, as well as Indigenous voices from around the world, to discuss and co-create an action plan for nature-based solutions to support positive social-environmental change. We will examine the evidence for the benefits of nature-based solutions beyond climate change mitigation, in particular for human and ecological health, climate change adaptation, humanitarian crises and food security, and tackle the role of adaptive management in resilience. We will also explore how to deal with uncertainty on the socio-ecological outcomes of nature-based solutions, and ensure that governance, markets and finance can act together in support of them, discussing, even, how we might transform the economy so that it enhances rather than weakens the web of life. Finally, we will explore  how we can rekindle a soulful human connection with nature.

 

Sessions

  • Scaling Nature-based Solutions with Integrity

    Opening the conference, we will assess the current state of nature-based solutions in policy and practice. Taking in a range of voices, spanning indigenous, scientific, economic, governmental and corporate, we will identify the main challenges and lay the groundwork for the conference. We'll also explore a considered strategy for effective and ethical advancing of nature-based solutions, including how to elevate their role in the Rio Conventions and have economy-wide targets in climate pledges at the UNFCCC COP30 in Belém.
  • Boys next to a lake with their bikes

    Nature-based Solutions for Health and Wellbeing

    Connection with nature can be enormously beneficial to human health and wellbeing. In particular, we will discuss evidence on how bringing nature into urban areas, and green prescribing, can promote physical and mental health, as well as fostering a deeper connection between people and nature. Out of this, we will explore how these benefits might better inform policy and practice.
  • Trucks stuck in a flooded road

    Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation and Humanitarian Crises

    Nature-based solutions and hybrid approaches that blend nature and technology can play a potentially critical role in supporting adaptation to climate change, reducing disaster risk, supporting food security, and mitigating the social-environmental harm caused by humanitarian crises. Through exploring these issues, we will look to understand how to best integrate nature-based solutions into an effective adaptation policy.
  • Map of data distribution, global

    Addressing Uncertainty and Building the Evidence

    We will examine how we might best address uncertainties in the evidence-base on the effectiveness of nature-based solutions to societal challenges and the extent to which they bring benefits for communities and enhance biodiversity locally. We will critically evaluate new and emerging frameworks for monitoring and evaluation of socio-ecological sustainability and explore trans-disciplinary approaches to selecting suitable metrics that embed local rights and knowledge.
  • Mangroves and sand

    Balancing Resilience Concerns around Nature-based Solutions

    After discussing the interdependence of social and ecological resilience, we will explore approaches to enhancing this resilience in the face of climate change impacts and socio-political factors, including with adaptive management based on science and traditional knowledge. We will examine the significance of “short-term” benefits of nature-based solutions for cooling and adaptation, including in comparison to tech, with a view to developing a balanced approach to investment in climate solutions, recognising that, ultimately, thriving nature underpins a thriving economy.
  • Pencil, hand, computer

    Governance, Markets and Financing for Nature

    Recognising the interdependency of governance, markets and finance and with reference to real-world examples, we will discuss some of the creative ways of resourcing and implementing high integrity nature-based solutions, including building a bioeconomy, the role of markets, as well as grassroots public-civil society action and the potential for non-market approaches that share benefits and preserve wealth locally.
  • Woman watering crops

    Remembering Our Profound Interconnectedness With Nature

    The basis of reimagining the future starts with rekindling our relationship with the Earth, remembering we are just a strand in the great web of life rather than its master or architect. This requires a profound shift from an anthropocentric worldview to an ecocentric or biocentric worldview. In this session we will hear from a range of voices to explore the importance of deepening our connection with nature as a foundational driver of positive change. We will ask how we might be able to support a deeper recognition around the world that we humans are an intricately interwoven part of a beautiful web of life, breaking down the erroneous sense that, in talking about "nature", we are talking about something outside ourselves.
  • Reimagining What 'Progress' Really Means In A Healthy Pro-Nature World

    We desperately need to change our models of 'progress' so that our way of life moves to enhance rather than attack the web of life. In this discussion, we will explore the roles of biophilic markets, rights for nature, the nature of ‘human nature', and what this all means for policy makers. Learning from real-world examples, such as the Doughnut Economic Action Lab, we will imagine the different, more positive, futures we could progress towards together.
  • People planting trees in Oxford

    Tools to redesign a nature-based economy and examples in practice

    With a different view of progress (beyond GDP) we will explore which tools are already emerging that are redesigning towards a wellbeing nature-based economy that is in service to life. Some of the tools we will learn from include: localising finance, providing legal rights for nature, bolstering local governance and decision making. After exploring the evidence for a new model of progress and how nature-based solutions can feed into the economy, including with a bioeconomy approach, we will discuss strategies for how best to do this.
 

Confirmed speakers

  • Prof Mercedes Bustamante
    Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasilia
  • Dr Kathryn Brown
    Wildlife Trusts
  • Ms Mirna Fernandez
    Global Youth Biodiversity Network
  • Prof Unai Pascal
    Basque Centre for Climate Change
  • Ms. Carina Pimenta
    Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Brazil
  • Kate Raworth
    Department of Geography, University of Oxford
  • Dr Elizabeth Simelton
    World Agroforestry (ICRAF)
  • Prof Ilina Singh
    Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford
  • Prof Harvey Whitehouse
    Department of Anthropology, University of Oxford
  • Baroness Kathy Willis
    Department of Biology, University of Oxford

About nature-based solutions

Nature-based solutions involve working with nature, as part of nature, to address societal challenges, supporting human well-being and biodiversity locally. They include the protection, restoration or management of natural and semi-natural ecosystems; the sustainable management of aquatic systems and working lands; and integration of nature into urban areas. They are actions that are underpinned biodiversity and designed and implemented in a way that respects the rights, values and knowledges of  local communities, including farmers and Indigenous Peoples.

Explore our case study platform

for examples of good practice nature-based solutions from around the globe.

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