Programme
Please note that the programme is subject to change as we are still in the process of refining some of the details
Day 1. Holistic Values of Nature-based Solutions
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Opening CeremonyMindahi Bastida Muñoz |
WelcomeNathalie Seddon |
Theme 1. Scaling Nature-based Solutions with IntegrityKeynote: The transformative potential of nature-based solutions: a values perspective Professor Unai Pascual, Basque Centre for Climate Change New partnerships between scientists, policymakers, and practitioners are actively promoting discussions, analyses, and real-world trials aimed at protecting and enhancing the myriad ways nature supports people. Much of this endeavour is taking place and associated outcomes are being assessed through the powerful boundary concept of nature-based solutions. If nature-based solutions are to be transformative they require a social-ecological perspective that captures basic interactions between nature’s dynamics and society’s (power) relations, goals, knowledge, etc, across specific contexts. Likewise, recognising and capturing the diversity of nature’s values will be an ex-ante prerequisite to promote transformative potential of NbS projects. In this plenary, Unai will share some key insights derived from the IPBES Values Assessment to reflect about why and how to integrate a values-diversity perspective into NbS scholarship, policy and practice. Panel 1 will open the conference by assessing 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 will 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. Chair: Najma Mohammed, United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) Panelists: |
Theme 2. Nature-based Solutions for Health and WellbeingKeynote: Good nature: the science behind why seeing, smelling, hearing and touching nature is good for our health Professor Baroness Kathy Willis, Department of Biology, University of Oxford In 1984, a seminal paper published in Science magazine found that people who looked out of their hospital windows onto trees recovered much faster, both physically and mentally, than those who looked onto brick walls. Crucially, this study demonstrated that it was the direct effect of seeing the trees that appeared to lead to improved health outcomes, rather than the indirect effects the vegetation had on health by altering the environment, such as reducing pollutants in the air. Since this time, a plethora of studies have indicated that it is not just seeing, but also smelling, hearing, touching, and interacting with plants’ microbiomes that can trigger direct positive physiological and psychological changes in our bodies, yielding both short and longer-term health benefits. This talk will explore some of these studies to illustrate this rapidly expanding field and highlight another critical benefit we obtain from nature, good health. Panel 2 will discuss the interconnectedness of human wellbeing and the flourishing of our ecosystems. We will discuss evidence on how nature-based solutions in urban and natural settings, and green prescribing, can promote physical and mental health and foster a deeper connection between people and nature, as well as the health outcomes of nature-based solutions for adaptation and mitigation. Health benefits of protecting and restoring nature, though increasingly well-evidenced, rarely inform policy and practice, so the panellists will provide insights and examples of how to address this. Chair: Illina Singh, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford Panelists: |
Theme 3. Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation and Humanitarian CrisesKeynote: Nature-based solutions as stepping stones out of emergencies Dr Elisabeth Simelton, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and World Agroforestry
Panel 3 will explore some of the latest evidence for the value and limits of nature-based solutions and hybrid approaches to climate change adaptation, including reducing disaster risks along coasts and in cities, as well as for critical aspects of food security. The potential of NbS for reducing the social and environmental harm caused by humanitarian crises will also be outlined, and the panel will discuss how to elevate the position of NbS in climate adaptation and development policy and practice nationally and internationally. Chairs: Panelists: |
Day 2. Making the Current System Work for Nature (science, governance and finance)
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Theme 4. Addressing Uncertainty and Building the EvidenceKeynote: Moving beyond uncertainty to deliver nature-based solutions at scale Dr Kathryn Brown, Wildlife Trusts Kathryn will highlight how uncertainty surrounding the effectiveness of nature-based solutions is hindering greater buy-in and funding from governments, and how we can work with others to move past these barriers and deliver NbS at scale. She will draw on examples of landscape-scale programmes being implemented through The Wildlife Trusts in the UK. Panel 4 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 transdisciplinary approaches to selecting suitable metrics that embed local rights and knowledge. The panel will also discuss how to develop a more general and usable evidence base to guide decision making including how to adapt generic monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks to accommodate location-specific frameworks. Chair: Valerie Kapos (UNEP-WCMC) Panelists: |
Theme 5. Balancing Resilience Concerns around Nature-based SolutionsKeynote: Brazilian Cerrado: A biodiversity hotspot facing global challenges and searching for local solutions Professor Mercedes Bustamante, Department of Ecology, University of Brasilia
Panel 5 will explore the interdependence of social and ecological resilience, and then discuss approaches to enhancing this resilience in the face of climate change impacts and socio-political factors, including adaptive management based on science and traditional knowledge. We will examine concerns about the significance of “short-term” benefits of nature-based solutions for cooling and adaptation this century, including in comparison to Carbon Dioxide Removal and Carbon Capture and Storage technology, with a view to developing a balanced approach to investment in climate solutions, recognising that ultimately thriving nature underpins a thriving economy. Chair: Stephanie Roe, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) USA Panel: |
Theme 6. Governance, Markets and Finance for NatureKeynote: Carina Pimenta, Government of Brazil, Ministry of Environment and Climate Panel 6 recognises 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. Chair: Cristiane Fontes, World Resources Institute (WRI) Brazil Panelists: |
Evening SessionDrinks, dinner, mingling and music in the museum. |
Day 3. Reimagining the Future with Nature-based Solutions
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Theme 7. Remembering Our Profound Interconnectedness with NatureThe 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. Co-notes followed by panel discussion: |
Theme 8. The Role of Nature in Redefining our Economic ModelThere is an urgent need to transform our concepts and models of ‘economic progress’ so that human economies can start to repair, rather than degrade, the web of life. In this discussion, we will take nature as our mentor to inspire and inform new economic thinking, helping us to reimagine and redesign economies to be in service of life. Recognising that the global economy is embedded within the ecology of the Earth and must therefore be aligned with Earth’s cycles and dynamics, we can learn from the mutualisms that sustain ecosystems across the planet and learn from indigenous knowledge systems and discuss how we might design economies founded on collaboration not competition. In conversation: Kamana and Kate will explore surprising historical connections between ecological and economic thought and share practice-based examples of how we can learn from and work with nature, and how we braid indigenous and western concepts. They will specifically explore the concept of Ancestral Circular Economy in the context of Hawaii drawing on traditional knowledge and the ideas proposed in Doughnut Economics. They will draw on case studies from the intersection of their work together with the Doughnut Economic Action Lab. Kamana and Kate will invite the audience into a newly imagined economic space that makes a more ecotopian future possible. |
Keynote: The Role of ‘Human Nature’ in a Transformed Global EconomyHarvey Whitehouse, Department of Anthropology, University of Oxford All economic systems, past and present, are driven not only by material-instrumental goals but also social-ritual ones. Both are rooted in our evolved psychology, but capitalism emphasises the former over the latter to a degree unmatched by other economic systems in world history. There is nothing inevitable about that. Harvey will suggest a raft of practical ways in which we could establish more sustainable forms of production, consumption, and exchange by appealing to various facets of human nature that once played a much more central role in economic life and could do so once again to shape an ecocentric future. |
Session 9. Restoring Relationship with Nature-based SolutionsWith a different view of progress beyond gross domestic product (GDP) we will explore a range of projects that are helping us to positively reimagine and redesign a wellbeing nature-based economy that is in service of the web of life. Some of these involve restoration through “commoning”, localised finance, providing legal rights for nature, and bolstering local governance and decision making especially by empowering indigenous communities. Chair: Justin Adams, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford Panel: |
Closing Ceremony |
Confirmed speakers
- Prof Mercedes Bustamante
Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasilia - Dr Kathryn Brown OBE
Wildlife Trusts - Dr Mindahi Bastida Muñoz
Original Caretakers Initiative - Prof Unai Pascual
Basque Centre for Climate Change - Dr Lyla June
Dream Warriors - Dr Stephanie Roe
WWF USA - Prof Merata Kawharu
Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki Lincoln University - Kate Raworth
Doughnut Economics Action Lab - Dr Kamanamaikalani Beamer
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa - Dr Elisabeth Simelton
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and World Agroforestry - Prof Ilina Singh
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford - Prof Harvey Whitehouse
Department of Anthropology, University of Oxford - Baroness Kathy Willis CBE
Department of Biology, University of Oxford - Cristiane Fontes
World Resources Institute, Brazil - Dr Najma Mohamed
UNEP-WCMC - Carina Pimenta
Government of Brazil, Ministry of Environment and Climate - Justin Adams OBE
Oxford Martin School - Dr Tony Juniper CBE
Natural England - Charles Karangwa
IUCN - Mirna Fernández
Global Youth Biodiversity Network - Tristan Tyrrell
Convention on Biological Diversity - Laura Clavey
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) - Dr Peninah Murage
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - Dr Marco Aurélio Carvalho
Brazilian Ecopsychology Institute - Dr Yvonne Walz
Institute for Environment and Human Security, United Nations University - Dr Annisa Triyanti
Utrecht University - Gonzalo Gutiérrez Goizueta
World Bank - Dr Karen Sudmeier-Rieux
University of Applied Sciences, TH-Köln - Dr Nathalie Doswald
Asesoramiento Ambiental Estratégico - Kevin Douglas
Jamaica Red Cross - Dr Sara Löfqvist
ETH Zurich - Dr John Lynch
Nature-based Solutions Initiative, University of Oxford - Dr Gus Fordyce
Nature-based Insights - Dr Mike Morecroft
Natural England - Dr Valerie Kapos
UNEP-WCMC - Helen Avery
Green Finance Institute - Nathalie Olsen
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) - Dr Alexandra Deprez
Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) - Alejandra Calzada
WWF México - Siddarth Shrikanth
Just Climate - William Baldwin-Cantello
NbS Accelerator, WWF - Niki Mardas
Global Canopy - Dr Geraldine Encina
Earth Time Keepers - Dr Naine Terena de Jesus
Activist, social entrepreneur and researcher - Mac Macartney
Embercombe - Dr Marc Palahi
Circular Bioeconomy Alliance and Lombard-Odier - Florent Kaiser and Constantino Aucca
Accion Andina - Jo Anderson
Carbon Tanzania - Alan Featherstone Watson
Trees for Life