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

Session title

Opening Ceremony

Mindahi Bastida Muñoz

Welcome

Nathalie Seddon

Theme 1. Scaling Nature-based Solutions with Integrity

Keynote: 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:
Laura Clavey, Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)
Mirna Fernandez, Global Youth Biodiversity Network
Charles Karangwa, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Lucy Mulenkei, Indigenous Information Network & Indigenous Women and Biodiversity Network
Tristan Tyrrell, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Theme 2.  Nature-based Solutions for Health and Wellbeing

Keynote: 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:
Marco Aurélio Carvalho, Brazilian Ecopsychology Institute
Rob MacDonald, The Nature Conservancy
Peninah Murage, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Kathy Willis, Department of Biology, University of Oxford

Theme 3. Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation and Humanitarian Crises

Keynote: Nature-based solutions as stepping stones out of emergencies

Dr Elisabeth Simelton, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and World Agroforestry


Food insecurity is a constant threat in fragile environments prone to natural disasters and/or conflicts. Nature-based solutions in humanitarian contexts hold great potential to prevent and/or reduce the impacts of such crises, by contributing to food, feed and nutrition, inclusive income generation, peace building, adaptation and environmental restoration. Still, NbS as prevention measures remain largely underfunded and under-utilised. This keynote will present lessons from experiences in diverse types of humanitarian contexts, with challenges and opportunities for NbS in providing stepping stones out of emergencies and dependencies. Some concrete action steps are proposed.

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:
Nathalie Doswald, Asesoramiento Ambiental Estratégico
Karen Sudmeier-Rieux, University of Applied Sciences, TH-Köln

Panelists:
Kevin Douglas, Jamaica Red Cross
Gonzalo Gutiérrez Goizueta, World Bank
Elisabeth Simelton, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and World Agroforestry
Anissa Triyanti, Utrecht University
Yvonne Walz, United Nations University, Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)

Day 2. Making the Current System Work for Nature (science, governance and finance)

Session title

Theme 4. Addressing Uncertainty and Building the Evidence

Keynote: 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:
Gus Fordyce, Nature-based Insights
Merata Kawharu, Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki Lincoln University
Sara Löfqvist, ETH Zurich
John Lynch, Nature-based Solutions Initiative, University of Oxford
Mike Morecroft, Natural England

Theme 5. Balancing Resilience Concerns around Nature-based Solutions

Keynote: Brazilian Cerrado: A biodiversity hotspot facing global challenges and searching for local solutions

Professor Mercedes Bustamante, Department of Ecology, University of Brasilia


The second largest biome in South America and a global hotspot for biodiversity conservation, the Brazilian Cerrado represents some of the most fundamental challenges for implementing nature-based solutions. Deforestation in the Cerrado continues to increase, putting the biome at even higher risk. The achievement of the Paris Agreement requires more robust and ambitious climate action with emphasis on the integrity of all ecosystems and the protection of biodiversity. Currently, terrestrial ecosystems are responsible for absorbing a quarter of anthropogenic carbon emissions, with ecosystem restoration the most cost-effective and scalable Carbon Dioxide Removal option. However, the permanence of carbon stored in vegetation and soils under climate change and direct human intervention is uncertain, and large-scale deployment may face significant ecological, environmental, and social constraints. Mercedes will present the case of the Cerrado, with recommendations for governance and sustainable climate policies.

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:
Erika Berenguer, Oxford University (tbc)
Alejandra Calzada, WWF Mexico
Alexandra Deprez, Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI)

Theme 6. Governance, Markets and Finance for Nature

Keynote: 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:
Jo Anderson, Carbon Tanzania
Helen Avery, Green Finance Institute (GFI)
Will Baldwin-Cantello, WWF UK
Nathalie Olsen, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Siddarth Shrikanth, Just Climate
Marc Palahi (Lombard-Odier, Circular Bioeconomy Alliance)

Evening Session

Drinks, dinner, mingling and music in the museum.

Day 3. Reimagining the Future with Nature-based Solutions

Session title

Theme 7. 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.

Co-notes followed by panel discussion:
Geraldine Encina, Earth Time Keepers
Lyla June, Dream Warriors
Mac Macartney, Embercombe
Naine Terena de Jesus, Activist, Social Entrepreneur and Researcher

Theme 8. The Role of Nature in Redefining our Economic Model

There 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:
Kamanamaikalani Beamer, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL)

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 Economy

Harvey 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 Solutions

With 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:
Florent Kaiser and Constantino Aucca, Accion Andina
Suzan Craig, Tahi New Zealand
Merata Kawharu, Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki Lincoln University
Alan Featherstone Watson, Trees for Life

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