Climate change, habitat loss, land degradation and environmental pollution are accelerating biodiversity loss across landscapes at an alarming rate. Given limited land availability and the inequities that arise from taking a ‘fortress’ approach to protected areas, it is clear that new, more inclusive solutions are needed. In order to effectively enhance ecosystem protection and halt biodiversity loss, we must look to, and include, all aspects of landscapes including communities, farms and cities. Every sector has a role to play in conserving biodiversity.
EcoAgriculture Partners will be a part of conversations moving towards the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and the creation of the Biodiversity Framework plan. In preparation for the 15th Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of Parties (CBD COP 15), we are developing recommendations for national governments to learn from integrated landscape management and innovative finance mechanisms that will help support the implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans and their associated National Biodiversity Finance Plans.
As part of this effort, we’ve curated a list of landscape- and finance-focused side events that should be interesting to our community. See below for our top selections that we’re looking forward to attending.
Interested in connecting with our team in Montreal? Reach out to Seth Shames (sshames@ecoagriculture.org) and Michael Keller (Mkeller@ecoagriculture.org) for more information.
Partner Participation
Date: 14 December
Local time: 10:00
Organizers: ICLEI Africa, Government of Quebec and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
EcoAg Speaker: Seth Shames
Location: ICLEI Pavilion
Event Description Food systems transformation presents a unique opportunity to tackle nutrition, biodiversity loss and climate change in concert. Guiding this transformation requires decision makers to adopt a system-wide approach that intervene across different parts of the food system and prioritize inclusive and environmentally sustainable value chains. There is a need to change global dietary patterns, increase the amount of land allocated to conservation and mainstream methods of regenerative or ‘nature positive’ agricultural production (WEF, 2022), and invest in processing and marketing processes that recover food loss and wastes. This all requires decision-makers to develop new ways of governing, financing and developing food systems that are informed by the challenges of the global biodiversity crisis and the realities of an increasingly urban world. This session will demonstrate clear linkages between biodiversity, food security and climate actions, particularly drawing broader linkages between biodiversity protection, climate adaptation and food systems. It further reflects on the existing and proposed mandates that local and subnational governments hold in relation to food systems, exploring how food systems can be integrated into existing local policies and plans to combat, mitigate and prevent ecological degradation and climate change while nourishing the world’s growing population.
Nature Positive Pavilion Events
Event: Financing nature positive agriculture
Date: 13 December
Local time: 13:30
Organizers: Cornell University
Location: Nature Positive Pavilion
Event: Innovations in financing to ensure a nature positive and net zero future
Date: 14 December
Local time: 13:30
Organizers: Conservation International
Location: Nature Positive Pavilion
Other Events of Interest
Missing the Mark? Global Biodiversity Targets Risk Failure without Agroecology
Date: December 8
Local time: 13:15
Organizers: FOE | ACB | Future of Food | (others waiting for approval)
Location: Salween, 514A
Event Description: Three-quarters of our biological diversity in food and agriculture has been destroyed over the past century due to rapid expansion of industrial and inequitable farming models that homogenize our genetic basis, deforest and degrade land, and rely extensively on external and polluting inputs to maintain artificial productive levels.
Our biodiversity crisis will only be solved if these dysfunctional food systems are profoundly transformed. There is compelling evidence that agroecological approaches offer viable pathways for this much-needed transformation. Agroecology maintains a central focus on ecosystem diversity, agricultural biodiversity, and is deeply rooted in traditional knowledge and the foodways of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Interest in agroecology has grown rapidly across many sectors and is now embraced by donor agencies, governments, research institutions and civil society organizations around the world. Agroecological approaches are gaining attention as a way to address the interconnected biodiversity, ecological, food security, and health crises facing humanity today.
This side event will also shine a light on emerging coalitions and policy actions that are linking agroecology and agricultural biodiversity, as crucial pathways to transform food systems.
Date: December 9
Local time: 13:15
Organizers: IFAD | FAO | AFD
Location: Yangtze, 516C
Event Description: Although human well-being depends upon the continued flow of biodiversity and its ecosystem services, they are predominantly public goods with no markets and no prices. Both public and private implementing bodies therefore often neglect their economic and monetary value. As a result, investment decisions are still mainly based on financial Cost-Benefit Analyses, which ignore most of the negative (and positive) so-called ‘externalities’ leading to the continued degradation of our ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity. Although this will affect all of our society, rural people are the most at risk because of their high dependence on ecosystem services, such as those that contribute to food production via agriculture, fishing, and hunting.
Acknowledging the role of public finance in transformational changes to stem the loss of biodiversity and make long-term economic recovery possible, AFD and IFAD are aligned in their position to maintain natural capital and develop a biodiversity-positive economy. In addition, AFD will share progress on developing their NbS finance tracking methodology.
Aligning the Financial Flows for an Ecological Civilization – how to speed up the momentum
Date: December 16
Local time: 18:15
Organizers: WWF | waiting for approval
Location: Side-event 2, 512F
Event description: “Greening Finance & Financing Green”: Transforming the land sector and deploying measures in agriculture, forestry, wetlands and bioenergy are key to achieving the envisioned global biodiversity framework. The financial service industry plays an integral role in all economic sectors. This not only puts it in a unique position to drive significant change, but it also means it is inherently exposed to the impacts of deforestation, ecosystem conversion and associated human rights risks. Central banks and supervisors have so far focused mainly on climate-related risks but have recently expanded their efforts to cover a broader set of environmental risks. More comprehensive regulatory and supervisory policy implications are under development. In this side event, we aim to highlight the importance of the finance sector for the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, make the business case for Deforestation and Conversion Free Finance, check on the developments since last year’s climate declaration and commitments and elaborate on the important next steps to implementation.
Date: December 9
Local time: 13:15
Organizers: CAAS | IIED | ANDES | Waiting for approval
Location: Brahmaputra, 511C-F
Event Description: Small farmers produce a third of the world’s food, and these smallholder farmers not only provide food but also act as stewards for a diversity of plants, animals and forests on and around their farms (FAO 2021, FSN 2022, IIED 2022 ). China is the world’s biggest smallholder farming country with 200 million farming households, with an average farming area of fewer than 0.6 hectares. These small farmers and their communities have worked in farmer seed systems to adapt to social and climate change for generations. The community-led farmer seeds systems sustain traditional culture, knowledge and genetic diversity as an important basis for food security, climate resilience and sustainability. However, small farmers and producers are the majority of the poor and hungry population, and their genetic resources and knowledge in farmer seed systems need more attention and support!
This side event will share our bio-culture and farmer seed system approaches and demonstrate the mechanisms and experiences with different stories and policy piloting cases in China and in other countries, aiming to contribute to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’s discussion and decision with [several objectives].
Date: December 13
Local time: 13:15
Organizers: DEA | SANBI | Waiting for approval
Location: Tomaga, 510C
Event Description: This session will aim to showcase best practices that have resulted from the successful collaboration between governments, the private sector and NGOs in South Africa.
Specifically, we will demonstrate how the National Web-based Environmental Screening Tool, the Land Use Decision Support Tool for Species of Conservation Concern (LUDS SCC Tool), and the Biological Diversity Protocol (BD Protocol) has and can enable developers, environmental specialists, government and business to support the transition to a nature positive world by 2030.
During this session, we will demonstrate the Environmental Screening Tool and how this tool streamlines the EIA process at a national scale for a broad range of environmental sensitivities and allows developers to prescreen alternative sites. With the LUDS tool, we will show concrete examples on how it provides spatial data on threatened terrestrial biodiversity that is readily accessible to all members of society.
This session aims to inspire policymakers to show what is already possible and discuss what is needed to catalyze change at a national and global level.
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