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

Recordings and summaries of the sessions will be made available soon.

Approach

Over three days and nine sessions, we brought 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 examined 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 also discussed 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 explored how we can rekindle a deeper human connection with nature, through ceremony, art, music and immersive experiences.

 

Sessions

  • Day 1: Holistic Benefits of Nature-based Solutions
  • 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.
  • Nature-based Solutions for Health and Wellbeing

    We will explore 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 conservation outcomes of improving healthcare. 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.
  • Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation and Humanitarian Crises

    This session will explore some of the latest evidence for the value and limits of NbS 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 nature-based solutions 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 nature-based solutions in climate adaptation and development policy and practice, nationally and internationally.
  • Day 2: Making the System Work for Nature
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Day 3:Reimagining the Future with Nature-based Solutions
  • 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 one. In this session, we will hear from a range of Indigenous voices about approaches to rekindling our connection with nature as a foundational driver of positive change. We will learn how we might be able to support a deeper recognition around the world that humans are an 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.
  • 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.
  • People planting trees in Oxford

    Restoring Relationship with Nature-based Solutions

    How do we come back into relationship with each other and the Earth? How do we hold decision makers to account for the ongoing destruction of our current system? How do we advance projects on the ground with local communities? How do we inspire people through art and music to aspire to a different future that goes beyond GDP? Our final session will hear from a range of experts on topics as diverse as Ecocide through to the role of art in inspiring change? We will hear from real world cases in Scotland, the Andes and New Zealand with groups working to design a wellbeing nature-based economy that is in service of the web of life. We will work to try and pull some of the strands together from across the three days with a view on both the challenges and opportunities ahead.
 

Speakers

  • Prof Mercedes Bustamante
    Department of Ecology, University of Brasilia
  • Kathryn Brown OBE
    Wildlife Trusts
  • Dr Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz
    Chief leader, Grand Council of the Eagle and the Condor
  • 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
    Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF)
  • 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
  • Lucy Mulenkei
    Indigenous Information Network & Indigenous Women and Biodiversity Network
  • Dr 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
  • Charles Karangwa
    IUCN
  • Mirna Fernández
    Global Youth Biodiversity Network
  • Tristan Tyrrell
    Convention on Biological Diversity
  • Emily McKenzie
    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
  • Dr Alexandra Deprez
    Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI)
  • Alejandra Calzada
    WWF México
  • David Croft
    Reckitt, Global Head of Sustainability
  • Siddarth Shrikanth
    Just Climate
  • William Baldwin-Cantello
    NbS Accelerator, WWF
  • Niki Mardas
    Global Canopy
  • Dr Geraldine Patrick Encina
    Earth Time Keepers
  • Dr Naine Terena de Jesus
    Activist, social entrepreneur and researcher
  • Mac Macartney
    Embercombe
  • Nicole Schwab
    World Economic Forum
  • Alexa Firmenich
    SEED Biocomplexity
  • Florent Kaiser
    Acción Andina
  • Constantino Aucca Chutas
    Acción Andina
  • Jo Anderson
    Carbon Tanzania
  • Alan Watson Featherstone
    Founder of Trees for Life
  • Jane Frere
    Artist
  • Jojo Mehta
    Stop Ecocide International
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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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