Nature-based solutions, non-carbon benefits, climate finance and its articulation with public policies in Latin American countries were some of the topics addressed.
16 November 2021. The EUROCLIMA+ thematic sector of Forests, Biodiversity and Ecosystems, led by the agencies Expertise France (EF) and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH, has been implementing projects in 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2019. Through different approaches involving national and local governments, communities, the private sector, NGOs and academia, the projects are contributing to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in line with the Paris Agreement. In this context, and during COP26, several initiatives and activities were presented, which we share below.
Non-Carbon Benefits and Forest Protection
On 2 November, at the Panama Pavilion, Claus Kjaerby, project director, participated together with indigenous representatives in the event "The Concept of Non-Carbon Benefits resolved by state institutions, NGOs and indigenous peoples from Panama and Bolivia".
“In this panel we learned how the use of biocultural resources, forests, oceans and the traditional knowledge of communities throughout the country, as well as heritage tourism attractions, with a focus on conservation and research, represent a clear example of the benefits for generating knowledge," said Panama's Minister of Environment, Milciades Concepción.
The recording of the session can be viewed here.
On 3 November, Claus Kjaerby participated in the event "Forests, fires and the future at risk", a session that can be viewed in English here, in which it was explained that non-carbon benefits (NCBs) are key to the conservation of ecosystem-based carbon stocks, and enable climate change mitigation and adaptation targets to be met. The future of forests and the threats they face due to land use change and forest fires were also discussed.
In addition, project participants were part of the panel at the event "Co-creating forest-based solutions to enhance social and ecological resilience with shared value" organised on 9 November. There, a dialogue was established with key sectors that benefit, promote, support and invest in sustainable forest management, conservation and restoration of forests and the need to co-create tools for positive impacts. Special emphasis was placed on the perspective of indigenous peoples and local communities.
The recording of the session can be viewed here.
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and the protection of biodiversity
On 8 November, Mariana Gianiaki of the project Articulating Local Agendas from the Global participated in the event "Local government networks address biodiversity loss and climate change".
Mariana Gianiaki, project director in Brazil, presented her and her partners' experience in implementing Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) measures in a context of participatory public policies for biodiversity planning. She highlighted ways to finance these actions with the support of the private sector, sub-national and local governments, universities and civil society organisations.
The recording of the session can be seen here.
On 10 November, in the EUROCLIMA+ pavilion, the event "Scaling up Nature-based Solutions in Latin American and Caribbean public policies" took place. In addition to Ricardo Ulate from the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Volker Oel from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), representatives from EF (Michel Schlaifer), and GIZ (Mauricio Luna Rodríguez and Thora Amend), and from the projects Articulating Global Agendas from the Local (Alejandra Tenorio), Forest Value Chains (Natalia González) and Amazonian Forests and Climate Change (Luis Arteaga), shared their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges offered by the NbS. The importance of working with NbS on the ground and the possibility of elevating these actions to public policies was highlighted.
In this article you can access the recording of the session as well as the key messages shared by the panellists.
Climate Finance in the public policies of Latin America
On the other hand, Natalia González from the Forest Value Chains project participated on 10 November in the event "Climate finance at local level and its articulation with public policies in Latin America: Experiences built from successful cases of projects in the sectors of Resilient Food Production and Forests, Biodiversity and Ecosystems" together with EUROCLIMA+ project staff and a representative of the government of Guatemala.
During this session, four successful cases of EUROCLIMA+ projects that contribute to climate policy advocacy for vulnerable groups were shared. In addition, actions to mobilise international climate finance from public and private sources towards territorial or local contexts in Latin America were explained, allowing the design and implementation of bankable Nature-based solutions with an emphasis on resilient food and forest production.
The recording of the session can be viewed here.