Nature Insight: Speed Dating with the Future

Multilateralism is the cornerstone of IPBES’s work and its existence. Bringing its 150 member states together to share ideas, research and reports is the engine that drives it forward. This final episode in this series of ‘Nature Insight’, covers IPBES’s latest Plenary session which brought together government representatives, multilateral organizations and others. It also saw the launch of a landmark report on Business and Biodiversity. The ideas in that report as well as the importance of the gathering feature in interviews with Astrid Schomaker, (Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity) and Jim White (a consultant with the UK-based ‘Nature Positive’).

 

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The annual value of industries highly dependent on nature amounts to15% of the global GDP, yet the benefits nature provides to businesses, as well as the impact of businesses on nature, are largely overlooked. This episode explores the business advantages of biodiversity conservation, and how companies can incorporate biodiversity as a core component of their sustainability strategies. It also looks ahead to the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Report which is due to be published in February 2026. The report’s co-authors, Matt Jones, (Chief Impact Officer at the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre), and Ximena Rueada (an Associate Professor at the School of Management at Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia) both feature in the episode.

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Is it possible to balance the needs of people with nature in our “concrete jungles”?  That is the question under scrutiny in this episode of ‘Nature Insight’. As the global population becomes ever more urbanized and cities are growing at an unprecedented rate  - particularly in the developing world - Rob Spaull and Brit Garner hear what needs to be done to protect nature in these built up environments. Brit and Rob hear from Loan Diep who is the Assistant Director of The Urban Systems Lab, an interdisciplinary research, design and practice space at New York University, and Carolina Figueroa, the director of SELVAR, a think and ‘do’ tank based in Colombia. 

 

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What can be done with environments that have become degraded through human activity, and how can you set right what has gone wrong? That is the question that Brit Garner and Carla Brown explore in this episode of the podcast. They hear about the problems, challenges - and solutions - on land and in marine environments. Dr Yvonne Walz, the the head of the Environmental Vulnerability and Ecosystem Services Division at United Nations University in Germany explains the possibilities of rewilding and restoration. Carla also speaks to Sebastian Villasante, a Lecturer in Environmental Economics at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain about his personal and professional passion for rewilding marine environments

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The impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss are felt in distinct and often unequal ways. The developing world is often hardest hit and has the least capacity to deal with the consequences of environmental degradation. Most notably it is often women who are hardest hit. In addition, the voices of women are often marginalised when discussing and dealing with these challenges. In this episode Brit - who is joined by Carla - speaks to Dr. Nadia Sitas who is from South Africa and works for The Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Brit also interviews Nita Shashidharan who is a researcher with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Southern India. Nita talks of the experiences of women who are involved as researchers and scientists, and how gender is a consideration in how they go about their work.

 

To find out more about IPBES, go to www.ipbes.net or follow us on social media @IPBES