Shoshanna Dean

Connecting the Northeast through land, water, and collaboration

July 16, 2024

I was lucky enough to attend the first ever Northeastern North America / Turtle Island Connectivity Summit (NENAM) in Montréal / Tiohtià:ke, Canada, hosted by our friends at the Quebec Labrador Foundation, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, and the Staying Connected Initiative. The Salazar Center’s efforts focus on the continental scale, so it was especially exciting to attend a conference where the attendees were collectively focused on their impact on a shared and beloved landscape. The spirit of the gathering was centered on transcending borders and sectors to recognize that humans, plants, and wildlife need connected landscapes to thrive.

NENAM brought together practitioners, government representatives, agencies, tribal representatives, and funders to create a regional roadmap to better understand their challenges and achieve a resilient and connected Northeastern North America.

The Salazar Center also wants to protect this ecologically diverse and important geography. We plan to hold our second Peregrine Accelerator for Conservation Impact – a tailored training, mentorship, and peer-learning program designed to identify and strengthen innovative conservation projects – in the North Atlantic Transboundary region.

This region encompasses seven U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. The landscape has even been identified by The Nature Conservancy as one of their four globally significant core areas, due to the region’s critical potential to conserve biodiversity, act as a carbon sink, and provide resilience in the face of climate change. From the Atlantic coast to the Adirondacks and Appalachians, a host of plant and animal species rely on an intact and conserved landscape to survive. The collaborative work being done by the organizations at NENAM is a vital step to ensuring species can move between habitats, particularly in the face of a changing climate that is pushing many to higher elevations and latitudes.

Takeaways

I learned so much from this impressive group. These are a few of the takeaways that will stick with me from NENAM:

1. Indigenous nations are leading the way

Indigenous groups are responsible for stewarding 80% of the world’s biodiversity, despite making up only 5% of the world’s population. Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge is continuously proving to be critical for protecting intact landscapes. The tribes and First Nations of the northeast are leading a multitude of impressive efforts to establish Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), restore free flowing rivers, and reignite the traditional stewardship of their ancestral lands. For too long the conservation community kept Indigenous groups out of critical conversations, and the time is now to elevate and collaborate with those who have stewarded the land for time immemorial. A particularly poignant moment was when Elder Dr. Albert D. Marshall Sr., Moose Clan of the Mi’kmaw Nation, Mi’ma’ki encouraged us all to “walk together with the uniqueness we have been given” when doing this critical work.

2. Conservation wins when different sectors come together

One aspect of NENAM that particularly impressed me was the diversity of sectors represented. The audience comprised transportation agencies, public works departments, environmental nonprofits, tribal organizations, state and municipal leaders, landscape scale collaboratives, and more. This diverse group of representatives meant that the discussions, particularly in the breakout groups, yielded thoughts and insights that were innovative and integrative of the many sectors represented. I am excited to see the final roadmap because it will reflect a multitude of ideas and perspectives historically kept out of the landscape connectivity conversation.

Panel on the work different organizations and entities are doing to enhance landscape connectivity efforts in the region and beyond.

3. We need innovative financing and funding

It is no secret that conservation remains one of the least funded sectors, despite the critical benefits and risk-reduction that nature provides to humans. The global $700 billion financing gap is one of the starkest examples of this, demonstrating that we can no longer afford to do business as usual when it comes to funding conservation. I was excited to hear examples of how leaders in this region are working to explore new ways of funding this critical work. From bonds for nature to cultural ecosystem service valuation, there is a need for a diverse and innovative mix of public and private financing to successfully pay for the work that needs to be done.
My colleague, Catie Boehmer, recently attended the Conservation Finance Network annual bootcamp. She shares her thoughts about the state of conservation funding here.

4. Working at all scales is critical to achieve connectivity

From the smallest wildlife crossing to a dam removal, to a thousand-acre forest reserve, we need to be thinking of landscape connectivity across all scales. This was made evident by the diversity of work that was shared throughout the summit. And importantly, a connected landscape can work to scale up solutions that are successful on the ground by sharing best practices across stakeholders. When we add it all up, landscape connectivity is the result of a multitude of projects that collectively connect and enhance natural space for humans and wildlife. Because of this, projects of every size are necessary to achieve our goals!

5. Borders are man-made

Wildlife and humans have existed without politically designated borders for millennia and will continue to do so into the future. As the climate changes dramatically and pushes species out of their natural ranges, we must ensure that habitats exist to support their movement. A deer, bear, bird, or bug is not going to care whether they are in the United States or Canada, they will only care if they have the resources needed to support their shift in range. Collaboration across these borders is critical for the ensured survival of us all. Similarly, Indigenous nations such as the Wabanaki have been separated by federal borders. They are still connected by their shared knowledge, traditions, and stewardship of the region, and demonstrate that borders are truly what we make of them.

Final thoughts

It is exciting to see the impressive collaboration towards a shared vision of what connectivity means for the Northeast Atlantic region. I am personally thrilled to be bringing the Peregrine Accelerator to the region in 2025, knowing that there is a strong base of committed and visionary practitioners working to build resilience for the region. We all have our work set out for us to meet global challenges for climate and biodiversity, and the NENAM summit proved that together, we just might get there.

A. Alonso Aguirre

World Oceans Day: Protecting our oceans by conserving sea turtles

June 8, 2024

Growing up in the coastal state of Baja California Sur, Mexico, my main access to nature was the ocean, and I was lucky enough to live in an area with some of the richest marine biodiversity in the world. Eighty percent of marine mammals in the Pacific Ocean come to feed near my hometown in the Sea of California, with up to 40 blue whales feeding in a single location – imagine the ocean’s productivity delivering tons of krill, their only prey!

The ocean supported my family’s livelihood. My grandfather was the captain of two fishing boats and my grandmother was the president of the local fish cooperative. I have vivid memories of my uncle taking me out on his fishing boat five miles off the coast where we would watch loggerhead turtles rise to the surface. When multitudes of loggerheads surfaced simultaneously, bubbles would form in the water, and we would watch the ocean “boil.”

We didn’t know it at the time, but this phrase – “watching the ocean boil” – that we used figuratively would one day become literal. And the many sea turtles that I loved watching would dwindle in numbers over time.

Today, climate change sets and then breaks records for the hottest ocean temperatures, pollution and disease spread plastic and sickness to marine species, and beach erosion destroys habitats along coastlines. The oceans are in trouble because of human impacts, and only 7.5% of marine habitats (the size of North America) are protected, leaving ecosystems and the species that depend on them vulnerable.

All seven species of sea turtles are currently endangered. Sea turtles reflect the presence of environmental contaminants and emerging infectious diseases, making them sentinel species. Because sea turtles occupy both land and sea, they move in and out of infected or polluted areas and spread pathogens and contaminants geographically and through the food chain.

I have been fortunate enough to study sea turtles and their pathogens throughout my career as a wildlife veterinarian and later as a wildlife epidemiologist. I have traveled worldwide to study foxes in Patagonia, manatees in Belize, La Plata dolphins in Argentina, and sea turtles in Australia, Hawaii, and Mexico.

While in Hawaii in the ‘90s, I encountered a disease called fibro papillomatosis, a tumor that causes lesions in the skin and appendages on internal organs. Some of those tumors may become malignant as fibrosacomas in the tomium of sea turtles, ultimately growing into their bones. This disease is not limited to populations found off the coast of Hawaii; it has been documented across all oceans in Australia, Florida, Brazil, Chile, Southeast Asia, and Western Africa. This is likely because sea turtles have some of the largest migratory routes of marine animals, meaning any disease they carry has the potential for pantropical distribution.

I also observed sea turtles returning year after year to the beaches where they were born to lay their eggs. A female sea turtle can lay 100 eggs at a time and 1,000-10,000 eggs in a season; yet, only one out of those hatchlings will make it to adulthood.

Not only does beach erosion make it difficult for females to find areas to lay their eggs, but light pollution also impacts newly hatched sea turtles, obscuring their way to the ocean and leaving them more vulnerable to predators like gulls and crabs. If a hatchling does make it into the ocean and survives to adulthood, there’s a good chance that it will be illegally harvested or caught in nets that aren’t meant for it.

This phenomenon – called bycatch – is one of the biggest threats to marine life, especially the loggerhead turtle. Fishers often use large fishing nets that stretch a mile across the water to maximize their catch. However, sea turtles and other unwanted marine species can easily get caught in these nets, and unable to free themselves, they eventually drown and wash up to the beach.

Given these hosts of problems that sea turtles face, it is no surprise that this species is in trouble, and if the sea turtle is in trouble, then our oceans are in trouble. So, what can we do about it?

As a conservationist, I’ve tried all sorts of solutions, including writing to the Mexican government, asking them to do something about bycatch; working with groups who have introduced a technique to monitor sea turtle bycatch, the Turtle Excluder Device, that allows fishers to avoid sea turtles in their nets; and assisting nonprofits, including Sea Turtle Conservation Network of Californias, to tackle conservation issues. But still, these actions are not enough.

One of the reasons why sea turtle conservation has been so difficult to manage is culture. In Latin America, see turtle meat and eggs are believed to act as aphrodisiacs if consumed. Even as a young child, my grandfather used to make me drink sea turtle blood for medicinal reasons. Despite Mexico outlawing sea turtle consumption in the 1990s and creative marketing campaigns creating stigmas against sea turtle consumption, many coastal residents continue to eat sea turtles.

Oceans connect all of us, so the best way to tackle this issue is through transdisciplinary solutions that are supported by the public, stakeholders, and decision-makers and can be enacted on global and local levels. Recently, through One Health, I have worked on a campaign that combines education, conservation and human health. By demonstrating the dangers of eating sea turtles – which include ingesting heavy metals and toxins that can lead to cancer – the hope is that the public will stop eating sea turtles.

I look forward to measuring the outcomes of this new campaign, but in the meantime, on World Oceans Day and every day, I hope we can all continue to learn more about marine species, improve our policies to address harmful human impacts on our oceans, and explore new depths together.

Sea turtles are telling us what’s happening to the oceans, and it’s time we listen. The health of our marine environment depends on it.

A. Alonso Aguirre is the Dean of Warner College of Natural Resources.

Jennifer Kovecses

Celebrating biodiversity action – conservation works; we should do more of it!

May 21, 2024

“Biodiversity starts in the distant past and it points toward the future.”
– Frans Lanting

At the heart of everything we do at The Salazar Center is finding equitable and inclusive solutions to reversing the loss of biodiversity. So, we love a good excuse to elevate and celebrate nature’s critical role in our lives. In this light, the International Day of Biodiversity resonates deeply with our values. For almost a quarter century, the United Nations has gathered the world to celebrate this day with the sole intent of increasing our collective understanding and awareness of biodiversity.

Supporting conservation work that protects and restores biodiversity matters. Recent studies have found that globally, almost $44 trillion of economic value generation – over half the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature. Biodiversity loss is also deeply linked to human health worldwide. And yet, sometimes doing the work of conservation can feel daunting, even Sisyphean. That is why we were so encouraged to see the results from a recent meta-analysis of over 180 conservation interventions published in Science. The researchers found that in two-thirds of cases, the interventions either improved biodiversity or slowed declines. Not only did they find that the interventions were effective, but they also had large, measurable impacts.

A few things really stood out to me as I read this article. First, the results were not restricted to one type of conservation intervention. Impact was found across a spectrum of project types. Similarly, the positive impact was not restricted to one geography or ecosystem type. This shows that the tools that are already in our toolbox can and should be deployed in more places. Results such as this show that our work is not Sisyphean, and there are solid, science-backed reasons to keep doing the work. Turns out conservation works, and we should do more of it!

But as we consider how to scale up the conservation work necessary to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, we need to think about doing more of it in a way that centers people and the expertise embedded in local communities. We heard this clarion call repeatedly at our last International Symposium on Conservation Impact. When we work to convene conservation thought leaders or work to build the capacity of practitioners to lift their projects off the ground, we are always working with that lens in mind. We believe that getting to durable conservation solutions can only happen when the people on the ground – from all walks of life – are heard, empowered, and have the resources to make change happen.

This year’s International Day of Biodiversity theme is “Be Part of the Plan”. This represents a call to action for everyone around the globe to do something – big or small – to contribute to protecting biodiversity. We could not agree more! But everyone needs to be part of the plan and our policies and funding need to recognize, incentivize and support that vision of inclusive action.

From the United Nations:

The United Nations has proclaimed May 22 the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. When first created by the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly in late 1993, 29 December (the date of entry into force of the Convention of Biological Diversity), was designated The International Day for Biological Diversity. In December 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted 22 May as IDB, to commemorate the adoption of the text of the Convention on 22 May 1992 by the Nairobi Final Act of the Conference for the Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This was partly done because it was difficult for many countries to plan and carry out suitable celebrations for the date of 29 December, given the number of holidays that coincide around that time of year.

Emily Barbo

Symposium 2023 Cross-cutting Theme: Empower

May 16, 2024

The Salazar Center’s fifth International Symposium on Conservation Impact focused on how to achieve a nature-positive future together, to catapult our communities towards durable, high-impact outcomes for climate, biodiversity, and human well-being.

We brought together diverse thought leaders to share ideas and best practices for moving beyond individual pilot projects to build lasting systems change for nature and communities across North America. Our two-day dialogue elevated the interconnectedness of biodiversity loss and climate change, both in terms of their impacts and solutions, while highlighting how a nature-based approach can enhance the resilience of both our planet and society. By design, we assembled speakers with varied expertise and backgrounds to showcase the breadth of differing, and sometimes contrarian, opinions and ideas related to our theme. Our intent with this approach was to facilitate our attendees’ ability to deepen their understanding of the issues and perhaps challenge their perspectives.

The 2023 Symposium Synthesis Report summarizes five cross-cutting themes that emerged from the Symposium, as well as key takeaways from each session. The themes reflect ideas, needs, and opportunities raised multiple times by speakers or attendees. Like the interconnectedness of biodiversity and climate, each theme is also connected to the next. Together, they help illuminate potential shared pathways to enrich biodiversity and build long-term, stable societies and healthy economies across North America.

Don’t have time to read the full report? No problem! We’ve broken it down so you can focus on what resonates the most right now.

Cross-cutting Theme: Empower

“A vision without resources is little more than a hallucination.” – Àngel Peña

Despite unprecedented financial commitments by federal governments, we still face an enormous financing gap in achieving our climate and biodiversity goals. This is true globally and in North America, with an estimated global Biodiversity Financing Gap of $598-824 billion USD annually. While philanthropy has made large investments in NBS, we still do not have sufficient, equitably distributed financial resources to meet this moment. We need a cross-sector, all-of-government approach to find creative ways to support this work.

Building financial sustainability for NBS through private-sector investment

We heard consensus that much of the private sector supports investing in NBS and is pivoting their operations to intentionally support it. Still, significant barriers remain to the private sector’s investment in more impactful and innovative approaches and projects. Those barriers include a lack of consensus and transparency around systems for assessing risk and the impact of the work, especially when it comes to biodiversity. A clearer understanding of cost-benefit in relationship to biodiversity and to its associated metrics is needed to accelerate effective private-sector investment. Private sector companies have already implemented the easier, low-hanging fruit of NBS projects. Now they need help tackling the more challenging and complex ones. Importantly, the corporate sector needs better processes for working with frontline communities meaningfully.

Speakers reflected upon emerging carbon and biodiversity markets and how these markets can potentially supply ‘additive’ funds. However, practitioners remain concerned about these markets’ overall transparency and accountability. International efforts such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and the Science-based Targets Initiative are working to help alleviate these concerns through transparent and durable reporting mechanisms. There is a tremendous need for cross-sector trust-building so that practitioners can be confident that claims of market benefits for people and nature accrue equitably and are measurable and meaningful. While funding sources, like environmental markets, are important, practitioners and policymakers can do more with existing funding sources. How can we be creative with the existing monetary sources to stack funding to drive greater and longer-lasting impacts?

The finance and corporate sectors need a clearer understanding of the benefits of biodiversity protection and how biodiversity loss puts investment at risk. This knowledge gap creates a barrier to further biodiversity investment from the finance sector. Additional data and messaging regarding biodiversity co-benefits and metrics to support tracking those co-benefits are deeply needed.

One critical opportunity that speakers raised concerning financing NBS projects is that we should not just focus on developing novel tools like environmental markets but also consider how existing financial instruments are barriers to delivering positive outcomes for biodiversity and climate efforts. We need to reform financial subsidies that harm nature and exacerbate climate impacts, such as those for fossil fuels and large-scale agriculture. This will require collaborating with policymakers across North America to examine and dismantle subsidy programs that inadvertently provide obstacles to their national and international climate and biodiversity goals.

Disinvestment in Frontline Communities

Throughout the dialogue, speakers highlighted the importance of recognizing the expertise and human capital that already exist within frontline communities. Frontline communities know what they need and have ideas for solutions to meet their communities’ challenges, but these communities often lack investment. One barrier to investment is the spatial mismatch between community-led projects and environmental markets. Investors typically require larger spatial scales for investment, while most community-led projects operate at much smaller scales. For example, the Blue Carbon projects highlighted at the Symposium struggle to access carbon markets because they are small and not aggregated.

There is a strong need to create and support a pipeline of projects ready for investment. Finally, we must develop better processes for equitable benefit sharing of financing efforts like carbon or biodiversity markets. While this is true for all frontline communities, speakers stressed a particular need for working with Indigenous communities on benefit sharing of these market and other financing tools.

Download the full 2023 Symposium Synthesis Report

Emily Barbo

Symposium 2023 Cross-cutting Theme: Learn, Monitor, Adapt

May 9, 2024

Don’t have time to read the full report? No problem! We’ve broken it down so you can focus on what resonates the most right now.

Cross-cutting Theme: Learn, Monitor, Adapt

“Are we doing the right thing?” – Lauren Oakes

Regenerating healthy biodiversity and building climate resilience is hard. Many of us put enormous amounts of energy, time, and money into creating positive change while experiencing tremendous uncertainty around our impact. We must pause and ask ourselves, ‘Are we doing the right thing?’ The lack of metrics and monitoring to support our decision-making is a barrier to answering this question. We need to identify solutions that are effective and lead to durable outcomes. Unfortunately, we are not tracking a common set of metrics to help us collectively answer the question, “Are we getting it right?” The inherent complexity of biodiversity makes a common set of metrics difficult to achieve, unlike so many of our climate solutions which are largely tied to CO2 equivalents. Not surprisingly, we have yet to fully define approaches to track and measure the suite of co-benefits associated with NBS. In order to get there, “Maybe it is less about right and wrong and more about striving for better as people learn from the challenges and successes of their work as it unfolds over time”, as suggested by Lauren Oakes.

Without consistent tracking of sufficient and comparable metrics over time, it is difficult to implement effective adaptive management programs within a project or at a larger policy scale. This gap limits our ability to appropriately advance effective approaches and techniques. Adaptive management and its associated monitoring need to be planned strategically from the beginning of a project and sustained throughout its life. Conversely, speakers noted that effective long-term monitoring can take time to produce results, which conflicts with the urgency to invest in and implement widespread solutions.

To improve adaptive management, we need a clearer understanding of what success looks like in terms of nature-based solutions and their outcomes. Developing a consensus around a common set of performance metrics related to NBS, biodiversity, and climate is required to ensure nature-positive outcomes. The full suite of NBS co-benefits is still poorly measured and understood. One of the major barriers to effective application is the lack of interest from government or philanthropic funders in supporting sustained multi-year monitoring programs. This limits the capacity of organizations to build long-term assessment and learning into their planning processes from the beginning.

Western monitoring requirements create barriers to Indigenous communities

In seeking to improve and sustain the use of metrics, monitoring, and adaptive management, speakers elevated the tension between conventional Western and TEK approaches. TEK is often built and shared around storytelling and non-quantitative measures, conflicting with conventional Western metrics and performance indicators. The limited funding available for monitoring typically prioritizes quantitative performance indicators. This creates an obstacle for Indigenous peoples’ access to critical funding for projects. Maybe more importantly, it also prevents the development of human capacity and cross-cultural trust-building. As a result, speakers called upon the conservation community to recognize and respect that Indigenous peoples do not need Western science and data to validate TEK. We must work together to fund and co-create models of support that are more respectful and inclusive of Indigenous ways of knowing.

Climate solutions must be nature-positive solutions

Another important concept emerging throughout Symposium discussions was the need for intentional planning to avoid potential conflicts between climate and biodiversity solutions. Climate change is often seen as more urgent than biodiversity loss, partly because climate threats and solutions receive better-developed messaging and measurements than fractured ecosystem services and functions. Promoting and incorporating nature-based solutions can help balance this tension. However, there is still a need for policies that fully analyze and prioritize the impacts of climate solutions to ensure no unintended consequences for biodiversity, ecosystems, and communities. We cannot let the sense of urgency around solving climate change over the long term supersede concerns about how those strategies or projects can negatively impact efforts and goals for protecting biodiversity and ensuring positive, equitable outcomes for communities.

Download the full 2023 Symposium Synthesis Report

Emily Barbo

Symposium 2023 Cross-cutting Theme: Fostering Relationships

May 2, 2024

Don’t have time to read the full report? No problem! We’ve broken it down so you can focus on what resonates the most right now.

Cross-cutting Theme: Fostering Relationships

“Progress moves at the speed of trust.” – James Rattling Leaf

The value of rooting our climate and biodiversity work in relationship-building reverberated powerfully throughout the Symposium. Despite the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises, speakers encouraged the conservation community to slow down and intentionally build meaningful relationships with partners and leaders from across sectors and organizations, and particularly with the frontline and Indigenous communities who are central to this work. Creating an effective and truly inclusive NBS community necessitates a deeper understanding of and ability to communicate with all those touched by the biodiversity and climate crises to develop shared values and a common language. For North America to reach a nature-positive future, we must lead with community and create solutions built on a foundation of trust.

The knowledge and understanding of frontline communities and Indigenous peoples are foundational to building successful strategies for addressing climate and biodiversity risks and implementing effective nature-based solutions. Community-driven data is as important as the data derived from conventional Western science, and achieving a nature-positive future will be difficult without fully incorporating these diverse sources of expertise.

As we work towards building better relationships within and across the conservation field, several speakers highlighted the value of leaning into discomfort. Accommodating difficult conversations will help us reimagine the systems driving the climate and biodiversity crises. Globally, Indigenous peoples manage 80% of the remaining intact biodiversity. This is both a challenge and an opportunity to build bridges that connect Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and practices with the culture and systems of the dominant society. Perhaps we should reframe thinking about NBS as thinking about Indigenous-based solutions. However, if we are to do that, we must first resolve the roots of conflict between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples through a process of reconciliation.

Ethical Space is a key mechanism to enable successful reconciliation, which provides the means for respectful government-to-government dialogue and to deeply “understand what is important to be understood… and create something new.”

Download the full 2023 Symposium Synthesis Report

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Alonso Aguirre

September 22, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Alonso Aguirre, Dean, Warner College of Natural Resources, CSU, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Dr. Aguirre’s academic mission is to provide the next generation of natural resources, environmental science, sustainability, and policy leaders with unique educational, research, and extension opportunities that are transformational in nature within the context of globalization and international markets. For the past three decades his work has focused on the conservation of endangered wildlife and ecosystems under the tenet “health connects all species in the planet”. He has developed practical, sustainable, and effective solutions understanding local socioeconomic factors, and a solid grasp of complex national and regional health and environmental policies, while building local capacity in over 30 countries.

Warner College of Natural Resources is one of the largest and most comprehensive natural resource colleges in the nation. Offering students the opportunity to immerse themselves in their environmental fields of choice, Warner College is a leader in natural resources education, outreach, and research both in Colorado and around the world.

“Warner College is ahead of its time in addressing so many important issues, including biodiversity and the loss of species, climate change and sustainability,” Aguirre said. “The faculty, staff, students and alumni of the College are poised to accelerate solutions to these issues, and I am thrilled to have this magnificent opportunity to work alongside such wonderful scholars and students to help solve these pressing problems.”

Resources:

Dr. Aguirre’s Research Profile

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Alonso Martínez

August 8, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Alonso Martínez will be joining us Denver, Colorado, for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Alonso has collaborated for more than five years in United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), where he currently acts as National Coordinator.

He has a degree in Economics from Tecnológico de Monterrey, a Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Economics from México’s National University, and a master’s in Economics and Environmental and Energy Policy from University College London. He began his career at CONANP, contributing to estimating the financial gap of protected areas and developing economic valuation of ecosystem services. During his career, he has contributed to integrating the economic and financial approach into public policies for the conservation of biodiversity.

The Biodiversity Finance Initiative is a global partnership launched by UNDP and the European Commission that supports countries to enhance their financial management of biodiversity and ecosystems. Forty countries have already started a national BIOFIN process.

BIOFIN makes use of three detailed country-level assessments to develop a biodiversity finance plan, drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, innovative methodologies, and global and national expert input. It aims to develop a methodology for quantifying the biodiversity finance gap at the national level, for improving cost-effectiveness through mainstreaming of biodiversity into national development and sectoral planning, and for developing comprehensive national finance plans.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

BIOFIN Mexico, Executive Summary of Phase 1: Results and Biodiversity Finance Solutions

BIOFIN Knowledge Briefs: Conversations in Biodiversity and FinTech

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Citlali Cortés Montaño

June 22, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Dr. Citlali Cortés Montaño will be joining us Denver, Colorado, for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Citlali has worked in ecology, management, and conservation in México for over 20 years. Since 2015, she has served as the senior sector coordinator for the México office of KfW (the German Development Bank) in biodiversity and forestry. Citlali’s work keeps her connected with community-based conservation and the management of biodiversity and ecosystems.

She has a Ph.D. in Forest Science from Northern Arizona University, and her dissertation focused on old-growth habitats and their relationships to wildfire. Her research has helped to provide a new depiction of fire regimes in the Sky Islands that can help inform fire management, restoration, and regional conservation planning, fostered by local and traditional knowledge and collaboration among landowners and managers.

A major impact of climate change, very evident in recent news, is the increase in the frequency of large fires. In her paper, “Climate Change, Forests and Fire in the Southwestern US and Northern Mexico”, Citlali collaborated with Dr. Don Falk to compare forests and forest management in the Southwest United States and Northwest Mexico.

Additional Research

Contemporary Fire Regimes Provide a Critical Perspective on Restoration Needs in the Mexico-United States Borderlands

Shoshanna Dean

Nature-Based Terminology: Understanding the lingo that will get us to natural solutions

June 21, 2023

Have you noticed the dizzying number of terms out there to describe the innovative work using nature to solve some of our most pressing environmental challenges? Nature based, natural climate, and nature positive are just a few of the phrases that have entered the vernacular of practitioners across many sectors from conservation to tech and politics. The language around this topic is becoming increasingly complex and nuanced, with multiple terms being used, often interchangeably. But what are the differences between these approaches and why does it matter?

The Urgency of the Moment

Our climate and biodiversity are facing dual interlinked crises. Experts have warned that if we do not act quickly on reducing our emissions, the Earth will warm beyond 2.0° C which will put humans and ecosystems in peril. More recently, one study found that about 30% of species have been globally threatened or driven extinct since the year 1500. With international agreements such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework marking major milestones for global cooperation, there is still a need for efforts to be coordinated to best meet these global goals. As more and more research shows that neither problem can be solved in a silo, there has been an urgent call to increase attention and resources on a tool that has been right in front of us all along—nature.

Conservation strategies that utilize nature can effectively and efficiently deliver dual climate and biodiversity benefits, all while building resilience for humans and ecosystems. As these strategies increase in popularity, so does the terminology being used to describe them. These terms have been quickly adopted by NGOs, corporations, governments, and individuals to communicate their work, which has led to a lack of clarity as to the differences between each one.

Let’s break down the differences between the three (there are a lot more) terms most commonly used in the field to help you navigate the nature-based vocabulary landscape.

Nature Based Solutions

The umbrella term that includes strategies that use nature to address a problem and deliver climate, biodiversity, economic, and/community health benefits.

The most popularly used term surrounding this issue is Nature-based solutions (NbS). This all-encompassing umbrella term is defined by the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) as “actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience and biodiversity benefits.’’ First used in 2008 by the World Bank, the term has taken off in popularity, becoming mainstream in the worlds of business, conservation, politics, and more. Given the pace and scale of the adoption of this phrase, the term has faced widespread scrutiny from multiple groups. To address the critiques, measures of accountability are quickly becoming developed by third parties.

NbS can differ greatly in what they entail and address. Green infrastructure, ecosystem restoration, urban greening, coastal resilience projects can all be examples of NbS, though their ultimate goals may differ. What they have in common is that they are solutions that utilize nature to confront challenges faced by humans and ecosystems. The website Nature-Based Solutions can help you to break down some more of the different terms under the NbS umbrella.

Natural Climate Solutions (NcS)

A subset of nature-based solutions, that address a climate-driven problem and deliver climate change mitigation, adaptation, and/or resilience benefits, typically focused on emissions reduction or carbon capture using nature.

Under the umbrella of NbS, the term Natural-climate solutions is becoming more common as well. These strategies are part of NbS, but are activities that specifically aim to address a climate-driven problem and deliver climate change mitigation, adaptation, and/or resilience benefits, typically focused on emissions reduction or carbon capture through natural ecosystems (Nature4Climate). These actions should have measurable targets directly related to reducing or mitigating carbon emissions using nature, that ultimately contribute to the global Net Zero goal. Examples such as reforestation projects designed for carbon capture and regenerative agriculture that improves soil carbon can be included under the NcS umbrella.

One scientific study found that NcS have the potential to mitigate up to 37% of our carbon emissions, making them a powerful addition to the suite of tools being used to address climate change and meet the global goal of holding global average temperature rise below 2° C. NcS can link to carbon markets to receive innovative financing mechanisms, or report towards global emissions targets, which has spurred a great deal of interest in their ability to tackle the climate crisis.

Nature4Climate offers some great resources including this interactive map and a glossary of NcS terms.

It should always be noted that utilizing nature to address climate challenges cannot be a substitute for the rapid decarbonization of our industrial world. These strategies must be used simultaneously if we are to sustain our world as we know it.

Nature Positive

A global goal to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and lead to a net increase of biodiversity by 2050.

In recent years, a new term has entered the dialogue: Nature Positive. As countries have been working to set targets for carbon emissions and sustainable development for years, it has become glaringly obvious that a similar time bound goal for nature to halt and reverse biodiversity loss is necessary. This term was originally introduced in 2021 when a group of experts came together to write "A Nature-Positive World: The Global Goal for Nature.” where they argue for the need to set rigorous and measurable targets for biodiversity recovery. In their paper, the authors introduced the goal of “three measurable temporal objectives: Zero Net Loss of Nature from 2020, Net Positive by 2030, and Full Recovery by 2050” as demonstrated by the image below.

Think of Nature Positive as the cousin of Net Zero. Where Net Zero specifically focuses on curbing carbon emissions, Nature Positive addresses biodiversity loss. There can be significant and impactful overlap between these strategies when used strategically. There are now many organizations and countries that have incorporated Nature Positive into their messaging and frameworks, the latest being the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

You may hear the term nature-positive solutions thrown around as well. Similar to natural climate solutions, nature positive “contributions” or “solutions” are what an individual entity can quantify of the maintenance and improvement of natural processes, ecosystems, and species over time at a project site, that ultimately contribute towards the global goal. Basically, individual entities cannot claim themselves to be “Nature Positive” but can contribute to helping reach this state through quantifiable actions that lead to an increase in biodiversity at a local scale. Check out Nature Positive by 2030 for more information on understanding the development of targets and standards if you want to learn more.

Language Matters

While the world has been strongly focused on climate goals for many years, biodiversity is at risk of being left behind. For years Nature-based solutions have drawn criticism from the conservation community, particularly when a project has detrimental impacts on an ecosystem or community, as well as inaccurately recording and claiming their contributions to carbon emissions. However, despite criticisms, the field is rapidly growing, with non-traditionally environmentally minded sectors such as business and tech beginning to invest large sums in nature. It’s critical for people, inside and outside the environmental field, to understand the differences between these terms and the strategies behind them. Just one example is that being able to appreciate the nuances will help consumers recognize egregious greenwashing and empower them to hold the transgressors accountable. What better way to stay on track to meet global goals?

Still curious about what the future of these strategies looks like? Join the Salazar Center at the fifth annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact in Denver, Colorado, on October 11 and 12. We will explore how nature-positive solutions can help address both climate and biodiversity goals, to help strengthen the resilience of communities and ecosystems across North America.

Symposium Registration

Emily Barbo

4th Annual International Symposium for Conservation Impact – Day 2 Recordings

December 2, 2022

The 2022 Symposium focused on transboundary conservation, specifically across the US-Mexico border, which spans nearly 2,000 miles across six distinct ecoregions and shapes a landscape that is home to more than 15 million people. The region represents a unique opportunity to explore how to improve conservation outcomes for both people and ecosystems – and how to do so in the context of multinational, transboundary collaboration.

The Symposium concluded on Friday, October 7, 2022. The morning started with a keynote address from Assistant Secretary of Water and Science Tanya Trujillo, on the importance of federal collaboration as critical to the successful management of our vital river systems.

To complement this, a panel of experts including Roberto Salmon, Jennifer Pitt, Carlos de la Parra, and Anne Castle discussed the complex and innovative Colorado River Minutes process that has allowed the two countries to reach agreements that preserve the river ecosystems and the human livelihoods that rely on a sustainable water supply to prosper.

Calixto Mateos-Hanel, Managing Director of the North American Development Bank, shared the innovative ways in which NADB is funding work that simultaneously fosters sustainable development while meeting environmental goals.

The morning concluded with an incredible panel of NGO leaders sharing the work they are doing to integrate climate resilience into their conservation work throughout the borderlands. Thank you to Serge Dedina, Fay Hartman, and Jon Dale for sharing the innovative projects you all are doing to help your communities adapt and prepare for the effects of climate change.

It takes a lot of passion, collaboration, planning, and science to make conservation happen. But none of it happens if we can’t pay for it. The afternoon sessions of Friday dove into innovations and ideas of ways to pay for the work with examples from the borderlands including a panel discussion on why business needs biodiversity, moderated by Jennifer Gooden, President Biophilia Foundation, which advances biodiversity conservation on private lands by fostering systemic change through people, their communities, and direct action. Participants then heard from experts from philanthropy in the US and Mexico who spoke about the role they see for the future of philanthropy in the borderlands and beyond to help further conservation goals.

The final speaker of the Symposium was Ron Rael, a designer, activist, trained architect, author, and Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture at the University of California Berkeley. His research interests connect Indigenous and traditional material practices to contemporary technologies and issues. He is a thought leader within the topics of additive manufacturing, border wall studies, and earthen architecture. His moving presentation gave participants hope and a vision for the future as we continue to have constructive conversations that create meaningful change.

You can now watch all of the recordings from Day 2 of the Symposium in English and Spanish. For more, including the pre-conference webinars, be sure to visit the Center’s YouTube Channel. Please note, due to a power outage on Friday morning, some session recordings are incomplete.

Symposium Day 2 Recordings

Welcome and introductory remarks

Beth Conover, Executive Director, Salazar Center for North American Conservation
Tony Frank, Chancellor, Colorado State University System
Luis Benitez, Vice President for Government Affairs and Global Impact, VF Corporation (emcee)

Federal perspectives on transboundary rivers

Tanya Trujillo, Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of the Interior

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Multi-national cooperation on water: Interstate compacts as a model for transboundary cooperation

Roberto Salmon, Founding Partners, Luken Center for Strategies in Water and the Environment, and Former Commissioner, Mexico-United States International Boundary and Water Commission

Carlos de la Parra, Chair of the Board, Raise the River
Jennifer Pitt, Colorado River Program Director, National Audubon Society
Moderated by Anne Castle, Senior Fellow, Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School

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North America Development (NAD) Bank: Promoting sustainable development while protecting the environment across the U.S.-Mexico border

Calixto Mateos-Hanel, Managing Director, North American Development Bank

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Climate impacts to biodiversity and water in the border region

Jon Dale, Director, Rio Grande Valley & Mexico, American Forests
Serge Dedina, Executive Director, WILDCOAST

Fay Hartman, Conservation Director, Colorado River Basin Program, American Rivers
Moderated by Jen Kovecses, Assistant Director, Salazar Center for North American Conservation

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Financing ambitious conservation across the border: Innovations in financing critical conservation in Mexico

Lorenzo Jose De Rosenzweig Pasquel, Founder and CEO, Terra Habitus

Business needs biodiversity: Case studies from the U.S. and Mexico

Valeria Cañedo, Conservation Biologist, Wild Sonora Collective
Alejandro Espinosa Trevino, Biodiversity Conservation Manager, CEMEX
Alberto Garza Santos, Chairman, Promotora Ambiental S.A.B. (PASAB MX)
Moderated by Jennifer Gooden, President/CEO, Biophilia Foundation

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The role of philanthropy in the future of climate resilience and transboundary conservation

Renee Gonzalez, Director, Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature
Ted Kowalski, Colorado River Initiative Lead and Senior Program Officer, Environment Program Walton Family Foundation

Emily Warren Armitano, Director, Land Conservation and Water Programs, Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
Moderated by Beth Conover, Executive Director, Salazar Center for North American Conservation

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A vision for the future: Ambitious ideas for advancing conservation for healthy landscapes and people in the borderlands

Ron Rael, Chair, Department of Art Practice, and Professor of Architecture, Eva Li Memorial Chair, University of California Berkeley

Closing remarks

Beth Conover, Executive Director, Salazar Center for North American Conservation
Luis Benitez, Vice President for Government Affairs and Global Impact, VF Corporation (emcee)

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Emily Barbo

4th Annual International Symposium for Conservation Impact – Day 1 Recordings

December 2, 2022

The Symposium started on Thursday, October 6, 2022. We heard from amazing speakers representing Cuenca Los Ojos, Sierra Club Borderlands, the Tohono O’odham Nation, and the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. The first panel of the day, moderated by Teresa Martinez of the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, discussed their social and cultural connections to the borderlands and what is at risk if we do not act intentionally to heal and reframe the narrative of how we view the region while there is time to preserve the resiliency of the area.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau shared the importance of collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico and how conservation is a key solution for addressing the complex geopolitical issues of the region. He advocated that “The right approach to durable conservation is having it come from grassroots organizations” and shared the department’s commitment to working with local communities to ensure solutions best serve those in the region.

The panel on connectivity in the borderlands brought together experts who reflected on successes that can be replicated and scaled:

Luke Cole: We need to use what’s in your water portfolio wisely – which is happening more and more in the borderlands. And we should continue to learn from tribal partners; never lose sight of the blueprints that are in front of us on the wise use of water that can augment and guide our technological advances.

Rurik List: We need to restore ecosystems, all ecosystems, and part of that restoration includes connectivity. In particular, we need to address the impacts of the border wall on that connectivity.

Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta: We need science-based planning in our efforts and a renewed focus on governance that incorporates the needs of nature and humans.

Next, Pete McBride shared powerful photographs and stories from his expeditions to inspire attendees to respect and protect wild places. After ten years documenting expeditions in some of the most challenging locations in the world, Pete turned his attention to his own backyard, understanding the plight of the Colorado River and other natural treasures under threat, like the Grand Canyon. With writer Kevin Fedarko, Pete completed a 1,207-kilometer (750-mile) thru-hike of the entire length of the canyon. They learned from many canyon lovers, park officials, and Native tribal residents throughout the area that development plans poised to forever change one of America’s most iconic landscapes. His talk highlighted the conservation challenges as visitation numbers grow and development pressures mount. Even in the face of such adversity, a small group of people come together and have a huge impact on preserving the sacredness of the canyon.

Participants ended the day by learning about some of the impacts that the US-Mexico border wall has had on the borderlands’ amazing biodiversity, human, and ecological linkages.

Dinah Bear, who is an attorney and consultant and served for 25 years as General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel at the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), shared insights from her professional experience with border issues from both an environmental and humanitarian perspective, including work related to border barriers and to prevention of migrant deaths.

Following Dinah’s presentation, Dr. Sharon Wilcox, Senior Texas Representative for the national conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife, moderated discussion with a panel of experts with a wide range of perspectives on living with and addressing the impacts of the border wall.

And so much more! You can now watch all of the recordings from Day 1 of the Symposium in English and Spanish. For more, including the pre-conference webinars, be sure to visit the Center’s YouTube Channel.

Symposium Day 1 Recordings

Welcome and introductory remarks

Beth Conover, Executive Director, Salazar Center for North American Conservation
Jordan Dresser, Chairman, Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation
Luis Benitez, Vice President for Government Affairs and Global Impact, VF Corporation (emcee)

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Setting the stage: How do we define transboundary conservation in the borderlands?

Valerie Gordon, Secretary/Treasurer of the Board, Cuenca Los Ojos

Social ties: Culture and connectivity in the borderlands

Irasema Coronado, Director & Professor, School of Transborder Studies, Arizona State University
Verlon Jose, Governor of the Traditional O’odham Leaders, Tohono O’odham Nation
Erick Meza, Borderlands Coordinator, Sierra Club

Moderated by Teresa Martinez, Executive Director, Continental Divide Trail Coalition

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America the

America the Beautiful and how cooperative conservation can serve the U.S. and Mexico

Tommy Beaudreau, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior

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Connectivity in the borderlands: Exploring important ecological pathways across land, water, and air

Luke Cole, Director, Sonoran Institute
Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta, Director of the Coastal Solutions Fellows Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Rurik List, Head of the Research Area on Conservation Biology, Metropolitan Autonomous University – Lerma
Moderated by John Sanderson, Director, Center for Collaborative Conservation, Colorado State University

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Chasing water in drying times: Challenges and successes in the Colorado River Basin — snow to sea

Pete McBride, Contributing Photographer, Writer, Filmmaker at National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazine

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Learnings across transboundary river basins: Case studies from the Colorado and Rio Grande

Lorelei Cloud, Southern Ute Tribal Council and Co-Chair, Indigenous Women’s Leadership Network
Oscar Leal, Water Program Director, Pronatura Noreste
Enrique Prunes, Senior Program Officer for Freshwater, World Wildlife Fund
Moderated by John Tracy, Director, Colorado Water Center

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The border wall over time: Policy, ecological, and cultural outcomes

Dinah Bear, Attorney and Consultant, Former General Counsel, White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)

Border wall impacts on connectivity, water, and biodiversity

Lorraine Eiler, San Lucy District Alternate of the Tohono O’odham Legislative Council, Hia-Ced O’odham Nation
Diana Hadley, Founding President, Northern Jaguar Project

Myles Traphagen, Borderlands Program Coordinator, Wildlands Network
Moderated by Sharon Wilcox, Senior Texas Representative, Defenders of Wildlife

Closing remarks & Peregrine Accelerator announcement

Gloria Schoch, Senior Director of Global Impact and Executive Director of the VF Foundation, VF Corporation
Luis Benitez, Vice President for Government Affairs and Global Impact, VF Corporation (emcee)

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