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: Systems Change
“Nature-positive, carbon-negative, justice-forward.” – Sacha Spector
As a community of practice, our end goal should be a “nature-positive, carbon-negative, justice-forward” society. To achieve this, we need to break out of our silos and broaden our project-scale thinking to reimagine and redesign the underlying relationships between nature, climate, and community. We must address the root causes of biodiversity loss and climate change rather than merely reacting to them.
Throughout the Symposium, speakers articulated the need for ‘multi-solving.’ In other words, we must recognize the interconnected drivers behind biodiversity loss and climate change and seek to implement policies and projects with the potential to address multiple threats across the climate-nature-equity space when possible. There is sufficient evidence that nature can mitigate and sometimes reverse climate impacts while providing social, economic, and ecological co-benefits. Nature underpins our economy and well-being in North America. For example, data shows that nature-based solutions (NBS) can cost-effectively provide 37% of the CO2 mitigation we need by 2030 to give us a meaningful chance of holding warming to below two degrees Celsius. Similarly, nature-based solutions are critical to reversing biodiversity decline. By focusing on implementing solutions that address multiple challenges, we drive the changes necessary to foster durable, positive systems change.
Wicked problems require interdisciplinary solutions
Tied to the theme of ‘multi-solving,’ Symposium participants unequivocally called for ‘mainstreaming’ biodiversity and NBS in all planning, implementation, and policy processes. While we’ve seen unprecedented progress within our conservation community and natural resource agencies to implement nature-based solutions, mainstreaming the protection and regeneration of biodiversity will require incorporating nature-based solutions into the planning, management, and policies of all sectors and agencies. As noted by many speakers, success will come only when climate change and nature are embraced within a whole-of-government approach to solving this twin crisis.
This idea was similarly elevated for non-government sectors. To create transformative change, we need to enable lasting solutions to our climate and biodiversity crises. All sectors need to treat climate and biodiversity as foundational to their operations and supply chains. We must break down the various silos limiting our ability to evolve and enable lasting solutions. This requires reaching beyond the traditional conservation community and thinking deeply about other segments of society, including the business, banking, and finance sectors, agriculture, energy, and rural and urban communities.
A related theme resonated across our two-day dialogue as vital to systems change: the importance of keeping people and communities at the center of the work. Speakers acknowledged that progress has been made to weave equity into federal policy, conservation practice, and corporate efforts while recognizing that we have not yet fully institutionalized equity and community co-benefits into our government, conservation, and corporate systems. To succeed in the long run, Indigenous and frontline communities must have the agency to co-create solutions and ensure that benefits are equitably shared. They must become integral to the development of practices, policies, and institutions to advance positive climate and biodiversity outcomes. No longer can solutions come at the expense of the livelihoods and well-being of marginalized communities. To achieve this, we need to consider how we break down and re-assemble the systems that kept so many communities out of the conversation in the first place.
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Representative Joe Neguse has served as the 
Dr. Crystal Romeo Upperman is a Senior Manager at Deloitte in the Government and Public Services practice helping to bring best-in-class sustainability, climate adaptation, and climate equity support to clients. In her role, she advises on the firm’s go-to-market strategy as part of the Sustainability, Climate, and Equity strategic growth offering. Presently she serves as a review editor for the 5th National Climate Assessment (NCA5)—which evaluates the impacts of global change across the United States—and she serves on the executive committee for the U.S. EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors in the Office of Research and Development. 
Based in San Diego, California, Angie leads WILDCOAST’s conservation projects in the United States including marine protected area (MPA) compliance initiatives, MPA Watch, marine monitor radar, wetland restoration, carbon sampling and research, climate action planning, ocean-related policy, and marine debris interception and removal projects. She joined WILDCOAST’s MPA team in 2017 as the statewide coordinator of the MPA Watch Community Science Program. In 2018, Angela assumed the role of Conservation Development Manager, before expanding her position to include communications. Prior to joining WILDCOAST, Angela worked for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, facilitating community-based conservation projects in northwest Mexico as well as leading tours of the San Diego Zoo. Angela also worked in the outdoor education department of the San Diego County Office of Education in addition to numerous field research positions throughout North and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Angela holds a B.S. in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution and a B.A. in Biological Anthropology from UC-San Diego and an M.A. in Biology from Miami University in Ohio.
Based in Mexico City, Mexico, Tannia oversees and coordinates 
Alex reports on the Colorado River and water in the West for KUNC and 20+ NPR stations around the Southwest. He spent two years at Aspen Public Radio, mainly reporting on the resort economy, the environment and the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, he covered the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery for KDLG in Dillingham, Alaska. Alex has a journalism degree from Elon University, where he spent four years working for the student newspaper and TV station. Outside of the office, Alex is an avid skier and mountain biker.
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.
Ángel was born and raised in the Río Bravo valley, he is a first generation Mexican, American and father of three. Àngel has had the opportunity to support and lead strong effective teams that ultimately secured protections totaling millions of acres across the American Southwest. A founding member and current Vice President of the Next 100 Coalition, founder of the Outdoor F.U.T.U.R.E initiative and the founding Executive Director of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project he is in the business of people empowerment. Working to empower the people that have true, authentic and deep-rooted ties to the land.
James is Director of the Indigenous Lands Program at 
