NetworkNature Week
Shaping a resilient future
for people and nature
through knowledge and action
Around the globe, the impacts of climate change across ecosystems, from terrestrial to marine, are becoming increasingly visible through the frequent occurrence of extreme climatic events and their drastic consequences. At the same time, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation continue to worsen, while remaining largely underestimated. Biodiversity loss reduces ecosystems’ capacity to adapt to climate change, puts essential ecosystem functions and services at risk and may lead to their irreversible decline.
These intertwined crises are steadily increasing the risk and vulnerability to disasters such as destructive floods, forest fires and droughts, threatening public health, food and water security, social justice and economic stability, and undermining the possibility of a just, safe and stable future.
A noisy debate on the available and feasible solutions to address these challenges, as well as on the priorities guiding them, has emerged across scientific, public and political spheres at every scale over the past decades, fuelled by the unfiltered and un-ranked dynamics of social media.
Within that context, cities and regions are key actors, and their challenge is twofold: responding to the urgent present-day impacts while preparing for the expected and increasing threats of the future, all while ensuring lives worth living. National governments and transnational public authorities support these efforts by providing regulatory, financial and strategic frameworks that allow responses to be coherent, scalable and effective, strengthening multi-level governance systems capable of delivering structural and transformative change.
It has been often argued that replicating and upscaling conventional approaches – from grey infrastructure to input-intensive agriculture – would be sufficient to deal with these crises. Yet lessons learnt from past and recent climate related events and disasters show that these approaches are not only insufficient but, in some cases, have resulted in exacerbated vulnerabilities and risks, by failing to account for the value of nature and evolving social dynamics.
Wise, courageous and creative alternatives that tackle together these current various challenges are being developed and implemented through science, policy and practice. Brave initiatives from public authorities at every level have started a profound shift for biodiversity, taking action to make conserving, protecting, restoring, and sustainably using land and seas the new normal. In Europe, the Nature Restoration Regulation creates an unprecedented momentum to scale up transformative approaches for nature and people and thus represents a unique opportunity for governments to take action for the benefit of present and future generations.
Nature-based solutions have demonstrated their potential to build solid foundations for economic, societal and environmental resilience and a thriving future. By working with nature and people, for people and nature, they adaptively respond to ongoing and future needs, while providing human wellbeing and enhancing biodiversity.
Within the framework of the NbS International Congress, the NetworkNature Week will bring together in Paris (France), researchers, policymakers, practitioners, local and regional authorities, national and European representatives, businesses, investors, and civil society actors from around the world. They will explore how public authorities can go beyond addressing imminent pressures and act to shape a resilient and thriving future for people and nature. Turning knowledge and inspiration into action, the week aims to create a decisive moment in which nature moves from margin to mainstream in governance, finance and practice.
The week, organised by NetworkNature, will feature a series of events:
-Network Nature Science-Policy Dialogue, Looking Forward: Nature Restoration, held on 2 November and organised by NetworkNature, will explore and demonstrate how to deliver wise, ambitious and forward-looking nature restoration through the Nature-based Solutions framework.
-NetworkNature Annual Event 2026, Futures with Nature, will take place on 3 November. Organised by NetworkNature, it will explore different visions of how resilient and thriving futures for nature and people could look like and how to get there. By sharing brave and forward-looking ideas, initiatives, policies and projects where public authorities at all levels play a key role in shaping a resilient future for both people and nature, participants will be invited to turn inspiration into action.
-Cities Festival, taking place on 4 November, organised by UNP+ in collaboration with NetworkNature and the City of Paris, will bring together local and regional governments to address pressing urban socio-ecological challenges. It will focus on raising awareness, building capacity, sharing best practices, and fostering peer-to-peer exchange to overcome barriers to implementing nature-based solutions. The development of Urban Nature Plans will be a key component of the agenda.
-NetworkNature Task Forces Cluster Meeting (only for Task Force members) will take place on 5 November, building on Task Forces knowledge, the workshop-format day will explore how Task Forces can contribute to a succesful implementation of the National Restoration Plans.
In addition to that, the Future Postcards exhibition will feature inspiring cases, projects, initiatives and ideas that support the vision of a just, safe and thriving future for all and will invite the audience to share them with local, regional and national authorities.
Also, the first edition of the pop-up, print-on-demand exhibition on nature-based solutions will be hosted on-site which translates state-of-the-art research and innovation in the field into publicly accessible and engaging narratives.
Moreover, the NbS Business Forum we will host an informal and interactive showcase of SMEs, Nature-based Enterprises, start-ups, and organisations working on or with the business side of Nature-based Solutions.
Do you want to contribute? The Futures with Nature open call invites everyone to share their visions for a future with Nature and People through Nature-based Solutions. Participants will have the opportunity to contribute as speakers or workshop facilitators in different events or to be featured in the Future Postcards exhibition during the event.
