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NetworkNature Week 

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 and courageous 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, organised by the French National Research Program on Nature-based Solutions (SOLU-BIOD) and NetworkNature, 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 ensure a resilient 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 across governance, finance and practice.  

The week, organised by NetworkNature, will feature a series of events:  

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.  

The Future Visions 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 to be featured in the Future Postcards exhibition during the event. 

 

Objectives and Scope

 

Overview

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are increasingly recognized as key tools to address urban challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, air and water pollution, and social inequity. However, the implementation of NbS at the local and regional levels often faces barriers such as lack of awareness, capacity, resources, and access to practical guidance for designing and implementing NbS.

Since cities and regions are frontline actors in implementing and maintaining NbS, the aim of this NbS Cities Festival is to raise awareness, build capacity, share best practices, facilitate peer to peer exchange and provide guidance to local and regional governments to apply NbS as a solution to the various societal challenges faced.

 

Target audience

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