Nature Zone Pavilion
COP27 Event Schedule

At the outset of COP27, this workshop brings together all Nature Zone collaborators and allies to align on our shared vision to create a Nature Positive future.

Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bezos Earth Fund and Campaign for Nature will co-host a government leaders event to underscore the importance of protecting at least 30% of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030 for climate, nature and people, and drive action on biodiversity conservation in the run up to the Convention on Biological Diversity in December.

Join CEO Jennifer Morris, The Nature Conservancy + special guests for the official opening of the Nature Zone Pavilion.

Organizations have united to bring the vision of a net-zero, nature-positive future to life during two weeks of vibrant programming. And it all starts here.

Building on the Ocean for Climate Declaration, the Ocean Futures Lab will showcase innovative ocean-based climate actions for systems change to accelerate the transition to a regenerative, just, and resilient world in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Bringing together experts across sectors, the event will explore ocean renewable energy and sustainable aquatic food production

A joint event with the Blue Carbon Initiative (CI, IUCN and IOC-UNESCO) and the International Partnership for Blue Carbon highlighting exemplary blue carbon initiatives globally and best practices that countries interested in engaging in blue carbon projects can follow.

Showcasing solutions such as Enduring Earth and PFPS, Blue Bonds for ocean protection; and demonstrating the meaningful opportunities for other countries to create momentum for using innovative finance tools to support country and regional goals.

Leaders in Action #ForCoral at the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (UNFCCC COP 27) promises to be a high impact, high profile session that will provide an important platform for Coral Leaders to accelerate global action to save the world’s most threatened ecosystem.

The session will emphasize the interconnected nature of reefs and communities, and the collective power and potential of the public and private sectors to unlock capital and action at scale #ForCoral.

Join Miora Rajaonar, National Geographic Explorer from Madagascar joins Kaitlin Yarnall, Chief Storytelling Officer of National Geographic Society, and Sally Fouts, Director of The Climate Pledge, for a conversation about the power of visual, authentic storytelling to document the global climate crisis and the creative solutions local communities are implementing.

The dual biodiversity and climate crises are intrinsically linked, with resilient marine ecosystems central to joint solutions. This reception will explore the connectivity of marine protections and the effects of a changing climate.

This event will highlight Indigenous-led funding mechanisms as effective and equitable platforms for driving climate finance toward the most impactful interventions on the ground for protecting biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and providing sustainable livelihood opportunities.

During this event speakers will share reflections on climate impacts and adaptation and showcase the innovative Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) financing model as a solution that is responsive to the current impacts that people and nature face today.

An empowering conversation about how the National Geographic Society’s Okavango Wilderness Project is working with local communities and governments to secure permanent, sustainable protection for the Okavango Basin, which spans Botswana, Angola, and Namibia ( an area larger than California).

Restore Africa is the largest community led nature-based carbon programme in Africa! Together with leading implementing NGOs, governments and corporates we’re uniting to restore landscapes and livelihoods across Africa. Join us for an event embracing the decade of action, creating investible restoration and uniting key stakeholders to get the job done: we’re announcing 7 major announcements for Africa that will significantly restore degraded lands, change livelihoods and sequester carbon.

A new framework for AFR100 pairs unprecedented investment for restoration with innovative monitoring systems showcasing the success of new and existing locally-led solutions. With support from partners around the world, land throughout Africa will be restored to protect from the worst effects of climate change, revolutionize agriculture and improve life for people in local communities and around the world.

This new framework, managed by WRI’s Global Restoration Initiative, opens a new era of restoration financing in Africa.

At UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow, nature was on the agenda like never before. Among the key milestones achieved a breakthrough announcement of US$1.7 billion pledged to support climate action efforts led by Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC).

Moderated panel sharing key learnings from countries and US states at various stages of implementing current, and developing future, targets for their coastal “blue carbon” habitats – mangrove, seagrass and saltmarsh – as nature-based solutions within national and subnational climate strategies.

From the Bonn Challenge to trillion trees campaigns to net zero commitments, governments, businesses, and civil society organizations across the globe have pledged to conserve, protect, sustainably manage and restore ecosystems.

Combining debt relief with climate and nature outcomes can offer an elegant solution to multiple systemic crises. But to have a systemic effect, the approach must be replicable and scalable.

In alignment with the Sustainable Development Goal 11, to “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable,” American Forests has developed a tool for local governments, civil society, urban foresters and communities to make the case for planting trees in the neighborhoods that need them the most and allocating the resources needed to do so.

Join Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, and Ian Miller, Chief Science and Innovation Officer, National Geographic Society, for a conversation with two National Geographic Young Explorers and youth climate leaders, Sophia Kianni and Eyal Weintraub to celebrate the importance of youth in the climate movement.

This event will spotlight Guyana’s national REDD+ program, one of the first countries to issue jurisdictional REDD+ credits under the ART TREES standard.

During this event, COICA and member organizations will describe the work and initiatives they have been engaging in to date to scale tropical forest protection in their territories, increase access to climate finance opportunities for forest protection and strengthen effective participation of IPLCs in these processes. Presenters will identify key leverage points and next steps.

It is critical to mobilize funding to achieve the goal of a 1 gigaton of emissions reductions from forests by 2025. During this session, speakers will discuss (i) the importance of adopting a mid-term milestone towards the Glasgow Pact; (ii) the gaps towards achieving the gigaton milestone; and (iii) proposed actions to accelerate progress towards the gigaton goal.

Indigenous Peoples are integral to the success of natural climate solutions. This evening reception will feature a discussion with Indigenous Peoples representatives on their important role in nature conservation, and why climate action needs to include Indigenous voices and experiences. We will screen the first of a series of videos featuring individual Indigenous Peoples storytellers from around the world.

Adapting to climate change is a complex dance between natural and human systems. Nature-based
Solutions (NbS) can do this by performing “at the interface of the socioeconomic system and the ecosystem to reduce the vulnerability of the social–ecological system as a whole.”

Transitioning to nature-positive production practices not only hold the potential to support agriculture resilience and improve freshwater management, but they are also a viable solution to meet our climate and biodiversity goals. In this session, we will explore why our diverse panel of leaders are investing in the transition to regenerative food systems and the opportunities they see to further scale investment.

We simply will not avert runaway climate change without urgent action to protect and restore nature. Join us to hear about “The Exponential Roadmap for Natural Climate Solutions,” new research that charts the course for how we can – and must – slash agriculture and land sector emissions to net zero by 2030, by maximizing land use pathways available now to keep global warming to 1.5 C and secure a 10 gigaton net sink in emissions by 2050.

This event will be an intimate discussion between leaders of the public and private sectors mapping out the need and opportunities to build functional, scalable, transparent, and replicable public-private partnerships for natural climate solutions.

Join us for an interactive event bringing voices from the frontlines of climate impact together with the latest science around climate adaptation to share a hopeful message: local heroes are successfully leading coastal adaptation work all over the world and new science provides a roadmap for helping communities, coral reefs, and fisheries adapt and survive in the face of climate change.

The purpose of this event is to host a brief discussion about dynamic new ocean partnerships, where they came from, why they matter, and how these partnerships can contribute to greater impact.

The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Australian Government will host a panel discussion on the opportunities and challenges of implementing global standards for Nature-based Solutions (NbS).

Can we unlock billions of dollars of climate finance for nature-based solutions this decade? Not if we can’t measure, report, and verify (MRV) the carbon impacts of our interventions.

A moderated panel discussion featuring leading voices from the federal government, business, state entities and stakeholders in the U.S. who have helped shape and participate in recent policy and funding actions pertaining to climate mitigation and resilience.

Nature Tech can help to address the interrelated challenges of climate change and nature loss, supporting global climate, nature and sustainability goals. Given the point we are at in both these crises, we need all the innovation, speed and scalability of technology that we can throw at it, working alongside science and with the appropriate guardrails in place.

This session marks the launch of the IUCN CCC led by Manuel Pulgar-Vidal along with the presentation of its objectives, vision, and Steering Committee members. The session also includes the participation of leaders from other IUCN commissions to discuss how they can best find synergies and support climate goals.

To achieve meaningful reductions in forest carbon emissions at the scale needed by 2030 requires expanding from stand-alone site-based REDD+ activities, which currently represent most of the Voluntary Carbon Market, into large-scale nationally led programs and intervention activities.

Accelerating the transition to renewable energy is critical for progress toward Paris goals. However, conflicts over land use may slow the transition if concerns about potential impacts to biodiversity and local communities are not proactively addressed.

The Tropical Forest Credit Integrity (TFCI) Guide provides companies with guidance, developed by consensus among a coalition of environmental NGOs and Indigenous Peoples organizations, on how to differentiate tropical forest carbon credits by impact, quality, and scale.

Conserving high integrity forests is critical to the Paris goals and the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests. Leading researchers will share the latest scientific developments on this topic.

The political momentum and uptake of the Nature-based Solutions (NbS) over the past few years and especially in 2022, when it was officially recognised by UNEA 5.2, creates a great opportunity for further recognition of NbS at the UNFCCC, CBD and UNCCD COPs.

Highlight how business action in collaboration with government and other stakeholders is key to catalyze and accelerate transformative action across value chains for better climate and nature outcomes.

The event will provide a platform for an unprecedented collection of voices from across society (NGOs, businesses, finance, cities, youth, faith, IPLC, scientists) to come together in a collective call for a strengthen the Global Biodiversity Framework, and step up action to secure an equitable, nature-positive, and net zero emissions world.

The stability of our earth system relies on 16 core unique places in the world that store carbon for us. These span the five continents and include ice, oceans and coral reefs, forests and peatlands. Can we protect and repair them before we pass climatic tipping points and invoke irreversible climate collapse?

With rising global political tension relating to energy, climate, and ever-increasing competition for financial resources to address multiple challenges, now is the time to act to demonstrate the power of collaboration to accelerate progress towards a nature-positive future, and so protect the vital ecosystems that deliver biodiversity, health communities and a more stable climate.

High Forest, Low Deforestation (HFLD) countries and jurisdictions are those with extensive, ecologically intact forests and low past rates of deforestation. These are high-carbon areas with biodiversity and human well-being co-benefits that do not have access to adequate sources of financing, in particular for existing carbon finance instruments.

Funding for REDD+ results has increased in recent years with a growing recognition of jurisdictional approaches. This year the first REDD+ jurisdictional programs have started receiving payments, and the increased interest has created multiple pathways for implementing and financing REDD+. This event will highlight government experience implementing jurisdictional programs, and look at tools that

Panel discussion with Campaign for Nature Director Brian O’Donnell in conversation with Environment Ministers and National Geographic Explorers (representing IPLC and youth from Africa) to ignite ambition and momentum around the goal of protecting at least 30% of the planet by 2030 in advance of COP15.

The deployment of Natural Climate Solutions, that is Nature-based Solutions addressing climate change and providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits, offer a unique opportunity for business to link-up their climate, biodiversity and social agendas.