Avoiding Environmental Impacts and Investing in Nature (Principle #4)

This webinar in the Sustainable Infrastructure: Putting Principle into Practice series explores Principle #4: Avoiding Environmental Impacts and Investing in Nature from UNEP's International Good Practice Principles for Sustainable Infrastructure.

The session starts with an introduction to Principle #4, followed by an introduction to the Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions (NbS), which equips users with greater clarity and precision of what the concept entails and what is required for it to be deployed successfully. The remainder of the session includes the presentation and discussion of a case study to make the business case for investment into a nature-based green-gray infrastructure alternative to highway widening in coastal Colombia. The session included interactive activities that allowed exchange between case study presenters and participants regarding sustainability challenges and lessons learned.

 Green-Gray Solution to Protect the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (CGSM) in Colombia by María Claudia Díazgranados (Blue Carbon Director) & Emily Corwin (Director Nature-based Engineering Solutions)

As a young professional in the Nature-based Solutions Group at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Daisy Hessenberger collaborates with the various programmes, members, partners and external stakeholders on the development and application of the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions. With a PhD in plant sciences from University of Cambridge and a background in science communication and publishing, her interest and strengths lie in facilitating the benefits that complexity and diversity offer in designing interventions to societal challenges.

María Claudia Diazgranados has been working at Conservation International for the last fifteen years, most recently as Blue Carbon Director. Before joining the global Blue Carbon team, Maria Claudia was the Oceans Program director in Colombia, providing strategic and programmatic leadership, replicating and amplifying successes not only in the Pacific region, but also in the Caribbean.  She was one of the instrumental project developers for the first ever Verified Blue Carbon crediting project, located in Cispata, Colombia.