Bridging biodiversity, land degradation and Loss & Damage in the context of climate change

Climate and disaster impacts on ecosystems can have far-reaching consequences for biodiversity, livelihoods, cultures and economies. Yet many of these losses remain difficult to assess and are often missing from conventional Loss and Damage (L&D) assessments.

The “Bridging Biodiversity, Land Degradation and Loss & Damage in the Context of Climate Change” event brought together experts from governments, UN agencies and research institutions to explore how these gaps can be addressed.

A framework for making ecosystem losses visible

A key focus was FRAME-ECO, a collaborative initiative by UNEP, UNDRR and UNU-EHS to develop a multidimensional framework for assessing biodiversity and ecosystem service losses.

Building on approaches such as SEEA Ecosystem Accounting and the IPBES values framework, FRAME-ECO aims to support national climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction systems, inform climate finance and contribute to operationalizing the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage.

Moderator Fruzsina Straus from UNEP captured the need for greater coordination:

“Collect information once and use it many times... for this we need partnerships and coordination.”

The framework is also intended to help capture non-economic losses, including impacts on livelihoods, cultural values and ecosystem services, within disaster tracking and reporting systems. 

From Mongolia to The Gambia: why ecosystems matter

Mongolia’s State Secretary for Environment and Climate Change, Batbayar Shurenchuluun, highlighted how Loss and Damage is already affecting communities: “In Mongolia we see loss and damage even before we can calculate this in dollars.”

With Mongolia developing its National Adaptation Plan alongside existing NDC and NBSAP processes, he emphasized the opportunity to strengthen the integration of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) into national planning. “Restoration is not only a cost but investment in our land, people and future.”

From The Gambia, UN Resident Coordinator Karl Frederick-Paul stressed the protective role of healthy ecosystems, particularly in the face of coastal and climate risks. “We need to treat ecosystems as protective infrastructure.”

He emphasized that protecting ecosystems can help avoid losses before they become irreversible, while stronger evidence is needed to make the economic and financial case for early investment. 

Linking evidence with action and finance

Dr. Animesh Kumar of UNDRR emphasized the need to capture the full spectrum of economic and non-economic losses, while Yvonne Walz of UNU-EHS highlighted the potential to translate Loss and Damage assessments into monitoring systems.

For UNEP’s Doreen Lynn Robinson, however, valuation must remain grounded in the experiences of those directly affected: “The valuation of the losses cannot be an academic exercise done by the ‘other’ – it is the local communities that need to define the value.”

The discussion also highlighted a critical next step: ensuring that better data leads to investable solutions. While EbA and restoration can build resilience and prevent future losses, participants noted the continuing challenge of demonstrating financial returns for resilience investments. 

Four priorities for moving forward

Closing the session on behalf of IUCN and the Friends of EbA (FEBA) network, Enni Kallio, in the absence of Ali Raza Rizvi, also from IUCN, identified four priorities emerging from the discussion:

• Break down silos by connecting the Rio Conventions and Sendai Framework through shared approaches to ecosystem monitoring.  
• Capture invisible losses by systematically accounting for both economic and non-economic impacts.  
• Turn evidence into action by using assessments to inform land restoration, EbA and ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction.  
• Unlock finance by ensuring ecosystem-related impacts are recognized within climate and Loss and Damage financing.  

FEBA and the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR) are taking this work forward through their joint Loss and Damage Working Group and the forthcoming policy brief, “Every Loss Matters: Standardizing and Scaling the Response to Ecosystem-Related Loss and Damage.”

The session reinforced a simple but important message: ecosystem-related losses cannot be addressed if they remain invisible. Better assessment, stronger coordination and community-led approaches can help turn evidence into earlier action, more coherent planning and greater investment in resilience. 

Hosted by IUCN, FEBA brings together a global network of more than 140 institutions and experts advancing ecosystem-based approaches and climate adaptation policy.

PEDRR is a global alliance of UN agencies, NGOs, and specialist institutes championing Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) to build community resilience against shocks.