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Sunday, 30 May 2021 - Dr Bruno Oberle, 2021 P4G Seoul Summit’s Leaders’ Session

Your Excellencies, Partners, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to address you today.

I thank His Excellency Mr Moon Jae-in, President of the Republic of Korea, for giving me the opportunity to speak at the 2021 P4G Summit, where IUCN can highlight the opportunities for the global community to come together and build a green recovery from the pandemic.

This is crucial, as nations worldwide are responding to the economic impacts of COVID-19 by allocating trillions of dollars to fiscal stimulus packages.

Although some have included ‘green’ recovery measures, without overall coordination, these investments may increase the intense pressures on natural resources, deepening biodiversity loss and climate change.

Today’s global decisions for recovery will impact us for decades. That is why IUCN has launched an international initiative called the “Nature-based Recovery”, guiding investments to a nature-based and nature-positive recovery that supports global climate and biodiversity goals.

This initiative, already well underway, capitalises on IUCN’s broad convening power.

We will work with governments to ensure investments for economic recovery do no additional harm to nature and livelihoods, and that at least 10% of global recovery investments go towards protecting and restoring nature.

The message is simple. Nature is a source of economic prosperity. We know this, but the business case is not yet fully mainstreamed. So what can we do?

Firstly: Promote the socio-economic benefits of investing in nature. There are many successful cases.

In Senegal, the world’s largest mangrove reforestation project led investors to generate half a million tonnes of carbon offsets over 30 years. In addition, the delta protects arable land from salt contamination, it has restored rice paddies, and replenished fish stocks by up to 18,000 additional tonnes per year.

Secondly: Create and implement policies and regulatory frameworks that integrate Nature at their core – not only during the recovery phase, but also in the long run.

Thirdly: Politically promote the adoption of Nature-based Solutions at all levels.

In the run-up to the UNFCCC COP in Glasgow and beyond, IUCN invites you all to join us in this endeavour, to truly make the Nature-based Recovery a reality.

Thank you.

About the conference: P4G – Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 – is a global initiative launched in 2017 to respond to climate change and achieve the SDGs. With a special emphasis on public-private partnership, P4G provides a truly multilateral venue for governments, businesses and civil society to offer innovative solutions.