Organiser: Wildlife Conservation Society EU Office
The High Integrity Forest Investment Initiative (HIFOR) is a new innovative tool for ecosystem services program to incentivize the maintenance of climate regulation and biodiversity conservation by high integrity tropical forests by providing long-term financing to forest stewards to maintain their role in climate regulation, protect their biodiversity, and preserve their socio-cultural value. Across all high integrity tropical forests 7.5 billion dollars annually is needed for nature stewardship. Business risks from biodiversity decline and climate are not confined to supply chains and operations but also include broad systemic risks associated with the decline and degradation of nature. This session will engage IUCN members, Commission experts, and non-IUCN members to discuss the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration on the conservation of intact tropical forests and raise awareness and garner interest in scaling financing for high integrity tropical forests.
Speakers will include:
• Dr. Tom Evans, Senior Director, Forest Conservation, WCS
• Mr. Louis Bernard Cheteu, Senior Climate and Biodiversity Policy Advisor, WCS Republic of Congo (video)
• Ms. Ines Verleye, Senior Biodiversity Expert, Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment
• Mr. James McBreen, Programme Manager, Technology and Innovation, IUCN