Andrew Hume

Facing unprecedented severity and frequency of fires in ecosystems that are not fire-adapted, biodiversity in the Latin American and Caribbean region has taken a huge hit. Meanwhile, Indigenous people of the Amazon are twice as likely to die from wildfire smoke. While it may seem far away to you, the Amazon Basin is a critical part of the health of the entire planet.  Not only is it the most biodiverse region on earth, but it also is one of the planet’s largest carbon sinks, storing 150B metric tons of carbon, equivalent to 10 years worth of global fossil fuel emissions. Even if the world reduced human-caused emissions enough to get on track to fulfill the Paris Climate Agreement, keeping global warming below a 1.5-degree-C increase from pre-industrial levels, a sudden loss of the Amazon and its stored carbon would put that target out of reach. Your donation will help us have a direct impact on wildfire prevention, resilience and recovery in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Thank you for your generosity!

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When a megacity of over 10 million people realizes it depends on nature for its water security and allocates significant resources to conserve and restore ecosystems, there is an opportunity for true transformation. Very exciting announcement from Colombia! #watersecurity #conservation #restoration #paramos #Andes Conservación Internacional Colombia Conservation International Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible Secretaría de Ambiente de Bogotá Alcaldia de Bogotá Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá Green Climate Fund

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We know we need to make fisheries 🐟 management and policy climate-smarter ☀ . Here are 27 suggestions of how to do that for US fisheries. This paper is the result of a fantastic workshop led by Jacqui Vogel and a team of scientists. We tackled the difficult and necessary topic of how to make fisheries more resilient to climate change. Recommendation #5 was the most novel to me: thinking about how the strict regulations we have (e.g., Magnuson-Stevens Act) can hamper our efforts to build critical flexibility into our approaches. And, if we don't work in tandem with fishing communities, that flexibility is meaningless. Open Access: https://lnkd.in/ekcFqXdS

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Climate change continues to push past planetary boundaries, exacerbating biodiversity loss, land-system changes, and disrupted nitrogen and phosphorus flows, all of which are intricately linked to the water sector. This underscores the urgency for innovative solutions. Last week, Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) brought researchers, practitioners, and technology providers from right across the water industry to focus on urban water innovation and solutions. A significant highlight of SIWW 2024 was the Water Convention Opening Plenary, where ISF Professor Juliet Willetts served as a keynote presenter. Professor Willetts explored what transformative adaptation to climate change means in the Asia and Pacific region. “Climate change exacerbates inequalities, which are pronounced in Asia and the Pacific when it comes to water and sanitation,” she explained. Read the full ISF news article here: https://ow.ly/6HmI50SnWNI #SIWW2024 #ClimateAdaptation #Sustainability

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The first in-person authors' and Advisory Board meeting of the #RDR2025, Rural Development Report 2025, titled ''Financing for Rural Transformation'' occurred in #Rome this week. On behalf of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as the lead agency, we welcomed the entire team and we spent it discussing, writing and sharing. We are getting ready for launch just before the #FFD summit in Spain in July 2025 (#Financing for Development). So watch this space. Some key things already important/emerging: 1. Despite 3.5 billion (47%) people living in rural areas today, there is almost no data on rural people and rural areas. In 2050, this number will still be large (3 billion!) 2. Despite 80% of the poor (AND 80% of the extremely poor) living in #rural areas, we dont know what we need in terms of financing for basic needs (or for #SDGs). Is this millions or billions or trillions? (Any guesses?) 3. What we dont measure, we dont treasure. 4. So far, a large part of development thinking, has positioned rural areas as subservient to urban ones (the main argument being economies of scale/aggregation). We dont, have any idea what an empowered, strong, thriving rural transformation, could look like. 5. That argument changes dramatically, if we consider that with disaggregated, high frequency, data we can use the high fragmentation, to create ''e-scale economies'': Billions of data points representing lots of agents, helps us hedge, invest, and insure better at the meso/meta level. Suddenly, its actually important to have lots of small disaggregated farms and businesses rather than large ones. Small becomes truly beautiful. 6. Rural areas can be an #investment opportunity, BECAUSE, they have fewer #stranded assets, and there is the opportunity of creating new markets. 7. Rural areas represent the opportunity to re-imagine our future! Rural transformation means areas are PERC (Prosperous, Equitable, Resilient and Connected). Our fantastic advisory board: (In picture) Shenggen Fan, Ana María Ibáñez, Chris Clubb, Lee Ann Jackson, Louise Fox, Patricia Ojangole; We missed Johan Swinnen and @thomas Reardon. Our authors (global/regional): Adolfo Brizzi, @Niklas Kesseler, Joel Moktar, Jan Priebe Narasimhan Srinivasan, Hezekiah Agwara, Randa Hamza, Nick Maddock, Miguel Robles (and their teams), Nadia Martinez, MBA, Saib Ahmad, Alexia Ipiotis Mikhail Kourenkov and myself. We have excellent support (physical, academic, mental and in spirit and in humor) from Dr. Alvaro Lario, Gerardine Mukeshimana, Constanza Di Nucci, Alessandra Garbero, Rick Van Der Kamp, Gulnara Yunusova, Claudia ten Have, Malek Sahli, Stephanie Micallef, Caterina Firova, Alexandra Enascut, Federica Cerulli Irelli, @Ronald Hartman and many others. Special thanks to EIIS - European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability and Andrea Geremicca for their stewardship. It takes a village.

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Wildlife Works is thrilled to announce a publication, ‘A novel deforestation risk and baseline allocation model for the next generation of nested REDD+ projects’ in Nature Portfolio’s Journal, Scientific Reports, from a team of scientists that includes members of our own staff. This paper was authored by PhD researchers and forestry scientists that include team members from Wildlife Works and Everland : Emily Dangremond, Will Gochberg, Ph.D., Jeremy Freund and Maren Pauly. The BAAR model builds on over a decade of work by Wildlife Works in preparing its NBS projects for nesting into National REDD+ programs in multiple countries including Cambodia, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The method enables the standardization of nested project baselines and ensures they are consistent with the jurisdictional programs’ climate goals, while still reflecting the risk of future deforestation accurately for each project. Risk-adjusted baselines enable governments to attract higher investment to highly threatened forests, without the risk of inflated project specific baselines that could jeopardize the integrity of jurisdictional programs. “Wildlife Works has used the BAAR approach for more than 10 years, and we are now making this work publicly available to enrich the current discussions on how best to design jurisdictional programs with nested projects as the carbon market for NBS is rapidly advancing,” said Jeremy Freund, Chief Technology Officer at Wildlife Works and co-author of the paper. This achievement underscores our commitment to in-house expertise, which is critical for ensuring high-quality projects and for effectively leading the voluntary carbon market towards higher integrity. There is an urgent need to scale REDD+ projects across jurisdictions; however, methodologies for allocating national baselines have not been standardized nor tested. This new research represents the first time a risk allocation model has been tested, providing a tool for jurisdictions to standardize how they set baselines. Efforts are already underway to improve BAAR. The next version will use more advanced satellite data to include not just complete deforestation, but also forest degradation, among other advantages. Learn more in our latest blog: https://lnkd.in/g64YeqcF Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/gUkPVvWA

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This new guide from the Natural Climate Solutions Alliance explains how delivering emissions results through #NatureClimateSolutions projects is a long-term, complex, and technical process that requires collaboration. Project developers with scientific and operational expertise; investors with a long-term outlook and financial resources; and the communities that own the land or will be directly affected by the project activities all have an important role to play in any project's success. Read: https://lnkd.in/edSvxjQW WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development

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A collaborative agenda for advancing conservation beyond protected areas through 'other effective area-based conservation measures' (OECMs) was recently developed by 80 colleagues from across the Latin America and Caribbean region. Conservation is changing, and the OECM framework is helping to evolve WHO the main actors are and HOW they are conserving nature, addressing climate change, and generating sustainable livelihoods. Here is Lucía Ruiz Bustos (Director, Conservation Areas at WWF) speaking to just that: “If we want to achieve the target of conserving 30% of the planet by the end of this decade, we need to work in partnerships, we need to work collaboratively, and we need to ensure that the agendas are inclusive, effective, and equitable. OECMs offer a big opportunity to change the conservation paradigm to advance this ambitious target.” Please watch the excellent video below which highlights the diversity of voices represented at the workshop, and you can read more about the collaborative agenda here: https://lnkd.in/er_dzgs6 The event and both outputs were ably supported by Emelin Gasparrini and Yaneris Soto Muniz (Comms, Earth for Life, WWF)

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Fascinating paper using a complex earth system model to show that an ambitious reforestation program could reduce peak temperature by 0.08 C, end-of-century temperature by 0.2C. Plus reduce duration of temperature overshoot by 13 years. They model a VERY large expansion of tree cover, though it is in line with what countries have pledged. They also point out that forests offer virtually all of current carbon removal options. Time get those trees growing, people, if we want to reap their benefits in a time frame that matters! (Though I'll note that it looks like they include putting trees into native grassland areas, which is never advisable!)

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🌎🌳🔎 A recent paper published in Nature #Climate #Change #highlights the #crucial role that both #carbon #removals and #emissions #avoidance #play in #mitigating #climatechange. Specifically, the paper #identifies #pathways such as hashtag #tropical forest avoided loss, tropical forest restoration and #agroforestry, among others as having high #potential for both #mitigation and #scalability. 📣 #Avoidingfirst makes #logical #sense from the hierarchy of climate change #mitigation; if that isn't #feasible, then #decrease, #replace, #compensate, and #remove. Therefore, we so #require #avoidanceandremovals to #cooperate. investing in a range of solutions that incorporate both help us #maximize our #chances of achieving #meaningful #reductions in #ghgemissions and avoid the #worst #impacts of climate change. For more info 👇 With thanks to Dr. Leonardo Sáenz Permian Global David Stone Mike Greenwood Brooke Davis Capuano Ivy Wong

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This new research by the NOAA Global Systems Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences to develop an experimental pollen forecast is nothing to sneeze at. https://lnkd.in/e4uMW8tz

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The term “community engagement” is having a moment in the context of collaboration and organizational development. In our spring blog post, ICL President Dianne Russell shares insights on the importance of defining your community. https://lnkd.in/gsJfNgp3 We want to hear from you! What do you think about community engagement? Do you have any excellent examples of community engagement to share? Community engagement resources? Post them here, or take our short survey: https://lnkd.in/giZrwCMt #collaboration #communityengagement #leadership #community #conservation #environmentalleadership

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The 2023 federal report highlighted alarming climate extremes, including record-low global cloud cover and marine heatwaves affecting 94% of ocean surfaces. These conditions accelerated ocean warming, disrupted marine ecosystems, and contributed to severe weather patterns worldwide. These unprecedented changes highlight the urgent need for global action to address climate change impacts. #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #MarineHeatwaves #Sustainability #EnvironmentalImpact #ClimateAction #ExtremeWeather #ClimateCrisis #OceanHealth #ClimateReport #ActOnClimate

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“This effort presents critical steps to ensure that carbon projects in Yucatán are not only environmentally sustainable but also socially equitable. It sets clear guidelines for engaging local communities and ejidos, ensuring they are key beneficiaries of these initiatives while also navigating Mexico’s regulatory landscape to attract private investments. We aim to share these insights with other regions, demonstrating how governments can help drive high-quality investments that deliver both social and environmental benefits.” - Carolina Inclan, Senior Consultant, Climate Focus 📰 Read the full press release here: https://lnkd.in/eAYdzGnY #Yucatan #voluntarycarbonmarkets

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Launched today, a comprehensive set of guidelines provide governments and policymakers with 10 practical steps to integrate wildlife conservation into their Paris Agreement commitments. Nationally Determined Contributions are a critical tool in the fight against climate change. We have officially arrived in Cali, Colombia for the 16th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity #COP16Colombia. Simon Addison, IFAW’s Climate Advisor, underscores the immediate relevance of these guidelines: "We are offering governments a clear, practical roadmap to harness the power of wildlife in mitigating climate change. These guidelines are not just theoretical—they provide actionable steps that nations can integrate into their NDCs to strengthen both climate action and biodiversity conservation." Learn more: https://g.ifaw.org/3BXedJA

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As COP16 Colombia approaches, the Amazon’s escalating fires underscore the urgency of global biodiversity action. Kirsten Schuijt, Director-General of WWF International, and Susana Muhamad, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia, emphasize the Amazon's vital role in climate regulation and warn that its destruction could have catastrophic consequences. To address this, leaders at #COP16 must push for ambitious action to restore nature while cutting emissions. Read more on how COP16 can influence the Amazon’s future https://lnkd.in/eGHmm6Md

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