IENE at IUCN World Conservation Congress

The ‘Pitch’ session Reenergising a handbook to enhance action balancing nature conservation and transportation will be presented as a e-poster

Over the last 30 years, many actors around the world have learned how to avoid or minimize the impacts to ecological connectivity caused by infrastructure – including roads, railways, canals, fences, and energy networks. This session will bring together representatives of government, NGOs, the private sector, and research centres to discuss the importance of mainstreaming biodiversity conservation requirements into infrastructure development that maintain, enhance, and restore ecological connectivity. Participants will learn about existing and innovative practices, hear about experiences and developments around the world, and be inspired to apply the increasing body of global best-practices through their collaborative networks, projects, research initiatives, and legal, policy, and regulatory frameworks.

This is the moment. The international community must come together now to grasp the unique opportunity that lies ahead in the next 12 months to catalyze a new wave of nature-positive infrastructure norms and practices. The confluence of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, G20 Quality Infrastructure Investment Principles, and UNFCCC’s nature-based solutions sets the stage for a real sea change. This interactive event will bring together leading representatives of public and private sector institutions working on the future of nature-positive infrastructure to explore the most strategic and efficient options and opportunities for advancing a global path forward.

Transport4Nature invites European transport and energy infrastructure companies to make commitments to biodiversity. Launched by Infrastructure Ecosystems Network Europe (IENE) and its partners, an alliance of companies, scientists, and environmental associations, Transport4Nature has one ambition: to create a sustainable collective European dynamic to protect, enhance and restore biodiversity, thanks to the involvement of transport and energy infrastructure CEOs. For the launch of Transport4nature, major European transport and energy infrastructure construction companies such as Eiffage in France and REN in Portugal will testify to their commitment to biodiversity and encourage European companies to join the drive for sustainable infrastructure.

This workshop proposes to get into the mechanics of the Transport4Nature initiative. It will explain how it works, how companies can propose commitments, how these commitments are reviewed by experts, evaluated according to specific criteria (SMART) and then communicated. Companies such as Eiffage or RTE will talk about the Act4nature experience (from which Transport4Nature was inspired) and how their actions are followed up.