KEY TOPICS I WORK ON
Mediterranean Forests
Forests, trees and maquis in the Mediterranean Basin provide protection against the impacts of climate change, offering critical ecosystems services. Mediterranean forests are increasingly going up in flames every summer, creating devastating losses to people and and national economies with and the smoke causes significant health impacts. How do we better protect these forests in terms of climate resilience, biodiversity, reduce the risk for disaster, build a sustainable economic model to do so while building trust, peace and security?
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Tropical forests
How do we stop tropical deforestation and forest degradation? How can we sustainably manage those forests, enhance (afforestation/reforestation) and protect their forest carbon stocks all whilst protecting biodiversity and working with local and indigenous communities. And how to we really make REDD+ work? Besides international and national policy making, this field has grown to include carbon and biodiversity credits.
Land restoration
We are in the UN Decade for Ecosystem restoration to prevent, halt and reverse the loss of nature. This work happens across different ecosystems and at different scales. On of the topics I work on in this field is how we can grow (not just plant!) trees and forests back that can adapt to the changing climate.
Finance
How do we mobilize public and private finance for climate and nature action? There is a whole world of options such as carbon finance, climate finance, public-private partnerships, nature-for-debt swaps, investment strategies and so forth. The key thing is not only to tailor the finance to the action that needs to be taken, but also blend the right ones together for more impact and scaling up.