Please find below more information about past webinars.

Previous Webinars 2021

Securing Sustainable Financing for Conservation Areas

Dec 7, 2021 – In the face of the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, governments and their partners in civil society have increased their efforts to protect and conserve nature in line with the anticipated global goal to protect 30% of the planet by 2030. Reaching this goal will require more—and more effectively managed—protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, but current funding is not enough to cover existing needs or to increase the areas under protection. Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) is an approach designed to secure the policies, conditions, and full funding for the effective and long-lasting protection of our planet’s important natural places. It is being successfully applied in Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, and Peru, and there is increased interest in applying the PFP approach in other countries. To meet that interest with information, the ASL Working Group on Sustainable Finance has led the publication of Securing Sustainable Financing for Conservation Areas; A Guide to Project Finance for Permanence, to capture the experience and lessons learned from PFP practitioners and to serve as a guide for the application of the PFP approach. This webinar provided an overview of the main characteristics of PFPs and present the new guide, followed by a discussion with a diverse panel of stakeholders from PFPs currently being implemented.
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Calculating the economic impact of illegal mining

Oct 5, 2021 – Illegal and unregulated artisanal small-scale gold mining poses a significant threat to ecosystems in the world, including the Amazon. The threat is not only due to the deforestation and degradation caused by the activity but from the use of mercury in both alluvial and land-based mining, which then seeps into both surface and subway waterways, poisoning the water and entering the local food chain via fish. This webinar will present an innovative tool designed by Conservation Strategy Fund commissioned by the Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office. The “Mining Impact Calculator” estimates the monetary value of the social and environmental impact of illegal gold mining activities in the Brazilian Amazon, focusing on deforestation, river silting, and mercury contamination.
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Could a future pandemic come from the Amazon?

May 11, 2021 – Pandemics have arisen roughly every 20 years over the past century and a half. The Amazon has characteristics – high diversity of wildlife virus hosts and rising deforestation rates – which are common to hotspots for emerging diseases. Yet, currently the Amazon is still considered a low spillover area. This webinar hosted by the ASL program will present the results of the report “Could a future pandemic come from the Amazon? The Science and Policy of Pandemic Prevention in the Amazon”, that suggests key actions to reduce the risk that the basin becomes a source of future pandemics. The webinar will be in English with Spanish and Portuguese simultaneous interpretation.
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Free flowing rivers in the Amazon region

Feb 16, 2021 – Healthy rivers support freshwater fish stocks that improve food security for hundreds of millions of people, deliver sediment that keeps deltas above rising seas, mitigate the impact of extreme floods and droughts, prevent loss of infrastructure and fields to erosion, and support a wealth of biodiversity. New research in the Amazon shows 16 of the region’s 26 very long rivers currently remain free flowing, while planned dams would further reduce that number to 9. The webinar will present the results of the global and Amazon Basin assessments, opening a discussion of the global, regional, and national benefits of free flowing rivers, the environmental, social, and economic impacts of disrupting rivers’ connectivity, and recommendations for multisectoral planning and river protection approaches that align with development goals.
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Previous Webinars 2020

Valuing Nature Conservation – Quantifying the benefits of protecting the planet's natural capital

Nov 17, 2020 – Much of the global economy depends on natural capital. Acting as the planet's balance sheet, natural capital provides critical services and resilience. It supports water cycles and soil formation while protecting our communities from major storms, floods, fires, and desertification. By absorbing CO2, it limits the pace of climate change. This webinar will focus on the results of the latest McKinsey and Company report "Valuing Nature Conservation: A methodology for quantifying the benefits of protecting the planet's natural capital".
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Wildlife Insights – A new platform to conserve and monitor wildlife in the tropics

Jul 23, 2020 – The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world and is home to one in ten known species in the world. To help secure biodiversity, we need reliable and up-to-date information to understand the status and trends of wildlife species and prevent major threats. Join this webinar to learn about Wildlife Insights, an innovative technology platform solution build to speed up the processing, identification and analysis of camera trap data to enable data-driven wildlife conservation actions.
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Sustainable financing of protected areas – Public-private partnerships, the experience of Forever Costa Rica

Jun 25, 2020 – Forever Costa Rica Association (FCR), a private independent conservation trust fund created in 2010, works in partnership with the Government’s National Service of Conservation Areas (SINAC) to finance and implement the country’s biodiversity conservation efforts and PA system. FCR will present its 10+ years’ experience pursuing the conservation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems and the evolution of its alliances with the private sector and civil society.
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Sustainable financing of protected areas – Earmarking funds from carbon taxes, Colombia

May 19, 2020 – Protected Area systems (PA) are globally considered as one of the most effective approaches for conservation and to tackle climate change, but they are facing ever increasing threats and chronic lack of critically needed financial resources. This webinar focused on the Colombian carbon tax as an economic tool to encourage national greenhouse gas mitigation goals. It showcased the negotiation and design process that led to these funds being earmarked and the resulting impact it has had on PA management and conservation.
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Roads in the Amazon – A better network for people and the environment

May 5, 2020 – The rapidly expanding network of roads in the Amazon is permanently altering the world’s largest tropical rainforest. The webinar discussed the expected environmental, social and economic impacts of 75 road projects, totaling 12000 kilometers of planned roads in the Amazon region. It was based on a study by the Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) which contributes to informed decision-making by quantifying the environmental, social and economic effects of the planned projects.
Learn more | Presentation English | Presentation Español | Watch the recording

Conservation and local community development in the Great Bear Rainforest

Apr 23, 2020 – This was the first of three webinars hosted by the ASL Working Group on Sustainable Finance. Brodie Guy, Executive Director of the Cost Funds, shared the innovative approaches and experience gained over 10 years of supporting First Nations community businesses, economic development and conservation management in one of the largest remaining temperate rainforests and highlighted lessons that could inspire similar approaches for Protected Areas around the world.
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Technology meet policy in the Amazon

Mar 25, 2020 – Our recent webinar featured MAAP, an initiative of Amazon Conservation (ACCA), that specializes in satellite-based, real-time deforestation monitoring of the Amazon as well as their recent 2019 synthesis report on Amazon Deforestation Trends and Hotspots.
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2019 Webinars

Conservation Agreements in the Amazon

Dec 11, 2019 – The webinar presented the results of the Comparative Analysis of the Conservation Agreements (CA) Programs in the Amazon commissioned by the ASL and developed by Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF). These programs are based on voluntary agreements that provide legal and de facto landowners with a range of benefits conditional to specified conservation actions or outcomes. The study aimed to identify CA program characteristics that deliver effectiveness; assess how these characteristics are considered by CA programs in the Amazon regions of Brazil, Colombia and Peru; and, provide recommendations regarding opportunities for ASL to support the effective use of CAs in the region. Download the presentation.

Fires in the Brazilian Amazon – What's happening in 2019

Sep 18, 2019 – The significant uptick of fires in the Brazilian Amazon observed in July and August garnered a tsunami of international attention. To better understand the situation, the ASL hosted a virtual technical meeting “Fogo na Amazônia: O que está acontecendo em 2019?“ to discuss essential information about the fires and its causes. The presentation by Ane Alencar, Science Director of the Institute for Environmental Research (IPAM, in Portuguese), provided an overview of the monitoring and analytical approaches being pursued by IPAM to understand historical deforestation patterns across various Brazilian biomes and land tenure categories. It focused on the complex interactions between deforestation, climatic factors, and land designation categories and their influence on fire incidence in the Amazon, highlighting how data gathered in the first eight months of 2019 shows a significant increase in fire incidence compared with recent historical patterns. Presentation

Citizen Science for the Amazon

Aug 28, 2019 – This webinar shared information about the project Citizen Science for the Amazon, led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The project seeks to generate information about fish and water at a basin scale and to train citizens as informed and empowered actors for the sustainable management of fisheries and the conservation of wetlands. With multiple pilot sites in the Amazon region and a network of more than 30 organizations, the project offers solutions for conservation and sustainable development with the community playing the role of leading scientists and users of easy-to-reach technologies. Representatives from research institutions and NGOs from Colombia, Peru, and Brazil shared their experience and lessons from the field. Presentation (in Spanish)

How Brazil has reduced 80% of the Amazon Deforestation in 10 Years – Lessons Learned and Recommendations

May 26, 2019 – Deforestation is a global challenge for humankind and climate change. Ongoing forest loss, particularly in the tropics, has been a major concern for the scientific and sustainable development communities. However, between 2004-2014, Brazil adopted policies that have reduced forest loss by 80% in the Amazon. The webinar discussed the challenges of designing, implementing and delivering bold results for global climate change mitigation. Presentation

2018 Webinars

Measuring the Economic Value of the Amazon's Ecosystem Services

Aug 2018 – The results of the study developed by the World Bank with the financial support of the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment were presented. Economic Valuation of Changes in the Amazon Forest Area was developed as part of the project. The hydrological calculations can be accessed on the Research Group on Atomosphere-Biosphere Interaction website.

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