NATURE
What we need to revive
Conservation and restoration of the Earth’s natural ecosystems such that carbon sinks are amplified, biodiversity loss is avoided, and the resilience of ecosystems, habitats and species to withstand climate change is augmented.
Forests & Land Ecosystems
Conservation, restoration, and improved management of forests, woodlands, wetlands, peatlands and grasslands, targeting both reduction of carbon emissions generated from ecosystem degradation as well as increasing carbon sequestration by natural land-based processes.
Preservation of Natural Carbon Stocks:
Technologies that facilitate halting of deforestation and forest degradation, e.g. early detection of threatened areas, empowering farmers and smallholders to protect and regenerate their environment, protection of old and natural forests, forest inventories to broaden access to carbon offsets.
Forest Restoration:
Afforestation and reforestation planting technologies that can be applied over vast and remote areas, innovations to support growth of young saplings, scaling ways to harness trees potential to sequester carbon, smart applications in urban forest management.
Sustainable Forestry:
Technology to support sustainable governance of forest ecosystems used for goods and services, technology for traceability of trees - even following transformation (e.g. – paper).
Oceans & Water Ecosystems
Rehabilitation and reforestation of degraded blue carbon ecosystems to support carbon sequestration, advancing a sustainable, low carbon blue economy, strengthening coastal resilience and preparing for climate change impacts on freshwater ecosystems.
Carbon Sequestration:
Nature based interventions to protect and restore mangroves, seagrass, salt marshes and seaweeds as a mechanism for carbon mitigation.
Ocean Conservation:
Engineered and natural based solutions for coastal conservation to enhance biodiversity and increase resilience to storms, erosion and human induced degradation. Reef conservation and restoration, seafloor and open ocean protection and marine life regeneration.
Low Carbon and Sustainable Blue Economy:
Utilization of the ocean and its resources for sustainable, low carbon renewable energy, transport, food and marine bioprospecting.
Extreme Weather Events
Improving resilience to extreme weather events, such as drought, heatwaves, storms, flooding and wildfires, through advanced technologies that target disaster prediction, risk assessment, management and recovery with respect to both emergency response and long-term preparedness.
Prediction, Risk Assessment and Monitoring:
Tools with high spatial and temporal resolution for event prediction and risk assessment, including now-casting for short-term forecasts, warnings and real-time alert and monitoring systems.
Disaster Management and Aid Mobilization:
Tools to improve quality and speed of event management, information sharing, cooperation between stakeholders, response measures, rescue operations and safety of emergency responders.
Infrastructure and Community Resilience:
Minimize damage from extreme weather events to construction, water, sanitation (and related health risks), telecommunications, power and additional essential services as well as to local communities. Can include both endurance to extreme phenomena as well as measures that reduce the intensity of an event.
Wildfires:
Technologies to tackle community and nature devastation from wildfires, including improved forecasts, early detection, live monitoring, prevention, management, suppression, rapid response capabilities, rescue and evacuation capabilities and firefighters’ safety.
Biodiversity
Monitoring, modelling and protecting ecosystems with the aim of halting and reversing biodiversity decline of animals, plants and other organisms. Providing responses to changes in habitats, genetic resources, species composition, and ecosystem functioning and leveraging biodiversity’s capacity to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Habitat and Species Monitoring:
Non-invasive detection and tracking of species and monitoring of habitats and vulnerable ecosystems, tools and platforms to analyze, organize and share observations, developing alert systems for failing food webs, invasive species, stressors etc. Relates to both terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
Habitat and Species Conservation:
Technology deployment to address and scale solutions to conservation challenges such as maintaining and managing protected areas, ensuring wildlife corridors, migration assistance for species threatened by habitat loss, pollinations challenges, conservation of seed and genetic diversity and management of biological invasions. Relates to both terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
Earth Observations
Earth observation technologies for monitoring of land, oceans, atmosphere and living organisms as well as carbon fluxes in ecosystems. Observation’s purpose can be varied, ranging from long term planning of mitigation measures to real time alert systems on immediate threats.
Natural Systems:
Monitoring of the physical environment such as forest change, ice loss, climate and ocean parameters, weather phenomena, natural resources (e.g. water and soil), and impacts of human land use.
Wildlife Observations:
Observation platforms that provide knowledge on species, habitat connectivity, population changes and answer critical questions about animal behavior, interactions, reproduction, ecology, genetics and migration patterns.
Carbon and GHG Monitoring:
Granular monitoring of CO2 surface sources and sinks, the exchange of greenhouse gases between the land, atmosphere and oceans, and the associated changes in carbon stocks.
