On-site event | Cities Summit - Latin American & Caribbean Network of Biodivercities
As part of the Cities Summit of the Americas, CAF -development Bank of Latin America- and the Inter-American Dialogue invite you to “Latin American and the Caribbean Network of Biodvercities,”, a high-level event where experts and local decision-makers will discuss the challenges of finding a balance between urbanism and nature.
Event date:
April 26, 2023
Biodiversity and ecosystem services are vital to the emerging green economy of Latin America and the Caribbean, which is based on the production and consumption of goods and services derived from biological resources. The economic value of ecosystem services in the region is estimated to be at least USD24.3 billion per year (IPBES Regional Assessment Summary). This natural capital provides a comparative advantage for the region and represents a key strategic asset in supporting its long-term economic development and prosperity.
Latin America, on the other hand, is the most unequal continent on the planet. The current model of extractivist urban development has assigned vulnerable populations and racialized groups those spaces where the accumulation of waste is greatest and the provision of services is least; expelling them to the outskirts of cities, abandoned central areas, or locations far from productive centers. These exclusion sites are, in turn, the places of considerable vulnerability to climate change and also the spaces with significant contact with biodiversity of their respective cities (Biodiversity Hotspots).
Although a large part effective policies against inequalities are responsibility of national governments; at a local level, land planning in an instrument of municipal competence that can contribute to the just distribution of opportunities in the territory. With adequate urban policies, cities can become the engine of comprehensive development that promotes a resilient economic recovery and the regeneration and care of nature, increasing the inclusion of their communities.
Biodivercities seek to restore the balance between urban planning and nature by increasing green infrastructure, improving governance schemes to promote nature-based solutions, generating positive links between the rural and the urban for improved biodiversity conservation, prioritizing circular economy models, and promoting these values among citizens.
The creation and implementation of the Network of Biodivercities of Latin America and the Caribbean is geared towards this direction: it proposes from Latin America the promotion of a new urban development paradigm that will help lead the change towards a new value system; promotes the rehabilitation and regeneration of biodiversity, the development of biologically-based urban competitiveness through entrepreneurship, business and technologies inspired by biodiversity (bioeconomy, biomimicry and circularity) and local culture (creative economies); and generatesnew alliances with civil society and the private sector along asocial justice and environmental framework.
Date: Wednesday, April 26th
Time: 8:00 A.M. - 9:45 A.M. (MST)
Place: Grand Hyatt Denver
Agenda
Agenda
April 26, 2023
Opening Cermony | From Los Angeles to Denver: Global challenges, local solutions
Speakers:
Christian Asinelli
Corporate Vicepresident of Strategic Programming, CAF -Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-
Rebecca Bill Chavez
President & CEO, Inter-American Dialogue
Michael Hancock
Mayor of Denver, Colorado
Opening Remarks
Session 1: Learning from the south - Natural capital as a trigger for a more sustainable, just and creative urban transition
Moderator: Emil Rodriguez | Director, Habitat and Sustainable Mobility, CAF - Development Bank of Latin America
Speakers:
Marcela Angel
Research Program Director (Afro-Latino research), MIT- Environmental Solutions Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ana Maria Durán Calixto
Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Josefina Klinger
Director, Mano Cambiada
Session 2: Towards a network of the Biodivercities in the Americas. Why this is the right place and the right moment to do it?
Moderator: Ángel Cárdenas | General Manager of Urban Development, Water and Creative Economies, CAF - Development Bank of Latin America
Speakers:
Sandra Perdomo
Director of International Affairs, Policy and Cooperation, Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute of Colombia
Jaime Pumarejo Heins
Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia
Ivo Ferreira Gomes
Mayor of Sobral, Brazil
Ana Paula Andrade Matos Moreira
Vice Mayor of Salvador, Brazil
Rogelio Biazzi
Chief of Staff of the Mayor of Rosario, Argentina
Keynote dialogue: The future of Biodivercities in Latin America and beyond
Speakers:
Rebecca Bill Chavez
President & CEO, Inter-American Dialogue
Christian Asinelli
Corporate Vicepresident of Strategic Programming, CAF -Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-
Signature session for the adhesion to the Network of Biodivercities of Latin America and the Caribbean
Speakers:
Christian Asinelli
Corporate Vicepresident of Strategic Programming, CAF -Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-
Jaime Pumarejo Heins
Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia
Ivo Ferreira Gomes
Mayor of Sobral, Brazil
Ana Paula Andrade Matos Moreira
Vice Mayor of Salvador, Brazil
Rogelio Biazzi
Chief of Staff of the Mayor of Rosario, Argentina
