BIOPATH Newsletter for members, partners and stakeholders with news about activities and learning opportunities on biodiversity and business |
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What is in the crystal ball for 2025? A Nature Act in Sweden?
A lot of progress and promising next steps
To start
with, thank you all who attended and contributed to the digital programme
meeting in three morning sessions the other week. Many of you have commented on
the successful format and that the sharing of results was inspiring and
provided a more in-depth understanding of the progression of all the
workpackages and learnings across disciplines and partner organisations outside
academia.
Our updated plan for 2025 is approved by the
Mistra Board and we look forward to fulfilling our set tasks, building on our
first phase of mapping and assessing and moving on to innovating and
developing, testing and transforming towards more naturepostive solutions.
| Following the example of ORKLA,
we were happy to also have a collaborative project with SEK, on
understanding how organisations can integrate biodiversity into strategies
and operational processes. On a national level, the first
draft of a Nature Act and a Nature policy framework for Nature was the
outcome of opinion pieces signed by several researchers within and
beyond the BIOPATH programme, urging for more political action and
long-term approaches for nature. | | | |
Multiple values of biodiversity
We
will start the new year with a BIOPATH seminar, already on 9 January on the
topic of the many values of biodiversity. The aim of the seminar is
to present and discuss how to consider the multiple values of biodiversity,
with a certain focus on values that are difficult or impossible to measure,
following the Global Biodiversity Framework, and IPBES. See more information in
the calendar and article below.
A year of capacity building, open online learning and gamification
We have
planned and developed educational prototypes in 2024 that we are excited to
launch and share in the coming year. The GOLD pilot has been tested on 14-15
year old pupils and received good responses for combining learning with
engaging challenges on biodiversity and economy. In the next phase it will be
tested at Science centers in a few places. Next launch will be a Swedish
version of the Biodiversity Collage that some are familiar with. Sign up if you
are interested! Later in the year we expect to have our massive open online
course (MOOC) available in its first version.
If you want to capacity build yourself and your
love ones during Christmas, we provide you with some biodiversity games in the
end of the newsletter that can be downloaded. Have fun, learn and most of all
enjoy a peaceful holiday season!
Winter holiday greetings and a Happy New Year,
Susanne Arvidsson, Mistra BIOPATH Programme Director | Proposed nature policy target for Sweden: ‘By 2030, Sweden shall halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity in Sweden, and by 2050 maintain, strengt-hen or restore the integrity, connectivity and resilience of all Swedish ecosys-tems, increase the abundance of native wild species to viable and resilient levels and conserve their genetic diversity, thereby maintaining and strengthening ecosystem functions and services.’ | | A Nature policy for SwedenOn 28 November, WWF Sweden and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) hosted a seminar proposing a Nature policy framework for Sweden including a long-term nature policy goal decided by the parliament, based on Sweden's international and EU commitments. Furthermore, a Nature Act stating that each government will produce a Nature policy action plan at the start of each new term of office, setting out what is to be done to achieve the objective and the resources allocated to achieve it, as well as an Annual Nature report describing the progress of nature policy work. At the event, professor Alexandre Antonelli (WP1), gave an introductory speech on what is needed to reverse the loss of biodiversity and Viktor Elliot, (research lead WP2), participated in the expert panel with reflections on challenges for companies in measuring and reporting on their impact on nature.
Read more (in Swedish) at SSNC website
| | | | | | SEK and Mistra BIOPATH collaborative project
Since 2022, Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK Svensk Exportkredit), is a partner in Mistra BIOPATH to better understand how the businesses that SEK finances are depending on nature. The financial sector, together with the business community, has significant opportunities to help counteract the ongoing loss of biodiversity.
“How we in the financial sector should understand and address nature-related risks and opportunities is critical, both for making well-informed business decisions and for minimizing negative impacts as much as possible. The collaboration with an organization like Mistra BIOPATH provides us and other companies with a solid scientific foundation in this regard,” says Maria Simonson, Acting Head of Client Relations and Head of Sustainability at SEK.
“A major challenge compared to the climate change will be establishing relevant goals. Greenhouse gas emissions can be measured in the same way regardless of location, but nature and biodiversity are much more complex to measure and vary significantly between geographic areas,” says Monica Edblad, Sustainability Strategist at SEK.
A central part of the collaboration with Mistra BIOPATH involves testing the relevance and usability of various tools for financial actors. Viktor Elliot, research leader at Mistra BIOPATH, sees several advantages in collaborating with SEK. “In research, it’s about problematizing and examining questions, while in practice, it’s about taking action. I think the collaboration with SEK has worked incredibly well in this regard. We have been able to learn from each other quickly. Together, we can make rapid progress,” he says. Watch video on Mistra BIOPATH website ( in Swedish with English subtitles) | Biopath Dialogue COP 16 perspectives and reflections on 12 December
On 12 December, we invited three speakers to share their perspectives of attending and participating at the COP16 negotiations and side events. Ida Reuterswärd, Deputy Head of Swedish delegation CBD COP16, Ministry of Climate and Business Affairs, Natural Environment Unit.Sofya Ignatenko, PhD, affiliated to BIOPATH and at COP16 with the Biodiversity Credit Alliance and Axel Eriksson, Global and European co-coordinator of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) gave interesting and complementing views on resource mobilisation, intergenerational equity and models for biodiversity credits. The seminar is available for BIOPATH partners in Teams. We will follow the extra COP16+ to take place in Rome in February 2025. | Mistra article on COP16Before the COP16, Mistra interviewed Alexandre Antonelli, Mistra BIOPATH and the program director for Mistra FinBIO on their expectations and challenges for the COP16 to be successful. Read more here:
Mistra BIOPATH bevakar COP 16 | | | | | | | | | | Download the report on Mistra BIOPATH websiteThis seminar builds on the results from a workshop for BIOPATH researchers from all work packages in September 2024, and a BIOPATH report on IPBES*’ framing of the values of Nature. *IPBES, the Intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services. | |
BIOPATH seminar: Multiple values of biodiversity
9 January, 13:00-15.00
CET, on Teams Welcome to a seminar for BIOPATH partners led by Marie Stenseke and Johanna Alkan Olsson.
Several of
the multiple values of Biodiversity may be linked to high risks from an industry
and financial perspective. How to include them in Biodiversity disclosures is
therefore essential.
The aim of the seminar is to present and discuss how to consider the multiple values of biodiversity, with a certain focus on values that are difficult or impossible to measure, following the Global Biodiversity Framework, and IPBES.
Key issues
for the seminar:
- How to capture the multiple ways in which humans see and value
biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people/ecosystem services?
- How to bridge between different valuation methods, including between
quantitative and qualitative measures? | | | | Master student thesis on biodiversity awardedThe SSCEN (Sparbanken Skåne´s center for Sustainable Enterprising) Sustainabiliy Prize for Master´s theses is awarded to business and engineering students at Lund unviersity who contribute with valuable knowledge on how to achieve sustainable transformations. Anton Kvarnbäck, Masters student, Environmental and Energy systems, LTH, supervised by Carla Coelho, WP1 Mistra BIOPATH, was praised for his case study on Biodiversity Impace assessment of logging residue removal. Data from interviews with forest owners, in collaboration with SÖDRA, was used to assess the biodiversity impacts per kWh of energy produced at
Kraftringen’s heat and power production plant in
Örtofta, north of Lund. Link to Publications, Mistra BIOPATH | |  fd | GOLD pilot prototype tested and ready to goDuring the fall of 2024, Mistra BIOPATH have collaborated with experts in interactive and visual technology design and systems- and design thinking from Visual Arena, Lindholmen Science Park and Experio Lab, Karlstad University. The aim has been to explore how to engage young pupils, aged 14-16, in understanding relations between nature and economy and impacts of daily lifestyle choices using gamification. The process and exploration process has been very rewarding, including some of the researchers in Mistra BIOPATH, reference groups, two master students and teachers/ science center staff. In 2025 the ambition is to have a sharp version of the prototype at a few Science Centers. Link to project GOLD website | | | | | CalenderUpcoming events, workshops, seminars | | | | 9 January | BIOPATH Seminar at 13.00-15.00 CET, Teams | Multiple values of biodiversity | | | | | | 21 January | BIOPATH Dialogue: Swedish Inst for Standards, SIS | Laura Linnala, Swedish Committee for Biodiversity (SIS/TK 623) | | | | | | 22 January| Grand Seminar (BECC, MERGE, Sustainability Forum) | Exploring the complexities and potentials of Environmental Communication | | | | | | 6 February | BIOPATH Policy Lab, 11.00-16.00, Lund | Forestry Policy lab 2: A road to implementation | | | | | |
18 March | Reference group testing Biodiversity Collage | Test Biodiversity Collage in Swedish
| | | | | | 7-8 May | Lund,
Save the dates!
| BIOPATH Spring Programme meeting
| | | | | | 21-23 October |Gothenburg, Wallenberg Conference Centre | Save the dates! Swedish Biodiversity Symposium
| | | | | The seminar is a collaboration between the strategic research areas BECC (Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate), Merge (ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system) and Sustainability Forum – all part of CEC (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science) atLund University. Register for participation onsite or online before 7 January via this link | | Grand seminar 22 January on how to communicate threats like climate change and loss of biodiversityClimate and environmental communication is about more than conveying facts. To really get the ear of our different audiences, it is important to gain a deeper knowledge of how people with various backgrounds understand, interpret, feel about, and act upon threats like biodiversity loss and climate change - and how we can enable scientific outreach that inspires positive change. More information about the speakers and the programme here. | | | |
Biodiversity Board game (EU) Challenge your friends to a game about biodiversity. You will learn some interesting things about nature and how to protect it along the way. Why not paint some pebbles different colours and use them for counters or maybe you have even better ideas. Let your imagination go wild. Up to 9 years
Biodiversity Board Game - European Union
| | fd | Habitat Puzzle Game
(ESA)In this game, you explore the complexity of the web of relationships between species and habitats. You take on the role of a living thing and your aim is to make the connections to others that you need to avoid extinction. This game is for six people or groups. You will need dice, pen and paper, and the species cards included in the download.
Biodiversity Game
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| | Mistra BIOPATHSchool of Economics and Management Lund University P.O. Box 7080 SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden
+46 46-222 00 00
info@mistrabiopath.se
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