Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sostenibilidad

Just another web-blogs Sites site

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Agriculture and Food Security
    • Climate change
    • Ecosystems and Biodiversity
    • Environmental and Social Safeguards
    • Infrastructure and Sustainable Landscapes
    • Institutionality
    • Responsible Production and Consumption
  • Authors
  • English

The Next Olympics are About Resilience: What can the Amazonia Region do?

August 28, 2024 por Veronica Galmez - Gregory Watson Leave a Comment


The Olympics have always been a source of devotion and inspiration, evoking countless emotions that encourage us to take on new challenges and rethink our routines. In the past two weeks, the games in Paris have given us a lesson in resilience—not just pure resistance. From Céline’s magical return to the stage during the opening ceremony to Simone’s showing the perfect balance of mind and body, dazzling on the bars. A key element of the athletes’ resilience seems to be finding the optimal combination of physical and mental health, allowing them to perform at their best.

Just like human systems, complex natural systems such as tropical ecosystems also need a ‘thermostat’ that helps regulate their resilience levels. However, unlike human systems, natural ecosystems don’t necessarily need to be challenged by external factors to develop the resilience that allows them to overcome difficulties. In many cases, the integrity of the ecosystem determines its resilience.

Sports science teaches us that rest is a key factor in increasing athletes’ resilience. This rest is also crucial for critical global ecosystems like Amazonia. However, Amazonia is facing pressures that go against this necessary rest: a series of severe droughts and floods that are expected to worsen with climate change. This involves a sequence of events starting with prolonged droughts, abrupt drops in river water levels, changes in aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity dynamics, and the proliferation of forest fires, leading to a loss of natural system integrity and, therefore, weakening its resilience, that structural ability to recover.

Why Is the Connection Between Climate and Nature So Important? 

The resilience of Amazonia reminds us of the importance of the link between nature and climate. Biodiversity, expressed at different levels, is a key element of integrity and therefore resilience against climatic events, as it protects us.

While the connection between climate and nature is unquestionable at a territorial level, international policy frameworks do not necessarily reflect this link in a coordinated and coherent manner. This lack of convergence between climate and nature agendas can create additional risks when designing responses, actions, and climate policies that do not recognize the value of biodiversity, both for economies and society.

Internalizing and demonstrating the link between climate and biodiversity is key to financing in Amazonia. The dichotomy between the existence of pristine primary ecosystems and the need for Amazonian cities to offer access to affordable services is, and has been, a constant challenge. Droughts are a disruptive factor in these basic services, including transportation, access to health and education services. The challenge for people, nature, and climate demands a quality of public and private spending that responds to the needs of socio-environmental protection. Valuing biodiversity as it deserves and is required could provide that needed protection.

This year is crucial to demonstrating progress in articulating the relationship between climate and nature. While COP29 on climate change in Baku is expected to pave the way for a new collective quantitative goal on climate finance, COP16 on Biodiversity in Cali gives countries in the region a unique opportunity to demonstrate the connection between climate and nature. This will be key as countries prepare to update their national climate change commitments and get ready for COP30 in Belém in 2025. As they review their climate ambitions, Amazonian countries will have another opportunity to reflect nature and biodiversity in their climate goals. This also presents enormous opportunities to close the biodiversity financing gap and for the Amazonia region and Latin America and the Caribbean to become a hub of solutions toward net-zero emissions and nature-positive economies.

The IDB Group Elevates Ambition on Nature

The IDB Group is committed to positioning the region as a nature superpower, aiming to generate a positive impact on biodiversity and improve the well-being of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean. This year, a new institutional strategy was launched that places biodiversity, natural capital, and climate action as priority and cross-cutting themes that must be present on the agenda of various sectors and countries. Likewise, the recent Action Plan aims to integrate biodiversity and natural capital into the IDB Group’s operations in key areas where nature can drive economically, socially, and climatically intelligent development. This action plan should also accelerate countries’ efforts to achieve goals that promote a positive impact on nature.

Amazonia Forever is a comprehensive umbrella program of the IDB Group dedicated to the sustainable development of the Amazonia region, with the goal of contributing to forest conservation and climate action while offering economic alternatives to improve the quality of life of communities. Since its launch, the IDB Group has worked to incorporate nature into various areas of the program. The team in charge of mainstreaming nature collaborates with project teams and creates knowledge products to support program implementation.

Moreover, we have developed climate innovation instruments to support our member countries and the region’s private sector, including sustainability-linked bonds, debt-for-nature swaps, exchange rate risk coverage, and, for the first time, our governors have approved the use of our own capital to pay for climate and natural outcomes integrated into our operations through IDB CLIMA.

Olympic athletes are now enjoying their well-deserved rest before the next reunion. However, what cannot wait four years are our Amazonian ecosystems. The IDB and countries have a short window of opportunity to ensure their resilience, with a region that has the solutions and natural resources to do so sustainably.

—

Image credit: Shutterstock


Filed Under: Amazonia Tagged With: amazonia, biodiversity, climate change, resilience, sustainability, sustainable recovery

Veronica Galmez

Veronica Galmez is the Sector Lead Specialist in IDB’s Amazon Coordination Unit. Previously, Veronica served as Deputy Director of the Green Climate Fund’s division of public sector programmes covering multiple sectors for a resilient and low emissions development. Prior to her deputy role, she led the ecosystems portfolio at GCF, mobilizing climate finance for nature conservation. Prior to her roles at GCF, she worked at Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation implementing the climate change and natural resources agenda in Andean and Amazonian countries. Ms. Galmez is a Peruvian forestry engineer from La Molina University and holds a master’s degree in tropical environmental science at the University of Turku, Finland. She also holds a postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Business from the University of Cambridge.

Gregory Watson

Gregory Watson leads the IDB's Natural Capital Lab program, funded by the French and UK governments. It works with the IDB Group and partners to drive innovation in financing natural capital and promote the incorporation of biodiversity. It incubates, accelerates and scales new solutions to pressing environmental problems, looking to nature as an asset. Previously, Greg worked at the IDB Lab, where he led the IDB's first equity investment in oceans, an equity investment in a silvopastoral system in Macaúba, developed the first Habitat Bank in Latin America and the Caribbean, supported an asset class for of natural capital and the US$20 million Climate Fund Investment Project for Forests. He also created the EcoMicro green microfinance program, conceptualized Climatescopio and the world's first private sector FIP project in Mexico. Mr. Watson holds a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a bachelor's degree from Tufts University.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

SEARCH

Sustainability

This blog is a space to reflect about the challenges, opportunities and the progress made by Latin American and Caribbean countries on the path towards the region’s sustainable development.

SIMILAR POSTS

  • Nature-based solutions can put the brakes on the climate crisis
  • How to Transition to Nature-Positive Economies?
  • [New Podcast] Exceptional Women Revolutionizing the Caribbean through Climate-Smart Projects
  • How can climate and biodiversity action deliver sustainable recovery from Covid?
  • Earth Day: a friendly reminder to address the climate crisis!

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Derechos de autor © 2025 · Magazine Pro en Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube
    This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser.
    To learn more about cookies, click here
    x
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT