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Decent Work Through Nature-based Solution for an Inclusive Socio-Economic Recovery | Geneva Nature-based Solutions Dialogues

August 30, 2021 @ 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

The Geneva Nature-based Solutions dialogues aim to facilitate further engagement and discussion among the stakeholders in International Geneva and beyond, in the lead-up to a critical year for nature and society. The dialogues are convened by the Geneva Environment Network and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

As countries are addressing the economic impacts of COVID-19 by allocating trillions of dollars to fiscal stimulus packages and beginning to develop longer-term economic recovery programs, a shift towards nature-based systems is more urgent to ensure that sustainable decent jobs are created to build resilience. Governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations have a key role in seizing this opportunity and paving the way to a socially just, but also resilient and green recovery. Thus, building forward better, creating pathways to resilience and sustainable development that leave no one behind.

 

2021 brings numerous opportunities for multilateral global action, to support the emergence of nature-focused economic activity. At its last session, in July 2021, the G20 environment ministers explicitly mentioned the need to harness the power of Nature-based Solutions or Ecosystem-based Approaches to address biodiversity loss, restore degraded land, boost resilience, mitigate and adapt to climate change, while providing multiple benefits across the economic, social, and environmental domains. They also recognized the need of scaling up and implementing Nature-based Solutions or Ecosystem-based Approaches in key sectors of our societies and economies, and across all ecosystems including urban areas. Equally, in the G20 Development Ministerial Meeting and Ministerial Event on Humanitarian Assistance in June 2021, they confirmed that their efforts aim at a strong recovery that is inclusive, resilient and socially, economically and environmentally sustainable, stressing the empowerment of women and youth. They underscored the importance of quality infrastructure that contributes to the localisation of the SDGs, fostering in particular local employment and local environmental protection, not to mention the creation of decent jobs.

 

This session will look at the vital role played by ecosystems in supporting employment. Indeed, 1.2 billion jobs in sectors such as farming, fisheries, forestry, and tourism are dependent on the effective management and sustainability of healthy ecosystems. It is also estimated that half of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is dependent on nature. It will also look at the substantial opportunities for job creation through ecosystem restoration and the use of NbS.

 

ILO’s Green Works, which applies an employment-intensive approach, creates additional and productive jobs using innovative and appropriate technologies to develop and maintain infrastructure, environmental and community assets. The approaches enhance social and environmental impacts of investments, contribute to disaster risk reduction and support much needed livelihoods. As such, Green Works can broaden the impact of nature-based solutions by addressing both working poverty and unemployment and environmental degradation simultaneously.

Organisers

Geneva Environment Network
International Union for Conservation of Nature