Join us for the

Virtual World Biodiversity Forum 2021

The World Bio­di­ver­si­ty Fo­rum Vir­tu­al Events were in­tend­ed as calls to ac­tion, of­fer­ing in­spi­ra­tion and pos­i­tive ex­am­ples for so­lu­tions to cre­ate an im­pact ac­tion agen­da for bio­di­ver­si­ty. Par­tic­i­pants shared case stud­ies and told about suc­cess sto­ries and high­light­ing syn­er­gies.


In case you missed the events, record­ings are avail­able. We al­so have es­tab­lished a vir­tu­al foy­er - the vir­tu­al bio­di­ver­si­ty hub.

Quick Links
– Biodiversity for a New Decade
– Lipstick on a Fig Tree
– Implementing Governance for Biodiversity
– Restoring Nature for Biodiversity, Climate and People
– Rethinking Finance and Economics for Biodiversity
– Special Presentation: In Good Taste Documentary Launch
– Imagining Positive Futures for Biodiversity
Quick Links
– Biodiversity for a New Decade
– Lipstick on a Fig Tree
– Implementing Governance for Biodiversity
– Restoring Nature for Biodiversity, Climate and People
– Rethinking Finance and Economics for Biodiversity
– Special Presentation: In Good Taste Documentary Launch
– Imagining Positive Futures for Biodiversity

Become part of the (virtual) community

The vir­tu­al bio­di­ver­si­ty hub is the foy­er to this year’s Vir­tu­al World Bio­di­ver­si­ty Fo­rum. In the hub, you can show­case your own work, your achieve­ments and ac­tions, and gen­er­ate vis­i­bil­i­ty for your project. We ac­cept a va­ri­ety of for­mats, in­clud­ing re­ports, ar­ti­cles, short videos, posters, slide pre­sen­ta­tions, pho­tog­ra­phy ex­hibits and more.


Vis­it the vir­tu­al bio­di­ver­si­ty hub or sub­mit your work di­rect­ly through this sur­vey form.

Biodiversity for a New Decade

Loss of bio­di­ver­si­ty, chang­ing cli­mate, in­crease in ex­treme events threat­en to dam­age hu­man health, economies and so­ci­eties – it is high time to put the world on track to achieve the 2050 Vi­sion for Bio­di­ver­si­ty “Liv­ing in Har­mo­ny with Na­ture”.


Set­ting the scene for the events to fol­low, the event will con­vene lead­ers in bio­di­ver­si­ty to to dis­cuss the ques­tions Why do we need to take ac­tion and what do we want to achieve?

Fo­cussing on tran­si­tion points and the trans­for­ma­tion nec­es­sary to achieve this goal, the event aims to shape nar­ra­tives and to high­light ac­tion­able out­comes.


Re­watch the event here

Lipstick on a Fig Tree

Why Plant­i­ng Trees Avoids the Re­al Prob­lems (and May Make Things Worse)


Tree plant­i­ng dom­i­nates po­lit­i­cal and pop­u­lar agen­das, and is of­ten por­trayed as an easy an­swer to the cli­mate cri­sis and ef­fec­tive mit­i­ga­tion for cor­po­rate car­bon emis­sions. How­ev­er, it is not a sim­ple so­lu­tion: Plant­i­ng the wrong trees in the wrong place can cause con­sid­er­ably more dam­age than ben­e­fits, fail­ing peo­ple and na­ture. Giv­en that the botan­i­cal com­mu­ni­ty is cur­rent­ly as­sess­ing the con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of every tree species on Earth (https://glob­al­tree­assess­ment.org/) and we grow over 18,000 tree species in botan­ic gar­dens and ar­bore­ta, Botan­i­cal Gar­dens Con­ser­va­tion In­ter­na­tion­al (BC­GI) and Uni­ver­si­ty of British Co­lum­bia Botan­i­cal Gar­den (UBCBG) have an im­por­tant role to play in help­ing to en­sure that the right tree is plant­ed in the right place and that di­verse na­tive species are part of tree plant­i­ng port­fo­lios.


Re­watch the event here.

Implementing Governance for Biodiversity

This event saw pan­elists dis­cuss how, at dif­fer­ent lev­els of (sub)na­tion­al and lo­cal gov­er­nance, syn­er­gies can be cre­at­ed to achieve the bio­di­ver­si­ty goals as well as the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals, and how col­lab­o­ra­tions and part­ner­ships with non-state ac­tors can be forged in this Decade of Ac­tion.


Read the event sum­ma­ry

Watch the event record­ing

Restoring Nature for Biodiversity, Climate and People

This event saw pan­elists dis­cuss what con­cert­ed ac­tions are nec­es­sary to halt bio­di­ver­si­ty loss, re­verse ecosys­tem degra­da­tion, com­bat cli­mate change, and se­cure hu­man well-be­ing. They al­so dis­cussed na­ture-based so­lu­tions that could play a key role in ecosys­tem restora­tion.


Read the event sum­ma­ry

Watch the event record­ing

Rethinking Finance and Economics for Biodiversity

This event saw pan­elists dis­cuss the var­i­ous ways in which to re­think the eco­nom­ic par­a­digm that rec­og­nizes bio­di­ver­si­ty as the foun­da­tion of (eco­nom­ic) sus­tain­abil­i­ty, hu­man well-be­ing, and pros­per­i­ty.  They al­so dis­cuss how the val­ue of bio­di­ver­si­ty can be re­flect­ed in eco­nom­ic terms and what the new fi­nan­cial tools avail­able to pro­tect bio­di­ver­si­ty are.


Read the event sum­ma­ry

Watch the event record­ing

Special Presentation: In Good Taste Documentary Launch

Launched in cel­e­bra­tion of UN­ES­CO's World Day for Cul­tur­al Di­ver­si­ty on May 21st and World Bio­di­ver­si­ty Day on May 22nd, ‘In Good Taste’ re­veals so­lu­tions to save our plan­et and our per­son­al health. Chang­ing hu­man be­hav­ior is a mat­ter of de­li­cious­ness or de­sir­abil­i­ty. This event saw pan­elists dis­cuss how we can mo­bi­lize for pos­i­tive im­pact through per­son­al taste.


Read the event sum­ma­ry

Watch the event record­ing

Imagining Positive Futures for Biodiversity

This event saw pan­elists dis­cuss how we can change the nar­ra­tive and imag­ine a world where the con­ser­va­tion and sus­tain­able use of bio­di­ver­si­ty is at the cen­ter, and where the well-be­ing of gen­er­a­tions to come is en­sured.


Read the event sum­ma­ry

Watch the event record­ing