On Wednesday morning, participants heard presentations on aligning policies, incentives and business within safe ecological limits. The session was chaired by Carina Malherbe, Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa.

Rachel Kyte, Vice President for the Sustainable Development Network, World Bank, presented the World Bank’s view on the need to balance economic and environmental interests, focusing on the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) partnership. Paul Leadley, University of Paris, presented on systems ecology and the identification of safe ecological limits at different scales. Arne Geschke, University of Sydney, presented a study on trade and biodiversity, published in Nature, which aimed at assigning responsibility for threats to biodiversity driven by economic interest, in particular export of goods and services.

Edgard Hertwich, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, spoke about how the study of industrial ecology provides policy-relevant insights into the unintended environmental impacts caused by the production, transport, and consumption of natural resources. Rob Alkemade, Netherlands Environmental Assessments Agency (PBL), presented on the state of knowledge in the scenarios of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-4).

Árni Mathiesen, Assistant Director-General, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, FAO, introduced the parallel sector perspectives and the alignment of policy mixes for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity across scales. In the afternoon, three parallel sessions addressed: forest management and biodiversity; biodiversity in agriculture and food security; and biodiversity in fisheries and ocean management.