Updates from the Lui-Walton Innovators Fellowship
Yvonne Lui
Recent Fellows were selected to join the Lui-Walton Innovators programme in order to elevate Conservation International’s (CI’s) research and implementation work in the critical areas of pandemic prevention, innovative technology, sustainable finance, natural climate solutions and restoration. Here’s what a few of them have been up to:
Pandemic Prevention
In response to Covid-19, the Fellowship has turned its attention to pandemic prevention. CI’s work in this field is gathering momentum on multiple fronts. CI’s Science and Science Advances papers are leading global thinking on the issue, and they are one of the most prominent voices in advocating for forests and forest communities in pandemic prevention discussions on Capitol Hill, Washington DC. With the goal of increasing CI’s ability to have further impact on policy, they brought in Neil Vora as a Pandemic Prevention Lui-Walton Fellow in April 2021.
Conservation and Technology
As a leader in developing cutting-edge research and tools that enable us to identify, value and protect natural capital, CI saw a need to explore how best to deploy the ever-increasing technology trends that trillion-dollar industries are creating, but are not yet being applied, to scale our projects. Technology Fellow, Evan Rapoport, is charged with determining opportunities to bridge that gap. He is launching a Natural Climate Solutions Accelerator – modeled after Google X – to rapidly evaluate innovative project ideas utilizing new technology. Top talent from Silicon Valley will partner with CI’s climate scientists and finance experts to implement the best ideas.
Sustainable Finance
Two leading ladies in the sustainable finance sector, Meizani Irmadhiany, based in Indonesia, and Aya Uraguchi, based in Japan, are significantly raising the bar for CI throughout the Asia-Pacific region in the areas of sustainable financing and new investment opportunities.
Natural Climate Solutions
Bronson Griscom, PhD Natural Climate Solutions Fellow, was the lead author of the 2017 landmark study that revealed natural climate solutions as providing over 30% of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 to keep global temperature increases under 2 degrees Celsius. Bronson has been the lead contributor to a synthesis paper that is providing the latest pantropical natural climate solutions estimates for all tropical countries, further informing the inclusion of natural climate solutions as key to achieving the Paris Agreement.
In addition, he led a team of scientists in creating a global map that is using artificial intelligence to determine how much — and how quickly — forests can absorb and store carbon from the atmosphere if humans simply left them alone. The initial results, published in the journal Nature, found that tropical forests can regrow up to 32% faster — and capture significantly more carbon from the atmosphere — than was previously estimated. These findings represent a quantum leap in our understanding of the potential of forest restoration, underscoring the need for more restoration projects while identifying the specific places where Conservation International and its partners in reforestation can be most effective over the next 30 years.
Restoration
To advance restoration efforts in Africa, CI brought on Jacques Van Rooyen as the Rangeland Restoration Lui-Walton Fellow. Africa’s future is inextricably linked to the health of its vast rangelands: covering 62% of the continent, they are home to nearly 400 million people, half a billion livestock, and the rich biodiversity that includes its iconic wildlife. Despite their enormous economic, social and ecological benefits, Africa’s rangelands are rapidly losing their ability to support people and biodiversity.
Jacques is leading CI’s restoration efforts, which provide a remarkable opportunity to secure the future for people, wildlife and livestock. Such work will also maximize the contribution of rangeland restoration in addressing the unfolding climate and biodiversity crises. Many of CI’s rangeland restoration sites were isolated during the past year, with lack of support due to Covid-19 risks and restrictions. Jacques has subsequently taken a six-month journey to provide mentorship, training, technical support, progress evaluation and engagement with community stakeholders and new partners in South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya.