As I look to the promise of the year ahead, and to the environmental imperatives of the coming decade, I cannot help but think of Costa Rica’s coastlines where (as often as possible) my love of nature meets my favorite pastime. It is also where the strength of the surf recently broke my board in two!
In 2021, we have many positive things to anticipate – including vaccines, economic rebound, and a return to life with less loss and distance between us. We are all looking forward to these changes in a similar way that surfers anticipate incoming waves – we know they are coming, but their exact timing and size are beyond our control.
But to ensure we leave this pandemic period in a better position than we started in, we will need to work hard to steer ourselves toward a brighter and more resilient tomorrow. It’s time to start paddling out.
Being a surfer for more than 40 years has given me a good understanding of the oceans, marine ecosystems, and marine life. Time spent on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts has also made me a real-time witness of climate change. The sea level has risen, affecting the waves we surf, and the rich complexities of this unique ecosystem is changing. Wave patterns and seasons are changing dramatically. Now we see huge swells and long flat spells, something very different to what we used to see in the ocean. Climate change is real and happening fast – surfers all over the world can give testimony of this.
This close connection with the natural world is a big reason I am so passionate about making sure that we collectively do something meaningful to address biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution, and ocean health in my lifetime.
Although biodiversity, climate change, and ocean health are being discussed like never before, we need to be sure that actions follow words. None of us can assume that the COVID-19 recovery will support environmental renewal without concerted efforts around the world – in both developed and developing countries – to put nature at the center of economic planning.
We will need to work together and across traditional silos to ensure the upcoming post-COVID recovery is both blue (in support of healthy oceans and waters) and green (in support of healthy lands), as well as clean and resilient.
Recent pledges of new spending on clean energy, green cities, and expanded marine protected areas are absolutely welcome and have breathed new life into international negotiations aimed at supporting biodiversity preservation, land restoration, ocean conservation, climate change resilience, and more. This is wonderful to see.
At the same time, to really get the world on track for a future with healthier societies and a more stable climate, governments and businesses will also need to stop supporting damaging practices in agriculture, transportation, forestry, fisheries, and energy.
Riding the pandemic recovery wave in a way that saves our remaining wild places and curbs future pandemics will require nothing less than a global reset of spending and investment priorities.
To achieve the green, blue, clean, and resilient recovery that IUCN and its partners including the Global Environment Facility are working toward, we will need to prioritize nature as the foundation upon which all economic and social activity rests and depends.
Ending harmful subsidies that lead to land degradation, over-fishing, and fossil fuel extraction will be an essential part of this recovery’s success and long-term impact.
Additionally, there is tremendous potential from investments that put nature at the heart of urban and infrastructure planning, climate adaptation efforts, and pollution and waste management initiatives, including around the circular economy and chemicals.
Ecological restoration is hugely economically valuable, as Costa Rica’s experience has shown. And businesses and investors are increasingly seeing value in nature-based solutions and environmentally sustainable practices as safeguards for the future.
It is 100 percent possible to balance the needs of the population with the needs of the planet. Like two feet on the board.
Supporting policies and plans that strike this equilibrium is the challenge for all of the IUCN World Conservation Congress participants, working in all its thematic areas – landscapes, freshwater, oceans, climate change, rights and governance, economic and financial systems, and knowledge, innovation, and technology.
We are within sight of a return to healthier and more connected life, but we cannot achieve long-term prosperity without investing in nature – its protection, restoration, and health. To build the future we need, it’s time to stop harming the planet and lean into activities that will heal it.
Surf’s up.
About the author
Carlos Manuel Rodriguez is CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility, the largest multilateral trust fund focused on the environment and climate change. Before joining the GEF, Rodriguez served three terms as Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica, where he pioneered the development of payment for ecosystem services initiatives and led advances in forest restoration, ocean conservation, and de-carbonization. He is an expert on environmental policy, multilateral environmental negotiations, and financing for nature conservation.
