Conference Agenda

Experimentation with Nature-based Solutions (NbS) has emerged as a well-documented avenue of climate action for transformative urban futures with multiple benefits, such as supporting nature, climate, water security, and human health and wellbeing. In this article, we seek to give a view into the different narratives underpinning nascent NbS climate action pathways in the Global South cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg. We explore examples of city-directed experimentation, community-level scientific demonstration, private sector-led NbS initiatives as well as others. We find that while both cities exhibit vibrant NbS-supportive policy mixes, implementation of NbS in pursuit of water resilience lacks sustained momentum and remains difficult to amplify. Each alternative pathway towards water resilience through NbS is underpinned and framed by different narratives and values, each subject to contestation, whilst other imagined pathways such as NbS in informal areas remain difficult to resolve and therefore unseen. With these findings, we consider whether and where opportunities for disruptive and enabling decolonial transformations through diverse pathways of NbS may be found in post-colonial cities.

The Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC) is an intergovernmental framework in place for the conservation of wildlife and tourism development within the Greater Virunga Landscape (GVL) shared by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Within this landscape, and situated along international borders, are contiguous Conservation Areas that contain key biodiversity resources, including world’s only two populations of Endangered mountain gorilla, an important endemic subspecies with significant cultural and economic value.

Two emerging viral diseases have appeared over the last three years in the countries sharing the GVL, namely: the Ebola Virus in DRC and Uganda, and COVID 19 in all the three countries. These viral diseases were declared among human populations, while scientific evidence on their potential cross transmission between humans and wildlife species, most notably the primate populations such as the mountain gorilla, the chimpanzee (and other wildlife species that dwell in the GVL) was established. However, the effects of such viral diseases among the wildlife, especially the primate populations, are not yet known and apprehended. In this regards, and relative to its mandate, GVTC facilitated the development and the implementation of Emergency Plans for both diseases, and whose key objective was to, protect wildlife primate species (emphasis on mountain gorillas), conservation personnel, tourists and communities adjacent to the parks from acquiring viral diseases and avoid as much as possible the potential virus cross transmission between human and wildlife populations. Both plans are complementary to the National Emergency Plans established at national level for human health populations in the three countries. They also recognize this critical intersection between these two types of populations and advocate for a holistic approach to preparedness, prevention, and detection, and response related to the plans’ objective.

This paper presents key insights as to how the GVL Transboundary Governance has been a key factor in responding to both emerging viral diseases of Ebola and COVID 19, while demonstrating how it can support the long term resilience of the ecosystem and human society within the GVL. We shall highlight the key lessons drawn from the GVL experience and pertaining to theory and practice for one health system. Finally, we will discuss how the specific attributes of the transboundary collaboration governance can frame the required conditions to solutions for planetary health issues.

​​Extreme weather conditions, with more frequent and intense precipitation, extreme heat and intensity in tropical storms, and increase in sea levels, have detrimental consequences for the poor and marginalized in society, particularly, those in poor resource settings. These climatic events coupled with human activities are disrupting the planet’s ecological systems with concomitant effects at the micro-level. Particularly, the poor and marginalized often suffer from frequent or more intense flooding, drought, heatwaves, wildfires, recurring infectious diseases, with consequences such as poverty, food, water, and housing insecurity, and poor health. The ability to quantify these measures and effects have been critical in understanding the multiple pathways, by which changes in climatic conditions and environmental degradation impact on the sustainable livelihoods. However, few studies, if any, have explored the application of these indices to assess governance programs, policies, and solutions aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change at the household level. Without the ability to assess the veracity of these interventions and programs, it is difficult to determine whether these solutions are effective. It is also difficult to assess the ability of households to adequately anticipate, prepare, and adapt to these vulnerabilities. In this presentation, we will discuss 1) the need to integrate such indices in informing and assessing governance programmatic interventions and policies, 2) the need for more tailored indices, 3) the assessment of top-down approaches to governance structures in comparison to a bottom-up and/or co-creative approaches that are sustainable, 4) the value and downside of nature-based solutions for the poor and marginalized, and 5) possible steps to building resilience, reducing risk, and enhancing sustainable adaptive practices, in the face of cascading crisis. In sum, this presentation aims at changing our mental models and introduces a planetary health perspective that highlights interdependencies between environment, social vulnerability, and human health to inform efficient and innovative governance programs and solutions in addressing the effects of climate change at the microlevel.

Planetary health equity (PHE) is defined as the equitable enjoyment of good health in a stable ecosystem. An important challenge in the pursuit of PHE is in the intersecting relationship between climate change, social inequities, and health inequities. The impacts of a changing climate on health are wide-ranging and involve multiple pathways, which are often mediated by social inequities such that they compound health inequities. The governance challenge created by multiple and intersecting impact pathways between these three outcomes is further exacerbated by the complex upstream governance structures and dynamics that contribute to planetary health inequities through social, political, economic, commercial, cultural, and environmental determinants of health.

PHE represents a ‘wicked problem’ that necessitates inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to knowledge generation. This study therefore aims to bring together and synthesise knowledge of different types from across disciplines and institutional settings, which are focused on understanding complex upstream and downstream impact pathways shaping the problem of PHE. In particular, the review investigates what is found in existing academic and grey literature that answers the question: What are the social and health equity impacts of climate change mitigation policies for socially marginalised and disadvantaged populations in different contexts? This involve both: a) substantive, technical elements of the impact pathway related to intersecting outcomes across climate change, social inequities, and health inequities, and b) upstream structural, procedural, and ideational factors that shape the social and health equity implications of climate change mitigation approaches.

This study is pursued through a rapid realist review, which is designed to be problem-focused and to identify policy-relevant implications and generate knowledge and strategies for ways forward. Reviews that are systematic and adopt a wide scope create an important opportunity to bridge disciplines and institutional settings, bringing together a range of types of knowledge and fostering mutual understanding focused on a shared area of concern. Our review involved a wide search strategy including electronic databases capturing academic literature across a range of disciplines, as well as grey literature from international organisations, government, and non-governmental sources. Knowledge synthesis is also conducted across inter-disciplinary norms, including both quantitative citation network analysis and descriptive statistics methods, as well as qualitative narrative synthesis. Transdisciplinary methods pose a challenge in integrating different bodies of knowledge, therefore mixed approaches create opportunities for meaningful synthesis.