United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) - Second session

The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) will hold its 2nd Session at UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. UNEA is the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment. Over 2,000 delegates are expected.

The Second Session will feature a side event on 26 May entitled "Healthy Ecosystems, Resilient Planet" organized by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR).

Reducing disaster risk supports the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change – both of which recognize the Sendai Framework – and related work undertaken in support of the Aichi Targets, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and UNCCD decisions on land degradation neutrality.

Healthy ecosystems provide multiple development benefits, including livelihoods, health, food and water security – all of which can strengthen resilience to disasters. Well-managed ecosystems function as “natural” or “green” infrastructure that can directly reduce a community’s exposure and vulnerability to a range of hazards, such as flooding, storm surge, drought and landslides among others.

Bringing together Governments, civil society and the private sector through an inter-active dialogue, this side event will identify successful strategies for  implementing ecosystem-based approaches to  disaster risk reduction that deliver multiple benefits across related agendas. 

The moderator of the event is Mr. Robert Glasser, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction and the panellists are Mr. Alexis Lapiz, Chief of Strategic Partnership Division, Climate Change Commission-Climate Change Office, Government of the Philippines, H.E Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture African Union, Mr. Edmund Barrow, Director, Global Ecosystem Management Programme, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Mr. Simon Chow, Group Head of Stakeholder Engagement AXA Group.

The event will consider:

• How efforts of environmental managers and their partners can measurably support the achievement of the Sendai Framework’s targets and achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda;
• Lessons from countries implementing ecosystem-based approaches to disaster risk reduction and adaptation, and how such efforts could be scaled-up at national or regional levels;
• What innovations in partnership, finance and technology are likely to accelerate implementation of ecosystem-based solutions for disaster risk reduction.