Agenda

Financialization of Nature, Green Investments and Biodiversity Conservation: Transformative Change or Veneer for the Status Quo?

Globally, the combining effects of capitalism expansion and anthropocentric development programmes have led to the widespread destruction of natural habitats and to the violation of indigenous peoples and communities’ rights, whose livelihoods and self-fulfilment intertwine with the health of territories they inhabit. At present, however, the main actions responding to the “double crisis” of the environment and capitalism have materialized through the mobilization of more capital, furthering the wider process of financialization of nature - a process which capitalizes on natural elements, assigning a property title to natural resources against collective rights over the territory. The unfolding of these trends is amplified by transnational development initiatives that provide the economic, institutional, and material framework needed to promote green investments and finance. The most notable among such schemes is the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (henceforth BRI). Originally aimed at promoting growth across Eurasia through infrastructural development, BRI has been gradually equipped with a portfolio of ‘green’ projects, incentives, and investments, whose impacts are going to be far-reaching – for both people and nature.
Against this backdrop, this workshop aims at bringing together a community of scholars, practitioners, and activists to question and assess the social-ecological logic and impacts of these new financial mechanisms. This workshop has been designed as a ‘collateral’ event to the COP15’s Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and ongoing discussion on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The workshop’s timing is crucial to raise awareness of what scientists have warned could lead to sixth mass extinction and to establish concrete ways to guarantee the functioning of life sustaining ecosystems in their complexity and against multiple current threats.

You can watch the Conference's registration on Youtube:
Panel 1
Panel 2
Panel 3

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101024555

The workshop will be held online on the 14-15th April and will be co-hosted by the Department of Asian and North African Studies (DSAAM), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the CHINGREEN project, and the ICCA Consortium.

Workshop scientific committee: Giulia Dal Maso, Ali Razmkhah, and Daniele Brombal

Poster and programme attached