Nieuwsarchief

Sacha de Rijk (Deltares) explained the background of KIMA program and the importance of monitoring. She shared some main lessons learned from the different research tracks. An important finding is that a wide variety of habitats was key to the current rich high biodiversity on the islands. She praised the work of the researchers: “It was their fascination that made it possible to develop and share our knowledge today.”

Geoff Wilson from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) gives insight into how they finance Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and how co-benefits can be quantified. The Asian Development helps to fund different projects throughout Asia and ‘pushing’ NbS is high on their agenda, but Geoff Wilson sees that upscaling can be difficult.

Brenda Goeden, program manager at San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development, shares examples of ecosystem restoration through the reuse of sediment in California. In San Francisco Bay Area many plans were launched to change the natural dynamics of the estuary and most of them involved large-scale land reclamation.

Martin Søndergaard from Aarhus University shared his perspective on lake restoration from a Danish perspective. The researcher draws strong parallels between Denmark and the Netherlands. “There are many similarities. Both countries have countless shallow lakes and have very intensive agricultural land use with lots of cattle. That’s why we must expect that our ecosystem is affected by human activity”, he says.

'It’s a wonderful place to experience nature, especially because there are almost no buildings. Birds are all around and life above and below water started to flourish in no time," Katja Portegies says.