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About the Conference

Just months before Lima hosts over 190 countries to advance international climate negotiations at COP 20, Katoomba XX – Peru will identify opportunities for climate policy and finance to align with other public and private investments and commitments to ensure that forests and other ecosystems continue to provide critical support for a stable climate, resilient societies, human development, and food security.

The need for alignment becomes clear when we consider how climate change, forests, water, and people are deeply intertwined. Not only will climate change directly impact forests and the other natural systems that maintain critical water-related ecosystem services, climate impacts will be experienced largely through the medium of water – melting glaciers, changing rainfall patterns, increased water stress and drought from higher temperatures, more severe storms – resulting in increased water and food insecurity, and constraints on economic opportunity. Integrating climate policy, forest and biodiversity conservation, post-2015 SDGs, water management, attention to population trends, and agriculture and energy development will be critical to success.

Successfully finding alignment will require efforts not only at multiple levels of governance but also among scientists, financiers, business leaders, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGO leaders, and community leaders. Katoomba XX will convene these actors to help to forge alliances and mobilize momentum for a new vision of development for Tropical America.
Objectives

Katoomba XX will aim to identify opportunities for aligning strategies for climate, forests, water, and people. In particular, the meeting will aim to achieve the following:

Showcase the vision and leadership of Peru in utilizing ecosystem services-based approaches and innovative financing to achieve integrated outcomes for climate, forests, water and people – including through featuring the guiding principles of the country’s forestry and climate change strategy, the national ecosystem services law, modernization of the water sector to support climate change adaptation and water resource management, and no net loss of biodiversity regulations and compensation.

Showcase the leadership of subnational governments like San Martin and the importance of jurisdictional approaches that are well aligned with and supported by national strategies.
From the perspective of Tropical America, articulate opportunities for commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and goals under the post-2015 development agenda to support integrated forests and land use strategies to achieve progress on climate change and water security.
Identify clear strategies for ensuring that regional development strategies – including investment in infrastructure and agricultural production – support critical natural infrastructure and rural and indigenous communities.

About The Katoomba Group

The Katoomba Group seeks to address key challenges for developing markets for ecosystem services, from enabling legislation, to the establishment of new market institutions, to strategies of pricing and marketing, and performance monitoring. Since 1999, Forest Trends has held nearly 20 global meetings focused on building an international network to strengthen capacity related to markets, payments, and incentives for ecosystem services. These international conferences have provided a forum for exchanging ideas, influencing policy-makers, and catalyzing new initiatives.

Original Article – Katoomba Meeting on Climate, Forests, Water, and People