[Workshop] How local could biodiversity be? A geospatial approach in building and managing portfolios
Sun, 14 Jun, 15:00–16:30|Room Jakobshorn
Sun, 15:00
Geospatial tools are increasingly being mobilized across the financial sector, yet they operate at very different scales and with very different logics. On one end, top-down and systemic approaches model nature-economy linkages at the global level, assessing risks, opportunities and climate dependencies across large investment portfolios. On the other, bottom-up, small-scale approaches embed geolocation data directly into local landscape finance, tracing how capital flows through regenerative and collective governance models on the ground.
But how could these two meet? Is it the governance structures behind financial decision-making? Is it the data itself, the way geolocation and landscape-level information gets translated into financial systems? Or is it the workflow that determines how spatial information ultimately directs capital towards biodiversity-positive actions, while identifying and stopping harmful financial flows and negative impact dependencies?
This session presents two different angles on geospatial approaches in finance, from global investment modelling to local landscape finance, and explores where these scales converge and what it would take to make spatial data a true driver of nature-positive capital allocation. Navigating the void in between means understanding how data, actors, and governance collectively shape biodiversity finance. The session will also examine how geospatial approaches can help actors identify the most suitable biodiversity finance mechanism in a given context, how geospatial data can help determine project credibility including additionality, leakage and disclosure, and what constitutes good quality geospatial data in terms of the metrics used, not only the scale at which they are applied.
Schedule:
Opening
Why do geospatial approaches matter for finance? A brief framing of the session's central questions, followed by an audience pulse check: what do participants already know, use, or wonder about geospatial tools in their own financial practice?
Part 1 — Two scales connected (3 × 10 min)
1- Large scale, global investment Nature 3B — Geospatial nature-economy modelling and scenario development to assess nature-related risks, opportunities, impacts and climate links, with a focus on the workflow to link geolocation data to financial data. Stefano Battiston – University of Zurich
2 - Small scale, local investment ReGeNL — Landscape Finance approach for regenerative agriculture: benefits and challenges in financing at local level. Cătălina Papari – Utrecht University
3 - Navigating the void in between - Scrutinising how data, actors, and governance collectively shape biodiversity finance. Covering (1) how geospatial approaches can help actors identify the most suitable biodiversity finance mechanism to use in a given context; (2) how geospatial data can help determine project credibility (e.g., additionality, leakage, disclosure); (3) what constitutes good quality geospatial data (i.e., in terms of the metrics, not only the scale). Benjamin Thompson – Monash University
Part 2 — Breakout Groups (facilitated discussion)
Participants form three groups, each anchored around one of the three presentations. The presenter from each context facilitates their group, with one participant designated as note-taker. The central question guiding all groups: How can geospatial data be coherently integrated into the financial system, from small to large scale — and which actors are needed to drive this system transformation?
Groups are invited to reflect on:
• How do different data types serve the needs of different financial actors?
• What roles and responsibilities do actors across the system play?
• What governance structures enable or constrain integration?
• How can geospatial data help identify the right finance mechanism to use?
• And how do different ecosystem types shape the challenge of scale coherence?
Part 3 — Panel Discussion
A plenary panel drawing on insights from the breakout sessions, bringing together the three presenters and key voices from the audience to synthesize findings and identify pathways forward.