Lambertini Leads Nature Positive Initiative

Rae: Marco, you're the convener of the Nature Positive Initiative. What does that role entail?

Marco: Herding cats, it's actually convening a really exciting group of leading organisations in the sustainability space and a very diverse group. That's important.

So, we have environmental organisations, business and finance, sustainability platforms, we have standard setting, target setting agencies, indigenous knowledge networks, academia, a real mixed bag. And the reason being, that we need to discuss nature positive as a whole society, as a cross-sectoral approach, and that's why we are bringing together different stakeholders and different groups.

Rae: So, from your perspective in that role, what does a nature positive future look like?

Marco: To put it simple, is a future with more nature, not less. Because particularly in the last 70 years when there's been a really amazing economic boom across, not all of the world, but a good chunk of the world, is what scientists call the great acceleration of economic development and user resources. We have also seen a decline in nature.

And so, we've been building our economy on overexploitation and sustainable exploitation of natural resource and services. And we know today that that can continue forever. And we're reaching really the tipping point. And so we've got to really embrace a different way of and a different way of delivering goods to people, a safe future, an equitable future for all, but respecting, in fact supporting nature regeneration.

Because at the end of the day, we will continue to depend on nature for the foreseeable future. So, that's what a nature positive future means, a future where we are halting and reversing nature loss and we are ending up having more nature in future than what we have today.

Rae: Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? That's what we should all be aiming for.

Marco: But making it happen is slightly tricky.

Rae: Do you think events like the Summit here work towards building that?

Marco: A Summit like the Global Nature Positive Summit, the first of its kind, with such a clear focus on a future with more nature, is fundamental, particularly to embrace and assert and underscore the ambition that we need to embrace. Which is not just about less, do less harm to nature, but is actually really supporting nature in recovering from all the damage that was done, all the impacts that happened in the past.

So, is a fundamental statement, if you like, that a government like Australia, a developed economy, is actually embracing, an ambition and a future, which is nature positive.

Rae: I feel like you don't have a career like the one that you have unless you have a personal vested interest in caring for nature. So why was it important for you personally to be here?

Marco: So for me, the beginning was simply, it was an interesting book called Biophilia. A strange title. It basically says we have been a part of nature, we've been nurtured by nature for so long directly that every person in the world has an innate affiliation and connection with nature, because we've been depending on nature. And in my case, this was super strong since I was a little child.

So, I've always been fascinated by nature, by wildlife, by non-human life. We are connected to each other and {inaudible}. So that's the thing. But then later in life, through the conservation career and the work. Career, I mean it's a passion, it's not a career. But I really realised at the end of the day, protecting nature is about protecting people, the future. And being a father myself, that connection became so strong and so obvious as well.

So, it's brilliant to see that the nature conservation agenda today is actually intertwined with the people development in an equitable future agenda. At the end of the day, what we're doing today, what we're trying to do today, to put society, humanity, on a course that will deliver a safer and more just future for our children, the children of the world in general. And so, it's a beautiful combination of moral duties.

One is this will be future generations. The other one is going to be the non-human life on the planet that we share the planet with that we have the duty to respect.

Rae: Absolutely. Now you were the Director General of the Worldwide Fund for Nature for about 8 years or so.

Marco: Yeah, 9, yep.

Rae: And before that, you were the Chief Executive of BirdLife International.

I'm curious if in those roles, did you see a change that indicated a move towards nature positive?

Marco: Huge change. Huge change in terms of understanding our dependencies on nature because we've been taking nature for granted for too long because nature's always been there, powerful, abundant in providing everything we need, automatically almost. But the realisation that the impact that we are having in nature are ultimately impacting our future prosperity and our future of social cohesion, future health and wellbeing.

Has been a very recent realisation and I've seen private sector, governments, society in general, mature in developing this new awareness and, you know, knowledge and awareness, particularly knowledge and awareness of the risks, but also the opportunities that will derive from a nature positive trajectory, is the seed for change, because we need to see a lot of change in moving forward, change in the way we look at ourselves and nature, the way we value nature in so many different ways, and changing the way we run our economy. Because the economy today is a nature negative one, let's face it, is an economy that has been based on impacting nature, and that cannot continue in the interest of the economy itself for prosperity, itself.

So I've seen a huge change in terms of awareness. Now, the change we need to see is the systemic transition of our economy towards a true nature positive approach.

Rae: What's something that we could be doing and should be doing, either as individuals or as a collective, to work towards a nature positive future?

Marco: Yeah, so I mean, we know what needs to happen at a system level, we need to value conservation of nature and restoration of nature, not as a set aside from the (inaudible) cost and a foregone opportunity for development, but actually as an investment in sustainable development, investment in the future.

The first category is investing in conservation restoration because it is a true investment. It's not charity.

The second part, of course is transitioning economic sectors from nature negative to nature positive. But the real, the real trigger of all this is, I believe, is actually redirecting financial flows, public and private, in supporting the transitions, the transitions in agriculture and fisheries and infrastructure, forestry, mining, the key drivers of nature impacts today. Are not going to happen if the financial flows are not supporting this transition. Transitions are uncertain, and full of uncertainties and change is sometimes uncomfortable, or even unclear.

And so ,unless there is a process of accompanying the transition, for example, public subsidies, they need to begin to shift in support of nature positive practices. So, these are the things at a systemic level. At a personal level, there are many things that we can do in our lives. First of all, we need to think that every action that we take, bad or good, multiplies 8 billion. Becomes a big action.

Sometimes people think, what can I do with my own life? Don't ask that question. Do what is right and multiply by 8 billion, will make a huge difference. And perhaps the most important thing of all, particularly in the developed economies, is consume less, waste less, because the level of consumption and waste today in many developed economies is unnecessary.

Rae: Absolutely, some very wise advice there. Thank you so much for your insights and for chatting with me today.

Marco: Thank you very much.