At the People’s summit, “Folkemødet”, IPBES Denmark highlighted the value of biodiversity and emphasised the importance of adopting holistic solutions when tackling individual crises.
The People’s Summit has once again drawn to a successful close, and at IPBES Denmark we reflect on several exciting and eventful days in Allinge.
This year, we hosted two events highlighting the value of biodiversity and demonstrating how the biodiversity crisis is inseparably linked to global crises related to, among other things, climate change, food production, water quality and health.
One unified crisis
“In the past, work has often been done in silos when addressing the biodiversity crisis, the health crisis, the climate crisis, the food crisis, but it’s all interconnected, and this report from IPBES has tried to illustrate these connections.”
These were the words of Carsten Rahbek, Professor of Biodiversity and Chair of the IPBES Denmark Steering Committee, when he took the Research stage at the People’s Summitlast Thursday with his presentation, “Biodiversity, Climate and Health: One Unified Crisis”.
The presentation was based on the main messages and key points from the 2024 IPBES Global Nexus Report, highlighting how climate change, biodiversity loss, food production, water quality and health are not separate problems but deeply interconnected global crises. Focusing on a Danish context, Rahbek examined the different areas and explained that solutions in one domain often create unintended consequences in others when they are treated in isolation.
To conclude, Rahbek illustrated how a holistic approach — thinking in terms of nature-based solutions that address all challenges simultaneously — can create future scenarios in which positive outcomes are achieved across all areas, a message strongly echoed in IPBES’ Global Nexus Report.
You can watch or rewatch the highlights of the presentation in the video below. If you wish to explore the IPBES Nexus Report in more depth, it is available here: IPBES reports – IPBES in DENMARK
The panelists emphasise holistic solutions
On Saturday, IPBES Denmark held its second event, the panel debate “The Intersection of the Biodiversity Crisis and Societal Needs”. Here, five panelists, consisting of politicians, scientists and experts, discussed how holistic solutions can be promoted in a Danish context, ensuring that biodiversity is not overlooked or neglected when seeking solutions in other crisis-affected areas such as food production, health, water quality and climate change.
Like the previous event, this panel debate drew on the key messages of the Nexus Report, but was also strongly inspired by IPBES’ global report on values, recently contextualised in Denmark through the expert statement “Values of Biodiversity”.
The panel consisted of Mette Termansen, Professor at the Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen; Mads Skau, Mayor of Haderslev Municipality; Anders S. Barfod, Associate Professor at the Department of Biology, Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Aarhus University; Bo Jellesmark Thorsen, Vice-Chair of the Climate Council; and Hanne Haack Larsen, Director of the Aage V. Jensen Nature Foundation. Together, they brought important points and perspectives to the discussion on the barriers and opportunities that arise when attempting to integrate the biodiversity crisis with societal needs.
Mads Skau, Mayor of Haderslev Municipality, emphasised the importance of drawing on knowledge and local insight when developing solutions that actually work:
“It is just so important that all this [work] is based on knowledge, including local knowledge, because a huge effort has previously been made for Haderslev Pond and Haderslev Fjord without any effect.”
Associate Professor Anders S. Barfod further stressed the need to think long-term:
When decisions are made about nature and its development in the Danish landscape, they need to be permanent, to ensure continuity and longevity in both space and time.
The panel broadly agreed that thinking in holistic terms is beneficial and, crucially, that biodiversity must be integrated into solutions for various societal needs. However, it was also pointed out that economic and value-based barriers can easily arise when planning their implementation.
In this context, Hanne Haack Larsen highlighted that it is not only the economic, resource-oriented value that should be emphasized as a driving force, but also the importance of raising awareness of nature’s human value.
But in reality, it’s also about this human value. What value do we place on the nature around us? I believe that nature has a right of its own.
If you are curious to hear more of the panel’s insights from the debate, you can watch or rewatch the highlights in the video below. For further exploration of IPBES publications, the global reports are available here IPBES reports – IPBES in DENMARK, and the Danish expert statement on values can be found here Danish IPBES publications – IPBES in DENMARK.
