Natural solutions: seawalls are not the only climate buffer

As climate disasters increase in severity and frequency, nations must adapt to protect citizens and assets, but is building more infrastructure the solution? Hear from experts as they explore the potential of nature-based solutions, like wetlands and mangroves, in acting as climate buffer infrastructure. They will share new findings from SEI’s project Examining climate buffer projects in the Philippines and feature other case studies from Australia and the Pacific, that address how justice and biodiversity issues can be addressed alongside climate adaptation solutions.

This event is in partnership with the Marine Studies Institute and the third panel in SEI's four-part  Climate and Biodiversity Crises Series. The public panel series brings together those working on climate solutions and nature damage to consider how these two crises can be addressed together.

Speakers

Justin See (Chair), climate change adaptation researcher

Dr. Justin See is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Sydney Environment Institute and is affiliated with the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. As a human geographer, his research investigates the intersecting dimensions of power, injustice, and inequality reflected in the planning and implementation of climate change adaptation projects across space, class, and time. He draws upon climate justice, critical development, postdevelopment, and decolonial theories to re-imagine how to do climate adaptation in a just and equitable manner. He is the author of several articles critically examining climate change adaptation interventions that have been published in Global Environmental Change, World Development, Climatic Change, and Climate and Development, among others. His current research investigates the impacts of climate buffer infrastructure such as seawalls and nature-based solutions like mangroves in the Philippines.

Jazmin (Minet) Aguisanda-Jerusalem, Filipino disaster risk reduction expert

Jazmin (Minet) Aguisandra-Jerusalem is the Executive Director of the Leyte Centre for Development and manages programs that have continued to help poor and vulnerable communities become more resilient. Minet has over 40 years of experience working in disaster risk reduction at various NGOs and has helped more than 300,000 families in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines. Most notably, she led the planting of a 7-hectare mangrove forest that saved over 700 homes and 4,300 people from being swept away by huge sea surges caused by Typhoon Odette. The mangrove project provided capacity building opportunities for local youth, women and farmers and provided eight communities with early warning systems and motorboats for monitoring the Marine Protected Area.

Anneke van den Brink, marine ecologist and expert of nature-based solutions for coastal defence

Dr Anneke van den Brink is a marine ecologist working as the Coordinator of the Marine Studies Institute (MSI) at Sydney University, and as a Coast and Estuary Officer for the NSW State Government. Anneke has over 20 years’ experience working in the marine space in Aotearoa, New Zealand (NIWA), the Netherlands (Wageningen Marine Research and HZ University of Applied Science) and Australia (Sydney University and NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water). As a marine ecologist, researcher, and lecturer in the Netherlands she was heavily involved in working with multifunctional Nature Based Solutions for coastal defence and climate change adaptation. This work focused particularly on the use of constructed oyster reefs to stabilise sediment and protect the coast while increasing biodiversity in the Oosterschelde tidal bay.

Sonia Marshall, managing an adaptive floodplain management project

Dr Sonia Marshall is a Senior Environment Project Officer at Sunshine Coast Council. She is currently managing a project called Blue Heart Sunshine Coast. Blue Heart is a place, a project and a partnership committed to sustainable and adaptive floodplain management in the Maroochy River catchment (5,000 ha). Some of the priorities in the Blue Heart include rehabilitating 165 ha of former agricultural land to blue carbon ecosystems, developing recreation opportunities and working with landholders to investigate alternative land uses as the floodplain transitions.

Suliasi Vunibola, researcher on Indigenous community resilience in the Pacific

Suliasi Vunibola is a Climate Crisis Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury and Adjunct Lecturer at the Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research, University of the Sunshine Coast. His research looks at Indigenous knowledge systems, community Indigenous innovation, alternative development, community driven development and social transformation in the Pacific. Currently his research focusses on climate-resilient development adaptation and mitigation measures, including Indigenous and local knowledge and system transitions, to reduce risks from the human-induced climate crisis in the Pacific. He also works on community self-determination projects with Indigenous communities across the Pacific, carbon colonialism, cognitive justice, regenerative sustainability, politics within neoliberalisation of development aid, food security and food sovereignty for Māori as indigenous peoples of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Pacific diaspora communities.