Insights from Davos: Connecting Resilience to Biodiversity

Under the theme “Leading Transformation Together,” the 4th World Biodiversity Forum (WBF) took place on 14–17 June 2026 in Davos, Switzerland. Organized by the University of Zurich and supported by an international scientific committee, the WBF aims to develop actionable solutions to planetary crises that undermine planetary health and social justice.

From the REMASS project team, Nicolas Roux and Siwar Ortiz presented their research in the session “Macrofinancial and Systemic Risks of Biodiversity Loss":

Siwar Ortiz, from the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), presented “Extracting Value, Exporting Risk: Foreign Capital, Profit Repatriation, and Soy-Driven Deforestation in Brazil.” In this work, Ortiz and colleagues from WU and the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) examine how financial sector dynamics, foreign investment, and profit repatriation by foreign owners are linked to deforestation, using Brazil’s soy production and trade as a case study.

Nico Roux presented “Do Sudden Disruptions in Biomass Supply Chains Foster or Hamper Pressures on Biosphere Integrity?” and sparked a critical dialogue informing future REMASS work on resilience and malleability. The core hypothesis challenged conventional views on supply chain resilience: From a biodiversity perspective, should supply chains with high ecological pressures (e.g., animal products) be less resilient than those with lower pressures (e.g., plant-based proteins)? This line of inquiry suggests that resilience should not be treated as a neutral metric of continuity but differentiated according to societal and ecological benefits.

Broader conference context - From decline to recovery:
The WBF urged a paradigm shift in biodiversity science. Becky Chaplin-Kramer (WWF/IPBES) emphasized moving from tracking decline to a “science of recovery,” prioritizing clear recovery targets and building a scaffolding of locally tailored solutions that are ready whenever policy windows open. Other keynote speakers highlighted the necessity of coalitions for transformation: David R. Boyd underscored the significance of the UN’s recognition of the human right to a healthy environment as a legal lever for protection, while Lyla June Johnston reframed Indigenous food systems, proposing that humans can act as a “keystone species” - catalysts rather than destroyers - tending the garden alongside other species.

The WBF 2026 resolution encapsulates these collective calls to action.

Overall, the conference offered multiple sources of inspiration for connecting the resilience and malleability of global social metabolism to biodiversity outcomes.