Main speaker

Francisco de la Barrera

Associate Professor of the Faculty of Architecture Urbanism and Geography of the University of Concepción.
Environmental biologist from the University of Chile. Master in Environmental Management and Territorial Planning from Universitat de Barcelona and PhD in Geography from Universitat de Barcelona.

He has specialized in the environmental assessment and management of urban and peri-urban landscapes using spatial analysis tools, remote sensing and management of ecosystem services provided by natural landscape structures, such as squares and parks. Recently focused on the consequences of changes in land use and cover and the role of vegetation in improving people’s well-being.

Panelists

Karina Godoy

Engineer in Conservation of Natural Resources, Coordinator of the program Wine, Climate Change and Biodiversity and the Integrative Program of Conservation of Biodiversity in Agroecosystems of the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and the Universidad Austral de Chile. Focuses its work on facilitating and managing biodiversity conservation in productive areas, supporting the link between the private sector and scientists/s for the development of research in productive areas and evidence-based decision-making.

Laura Piedelobo

Marie Curie postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Cartographic and Terrain Engineering at the University of Salamanca, Spain. His research focuses on the operational implementation of remote sensing data to improve the management and planning of natural resources, using the Copernicus program and contributing to the development of its downstream sector. He is currently working on several European projects to improve the monitoring of nature-based solutions and their ecosystem services for climate change adaptation and natural disaster risk reduction.

Matt Smith

Matt is and Ecologist and Biogeographer who has worked in nature conservation and natural resource4 management for 17 years, working in the International Implementation Team of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) since 2011. His role at JNCC is cross-cutting and focuses predominantly on integrating the science of Natural Capital, Ecosystem Services and Nature Based Solution concepts into decision support mechanisms around the world. As part of his advisory function, he supports JNCC’s research coordination work programme and engages with a broad range of national and international cross-sectoral networks and professional bodies. He is the UK coordinator for the Copernicus user uptake project that JNCC coordinates in collaboration with University of Chile Centre for Mathematical Modelling.

Matt also has his own consultancy and works between the UK and Brazil. His work primarily focuses on connecting society, economy and ecology through projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. More recently his work has begun exploring the role of ‘investing in nature’ as part of recovery post-Covid 19 in the LAC region.

Prior to working to joining JNCC and starting his business, Matt has worked in the NGO sector on a variety of integrated conservation and sustainable development programmes in the UK, East and Southern Africa and Central Asia.

Jaime Ubilla

Jaime Ubilla (PhD) is a lawyer, legislative advisor and professor of law, focused on legal sociology, property rights and new post-modern strategies for social change -with special emphasis on biodiversity law-.

PhD at the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Ubilla is also the original proposer and designer of the conservation right enacted in Chile by Law 20.930. This new property right was originally proposed and denominated by him in Chile in 2003 (Ubilla, 2003) but its definitive legal form -as an affirmative and reflexive right- was proposed and drafted by Dr. Ubilla –through his advise to the legislative commissions of the Senate of Chile- on the basis of his research conducted at the University of Edinburgh (Ubilla, 2015, Ubilla 2016b).

It was in this context that Dr. Ubilla introduced the notion of natural capital in the institutional design and legislative history of Law 20.930. This is because the conservation right was designed as a new type of property right – affirmative and reflexive – that makes possible the holding of title over environmental intangibles – attributes and functions of the environmental heritage of a given real estate-. This new model of property right -which breaks with 2,500 of legal history- leaves behind the traditional model of static conservation based on restrictions and on purely philanthropic models and tax benefits –paradigmatically represented by ´conservation easements´-. This has been explained profusely in sources cited at www.conservationright.org.

He is also the founder and director of the Conservation Law Center of Chile www.centroderechoconservacion.org, with its sister organization Conservation Right Foundation www.conservationright.org, and also the founder of the Natural Capital Coalition of Chile.

Dr. Jaime Ubilla is a partner of Ubilla y Cia Abogados www.ub-co.com, and director of Natural Capital DMB, Chile.

Finally, he cooperates with several universities and research centers in Chile and internationally, and his academic research focuses on legal theory, social theory and private law. He is currently adjunct professor Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile.