The Nature Pledge: Biodiversity and Sustainability in Asia and the Pacific

In 2022, the UN General Assembly recognized the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (RHE), the same year the world agreed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
In this episode, we speak to Astrid Puentes Riaño, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and discuss the nexus of human rights and nature loss.
Has the RHE accelerated action on nature loss, and if so, how? Importantly, how has her work been received by policy makers and business and finance leaders in the countries she visits? And what do we make of the contradictions and complementarities between the rights of nature and human rights?

Rangelands cover 54% of our earth’s terrestrial surface and sustain around 500 million pastoralists world-wide, yet they receive a fraction of the attention they deserve and require.
In this episode of The Nature Pledge podcast, we dive headfirst into the misunderstandings and controversies surrounding rangelands and the pastoralists that call these vital landscapes their home.  Natasha Kirit Maru, Global Lead for Rangelands and Pastoralists at the International Land Coalition, challenges us to better understand topics like overgrazing and the sometimes-contentious relationship with conservation and climate mitigation efforts.
With up to 50% of global rangelands degraded, Natasha also highlights progress made, and the urgency of the upcoming UNCCD COP 17 in Mongolia. The year 2026, is also designated the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.
Tune in to discover why protecting rangelands is a crucial factor in preventing biodiversity loss and driving sustainable development.

In this episode of The Nature Pledge podcast, we dive into the upcoming flagship report from UNDP, the 2026 Human Development Report (HDR), with Pedro Conceição, the Director of the Human Development Report Office. Together we explore what might result if business and society invested in a more constructive, mutually beneficial relationship between people and nature.
UNDP’s flagship report aims to shift our global dialoguetoward “constructive agency” to promote a reconnection between people and the planet. But just how feasible is this? And are we asking too much from business and society in this time of armed conflict and economic uncertainty?

Today, the degradation of our ecosystems is increasingly recognized as an economic, public health and national security priority. A recent security assessment by the British government has explored how environmental degradation can disrupt food, water, health and supply chains, and trigger wider geopolitical instability. A recently released assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems or IPBES outlines how economies are being undermined by the rapid deterioration of natural capital.
How can these new understandings intensify nature performance in Asia and the Pacific Region? Helping us to clarify the challenge and the solutions, we speak to the UK's FCDO Regional Director on Climate, Nature and Energy, and the Regional Director on Health.

For decades, work on nature has been the domain of conservationists, ecologists and development agencies. Yet, today, the degradation of our ecosystems is increasingly recognized as an economic, public health and national security priority.
A recent national security assessment by the British government outlines how environmental degradation may disrupt food, water, health and supply chains, and trigger wider geopolitical instability. A recently released assessment by IPBES details how economies are being undermined by the rapid deterioration of natural capital.
But what impact will nature loss in Asia and the Pacific have on a country half way across the world? In this episode of the Nature Pledge, we speak to the UK's FCDO on the growing awareness of the multidimensional threat posed by nature loss in SE Asia, and what the UK and its partners in the region are doing about it.