Panelist: Fabien Quétier

Fabien Quétier is currently the technical director on ‘No Net Loss’ and ‘Net Gain’ solutions for biodiversity at BIOTOPE, a consulting firm based in France. He advises clients, private and public decision makers, on the implementation of the mitigation hierarchy to projects and programs, by designing and leading the preparation of biodiversity baselines and assessments (including Critical Habitat and High Conservation Value assessments), action plans, and mitigation and offset management plans. This requires dealing with the technical, economic, legal and institutional challenges of on-the-ground assessment, management and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services, as well as complex conservation – development trade-offs.

He has worked extensively in Europe and across the tropics (South America, Central and West Africa, Madagascar, New Caledonia, etc.) in various sectors (infrastructure, energy, mining, oil & gas, commercial forestry, agribusiness and other commodities). He is a recognized practitioner of international best practice in this field, including performance standards and safeguards of financial institutions, and the Standard on biodiversity offsets published by the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program (BBOP). He is regularly involved in advising lenders, corporations, NGOs and governments on their biodiversity policies, and is an active member of the community of practice around IFC’s Performance Standard 6, for which he also. Fabien is a member of the IUCN commission on ecosystem management and remains at the cutting edge of biodiversity and ecosystem services science through regular publications and collaborations with researchers and other peers.

Panelist: Marian Weber

Marian Weber conducts research on environmental policy including biodiversity offsetting. From 2003-2019 she was senior researcher with InnoTech Alberta where she worked with stakeholders to develop market based opportunities for managing ecosystem services. She was an executive member of the Alberta Association for Conservation Offsets and also a member of the Advisory Group of the Business and Biodiversity Offset Programme (BBOP). Marian is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at University of Alberta and in 2019 became Chief Environmental Economist for BC Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Strategy.

Panelist: Eric Higgs

Eric Higgs, Professor, in Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, studies how we intervene responsibly in ecosystem undergoing rapid change. His work is anchored in ecological restoration, but has expanded in recent years to include appropriate ways of intervening in hybrid and novel ecosystems (ecosystems without historical precedent in an era of rapid ecological, environmental and cultural change). He has directed the interdisciplinary field-based Mountain Legacy Project studying long-term landscape change in Canada’s mountains using repeat photography explore.mountainlegacy.ca.

Panelist: Florence Damiens

Florence’s research interests lie in bridging political sciences, political ecology and biodiversity conservation to better understand how different political narratives and modes of governance affect biocultural diversity and sustainability.

Her PhD is devoted to the politics of biodiversity offsetting, with a focus on Australia and France. She is also collaborating with researchers located in Australia and Europe to study changes in conservation-related policies.

Florence has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Sciences from Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and a Master in Economics and Public Policy from Sciences Po and École Polytechnique. In the past, she has worked with various stakeholders in the fields of environment and biodiversity conservation in Australia, France and the Middle East.