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dr. Helen Kopnina
dr. Helen Kopnina
Helen holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge (2002) and leads the Sustainable Business program at Northumbria University, where she integrates research with impactful teaching. Her work focuses on environmental education, linking biodiversity to business through inter- and transdisciplinary approaches spanning education sciences, natural sciences, and management. With a Scopus H-index of 54 and several articles exceeding 800 citations, her research, particularly critiques of Education for Sustainable Development and ecopedagogy, has shaped curricula and pedagogical strategies across institutions. She coordinates funding bids, provides consultancy for businesses and NGOs, and serves on scientific committees including the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management. She coordinate funding bids, provides consultancy services for businesses and NGOs, and participates in scientific committees and a Commission on Ecosystem Management of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Northumbria UniversityNewcastle Business School CCE1NE1 8ST Newcastle upon Tyne, UK email helen.kopnina@northumbria.ac.ukTelephone: +31-645585957 Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=pE0rWdgAAAAJ&hl=nlORCID-iD: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7617-2288Scopus author ID: 11541014500Web of Science ResearcherID: C-2997-2013LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
Beyond Metrics: The Ecocentric Critique of Biodiversity Finance and What It Demands of Accounting, Law and Markets going forward
Abstract: TBA
dr. Helen Toxopeus
dr. Helen Toxopeus
Dr. Helen Toxopeus is an associate professor of Business & Sustainability at Utrecht University School of Economics and board member at the Sustainable Finance Lab, a Dutch academic thinktank. She holds a PhD on financing sustainable innovation from Erasmus University Rotterdam and has a background in the financial sector. Her research is at the crossroads of business, finance and sustainability, with a strong empirical grounding on business models and financing for urban nature-based solutions.
She has lead roles in large consortium projects (e.g. NATURESCAPES, ReGeNl) to realize synergies between research and impact, often in empirical contexts on nature-based, place-based sustainability transitions. She has published in Research Policy, Small Business Economics, Business Strategy & the Environment, Landscape & Urban Planning, Global Environmental Change, Journal of Environmental Management, Environmental Science & Policy, Nature-based Solutions, Nature Scientific Reports and Cities, among other journals.
In 2026 she received the Agnites Vrolik Award at Utrecht University, for the impact that she realizes through her research on financing urban nature while working with local, national and global actors.
She has lead roles in large consortium projects (e.g. NATURESCAPES, ReGeNl) to realize synergies between research and impact, often in empirical contexts on nature-based, place-based sustainability transitions. She has published in Research Policy, Small Business Economics, Business Strategy & the Environment, Landscape & Urban Planning, Global Environmental Change, Journal of Environmental Management, Environmental Science & Policy, Nature-based Solutions, Nature Scientific Reports and Cities, among other journals.
In 2026 she received the Agnites Vrolik Award at Utrecht University, for the impact that she realizes through her research on financing urban nature while working with local, national and global actors.
Justice in urban nature financing
Abstract:In this keynote, dr. Helen Toxopeus will draw on her urban nature research to draw out key tensions and insights regarding the interplay between financing and justice in urban nature-based solutions (NBS). In the face of insufficient public financing for urban nature, calls are abound for covering this ‘funding gap’ through private actor resources. However, increasing attention is paid to the fact that such hybrid funding also affect long-term (including justice) outcomes, incurring structural changes in governance - rearranging decision-making powers, responsibilities and risks. In-depth case study work suggests approaches to secure justice outcomes while drawing in private actors into urban nature implementation and maintenance. Finally, looking beyond public-private (hybrid) funding arrangements unravels a more diverse set of potential funding arrangements across public, private and civic actors, with diverse consequences for justice outcomes.
Prof. dr. Richard Field
Prof. dr. Richard Field
Prof. Richard Field is Professor of Biodiversity Science at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is a biogeographer and macroecologist with >25 years of research on biodiversity. This body of research is both theoretical and applied. In terms of theory, it aims to understand the distribution of biodiversity at all scales from local to global, and the reasons for that distribution, including consideration of species richness, functional and phylogenetic diversity, beta diversity and their relationship with environment, including geodiversity, and biogeographic history. On the more applied side, his work addresses the finance of biodiversity, and the adequacy of conservation and protected area networks. Richard is Editor-in-Chief of Global Ecology and Biogeography, the leading macroecology journal, and served 8 years on the Board of The International Biogeography Society. He is a Trustee of the Wallacea Trust, which promotes biodiversity conservation through business engagement and owns a leading method for measuring biodiversity for finance. He is also Chair of the Biodiversity Futures Initiative, which validates biodiversity measurement methodology and verifies data-based biodiversity claims, and he is part of the current IPBES Monitoring Assessment. Richard is a core, Task Force member of the Biodiversity Credit Alliance, working closely with the UNDP (which provides the Secretariat), and co-leading its Theory of Change work. Previously he was Technical Co-Lead of the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits Measurement Working Group, co-leading the writing of its Design Criteria. He is now producing guidance and toolkits for developing biodiversity credit markets in numerous countries across Africa, West Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, working with the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
Measuring biodiversity change: a complex, foundational issue for biodiversity finance
Abstract: For biodiversity finance to be worthwhile, we need confidence that payments produce positive biodiversity outcomes. Achieving this is a foundational issue, but is complex and multi-layered. In this talk, I examine this complexity from first principles, starting with what a positive biodiversity outcome is and issues around what should be measured. I discuss key tradeoffs, including between costs of monitoring and confidence in that monitoring, between payment for actions vs outcomes, and between different goals of biodiversity finance, including the role of offsetting. I summarise key high-integrity frameworks that I have been involved in developing, particularly the High-Level Principles (Biodiversity Credit Alliance / World Economic Forum / International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits [IAPB]) and the IAPB’s Design Criteria, and issues around how they are implemented. I also consider the role of regulation, and critique the quality-control processes in operation. I conclude by considering what is needed but still missing, which research and collaboration may be able to address.
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