Meet the 9 laureates of the Climate & Biodiversity initiative of the BNP Paribas Foundation

The 9 laureates of the 2019 call for projects 

The projects laureates of the Climate & Biodiversity Initiative programme share various key aspects: a strong international dimension by implicating collaborations between research organizations from various horizons, interdisciplinarity and finally their focus of study are all high stakes scientific issues. 

If most projects study the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and its adaptation, some projects tackle more specifically the development of new solutions and new modelling tools to increase the resilience of ecosystems to climate change. 

• BIOCLIMATE – Addressing knowledge gaps by adopting novel and well established methods to compile an extensive evaluation, specifically focused on the biodiversity and associated ecosystem processes within climate-affected and human-modified Amazonian forests in the Santarém region in Brazil. Project led by the University of Lancaster (United Kingdom).
• NOTION – Determining how future climate change will alter the diversity and activity of marine diazotrophs (planktonic cells), and how these changes will impact global ocean productivity. Project led by the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (France)
• SABERES - Promoting the preservation of the Amazon river floodplain biodiversity and ecosystem services under climate change by developing a management and policy framework to increase socio-environmental and biodiversity resilience. Project led by the Institute of Research for Development (IRD, France).
• LIFE WITHOUT ICE – Studying the consequences of glacier extinction for biodiversity and people at a global scale, with focuses in both temperate (France) and tropical regions (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru, Uganda, and Venezuela). The project will aim to move along to solutions through a knowledge-based dialogue (from scientists and local people). Project led by the Institute of Research for Development (IRD, France).
• CAMBIO - Identifying which tree species mixtures can optimize climate mitigation and adaptation (resilience to extreme events) with the aim of optimizing afforestation as a solution for climate change. Project led by the University of Ghent (Belgium).
• MOMMY KNOWS BEST - Understanding how various environmental conditions affect the ability to display plasticity through evaluating how multidimensional and novel environments affect the different steps underpinning adaptive plasticity is needed. Project led by the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS, France).
• CORESCAM - Studying the vulnerability and resilience of coastal biodiversity to the increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes and droughts in the Central American region. Project led by the Museum National de Sciences Naturelles espagnol (Spain).
• TREE BODYGUARDS - Understanding the effect of current climate on tree resistance to herbivores and on biocontrol in order to predict the potential consequences of climate change on tree and forest's health. Project led by the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA, France).
• HUM-ANI - Identifying how the impact of climate change and biodiversity erosion modifies interactions between fauna, flora and mankind, and how it is linked to increasing infectious diseases’ threats and multi-hosts transmission in in Austral African socio-ecosystems. Project led by the Institute of Research for Development (IRD, France).

Know more about Selection Process

A sustainable ambition in favor of the enhancement of scientific knowledge on climate change and biodiversity erosion. 

The programme Climate Initiative was launched in 2010 by the BNP Paribas Foundation with the ambition of increasing knowledge on interactions between climate and biodiversity, about climate system dysfunction and evaluating the consequences on our environment and allow all the players to change their behaviour. 

In 2019, when it launched its 4th call for projects, the Foundation renamed the programme “Climate & Biodiversity Initiative” in order to jointly address two of today’s most pressing environmental issues: climate change and biodiversity erosion.

Photo Header Araucaria araucana forest Northern Patagonie - THEMES project led by Valérie Daux ©R. Villalba