Topic: Innovative Financing Mechanisms – The Potential of Biodiversity Offsets in Africa

Hours: 11:25 – 13:00 (Mozambique Time)

Day: Thursday, October 07, 2021

Panelist: Fabien Quetier

Position: Ecologist at BIOTOPE, Member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management

Fabien Quetier is an ecologist and senior consultant at BIOTOPE, a consulting firm. After graduate training in agronomy and rural development, Fabien obtained a PhD that studied the vulnerability of ecosystem services and their beneficiaries to land use changes in traditional agricultural landscapes in Europe, in the context of changing agricultural and rural development policies and market drivers.

Fabien at BIOTOPE advises clients, private and public decision-makers, on implementing the mitigation hierarchy (to avoid, minimize and offset impacts) to projects and programs, designing and leading the preparation of successful biodiversity studies (including Critical Habitat and High Conservation Value assessments), biodiversity action plans, and mitigation and offset management plans. Beyond complex conservation-development trade-offs, this requires addressing the technical, economic, legal, and institutional challenges of conserving and restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services. Among these, Fabien has developed specific expertise in innovative financing mechanisms and the use of conservation trust funds. He is actively involved in the COMBO program and the use of such funds for biodiversity offsets. Fabien is a member of the IUCN commission on ecosystem management and is co-chair of that commission’s thematic group on impact mitigation and compensation.