Description
Enacting the change required at a landscape scale to meet the challenges of the climate and biodiversity crisis is daunting and requires a lot of components to be ‘knitted’ together. Utilising lessons learnt from experience in the River Derwent catchment in Derbyshire, this session will explore the importance of partnership working through the lens of flood risk and nature-based solutions.
Chaired by COWI, we’ll hear from Moors for the Future and the Environment Agency about how partners came together to invest in the Peak District, top tips on building partnerships around nature-based solutions and the benefits to landowners and rural communities.
Questions are welcome prior to the event, please email them to training@cieem.net.
Speakers
Alex McDonald MCIEEM is a full member of CIEEM and has 17 years experience working in the fields of environmental education, ecology, environmental assessment and flood risk management. She is a leader in the use of nature-based solutions and flood risk strategy and sat on the environment group for the Trent Regional Flood & Coastal Committee. She was at the forefront of embedding natural flood management within the East Midlands and developing partnerships. She is an experienced media spokesperson and has appeared on local and national news representing the Environment Agency during flooding incidents.
Nerea Gordejuela-Alonso is a Flood Risk Management Officer at the Environment Agency in the East Midlands area, where she leads on Natural Flood Management (NFM) projects. With over 12 years of experience spanning water quality assessment, environmental education and flood risk management, she brings a strong technical foundation enriched by a social perspective. She holds a MSc in Environmental Leadership and Management of the University of Nottingham and is passionate about embedding nature-based solutions into traditionally hard engineering schemes, bridging science and policy to create more resilient, climate-adaptive communities.
Matt leads Moors for the Future Partnership. He is an Ecologist by training with 18 years’ experience in nature conservation, peatland restoration, and partnership working. Matt has developed expertise in convening, fostering and delivering effective collaborations for nature recovery and nature based solutions. He has led MFFPs investment readiness work resulting in the successful Combs Moss collaboration using an innovative blended approach to financing. Matt is a board member of the Great North Bog of which MFFP was a founding member. Matt is also a board member of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme. He has also been an Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University since 2014 contributing to the Department of the Natural and Built Environment
Dewi Jackson is a Project Manager at Moors for the Future Partnership, where for 9 years he has developed and delivered peatland restoration projects in the Peak District and South Pennines. From a background in ecology and academic publishing, he has accrued an extensive understanding of blanket bog ecology and the tools necessary to restore ecosystem function to these sensitive habitats. He has pioneered the use of innovative peatland restoration techniques in and, more recently, has been focused on nature-based solutions projects aligning specific ecosystem services, including natural flood management, to sources of funding.
