The Rio Doce Panel is an Independent Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel under the leadership of IUCN

In the session entitled "Can environmental monitoring solve the gaps in post-disaster impact assessment?", Professor Sánchez explained that the monitoring currently carried out by a group of universities and analysed by government agencies focuses on massive data collection.

The lack of information on baseline conditions and natural variability hampers the analyses. Still, the volume and specificity of information have increased knowledge about the affected environments and revealed possible paths for identifying the impact and consequent determination of remedial measures.

He pointed out that the context of the Rio Doce requires greater targeting of analyses to avoid generating a volume of information that is incapable of guiding and correctly informing decision-makers and stakeholders.

For the Rio Doce Panel, understanding how public access and use of the knowledge produced by the RDP is absorbed is essential to assess its relevance and impact. However, the high number of stakeholders involved and the limited time available for direct interactions challenge primary and targeted data collection.

The teams focused on gathering evidence based on a series of documents produced and published by stakeholders to overcome this bottleneck. A qualitative research tool supported them in filtering, organising, and exploring the vast amount of data and classifying the evidence of behavioural changes corresponding to the recommendations developed, which allowed for better planning when collecting primary, targeted data.

In addition to assessing the impact of knowledge production, the analyses informed and drove adaptive management efforts of knowledge dissemination projects. The Rio Doce Panel's Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning strategy is available.

Chaired by Steve Edwards, Senior programme manager at IUCN Enterprise and Investment Team, the session focused on clarifying the concept of nature-based solutions (NbS), including a framework to design, implement, and scale up NbS actions (based on the IUCN Global Standard for NbS™). The exposition of practical cases highlighted how NbS are being used around the globe and how they are integrated into policy and impact assessment.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are an umbrella concept covering a whole range of ecosystem-related approaches, such as Forest Landscape Restoration, Ecosystem-based Adaptation, Ecological Restoration and Protected Areas. The NbS principles allow for integrating solutions (e.g., use of grey infrastructure, public awareness tools), landscape-scale planning, and policy coherence, all in one framework.