CompensACTION: Mobilizing finance for climate, biodiversity, and food security through innovative payment for ecosystem services schemes

He studied integrated european studies and public policy and management at the universities of Bremen, Potsdam and Lille. He worked in european and international cooperation projects of GIZ, the European Commission‘s Interreg Program and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry before joining the German civil service.

Today, Jan is part of the unit for agriculture and rural development of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. He works on the transformation of agricultural and food systems in various multilateral cooperations, the repurposing agenda and topics such as livestock, water and energy in the agricultural sector.

He leads Clim-Eat’s efforts towards key global platforms and spearheads a climate action project in Kenya.
Previously, Wiebe worked as Program Management Officer for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). He studied the Master International Development at Wageningen University & Research, with a specialization in Sociology of Development and Change.

He chaired the first ever UNFCCC COP Food System Pavilion and has served as Co-Convener of the Enabling Environment Action Group of The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA). He also worked for the NWO (Dutch Research Council)’s WOTRO Science for Global Development department.

Ma. Eliza J. Villarino is a research fellow at the Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture and the engagement lead of the CGIAR Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems.  A Ph.D. candidate at the University of Copenhagen, Eliza focuses her research on the role of institutions in environmental upgrading in agrifood value chains.

She explores the relationship between incentives and zero-deforestation commodity production and is developing a framework on how non-market approaches can contribute to the development of low-emission food systems. Eliza comes from a strong policy, journalism and science communication background.

Aaron is the Strategy and Finance Director of Soil-Carbon Certification Services, a not-for-profit social enterprise working with farmers in Western Kenya to leverage carbon finance in extension services to adopt Sustainable Agricultural Land Management (SALM) practices. SCCS aims to support farmers, improve livelihoods, reduce carbon emissions and adapt to and mitigate impact of climate change. He has nearly 15 years’ experience in finance, business operations, research and advisory in both private sector and development fields. In his other time Aaron advises multilaterals, corporates and other development actors in bottom-of-the-pyramid and global inclusive development areas of agriculture, finance, climate change, and technology.

Lucy Emerton is Environmental Economics and Finance Director of the Environment Management Group, a consultancy group and think-tank providing technical support in nature conservation and environmental sustainability to the corporate sector, governments, NGOs and international organisations. She has been working as an environmental economist for the last 30 years across almost 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Australasia and Latin America, focusing on biodiversity and ecosystem valuation, as well as the development of innovative conservation finance and incentive mechanisms.