The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) is the latest sports organization to join the Sports for Nature Framework. The Framework was launched late last year at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montréal and now counts 40 sports organizations among its signatories. These are organizations of all sizes from around the world that have committed to taking measurable action for nature. The framework includes four principles that signatories agree to:
- Protect nature
- Restore nature
- Green their supply chains
- Raise awareness
Developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and supported by Sails of Change, the Sports for Nature Framework helps sports take significant action for nature through 2030 and beyond.
“Combining sport and respect for nature is for me not only evident but an essential responsibility to assume,” said H.S.H. Albert II of Monaco, an IUCN Patron of Nature, Olympian and Chair of the IOC Sustainability and Legacy Commission. “We need to harness everyone’s energy, and continue to do so even more, so evident is the environmental crisis and so tragic its consequences.”
FIS President Johan Eliasch was invited by French President Emmanuel Macron and his Majesty King Charles III to the Climate and Nature Finance Mobilization Forum at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris to discuss with business leaders and leading organizations how best to support action to combat climate change and nature loss in emerging and developing countries. Forum participants discussed practical actions investors and companies are already taking to address climate change and biodiversity loss and what more can be done to increase investment, particularly in emerging and developing countries. Eliasch presented the FIS Rainforest Initiative and FIS’ commitment to investing in communities in Peru through its support of the Cool Earth charity. He highlighted that the deforestation project focuses on educating local young people to become tomorrow’s successful farmers and protectors of the rainforest and that by offsetting its entire carbon footprint many times over, the FIS has become the world’s first climate-friendly sports federation through the Rainforest Initiative.
