🇨🇳 As part of the implementation of the Swiss NbS Hub, In-Finitude SA had the honour of taking part in the 2nd Summer School on Nature-based Solutions, held in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, China, from 25 May to 4 June 2026, organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Chinese government (Ministry of Natural Resources) and the government of Guangdong Province.

🌍 The programme focused on the practical application of nature-based solutions (NbS) across the various sectors and regions of China, with particular emphasis on the implementation of the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions (IUCN Global Standard for NbS).

🏙️ Between Guangzhou and Hong Kong, this second edition deepened the convergence between finance, technology and urban application in the context of the Greater Bay Area development. It built on the momentum of the first edition and on recent milestones, notably Hong Kong's adoption in 2026 of the NbS Design Guidelines, explicitly anchored in the vision of the Global Standard.

🎯 Four pillars, one direction

The programme was structured around four pillars:

• Capacity building
• Knowledge exchange
• Sustainable solutions
• Leadership development

🌳 Over ten days, it enabled participants to understand the implementation and management of nature-based solutions across China through the presentation of the country's parks and nature reserves, the geographic information and monitoring technologies used, urban planning, the development of eco-villages, the renaturation of industrial areas, the management of environmental facilities, and finally awareness centres for the promotion of biodiversity and waste management — all within a community-driven and forward-looking approach.

A unique cultural enrichment and exchange of experience for all participants, over several days, on the strategic vision and action plan of the Chinese government to build a community that mobilises to preserve life.

🚶 A journey between Guangzhou and Hong Kong

📍 Guangzhou (25–30 May)

The first part of the course laid the foundations of the programme by focusing on the global framework of the triple planetary crisis, the Chinese government's implementation strategy and the planning of nature-based solutions in urban environments, for territorial ecological conservation and restoration, and for coastal areas.

Sites visited:

• 🏛️ Guangzhou Urban Planning Exhibition Center — showcase of the megacity's urban planning
• 🪴 Yunxi Botanical Garden — landscape restoration on the urban edge
• 💧 Haizhu Wetland — the largest national wetland park at the heart of a Chinese megacity, 11 km² in the centre of Guangzhou, the equivalent of three New York Central Parks
• 🏘️ Jingxia Village — China's first « zero-carbon » pilot village, nestled at the north-east corner of the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City
• 🌊 Nansha Wetland — at the brackish confluence of the Pearl River delta, an essential stopover on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, restored over twenty-five years

📍 Hong Kong (30 May – 4 June)

The second part pivoted towards the modules that shape the future of nature-based solutions: Technology, Agriculture and urban peripheries, Finance, as well as the « NbS Hong Kong Week ».

Sites visited:

• 🬩 Mai Po Nature Reserve — Ramsar Site, managed by WWF-Hong Kong, where local ecological knowledge meets connected monitoring
• 🦀 Pak Nai — one of the world's most important sites for juvenile horseshoe crabs
• 🌲 Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden — the world's first restoration programme to receive the Premium-Tier certification of the Global Biodiversity Standard, in 2025
• 🌳 Urban Mini-Forest of Fanling North — urban afforestation pilot inspired by the Miyawaki method
• 🌾 Long Valley Nature Park — wetland conservation integrated into the Northern Metropolis
• ⛰️ Bowen Road Slope Study Trail — ecological engineering applied to urban slopes
• 🏙️ Taikoo Square and Garden — urban greening in a dense business district
• 🍃 Shing Mun Country Park — protected forest and freshwater ecosystems
• 🏡 Lai Chi Wo — a Hakka village in the New Territories reborn through a project of rural conservation and community revitalisation

💰 Financing NbS

The session of 2 June at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, dedicated to finance, was a highlight of the programme, addressing the financing mechanisms for nature-based solutions at scale. It brought together the World Bank (Andre Rodrigues de Aquino), BNDES (Raphael Duarte Stein), CDP (Antonio D'Arasmo), the Foundation for Sustainable Development (Mieke Siebers), the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Caroline van Leenders) and Chatham House (Jiangwen Guo), around a roundtable moderated by Susanne Pedersen (IUCN), focused on the financial instruments enabling investment in these solutions.

For In-Finitude SA, the signal was clear: the pipeline of nature-based solutions has moved from design to deployment in the field. Blended finance models, verification protocols and international regulations are now converging towards a market that did not exist three years ago, opening up new opportunities. For us, this is not a future scenario — it is daily work we are already advancing with several banks and insurers.

💡 What we bring back to Switzerland from this journey

Our convictions after all these presentations, field visits and exchanges with the various experts on site are:

1. IUCN, with its Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions, is becoming a benchmark for the implementation and recognition of environmental projects in China. Its eight criteria and twenty-seven indicators — from net biodiversity gain to inclusive governance — are becoming the procedural language of finance for climate projects, of national planning and regulatory strategies for nature-based solutions, and of reporting for governments and companies under TNFD. In-Finitude SA already operates in this field, and it is in this direction that Pollenn® has been designed to deliver field measurements, their verification and their reporting — coupled with AI, as the Standard requires.
2. The Greater Bay Area is an open-air laboratory for the convergence of expectations over the coming decades in sustainable investment with the contribution of technology — at a scale no jurisdiction has yet attempted. An opportunity for Switzerland to bring its knowledge, experience and technologies into international collaborations.
3. Finally, Switzerland needs to swiftly implement IUCN certification of nature-based solutions, in order to remain credible and competitive internationally in the environmental field, and to develop new niches for innovation and growth.

We leave China more convinced than ever that this is the direction in which our work matters, and we are already in contact with various stakeholders for strong cooperation in project management and in the development of IoT and monitoring technologies.

🙏 Acknowledgements

A heartfelt thank you to the IUCN team — Stewart Maginnis, Susanne Pedersen, Pengbin Wang, Ian Gunderson, Edna Cabecinha, Natalia Burgos, Dindo Campilan, Charles Karangwa — for these ten days that will reshape our work for years to come.

To the representatives of the Chinese government — the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Department of Natural Resources of Guangdong Province, the Guangzhou Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau, the Guangzhou Municipal Forestry and Landscaping Bureau — thank you for opening this remarkable institutional architecture and for the generosity of your welcome.

To the team of the NbS Asian Hub (Luo Ming, Yan Gao), to the team of the NbS European Hub, to Hong Kong AFCD and to the Civil Engineering and Development Department of Hong Kong, thank you for co-organising a programme that truly connects continents.

To Kitty Tam, Calvin Au, Charlie Yip and the entire team of Civic Exchange, as well as to our colleagues at the Guangzhou Urban Planning & Design Survey Research Institute, your welcome and the depth of the partnership you offered us defined these ten days. We will remember it.

A heartfelt thank you to all participants for the exchange of experience and discussions around nature-based solutions, with a view to strengthening their implementation among all actors of our societies.

🚀 Let's create together

If you are working on the design, financing or deployment of nature-based solutions and would like to discuss how an AI-MRVC infrastructure or our expertise in project implementation or auditing can support you, we would be happy to talk.

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