Panama City, December 2025 — While negotiators from 190 governments gathered for UNCCD meetings, something fundamentally different unfolded nearby — not a side event, but a blueprint for how global climate partnerships might work in the future. The third edition of the Nature Summit Series, co-hosted by the Government of Panama and Global Resilience Partners (GRP), convened family offices, technologists, policy architects, Indigenous leaders, youth negotiators, scientists, and philanthropists for an outcome-driven forum designed not simply to discuss solutions, but to scale them.
This was not a conference in the traditional sense. It was an invitation-only alliance-building mechanism, structured around trust, curation, and action. Rather than thousands of delegates and dozens of panels, the Nature Summit selected a small, strategically balanced community whose capital, influence, and technical expertise could materially move solutions forward. The agenda reflected this purpose, featuring leaders including Andrea Meza, Deputy Executive Secretary of UNCCD; Batmunkh Dondovdorj, Chairman of Mongolia’s COP17 National Committee; Jaime Nino, Senior Vice President of AECOM for Latin America; Ambassador Greg Houston, the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Panama; Dr. Alexandra Tully, Director of Strategic Projects at InventWood; Sandra Vásquez, Executive Director of Pro Eco Azuero; Erai and Kyleigha Beckmann, co-founding partners of the Peace Through Trade blockchain initiative; Dr. Javier Manzanares Allen, former Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund and now CEO of Allen Manza Inc.; Marie-Claire Graf and Veena Balakrishnan, co-founders of the Youth Negotiators Academy; and Trammell S. Crow, one of the world’s leading environmental philanthropists and the founder of EarthX. The forum was closed by Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, Special Representative for Climate Change for the Government of Panama, who underscored that global climate implementation is only as strong as the relationships it is built on.
A defining institutional partner also shaped this edition: Pro Eco Azuero, winner of the prestigious 2025 UNESCO–Japan Prize for Education for Sustainable Development, served as the official non-profit partner of the Nature Summit. Its role symbolized a through-line that ran across every session — that environmental resilience is not only engineered by capital, but taught, nurtured, and stewarded through community and education.
Among the organizations showcased, One Amazon, founded by Brazilian entrepreneur Rodrigo Veloso, served as the anchor sponsor — reflecting a strategic alignment between nature conservation, economic scale, and frontline financing. One Amazon previously signed a Letter of Intent with the Government of Panama during the Nature Summit held alongside CBD negotiations in October, and here again the platform’s model drew attention as a potentially transformative financing pathway for rainforest protection. Its premise is direct and ambitious: protect the Amazon, generate recurring economic value from standing forests, and reinvest resources back into countries and communities on the frontlines of climate vulnerability. In a space crowded with proposals, One Amazon stood out as one of the clearest examples of scalable climate-finance architecture in motion.
The Summit experience extended far beyond the stage. It opened with an intimate diplomatic reception hosted by the British Ambassador at his private residence — a gesture that signaled from the first moment that invitees were not attendees, but partners. That evening, the community deepened during a curated dinner at Villa Ana, where guests were intentionally seated in groups of four or six to foster vulnerability, intellectual exchange, and deepen social bonds underlying professional overlap. Among those present were UNCCD Executive Secretary Dr. Yasmine Fouad and several Heads of Delegation, who joined family offices, philanthropists, and innovators in a rare and candid bridge-building setting — the kind of cross-sector intimacy that seldom occurs inside formal negotiation halls but may ultimately drive more impact than any written outcome document. Delegates described it as the moment when titles disappeared and collaboration became inevitable.
But it was the final chapter that left its mark. Twenty hand-selected leaders traveled deep into the rainforest at Geoversity, where waterfalls, humidity and living canopy replaced microphones and screens. There, stripped of institutional formality, conversations became commitments. Executives, negotiators, and philanthropists forged alignment not in meeting rooms — but while walking jungle trails, swimming beneath rivers, and sharing reflection circles under a dense green ceiling. The Nature Summit did not end; it bonded.
It is this experiential design — relational, immersive, and strategically selective — that now distinguishes the Nature Summit within the climate ecosystem. Traditional climate conferences gather thousands; this gathering curated dozens. Most conferences produce reports; this one produced relationships capable of financing, legislating, and deploying real solutions.
And now, the movement expands.
During closing discussions — in partnership with Trammell S. Crow — organizers announced that the 2026 Nature Summit will be hosted at Earthx2026 during Earth Week (April 20-22) in Dallas, Texas, marking the first time the series moves beyond Panama. The upcoming edition will be built around a singular mission: connect impact-driven family offices with proven scalable solutions, catalyzing investment at a scale that can materially shift climate outcomes. Beginning immediately, EarthX, Global Resilience Partners, and the Government of Panama have launched a global mobilization effort to convene leading family offices and connect them with proven solutions with the capacity to scale rapidly around the world.
The Nature Summit Trilogy across the Rio Conventions — Climate, Biodiversity, and Desertification — has served as proof of model. What happens next will test its power.
From Panama City’s negotiating halls to the rainforest’s cathedral canopy, leaders left with a shared clarity: global transformation is not born from scale — but from alignment, trust, and the right people in the right room.
In 2026, that room will be deep in the heart of Texas.
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