Webinar 1 – Planetary Boundaries | Thursday 8 October 2020 at 5-6:30 PM (CEST)
Register here: https://ruc-dk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zHhdR0urTwaC0KBceMfB0A
Climate Change and Biodiversity Collapse
German Ignacio Andrade, Professor at School of Management, University of the Andes, Senior Researcher, Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The earth’s ecosystem is heavily impacted by climate change and loss of biodiversity, to a degree that Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in its 2019 report concludes that “we are entering an era of mass extinction”. In the Latin American region sustainable development – within ecological limits – is challenged by current mechanisms of economic growth and unsustainable practices.
As an expert member of IPBES, Andrade will discuss the underlying causes of loss of biodiversity including unsustainable economic growth and issues of institutions of governance and justice. This presentation will focus on SDG13, SDG15 as well as SDG14 &16 with a point of departure in environmental protection, international conventional frameworks and planetary boundaries. The considerations on limitations and opportunities for SDG achievement in Latin America take account of land use change, unsustainable agricultural practices and urban expansion, as well as social ecology as a new concept of sustainability.
Using Agroecology Values and Principles as a Better Future Investment
Henrik Haugaard-Nielsen, Professor, Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University
Global food demands increase while climate change and ecosystem degradations challenge our current natural resource management traditions. Future farming practices play an important role for preserving natural resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, eutrophication and biodiversity losses. This is closely linked to consumer and citizen behavior, its impact on the environment and climate change.
Agro-ecology values and principles are put forward as a promising alternative to the current agriculture practices facing a large number of sustainability-related challenges making greater use of biological regulations and natural processes than of synthetic and technology-based inputs. Agroecology is characterized with a participatory approach requiring the involvement of all stakeholders from the farm to the table and everyone in between defending smallholders and family farming, farmers and rural communities, food sovereignty, local and short marketing chains, diversity of indigenous seeds and breeds, healthy and quality food.
Recommended reading and viewing
Linking ecologists and traditional farmers in the search for sustainable agriculture, Miguel A. Altieri 2004
TOO BIG TO FEED – Exploring the impacts of mega-mergers, consolidation and concentration of power in the agri-food sector, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food, 2017
http://www.ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/Concentration_FullReport.pdf