Facing the future – Biodiversity, ecology and economy: three pillars in future agriculture and forestry practice?

Introduction

The Overall aims are:
To continue the discussion from the Symposium of the King’s Environmental Professors at the Royal Castle the 22 March, and deepen the discussion on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and economy. Biodiversity is decreasing all over the world and in all ecosystems. What will this mean for sustainable production in agriculture and forestry? How can the green industries adapt and integrate existing knowledge in order to provide for a sustainable usage of ecosystem and biodiversity values? Can economically sound green businesses survive and prosper with more focus on biodiversity? What new knowledge is needed?

To present and discuss results and issues from The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) report, produced by the UNEP and first presented at global level during the Convention of Parties Meeting for Convention of Biodiversity in Nagoya, Japan 2011. TEEB draws attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, and drawing together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions. The TEEB exercise has also been subject to social science debate about environmental ethics, values and politics. The time and space scales also need to be further discussed.

To discuss the science-policy interface in applying the concepts of biodiversity and ecological restoration into land use practice in agriculture and forestry. As there is no linear relationship between knowledge and action, we will explore the crucial role for knowledge, ideas and argument, alongside power and interests, in the making of policy. How could beliefs, values and behaviour of individuals and organisations change over time and what is the role of knowledge in such processes?

Programme

Moderator
Peter Sylwan, Professor, Science journalist