Economic growth doesn’t have to come at a cost to the environment, and the ways in which this is possible will be on display at a global conference being held in Australia for the first time.
This year the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) is holding its 11th global conference in Darwin and will be the first time the major event has been held in Australia since its inception in 2008.
The conference will focus on nature-based solutions (NbS), or actions and methods that use and protect ecosystems while addressing global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, human well-being, food and water insecurity and more.
The conference will have a special focus on the insights of local and Indigenous people and what their value systems can offer.
Charles Darwin University (CDU) Associate Professor in Ecological Economics Kamaljit Sangha, who is the chair of the Conference Organizing Committee and a keynote speaker, said nature-based solutions presented an effective and productive solution to human well-being and sustainability.
“Nature-based solutions offer a win-win situation in addressing local, regional, and global environmental issues while also affording transformative economies that can improve people’s well-being,” Associate Professor Sangha said.
“However, to optimize social and ecological gains, NbS need to be carefully developed and implemented in collaboration with local communities.
“We need to implement NbS now. We have no time. We have messed up the entire planetary systems and our survival, including the economy, is totally dependent on the functioning of Earth’s systems. We have no Planet B.
“If we as human society want to survive, we urgently need to do something about it. NbS is one way of doing so, among several other options.”
Associate Professor Sangha will discuss the economics of Indigenous efforts in land management and developing culturally appropriate NbS.
Other keynote speakers include renowned savanna fire ecologist Professor Jeremy Russell-Smith, who is the Research Director of the Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research at CDU.
Professor Russell-Smith will discuss initiatives aimed at supporting and incentivising community-based fire management through market-based approaches.
From the UN-led IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), Co-Chairs Professor Paula Harisson (the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology) and Pamela McElwee (Rutger University in the United States) will discuss how separately tackling global crises are ineffective and sometimes counterproductive, offering insights on how there can be more nexus approach for just outcomes for people and nature.
Experts from around the world including India, Africa, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Indonesia and Czech Republic will attend the event, which was last held in Hanover, Germany in 2019.
“Darwin offers both unique natural systems and people from diverse cultural backgrounds, especially the Indigenous people in the north who have strong, ongoing, imbued connections with their lands over millennia,” Associate Professor Sangha said,
“The global audience will have the opportunity to experience a unique place with a strong culture, people, and nature - all in one place.”
The 11th ESP World Conference, From global to local ecosystem services: pathways to Nature-based Solutions inspired from Down Under, is on June 23 to 27 at the Darwin Convention Centre.
Contact details:
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