Thursday, September 17th from 13:00—14:00 (GMT+2)
This webinar will take place online.
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://maties.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_P1ihwey1Rj2HL6ftWUVi9A
Join us for a Webinar in our CST series of Webinars
Imagining transformative biodiversity futures
This series brings together scientists, practitioners and societal actors who use the frameworks of complexity and resilience thinking in their daily work to make sense of the complex dynamics of change and transformative processes. There will be a special focus on how these ideas and practices are used in current times and how local and regional processes and perspectives are being shaped by applying the theoretical concepts and tools for fostering more resilient organisations, communities and decision-making strategies.
In this webinar Laura, Federico and Michelle will lead a short talk followed by a discussion around their recent paper resulting from the Biodiversity Revisited Initiative (it can be downloaded here. )
Biodiversity research is replete with scientific studies depicting future trajectories of decline that have failed to mobilize transformative change. Imagination and creativity can foster new ways to address longstanding problems to create better futures for people and the planet. This seminar will provide an overview of the process and results from the Biodiversity Revisited Initiative, focussing specifically on the output of a Commentary in Nature Sustainability on imagining transformative biodiversity futures. The speakers will present an overview of the role that futures thinking and imagination played in enabling the Biodiversity Revisited team to propose a new research and action agenda for biodiversity conservation. They will then each describe a possible future world before opening up for discussion with the broader group.
Discussants: Dr Laura Pereira, Dr Federico Davila, Dr Michelle Lim
Dr Laura Pereira is a sustainability scientist based at the Centre for Food Policy at City University, with affiliations to the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. She also continues her previous affiliation at the CST with an extraordinary appointment as a senior researcher. Laura is interested in sustainability transformations in the Global South, focussing specifically on food systems, but increasingly working more on biodiversity conservation. She is passionate about participatory research, in particular the use of futures thinking tools for enabling transformative change.
Dr Federico Davila is an interdisciplinary social scientist at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). His area of research includes the social and political dimensions of food systems in Australia and the Indo-Pacific, and the role of social science in environmental sustainability. He holds a PhD on human ecology and smallholder agricultural systems development, looking at food security and food sovereignty linkages. He has worked in Australia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Europe across a range of food systems and biodiversity conservation projects.
Dr Michelle Lim is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie Law School, Sydney. Her interdisciplinary scholarship occurs at the intersection between biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods. Dr Lim’s work focuses on futures-oriented biodiversity law research aimed at advancing equity and sustainability under conditions of unprecedented environmental change.