Other Announcements

2022-12-01

Stories of Transformations to Sustainability

Climate change, environmental degradation and resource pressures have reached unprecedented levels worldwide. Achieving sustainability will depend on rapid and fundamental transformations in the ways we organize our societies and interact with the natural environment.

The Transformations to Sustainability programme funded 15 international research projects between 2016 and 2022 to study how social transformations to sustainability can be supported. The projects worked with communities in diverse places around the world to understand the complex relations between social structures, the material world and environmental and social change. The films present insights from the projects.

Organizers:  Transformations to Sustainability programme

Details at:  https://stories.council.science/transformations-sustainability/


2022-11-24

Children, Forests and Poetry - A Video

Embrapa presents the video "Children, Forests and Poetry", which highlights the importance of the integrated approach between science, culture, community and ecosystem. The video, produced under the Bom Manejo 2 Project, coordinated by Embrapa Eastern Amazon and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), shows the workshop held with children from the Green Forever Extractive Reserve, in Port of Moz, Pará State, to mark the Amazon Day (September 5th) and the World's One Health Day (November 3rd).


2022-04-21

VisitAnts Ukraine Funds

These exceptional scholarships are awarded to Ukrainian scholars to enable them to carry out scientific research on environmental change and biodiversity loss, and/or human socio-cultural responses to them at the University of Oulu. Funding covers living costs in, and travel to/from Oulu, and is currently available for stays of up to six months. Open to researchers holding a PhD or currently enrolled in a doctoral programme. Grantees will work in Oulu, conducting research on environmental change and biodiversity loss, and/or human socio-cultural responses to them. For an application, a CV and a 2000-word research plan are required.

Deadline for application:  None - applications will be considered in order of when they are received.

Details and link to application portal:  https://beta.oulu.fi/en/news/visitants-ukraine-funds
Details about the programme providing this funding:  https://www.oulu.fi/en/biodiverse-anthropocenes?msclkid=09cae3dcc13311ecbeed98e21c3e1826


2021-07-21

The Amazon We Want

The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and river system, vital to the planet’s climate stability and home to an irreplaceable wealth of biodiversity, much of which is still unknown. It provides critical ecosystem services to the eight sovereign countries and one overseas territory that encompass it, and also to the globe. Deforestation and forest degradation have risen in recent decades, especially driven by the expansion of cattle ranching, agriculture, mining, and infrastructure development. Many scientists warn the Amazon as a whole may be approaching a tipping point of irreversible collapse.

In response to these challenges, a group of over 200 preeminent scientists from the region have united to form the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA). The Panel is convened by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Recently, the Panel has issued a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind scientific assessment of the state of the Amazon, current trends, and recommendations for the long-term well-being of the ecosystem and its people. These initial findings as well as a draft version of their full report is now open for public consultation.

The SPA encourages stakeholders to provide meaningful input to aid the development of a better and more complete report.

Details:  https://www.theamazonwewant.org/public-consultation-on-the-draft-of-the-report-of-the-science-panel-for-the-amazon/


2021-01-11

United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature. It aims to halt the degradation of ecosystems, and restore them to achieve global goals. Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change, and stop the collapse of biodiversity. The UN Decade runs from 2021 through 2030, which is also the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals and the timeline scientists have identified as the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The UN Decade is building a strong, broad-based global movement to ramp up restoration and put the world on track for a sustainable future. That will include building political momentum for restoration as well as thousands of initiatives on the ground. Through communications, events and a dedicated web platform, the UN Decade will provide a hub for everyone interested in restoration to find projects, partners, funding and the knowledge they need to make their restoration efforts a success.

Find out how you can take part in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/


2020-12-15

Information on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to inform forest management in Europe (Bottoms Up)

In a large collaborative effort under the lead of Prof. Dr. Sabina Burrascano numerous researchers across Europe are teaming up to build a platform of forest biodiversity across multiple taxa with the goal to gather data to inform sustainable forest management.

Details: https://www.bottoms-up.eu/en/

So far, two milestones have been reached and the first two deliverables published:

  1. The plattform conatining the data is finalised: https://www.bottoms-up.eu/en/blog/a-european-forest-multi-taxon-biodiversity-platform-is-just-born.html
  2. An overview of experimental setups across Europe has been compiled: https://www.bottoms-up.eu/en/blog/towards-a-european-coordinated-network-of-forest-manipulation-experiments.html


The two deliverables can be found here:
https://www.bottoms-up.eu/en/results/working-group-1.html
https://www.bottoms-up.eu/en/results/working-group-3.html

The next steps are ongoing and the team effort will certainly produce some unique insights.