How can higher education contribute to a better future for nature?
On December 5th, CeSAM and the UNESCO chair group organized a workshop for students and early career researchers - tying in with IPBES (Naturpanelet) holding a meeting in Bergen in the same week.
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We hosted a workshop to envision possible positive futures for nature – and discuss how we might reimagine study programs and educational activities at universities to support developments towards those visions. During the workshop, we were joined by international experts (co-)chairing various IPBES reports.
The workshop started with introduction of our experts; IPBES experts Prof. Paula Harrison (Nexus Assessment), Prof. Karen O’Brien (Transformative Change Assessment) and Prof. Helen Roy (Invasive Alien Species Assessment), and Dorothy Dankel (Sintef). We then held a dynamic acitvity to envision possible positive futures for nature, using the IPBES 'Nature Future's Framework' as a guideline.
After lunch where the participants had the oppurtunity to get to know our experts better, we continued our conversations in small groups and discussed how higher education can play a role in bringing us closer to a desired future for nature and people. What could change? What are current barriers to those opportunities, and how to overcome them?
Finally, we presented our main findings and discussion point to each other.
The outcomes of this workshop will be summarized in a report. We also aspire to hold similar workshops at future events, and have applied for a session at the upcoming Day Zero event at UiB.
IPBES has over the last decade been instrumental in developing science policy and science diplomacy around nature conservation and management.
The landmark IPBES global assessment from 2019 presented the most comprehensive evidence showing Nature's dangerous decline and the need for transformative change to restore and protect nature.
IPBES continues its mission to strengthen policy and decisions, specifically through assessing the state of knowledge on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people and capacity-building.
