The 8th International Conference on Sustainability Science (ICSS 2022)
Biodiversity as a source of solutions to sustainability challenges in urban, peri-urban and rural areas
18 January - 20 January, 2022
About
The contribution of biodiversity to human societies has been recognized amidst the current massive biodiversity degradation and loss across the globe. However, the role biodiversity-based innovations and solutions has sometimes been overlooked in the sustainability debates. Innovative biodiversity-based practices may enable transformative societal change and address pressing sustainability challenges. Such innovations can provide the basis of various nature-based solutions, have significant insurance value, and reduce the substantial risks from climate and environmental change. Such solutions can play a major role in reconnecting urban, peri-urban and rural areas, and involve various stakeholders, business, investors, and civil society. Such solutions would be instrumental in achieving the SDGs and a world in harmony with nature.
The 8th International Conference on Sustainability Science (ICSS2022) will facilitate creative discussions between academics, policy-makers and practitioners on how biodiversity-based solutions can contribute to sustainable development. As such the outcomes of the conference are expected to feed into the current international discourse of the post-2020 agenda on biodiversity.
The ICSS conference is co-organized by the Institute of Future Initiatives and Tokyo College at the University of Tokyo, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Stockholm Resilience Centre at the Stockholm University, Future Earth, Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat, Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and International Union of Biological Sciences. The conference is the continuation of the 5th Forum for Biodiversity and the Eighth International Conference on Sustainability Science held in April 2021.
Agenda
All times mentioned below are in Tokyo, Japan (JST) time zone.
21:00 - 21:15
Opening
President
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) & Project Professor at the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI), the University of Tokyo
Senior Programme Management Officer
Head, Capacity Building and Knowledge Management, SCBD
21:15 – 23:00
SESSION 1
Biodiversity solutions for sustainable and resilient food systems
Biodiversity intersects strongly and in multiple ways with food systems. On the one hand biodiversity is central to food systems, by providing through multiple channels of interaction nutritious food to a growing global population. On the other hand the global food system is possibly the most important driver of biodiversity loss. Beyond the extensive conversion of natural habitats, pollution from intensive production practices and the overexploitation of many species, the extensive reliance of industrialized food systems on a small number crop and animal species and varieties has been eroding agro-diversity. This can have important ramifications for future food security, especially in the current context of rapid environmental, socioeconomic and demographic change. It has been becoming increasingly obvious that biodiversity can become the cornerstone of nutritious and sustainable diets. The aim of this session is to explore the interface of biodiversity and food systems, and especially how biodiversity can offer solutions to enhance the sustainability and resilience of food systems to environmental change.
Chair
Keynote speaker
Secretary, Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Presenters
21:00 - 23:00
SESSION 2
Biodiversity solutions driving sustainability transition – a lesson from SDG Labs
Description
Biodiversity-based innovations and solutions have been largely overlooked in the sustainability debates. Innovative biodiversity-based practices may enable transformative societal change and address pressing sustainability challenges. SDG labs are bottom-up initiatives consisted of various workshop, research activities and community interventions that aspire to bring a change that can grow and spread, inspire and provide knowledge for transformation on a greater scale. The biodiversity-based SDG Labs are groups that bring together participants from a range of research disciplines and sectors of society to develop solutions towards implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through biodiversity conservation. In this session, six SDG Lab projects demonstrated various biodiversity-utilizing approaches that can be used as a soliton for achieving sustainability. Solutions that SDG Labs proposed are anchored on biodiversity, evidence-based, have legitimacy within the stakeholder groups, identifying pathways to societal transformation, mapping actors, and evaluating synergies, trade-offs and risks.
Chair
Speakers
Ms. R. Ntsiva N. Andriatsitohaina
Research scientist
Madagascar Forests and Communities Caretakers Association and ESSA-Forêts
Commentators
Research Associate at the National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan & Science Officer at Future Earth Global Hub Japan
Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Research Institute for Humanity & Nature (RIHN) & Science Officer at Future Earth Global Hub Japan
21:00 - 22:45
SESSION 3
Biodiversity solutions for health
Concept note of the session
Planetary Health is an emerging concept to promote “a solution-oriented, transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruption to Earth’s natural systems on human health and all life on Earth” (Planetary Health Alliance: https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/planetary-health). We are now facing not only with climate change, but also with biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, shortage of arable land and freshwater, pollution, and scarcity of natural resources. Planetary Health recognizes that human health and the health of our planet are highly linked, and that our civilization depends on human health and natural systems as a source of natural resources. This session introduces background, opportunities and challenges associated with this emerging concept of Planetary Health, and explores potential solutions to use the planet’s resources wisely for human health and planet wellbeing including biodiversity under the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
Chair
Keynote speaker
Speakers
Research Fellow
Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and University of Sussex, Falmer, UK
Project Assistant Professor
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan
Principal Visiting Fellow & Past Deputy-Director, United Nations University-International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH)
22:45 – 23:00 Closing
Professor
Honorary President of Chinese Association of Ethonobotany, Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China