Today, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, a research centre at Stockholm University, will enter into a cooperation agreement with UNESCO, United Nations´ body for education, science and culture. The cooperation between the parties will primarily build on the framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, United Nations big health check of earth´s ecosystem services.- The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment provided a road map. Now we can take the next step together with UNESCO by analysing all aspects at the same time of the dynamics between ecosystems, climate change and the UN development goals. Thereby we hope to avoid traps often fallen into when analysing these aspects separately, says Professor Thomas Elmqvist, Chair of the Man and Biosphere Programme at UNESCO.
UNESCO and Stockholm Resilience Centre are together aiming at five specific areas;
1. Building capacities in developing countries for sustainability science
2. Achieving understanding of links between society and environmental goals
3. Promoting education for sustainable development across the world
4. Contributing to stronger linkages between science and policy at all levels
5. Contributing to building knowledge societies for sustainability
The collaboration will be carried out on location inSweden ,Canada ,France , several African countries and in the Mekongregion etc..
The Stockholm Resilience Centre is a new international research body for the governance of social-ecological systems with special emphasis on resilience - the ability to deal with change and continue to develop.
Resilience provides a useful perspective for addressing how to sustain and develop society when shocks or disturbances occur, be they from natural disasters, health crisis or social economic upheavals.
The aim of the centre is to advance understanding of complex social-ecological systems and advice policy makers from all over the world of new and elaborated insights and means for the development of management and governance practices in the field.
- Global environmental change poses serious challenges. Economic and social progress rests on a healthy environment, from local ecosystems to the biosphere as a whole. It is not only a question of saving the environment. It is also about securing human development, says Professor Carl Folke, Science Director, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University and Director of the Beijer Institute.
A Memorandum of Understanding is signed today by Dr Marcio N. Barbosa, Deputy Director-General, UNESCO in the presence of Mr Lars Leijonborg, Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research at a ceremony at UNESCO´s 34th session of the General Conference. In connection with ceremony a panel discussion titled Biosphere Resilience will take place, chaired by Dr Walter Erdelen, Assistant Director General for Sciences (UNESCO) and facilitated by Professor Thomas Elmqvist.
The Biosphere Resilience Panel Discussion gathers a handful of the world´s most prominent scientists in this field, namely;
Professeur Robert Barbault, Muséum National d´Histore Naturelle (France)
Professor Carl Folke, Science Director, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University and Director of the Beijer Institute (Sweden)
Dr Anne Larigauderie, Director (DIVERSITAS)
Professor Thomas Rosswall, Executive Director, International Council for Science (ICSU)
The Biosphere Resilience Panel Discussion takes place at 13h00 -15h00 in Salle de Cinéma, FontenoyBuilding, 7 Place Fontenoy.
For further information and press images please contact:
Thomas Elmqvist, tel: +46 70 526 48 06
Ellika Hermansson Török, Press Contact tel: +46 73 707 85 47
The Stockholm Resilience Centre is a joint initiative between Stockholm University, the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The centre is initiated and funded by the Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, Mistra.
