Criticism of the iij? Too many solutions, not enough new unsolved problems
Far too often, we only present problems when someone wants to talk about their solutions. So here’s a seriously problem-rich, solution-craving topic: The Economic Impact of Biodiversity
In a field where solutions at the product and service level rarely appear on our radar screens, innovation investment mavens probably need to get some insight into the big, international, policy-level issues. This panel video should whet your appetite.
Here are the details of the event as announced by the organisers. The event was part of The Biodiversity World Tour, which was a campaign created by CropLife International to explore the relationship between agriculture and biodiversity.
On October 20th, 2010 CropLife International, Europabio, and the European Crop Protection Association held a live town hall event at the Bozar in Brussels. Featuring a live and online audience asking questions in person and through social media the event looked at what technologies we will see in the future to feed a growing world while protecting biodiversity.
This video explores how we can actually put a value on biodiversity. We need to be able to do this in order to explain to people around the world why it is important to protect the diversity of life.
The details of panellists who spoke in the video appear below. There were two others who were on the panel but did not speak in the clip. They were the moderator, Lisbeth Kirk, Founder and Editor in Chief of euobserver and Shardul Agrawala, Senior Economist at OECD, Environmental Directorate, Head of Climate Change Division.
- Tim Benton, Professor of Population Ecology. He is Pro-Dean of Research in Biological Sciences, and Expert on Biodiversity and Population Management under Scenarios of Environmental Change, at University of Leeds.
- Harald Von Witzke, Professor and Chair for International Agriculture Trade and Development at Humboldt University. A member of the German Institute for Economic Research and Graduate Center for Economic and Social Research.
- Agnes W. Mwang’ombe, Principal of the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences at Univresity of Nairobi. She is a Presidential EBS Award Receipient for Academic Work, Former Chairperson of Kenya Professional Association of Women in Agriculture and Environment, Awarded Best Woman Researcher by African Crop Science Society.
Here is a Wikipedia take on Agricultural Biodiversity. This is just a short (but directly relevant) extract.
Agricultural biodiversity is not only the result of human activity but human life is dependent on it not just for the immediate provision of food and other natural resources based goods, but for the maintenance of areas of land and waters that will sustain production and maintain agroecosystems and the wider biological and environmental services (biosphere).
Agricultural Biodiversity provides the resources below. (These were edited by me for concision).
- Sustainable production of food and other agricultural products
- Biological or life support to production particularly soil biota, pollinators and predators
- Ecological and social services provided by agro-ecosystems such as landscape and wildlife protection, soil protection and health, water cycle and water quality, air quality, CO2 sequestration, etc.
The global solution of climate change and loss of biodiversity. The United world. The unirulled woorld. The most visionary solution for each and every thing. Knowledgable New Born. Any thing Else Treat with Patch.Well within mellenium mother’s death.Simplicity too evident. Complexicity undesighed. Climate and Biodiversity Follows Function Unite. Most effective solution apply Earth Unit Management. The United World. The Unirulled World.
A very interesting insight into what will soon become one of the most pressing issues facing planet earth. In order to be able to set land aside for biodivsity havens we need to produce enough food without resorting to taking more and more land into food production. Our ability to do this depends on many factors including the types of food being produced, water supplies, trade laws, food prices, GM crops use and climate change. These issues in themselves open up many problems that need to be considered and show how complex the situation facing us actually is.
When Tim Benton talks about landscapes having areas set aside for biodiversity and the need for a holistic overview to the problem, we should also consider the need for trying to consolidate the individual areas set aside to enlarge them. This will take advantage of the fact that fewer large areas are much better than many smaller areas in preseving biodiversity. Where this is not possible; reduction of the distance between them or the provision of connecting corridors can have a positive effect in terms of dispersal, population size and so viability and edge effects. Edge effects can also be reduced by using a circular shape to the area rather than an irregular shape showing how a low tech solution can further enhance the value of an area set aside for this purpose.
@Andrew – you raise some excellent points there on the need to enlarge areas that have been set aside for preserving biodiversity. I decided to have a look online to see if I could find any instances of this going on, together with instances of neighbouring farmers being encouraged to co-operate in order to enlarge areas.
I found several instances of neighbouring farmers being encouraged to co-operate, but mostly in order to share resources, rather than to extend areas set aside for biodiversity!
Something I did come across that’s quite cool is the LifeWeb whose aim is to “provide a forum for focused and coordinated discussions on international cooperation for protected area systems and the wealth of benefits they provide.”
http://www.cbd.int/lifeweb/
They seem to be in the business of matching environmental projects with appropriate funding – a sort of crowdfunding option for the environment maybe.