Najam Chairs ‘Biodiversity Revisited’ Meeting at ETH-Zurich
Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, chaired a February 1, 2019 steering committee meeting at ETH-Zurich of a major project by the Luc Hoffman Institute entitled “Biodiversity Revisited: Sparking A New Approach To Research For The Biosphere.”
The project convenes interdisciplinary experts in an intensive collaborative research process to critically evaluate what has come before – and to think creatively about the future of the science and policy that underpin biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity Revisited will create a new research agenda for society to effectively sustain the biosphere.
The goal of Biodiversity Revisited is to critically examine the biodiversity narrative and consider what it would take to move closer to a new, innovative agenda around sustaining the biosphere. The committee will explore what such a framing would look like and what its new science would encompass.
Spent an intense but most rewardingly productive day @ETH #Zurich🇨🇭 chairing steering cmtte meeting of #BiodiversityRevisited, a new initiative of @LucHoffmannInst & partners. A day spent with really smart people, really passionate about developing a new agenda for #biodiversity. pic.twitter.com/o8mOsS7iy0
— Adil Najam عادل نجم (@AdilNajam) February 1, 2019
The project aims include bringing new awareness and thinking about biodiversity from concept through measurement to implementation; establishing fresh ideas and a five-year research agenda in the context of the 2020 processes for biodiversity, climate and land; and producing more effective and targeted research for the equitable and effective management of the biosphere as the foundation for human development, security and life on Earth.
The Luc Hoffmann Institute provides the role of the secretariat for this project, working with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Nature Sustainability, Future Earth, ETH Zurich Department of Environmental Systems Science, the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute (UCCR) and the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research at University College London (CBER).
The major part of the work is funded by the NOMIS Foundation with contributions from the MAVA Foundation, WWF-International, ETH Zurich and others.
The Luc Hoffman Institute was created by WWF and the MAVA Foundation in 2011 to create stronger links between biodiversity science and conservation action. At this event the Institute unveiled its new research strategy to launch the second phase of its activities. The focus will shift from a project base to developing solutions through convening, providing thought leadership for new conservation approaches, incubating emerging ideas, providing insights into new challenges and conducting rapid-response dialogues.
Adil Najam is the inaugural dean of the Pardee School and was a former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore Pakistan. Learn more about him here.