Nature conservation and high food production

Time and venue: 10 – 12, at the Department of Urban and Rural Development, Ulls väg 28, in the room Ateljen, ground floor in the northern building. 

In a time when essentially all vegetated land is impacted by human decisions and dominated by an utilitarian focus on short-term human benefits and individual profits, the future for many fundamental life-support functions in our biosphere is under threat. Problems include losses of genetic information,  biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and climate and hydrological regulation by forests and diverse natural landscapes. These challenges also threaten our global food systems, and operate across different time and space scales. Complex issues from local to global scale defy all understanding unless they are observed and analysed across a spatial spectrum ranging from field to farm and landscape, and from human communities to society at large.

This requires thoughtful analysis and evaluation by combinations of people in different disciplines who can combine their expertise in designing research activities on the question on how ecological life-support function ('ecosystem services') shall be secured. How can 'production' (from forestry and agriculture) be integrated in production of ecosystem services?  What 'incentive structures' (from 'payment of ecosystem services' to informal and formal institutional regulation) could be useful?  Trade-offs in implantation of new multifunctional production systems where part of the production is dedicated for collective benefits? Socio-economic power relations on land use in such process? …?

The seminar started with short introductory presentations, followed by a discussion with seminar participants.

Introductory presentations given by:

Professor Lennart Salomonsson, SLU Global. (Presentation in PDF format here)

Professor Barny Dunning, Purdue University, USA. (Presentation in PDF format here) (Audio file with Lennart's introduction and Prof Dunning's presentation here)

PhD student Kristina Belfrage, Department of Urban and Rural Development (Presentation in PDF format here) (Audio file with Kristina's presentation here)

Dr. Kristina Marquardt, Department of Urban and Rural Development. (Presentation in PDF format here) (Audio file with Kristina Marquardt's presentation here)