Major New Conservation Report to Debut at Resources for the Future Seminar
Traditional conservation tools, such as protected areas and ecosystem services, are not keeping pace with growing demand for food, energy, and minerals, especially in poor countries. A major forthcoming Breakthrough report, Nature Unbound: Decoupling for Conservation, lays out a pathbreaking vision for how humans can save more nature in the 21st century. The report argues that significantly increasing the amount of land available for wild nature requires building on positive trends of decoupling economic growth from environmental destruction. This will involve several processes, but two are key – substitution and intensification. Lead author Linus Blomqvist will present the report's findings at a seminar hosted by Resource for the Future in Washington, DC, on
Wednesday, September 9. Local residents are welcome to attend, but there will also be a live webcast of the seminar which you can access here. http://www.rff.org/events/event/2015-09/reforming-today-s-conservation-and-environmental-policies-tomorrow-s-scarcity
Reforming Today’s Conservation and Environmental Policies for Tomorrow’s Scarcity (and Abundance)
About the Event
A light lunch will be provided starting at 12:30 p.m.Environmental policies typically reflect an assumption that today’s scarcities will be tomorrow’s scarcities. Yet in the past, many social and technological innovations have radically altered the nature of scarcity, often reducing environmental impacts in the process. Several current trends (in agriculture, materials use, energy, and water) suggest that, with the right policies and investments, the human footprint could peak and decline in coming decades.
At this RFF First Wednesday Seminar, panelists will discuss the following questions:
- What has been learned from past instances of nature-sparing technological change?
- In which ways can technology complement other efforts to halt biodiversity loss, including protected areas and payments for ecosystem services?
- In looking further toward the future, can we assume the continued capacity to save nature by innovation?
- How can economists, conservationists, policymakers, and others contribute to accelerating positive trends while dealing with inevitable trade-offs?
This seminar is part of RFF’s continuing discussion series on the “limits to ingenuity,” which explores the future of environmental conditions in light of human creativity and technological change. See related content at right or below.
Speakers
- James W. Boyd, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for the Management of Ecological Wealth
- Linus Blomqvist, Director of Conservation, The Breakthrough Institute
- Jesse H. Ausubel, Director of the Program for the Human Environment, The Rockefeller University
- Thomas Lovejoy, Senior Fellow, United Nations Foundation; and University Professor, George Mason University
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