Landscapes Research Forum – 10 October 2013

September 24, 2013

Conservation scientist Jeffrey McNeely, A.D. White Professor at Large, and Dr. Christine Negra, Director of Research at EcoAgriculture Partners, will kick off an Integrated Landscape Research Forum on Thursday, October 10th from 11:30am – 2pm, in 300 Rice Hall. The Forum will bring the guest speakers together with faculty interested in socio-ecological landscape approaches to understanding complex problems and opportunities at the interface of ecosystem conservation, sustainable agricultural production, livelihood security, and multi-stakeholder governance, and in designing or scaling up strategies to address them.

Participants in the Forum will explore ways to capture expanding interest within the international development community, and in domestic programs, in framing goals related to food security and ecosystem service protection. Such goals include adaptation and mitigation of climate change through climate smart agriculture, resilience to land degradation through soil and water management, differentiated product marketing through branding and labeling, conservation of biodiversity through habitat production and stewardship, building equity and social justice through multi-stakeholder governance, knowledge networking and information sharing to expand capacities for change, and many others.

Part I of the Forum will lay groundwork for initiating new research partnerships to improve knowledge and learning about landscape approaches. Part II will occur early in 2014 when partners who offer gateways to funding will meet faculty on campus to design research initiatives that advance understanding about landscape approaches and improve the management of integrated landscapes.

The first of the two- part Forum will be hosted by the Atkinson Center for Sustainable Futures (ACSF) in an atypical Topical Lunch format as follows:

  • 11:30-11:45: Welcome and Introduction to the Forum
  • 11:45-12:15: Presentation by Jeffrey McNeely, recently retired Chief Conservation Scientist for the IUCN (World Conservation Center) on the growing importance of landscape approaches
  • 12:15-12:45: Presentation by Christine Negra, Co-Leader of the Research Working Group of the global Landscapes for People, Food and Nature (LPFN) initiative, on research under way and implications for collaboration with faculty at Cornell
  • 12:45-1:00: Questions, general discussion
  • 1:00-1:10: Procure lunch, locate to topical discussion groups
  • 1:10-2:00: Group discussions on topics that appear ripe for expanded research on integrated landscape approaches

See the poster for the event here