How can higher education contribute to a better future for nature?
On December 5th, CeSAM and the UNESCO chair group organized a workshop for students and early career researchers - tying in with IPBES (Naturpanelet) holding a meeting in Bergen in the same week.
By: Dagmar Dorothea Egelkraut
Published: (Updated: )
We hosted a workshop to envision possible positive futures for nature – and discuss how we might reimagine study programs and educational activities at universities to support developments towards those visions. During the workshop, we were joined by international experts (co-)chairing various IPBES reports.
The workshop started with introduction of our experts; IPBES experts Prof. Paula Harrison (Nexus Assessment (external link)), Prof. Karen O’Brien (Transformative Change Assessment (external link)) and Prof. Helen Roy (Invasive Alien Species Assessment (external link)), and Dorothy Dankel (Sintef). We then held a dynamic acitvity to envision possible positive futures for nature, using the IPBES 'Nature Future's Framework (external link)' as a guideline.
After lunch where the participants had the oppurtunity to get to know our experts better, we continued our conversations in small groups and discussed how higher education can play a role in bringing us closer to a desired future for nature and people. What could change? What are current barriers to those opportunities, and how to overcome them?
Finally, we presented our main findings and discussion point to each other.
The outcomes of this workshop will be summarized in a report. We also aspire to hold similar workshops at future events, and have applied for a session at the upcoming Day Zero event at UiB.
