Monday, July 9, 2012

Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development

Tidball recently led a team of 4 researchers from Cornell, funded by the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, all of whom participated in a number of activities in Brazil related to the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Team members included Kathy Bunting-Howarth, Josh Cerra, Marianne Krasny, and Tidball.

They all participated in:


Urban Nature 2-day conference in Belo Horizonte
ICLEI World Congress  http://worldcongress2012.iclei.org/  (a parallel event)—Belo Horizonte
Rio+20—various meetings and presentations as below.
In addition, Keith Tidball is part of the core team from ICLEI, Cornell, Stockholm Resilience Centre, and City of Jerusalem that prepared the Urban Biosphere (URBIS) designation system, which was signed on to by about 50 cities at the ICLEI side events and endorsed by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Finally, Keith organized the entire Cornell delegation’s participation.

Below is a list of specific Cornell contributions.

KEITH TIDBALL—Two presentations and core team member, URBIS

Tidball, KG. History of the Urban Biosphere initiative. ICLEI Urban Nature Forum. Belo Horizonte, Brazil. 14 June 2012.

Tidball, KG. Greening in the Red Zone. Cities and Biodiversity Outlook Workshop. Rio+20 meetings. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 18 June 2012.

KATHY BUNTING-HOWARTH—participant in three RIO+20 events and panelist in third event

Panelist: U.S. Side Event at Rio +20

Putting Words to Action: Implementing the Rio +20 Fisheries Recommendations

Participant: Global Oceans Day at Rio +20 (sponsored by the Global Oceans Forum and IOC-UNESCO) (a parallel event)  –below from attached draft agenda

Participant: Advancing Sustainability through Communication and Collaboration, (an official UN side event hosted by the University of Colorado)

Participant. Oceans at Rio+20: Toward Implementation of the Rio Ocean Commitments  (an official UN side event hosted by International Coastal and Ocean Organization, Secretariat of the Global Oceans Forum)

JOSH CERRA—one presentation

Cerra, J. Urban biodiversity: The contribution of science. ICLEI World Congress. Belo Horizonte, Brazil. 15 June 2012.

MARIANNE KRASNY—three presentations

Krasny, ME. Environmental Education and Social-ecological Systems Theory. ICLEI Urban Nature Forum. Belo Horizonte, Brazil. 14 June 2012.

Krasny, ME. Resilience, Learning, and Environmental Education. ICLEI World Congress. Belo Horizonte, Brazil. 16 June 2012.

Krasny, ME. Urban landscapes as learning arenas for sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Cities and Biodiversity Outlook Workshop. Rio+20 meetings. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 18 June 2012



Those activities included (1) the official launch of the URBIS Initiative at the ICLEI World Congress in Belo Horizonte, (2) the pre-launch of the Cities Biodiversity Outlook at the Global Town Hall in Rio De Janeiro, and (3) interviews of key players in the biodiversity and urban nature arenas such as Oliver Hillel, Kobe Brand, Dr. Braulio Dias, and professor Thomas Elmqvist.


Bringing biodiversity back into cities 


Urban nature, local governance 

Pre-launch Cities and Biodiversity Outlook 

Urbanisation, biodiversity and ecosystems