A Panel Discussion

Tuesday, February 27, 2023
5:00-6:00 PM, Reception with lights refreshments to follow
Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory (AERL) Theatre, 2202 Main Mall

Please RSVP: https://forms.gle/WoR2o1X6wTsXWRap9

The ocean’s capacity to sustain life and support human wellbeing is increasingly threatened by intensifying climate change that exacerbates other non-climatic human stressors such as overfishing, pollution, and invasive species. The world is facing the major challenge of finding just, equitable and culturally-sensitive ways to feed and nourish the future human population while achieving biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation goals. This is the focus of the Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus Partnership (Solving-FCB).

Join us to hear from an international interdisciplinary panel that will discuss the development of marine and aquatic food-climate-biodiversity solutions that explicitly consider their complex social and ecological contexts. The panel will highlight case studies in Canada, China, Costa Rica, Nigeria/Ghana and the Netherlands to elucidate different potential pathways towards achieving food security, climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation goals.

 

Panelists
Dr. Denis W. Aheto is a Professor of Coastal ecology and Director of the Centre for Coastal Management – The Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR) at the University of Cape Coast. He has been working in the field of coastal zone management in Ghana for over a decade.

Dr. Ling Cao is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Oceanography at Shanghai Jiao Tung University. Trained as an agronomist and environmental scientist, she has focused on interdisciplinary research at the interface between the sustainability of food and natural systems.

Dr. Laurie Chan holds the Canada Research Chair in Toxicology and Environmental Health. He studies the exposure of chemical contaminants found in the diet and the environment, particularly among Indigenous Peoples. Dr. Chan assesses the effects of these contaminants on ecosystem health and human health and develops new tools for risk assessment.

Dr. Solen Le Clec’h is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Systems Analysis Group at Wageningen University. Her research is highly interdisciplinary and mainly focuses on the spatial and temporal dynamics of the socioecological systems.

Dr. Ingo Wehrtmann is the founder and director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Unit at University of Costa Rica and is a leading researcher in Latin American aquatic and fisheries ecology and coastal management.

Dr. Laura Pereira is an Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and a leader in developing new approaches to sustainability-focused scenario building and analysis.

Dr. Temitope Sogbanmu is a Professor at the University of Lagos and is an Environmental Toxicologist with several years of experience in environmental risk assessment and pollution management.

Dr. Garry Peterson is a Professor at Stockholm University and a pioneer and world-leading expert in social-ecological modelling and scenario analysis of environmental issues.

Moderators

Dr. William Cheung is a Professor and Director of the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, the University of British Columbia. He is also a Canada Research Chair in Ocean Sustainability and Global Change. He is an international leader in developing and using scenarios and models of biodiversity and ecosystem services to understand the responses and vulnerabilities of marine human-natural systems to global change.

Dr. Rashid Sumaila is a Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Interdisciplinary Ocean and Fisheries Economics at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia. His research focuses on bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, marine protected areas, illegal fishing, climate change, marine plastic pollution, and oil spills.

RSVP: https://forms.gle/WoR2o1X6wTsXWRap9

Join us this Friday, February 10, 2023, as Vikram Raju, CFA, Head of Climate Investment at Morgan Stanley delves into the importance of measuring and reporting the environmental impact of business and investments. He will share insights on how to use data and metrics to drive sustainability and positive impact.

Environmental Metrics and Impact Investing

Date: Friday, February 10,^, 2023

Time: 3:00-4:30 pm

Location: MCML 160

Vikram is an Investment Committee member and Head of Impact Investing, Morgan Stanley AIP Private Market responsible for emerging markets and impact investing for AIP Private Markets. He has 23 years of relevant industry experience. Vikram leads emerging markets and impacts investing at AIP Private Markets. Prior to joining the firm, he was a principal investment officer at the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group, where he led the investment program for climate-related private equity funds across emerging markets. Previously, was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company and worked with a range of clients including US private equity firms and Indian NGOs. Vikram has also been a portfolio manager with the emerging markets team at Lazard Frères & Co. Vikram received a B.A. in economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and an M.S. in finance from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, Mumbai. He also received a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

For information about the upcoming MFRE Speakers, Please visit here

 

Regards,

Olivier

Olivier Ntwali, BSc Ag. Econ, MFRE
Academic Program Manager
Master of Food and Resource Economics| Land and Food System
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory
Macmillan Building – 348A- 2357 Main Mall | Vancouver BC | V6T 1Z4 Canada
Phone: 6047718961| olivier.ntwali@ubc.ca| http://mfre.landfood.ubc.ca/

 

I am pleased to announce that we are now accepting departmental, institute and school nominations for the TIM AND ANN O’RIORDAN FELLOWSHIP IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. 

This fellowship, endowed in memory of his wife by Tim O’Riordan, OBE, DL, FBA, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, will be awarded to an incoming doctoral student working on sustainable development in a broad interdisciplinary perspective, ideally with some reference to British Columbia.

The fellowship currently has a value of $24,000 p.a. and may be held for a maximum of four consecutive years, subject to satisfactory academic progress (as notified by the holder’s program to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies). The award is made by G+PS on a recommendation from Green College and, with the approval of the sponsoring department and of G+PS, may be held in conjunction with other awards.

The holder will have the status of Non-Resident Member of Green College, unless they happen to be or become a Resident Member of the College. (Resident membership of the College is NOT a prerequisite.)

It is a condition of the fellowship that the holder make a public presentation of their research at the College in the final year of the award, for which additional resources may be available from the College.

Procedure and deadline:

Any UBC units admitting doctoral students to begin work in this field in 2023 is invited to forward UP TO 3 complete application files (edited as needed, but including research proposal, full academic transcripts and letters of reference) to Heather Muckart, Assistant Principal (Programs), Green College, heather.muckart@ubc.ca by 4 pm on 28 February 2023. It is currently expected that a final decision will be made by mid-March.

And do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Heather 

Heather Muckart, MA, PhD (she, her)

Assistant Principal (Programs), Green College

The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory

6201 Cecil Green Park Road | Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1

Phone 604 822 0676
heather.muckart@ubc.ca | @GreenCollegeUBC
https://greencollege.ubc.ca

Call for Applications: IAR Research Travel Grant

 

The Institute of Asian Research would like to invite UBC graduate students working on research in Asia to apply for the IAR Research Travel Grant. The grant will award $1000 to successful applicants who plan to travel for field work.

The fund should go toward research

• Related to key contemporary issues in Asia, including social, political, cultural, or economic
• Which require travel between March 2023 to Dec 2023

Application

Application period: JAN 16 – FEB 16

Deadline: FEB 16, 2023

Applicants should submit their application with required documents to iar.sppga@ubc.ca.

 

The applicant must either be a current Master’s or Ph.D. candidate at UBC whose research is focused on Asia. They can be either domestic or international students.

Application requires:

• Short research proposal (approx. 1 pg)
• An email of support from a UBC faculty member
• Budget for Research and list of other sources of funding
• CV

Each application will be evaluated based on:

• Strength of the research proposal
• Suitability of research topic
• Academic and professional experience and qualifications

Successful applicants will be notified by March 15, 2023.

Next week’s IRES Seminar is in the Beaty Museum Theatre.  Reminder: No food or drinks allowed in the Theatre.

February 9, 2023: IRES Faculty Seminar with Sumeet Gulati

The elephant in the room: forest clearing and fatal human elephant conflict in India

Time: 12:30pm to 1:20pm

Location: Beaty Museum Theatre (2212 Main Mall)

Click here to register in advance to receive a Zoom link.

Zoom Rule: If we encounter technical difficulties during the first 5 to 10 mins of the seminar, Zoom will be terminated.

Talk summary:

Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) is the high impact component of human-wildlife conflict in India. It involves large scale crop and property damage, and is tragically associated with approximately 500 human and 150 elephant fatalities every year. It has been theorized that the frequency, intensity, and the outcome of interactions between humans and elephants in India is influenced by anthropogenic degradation, fragmentation and destruction of elephant habitat. However, an empirical relationship has not been formally established. We estimate a causal relationship between forest clearing for infrastructure development, and media reports of fatal HEC. We also demonstrate the potential of using media reports to analyze spatial and temporal trends in human-wildlife conflict, especially in the face of severely difficult to obtain official data on HEC. Preliminary results indicate that if the Government of India approves 43 squared kilometres of linear deforestation in an elephant district over the previous five years, there is an additional human fatality in the current year. The effect of nonlinear infrastructure development on fatalities due to HEC is weaker, where the approval of 122 squared kilometres of nonlinear deforestation over the previous five years leads to an additional human fatality. These results are robust to a broad degree of variation across specifications. Our estimate contributes to an accurate quantification of the cost of infrastructure-driven deforestation in countries like India. While it has been demonstrated that human casualties are the most significant component of the cost of human-wildlife conflict in India, these costs are not typically included in cost-benefit analyses of infrastructure projects in India. Rather, as per 2017 Government of India guidelines, such calculations focus on the costs that arise from a loss of ecosystem services, resettlements, infrastructure diversion and habitat fragmentation. These costs are calculated based on the Net Present Value (NPV) of forests, a measure which was last calculated in 2008 and has not been meaningfully revised since. Understanding the cost of forest clearing is also important given the policy context of a stated Government of India decision to fast track environmental approvals for forest clearance since 2014. Our estimates will help quantify the impact of this policy change.

Dr. Sumeet Gulati, Professor in Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Land and Food Systems

Bio:

Sumeet Gulati is Professor in Food and Resource Economics, in the faculty of Land and Food Systems, at the University of British Columbia.  His research spans two main themes: 1) the economics of wildlife conservation, and 2) the economics of urban transportation. Currently, he is most interested in the economics of conservation. Sumeet is focusing on human wildlife conflict in India and Canada. All his projects in conservation economics are listed at the Wildlife and Conservation Economics Laboratory.

 

 

See you next Thursday in the Beaty Museum Theatre!

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Bonnie Leung

RES Program Support (she/her/hers)

Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES)

University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory

Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory (AERL Building)

Room 429 – 2202 Main Mall | Vancouver, BC | V6T 1Z4 | Canada

 

Email: bonnie.leung@ubc.ca

Tel: 604-822-9249