BIODIVERSITY AS A SOURCE OF SOLUTIONS TO SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES IN URBAN, PERI-URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

The contribution of biodiversity to human societies has been recognized amidst the current massive biodiversity degradation and loss across the globe. However, the role biodiversity-based innovations and solutions has sometimes been overlooked in the sustainability debates. Innovative biodiversity-based practices may enable transformative societal change and address pressing sustainability challenges. Such innovations can provide the basis of various nature-based solutions, have significant insurance value, and reduce the substantial risks from climate and environmental change. Such solutions can play a major role in reconnecting urban, peri-urban and rural areas, and involve various stakeholders, business, investors, and civil society. Such solutions would be instrumental in achieving the SDGs and a world in harmony with nature.

The 8th International Conference on Sustainability Science (ICSS2020) will facilitate creative discussions between academics, policy-makers and practitioners on how biodiversity-based solutions can contribute to sustainable development. As such the outcomes of the conference are expected to feed into the current international discourse of the post-2020 agenda on biodiversity.

ICSS2020 will be held in Kunming, China. ICSS2020 will be organized by the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI) of The University of Tokyo and Future Earth, and will be hosted by Kunming Institute of Botany. The conference will precede the CBD-COP15 as a means of catalyzing closer transdisciplinary discussion in the context of CBD-COP15