Linking Climate Change, Biodiversity and Energy to Sustainable Development and Ecosystem Resilience

An iCUBE workshop hosted and sponsored by Korea University

Preamble
'Biodiversity' can be understood as one of the indicators which can be used to evaluate our achievement to solving diverse anthropogenic problems including climate change. Recently, it has been suggested that biodiversity conservation can be strongly supported by climate change actions. 'Climate change' can be understood as diverse problems which humans face in terms of their social activities in the natural biosphere. 'Energy' is one of the indicators for economic growth and development. Limited resources and growing demands have influenced the way the society uses energy, impacting negatively upon biodiversity. 'Resilience' can be understood as the ability of a system to withstand and recover from natural hazards to climate change. It can be a strategy to achieve wise adaptation to climate change. 'Wise adaptation' is effectively a combination and utilization of adaptation measures by systematically organizing the various options for sustainable development. In order to achieve wise adaptation, it is necessary to understand complex relationships with ecological system. In scientific research related to climate change and biodiversity, the perspectives of the natural sciences are needed to build new approaches to determine what changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services are beneficial to our society. In order to deal with the biodiversity, energy and resilience against the impacts of climate change, knowledge sharing and scientific approach are needed.

Workshop Objectives
The overall aim of the workshop is to develop strategies to solve our current problems in terms of climate change, biodiversity, energy and resilience.

- to improve scientific understanding of the connection between climate change, biodiversity and energy to sustainable development, and to examine the processes of resilience and environmental change, and
- to enable the (local) society to predict and mitigate effects of biodiversity change for sustainable livelihoods.

To achieve this, it is necessary to

- share knowledge, discuss the different perspectives and methods to approach climate change, biodiversity, energy, and resilience
- identify governance strategies to successfully manage ecosystems (biodiversity) in a holistic way
     - Policy regimes stop at borders, but ecosystems do not.
     - Man is one of the species in ecosystems with the difference, that man, unlike animals, can govern systems.

By the end of this workshop, the participants will acquire enhanced knowledge about wise adaptation to climate change and sustainable development.

Proposed topics
Keywords:

- Climate Change
- Biodiversity
- Energy
- Resilience

The following topics will be discussed in working groups that include natural and social scientists:

Climate Change
Climate change has an overall impact on biodiversity and cultural diversity loss, land use change, energy consumption, etc. Successful climate change action requires a systematic wise adaptation approach as an element of sustainable development. The workshop will introduce managing conflicts and wise adaptation between biodiversity and energy to climate change for sustainable development.

Biodiversity/Climate Change Adaptation
The importance of biodiversity is widely accepted as a scientific concept in the context of diversity and conservation. The urgency of biodiversity crisis is well recognized in decision-making including invasion of alien species to climate change. To be successful, biodiversity management has to be involved with ecological boundaries, ecological integrity, monitoring, humans embedded in nature and values, etc. The workshop will be introduced to the scientific concept in the context of biodiversity conservation.

Energy/Climate Change Mitigation
Energy is essential for anti-poverty, improving human welfare, social and economic well-being. However, most energy supply and use are considered unsustainable. It is therefore important to involve the sustainable use of energy and adequate energy services with the environment for sustainable development. The workshop will explore energy efficiency and energy conservation in sustainable development.

Resilience/Climate Change and Ecosystem Service
Ecological resilience to climate change is able to maintain and enhance response diversity to ecosystem changes. It is in our vital interest to achieve sustainable development. The workshop will therefore focus on discovering opportunities for strengthening resilience in the context of climate change.
 
Proposed Program
The workshop will be held at Korea University, from 2 to 5 February 2015.

Proposed Participants
This workshop participant is suitable for early career scientists including Master/PhD students and postdocs.

- 25 Graduate Students/Postdocs
    - Korea: 10
    - Brunei: 5
    - Others: 10
- 5 Resource Persons

Funding/Travel Bursaries
Cost for travel and local accommodation of 5 resource persons will be supported by Korea University.
Cost for local accommodation of participating students/postdocs will be supported by Korea University.

Focal Points(Persons)
Korea University
-    Prof. Woo-Kyun LEE : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , +82-2-3290-3016
-    Ms. Hyun-Ah CHOI : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , +82-2-3290-4734, 3470

Universiti Brunei Darussalam
-    Associate Prof. Kushan Tennakoon: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
-    Dr. Yusnani Mohd Yusof-Kozlowski: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In case of any questions please do not hesitate to contact us