Challenges of the ecosystem service concept

The concept of ecosystem services is increasingly used in research, land use management and policy making. For the concept to be both a successful application within research and a practical implication in decision making, several challenges must be addressed carefully. The IFF-Lecture and Research Seminar will present some results and suggestions developed within an ongoing EU-FP7 research project OpenNESS by two international recognized experts, ROY HAINES-YOUNG and KURT JAX.

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Globaler Ressourcenverbrauch in den letzten vier Jahrzehnten verdreifacht: UNEP-Konferenz in Wien

Um 1900 wurden weltweit ungefähr 7 Milliarden Tonnen Ressourcen jährlich der Natur entnommen, 2010 waren es schon rund 70 Milliarden Tonnen. Allein in den letzten 40 Jahren hat sich der Ressourcenverbrauch verdreifacht. Bei gleichbleibender Entwicklung werden im Jahr 2050 180 Milliarden Tonnen pro Jahr an Ressourcen verbraucht. Das UN Resource-Panel präsentiert seine Ergebnisse am 21. November 2016 im Rahmen der „Resource Conference Vienna. Prosperity without growth of natural resource use“. WissenschafterInnen des Instituts für Soziale Ökologie der Alpen-Adria-Universität haben daran mitgearbeitet.

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Pulling the Teeth of the Tropics: Towards an Environmental History of U.S. Public Health Efforts during the Construction of the Panama Canal

77th Minisymposium / 7th Rachel Carson Center Lecture, 7.11.2016
Presentation: Paul Sutter, Professor of History, University of Colorado at Boulder

Abstract:
Between 1904 and 1914, the United States constructed the Panama Canal, an ambitious engineering project undertaken in the shadow of the French failure two decades earlier. The French experience taught American administrators a number of lessons, none more potent than the need to control malaria and yellow fever. The Americans not only responded with a sanitary program that met that threat, but they claimed that they had solved one of the vexing medical – and imperial – problems of the era: settling temperate peoples in tropical environments. The Americans, to use the words of contemporary commentator Albert Edwards, had „pulled the teeth of the tropics“.

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Resource Conference Vienna: “Prosperity without Growth of Natural Resource Use”

The conference will put its focus on the patterns and trends of resource use. Results and analysis of recently published studies of the UNEP International Resource Panel and the European Environment Agency in this context will be presented. Another issue of the conference will be the progress and current challenges of resource politics – also in relation to climate politics.
Two national examples of resource politics will be dealt with. At the closure panel of the conference future challenges and possibilities for implementing hands-on-measures will be discussed.

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