The Manifold Vulnerabilities of the Anthropocene

The Manifold Vulnerabilities of the Anthropocene.
3 February | Tellus-Stage/Online | 9:30 - 14:00.

REGISTER HERE by 28 January 2025.

This inaugural event introduces the 2025 thematic semester and featured initiatives to the ANTS community and the broader University. Keynote speakers will highlight ongoing research and its connections to education and climate literacy. Discussions will focus on critically endangered environments, including seas, cities, polar regions, deserts, and forests.

Assoc. Prof. Gregory M. Thaler is an Associate Professor of Environmental Geography and Latin American Studies in the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. His research examines the political ecology and political economy of development, global environmental governance, and agrarian politics. His new book, Saving a Rainforest and Losing the World: Conservation and Displacement in the Global Tropics, was published in 2024 by Yale University Press.

Forests and Biodiversity in the Anthropocene: Toward Just and Resilient Agroforest Futures

Abstract: Deforestation and forest degradation continue at historically high rates, especially in the humid tropics, driving massive biodiversity loss and accelerating climate change. At a global level, forest conservation is failing. My research in Indonesia, Brazil, and Bolivia shows that prevailing strategies for protecting forests with carbon finance, sustainable commodity markets, and intensified agriculture are false solutions that reinforce political economies of forest destruction. I argue that the survival of biodiverse and abundant forest landscapes will depend on the development of bioregional economies that center small-scale agroforest livelihoods. Crucially, these livelihoods must be resilient to dramatic climate disruptions as the Anthropocene unfolds. I will share initial experiences from a transdisciplinary consortium in the Brazilian Amazon working on contextualized and applied knowledge for just and resilient agroforest futures.

PhD. Nick Middleton is a geographer, writer and Fellow of St Anne’s College, University of Oxford. His main area of research is in the nature and human use of deserts and their margins, work that has taken him to the Sahara, Gobi, Atacama, Chihuahuan, Namib, Danakil and Kalahari deserts. Desertification, drought and dust storms are topics of particular focus – their causes, impacts and how societies cope with and mitigate their impacts. He has worked and advised on these issues as a consultant to several United Nations bodies, including the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Nick Middleton also teaches and communicates on a wide variety of environmental issues, writes popular books and articles on geographical themes and has written and presented television documentaries on extreme environments and the people who live in them. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and his films broadcast all over the world.

Desertification in the Anthropocene: Crisis or Conundrum?

Abstract: Like Climate Change and Biodiversity, Desertification is a facet and driver of polycrisis in the Anthropocene. It is also the subject of one of the three Rio Conventions, agreed at the 1992 Earth Summit along with Climate Change and Biodiversity. However, unlike its sister conventions, desertification has struggled to shake off the controversies surrounding its nature, extent, causes and effects. Desertification remains difficult to measure and problematic to map, so that estimates of its geographical extent vary greatly. For decades, the most commonly cited cause of desertification has been overgrazing by livestock, supported in part by the “tragedy of the commons” argument that views traditional herders as opportunists with free access to rangelands owned by nobody. The crisis narrative of desertification has been invoked to justify policy and legal changes that have systematically marginalised pastoralists in many countries. Yet the overgrazing paradigm itself is contentious, based on what many believe to be a misunderstanding of arid rangeland ecology, and supported by arguments that often ignore local institutional frameworks for controlling access to pasture and conserving resources. Too frequently portrayed as backward people who degrade the environment, traditional pastoralists live in some of the harshest environments on our planet, coping with uncertainly and variability in physical, institutional and political conditions. Rather than being in need of modernisation, their use of marginal environments in productive and sustainable ways can offer valuable insights into life in an increasingly variable and uncertain world.

PhD. Stefano Malatesta is a Geographer and Associate Professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca. He is member of the Board of MaRHE Center (Rep of Maldives) and former member (2018-2022) of the Executive Committee of the International Small Islands Studies Association (ISISA). He teaches Human Geography of Small Island Systems, and Geography of Tourism. He served (2018-2021) as chair of the Working Group on Small Island and Archipelagos (AGeI). He coordinates one of the research groups of Island4Future and the University of Milano-Bicocca unit of MEDiverSEAty. In 2017, he has been awarded from the Italian Geographical Society as best under-40 geographers. His main research topics are: human geography of small islands, geopolitics of Indian Ocean, Ocean Literacy, children and youth geographies, citizenship education and education for sustainable development.

Abstract: This speech, inspired by my research trajectory in the field of island studies, illustrates some projects carried out by the multidisciplinary staff of the Marine Research and High Education Centre (MarHE). MaRHE is a scientific outpost of the University of Milano Bicocca on the island of Faaf Magoodhoo (Maldives). The objective of this contribution is to provide a critical analysis of the concept of vulnerability as an interpretative category commonly used to frame Maldivian islands' geographies. The discussion is articulated around three pivotal themes: the coral reefs and their socio-environmental functions, the role of local ecological knowledge and resilient practices, and higher education in marine science and island studies.

Prof. Christopher Raymond is a Human Geographer and Professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Helsinki. He is currently the Executive Director of the International Association of Society and Natural Resources and Director of the Enabling Multispecies Transitions of Cities and Regions (MUST) Strategic Reseach Council Project. He graduated with my PhD in 2012 at the University of South Australia. Before starting his PhD, he was an environmental policy officer in the South Australian Government and manager of the award winning Laratinga Wetlands in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. His research focuses on conceptualising and assessing the diverse values of nature, and finding new ways to represent and engage diverse communities (including other species) in nature-based solutions planning in urban areas. He has written a number of seminal works on senses of place, socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem services, and recently was the Coordinating Lead Author of the IPBES Values Assessment where his team co-created an inclusive typology of values for navigating transformations towards a just and sustainable future.

Challenges and opportunities of applying multispecies justice in nature-based solutions planning

Abstract: While substantial efforts have been made to identify and address issues of environmental justice in nature-based solutions (NBS) planning, the question of how to represent the concerns of humans and other species remains a major challenge. Drawing on insights from the MUST Strategic Research Council project, I offer a wider conceptualisation of representation, distribution and agency compared with dominant framings in NBS scholarship and provide exemplar cases on how to integrate these concepts in planning discourse. I critically discuss some of the challenges and opportunities of considering MSJ when confronted by established procedures and practices in NBS science and decision-making, focusing on: i) moving beyond existing standards for biodiversity conservation; ii) embracing MSJ as a process and practice; and iii) building the capacity of NBS planners to work with MSJ.

Prof. Arja Rautio is Professor in Arctic Research, Emerita Chair UArctic (in Arctic health) at the University of Oulu, Finland. Her research interests are on Arctic and Indigenous health and wellbeing, research ethics and environmental health under climate and global change in the Arctic. Dr Rautio is using One Health and community based participatory research approaches in her research work.

One Health in the Arctic

Abstract: One Health approach emphasizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health. It plays a pivotal role in addressing the effects of climate warming, environmental change and permafrost thaw, e.g., release of contaminants and infective agents, and health risks for humans and wildlife via air, water and food in the Arctic. These challenges need the expertise and input of researchers from different disciplines and work together with local and Indigenous peoples for finding sustainable solutions both locally and globally.