Conference to address how to feed a growing population and other challenges

March 19, 2015

The graduate students of UF’s Tropical Conservation and Development Program will be hosting the Center for Latin American Studies' 64th annual conference and the prestigious Bacardi Lecture Series entitled “Envisioning a Sustainable Tropics” at Emerson Alumni Hall.

The conference will begin with an evening reception March 25 and include two days of sessions March 26-27. An optional field trip is scheduled for the following day.

This year’s conference will address the challenges and opportunities facing society over the next decades. At the forefront is the need to provide for growing populations and improve human well-being, while conserving biodiversity and using our natural resources wisely.

Nineteen presentations from 25 researchers and practitioners will address three main themes:

• Sustaining ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the context of growing population and food demand
  
  
• Reconciling energy and resource extraction with human and environmental health
  
  
• Strengthening capacity for adaptive governance at multiple scales

Keynote speakers include Avecita Chicchón (Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation), Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez (Columbia University), Julie Kunen (Wildlife Conservation Society), Phillip Fearnside (Brazil’s National Research Institute for the Amazon), Claudio and Suzana Padua (Brazil’s Institute for Ecological Research) and others.

The conference will feature an integrative session that brings together practitioners, funders, researchers and educators to reflect on lessons learned from the conference and discuss pathways to a sustainable future.

A special Thursday evening session will feature a viewing of posters and short videos. To learn more about the conference, please visit tcd.ufl.edu/2015-tcd-las-conference.