FREE but registration required by 27 Oct (Fri).
Date: 3 Nov (Fri)
Time: 5pm to 7.30pm (Registration starts at 4.30pm)
Venue: Auditorium, Level 3, Blk B, NUS Faculty of Law (Bukit Timah Campus)
Address: 469G Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259776
FREE but registration required by 27 Oct (Fri).
ABOUT THE LECTURE
Globalisation has made the world a smaller place. But today, we find our world gradually drifting apart again with walls and chasms dividing us. The result is a world that is becoming a lot more nationalistic and insular, and a lot less together – and that will have dire consequences for the health of our planet. The often self-inflicted threats we face are collective, and their resolution can only be achieved through concerted action across national borders and cross-learning.
In this respect, birds have always known what we humans are sometimes slow to understand – that the fate of the entire world is connected. There is no better illustration of the way our fates are entwined, than the miracle of bird migration. Twice a year thousands of species of birds embark on these epic journeys, spanning not just borders, but entire continents as they travel between their breeding areas and wintering grounds. In doing so, the birds travel through various countries, using tried-and-tested routes - or flyways - that see them pass through areas where they know they can rest and refuel. East Asia’s migratory birds use one of the greatest of them all – the East Asian-Australasian Flyway - which connects over 20 countries, from Australia through to Singapore, Malaysia and China, onwards to Russia, Japan and even Alaska.
Their remarkable journeys can tell us a lot about the health of our planet – and the song they’re singing isn’t pretty. Many of the world’s migratory birds are in sharp decline, as coasts are reclaimed, wetlands are drained, grasslands are built on, the pressures of hunting are not addressed and climate change alters our landscape and weather in ways that can be difficult to predict.
If we are to save them from extinction, it is clear that countries need to work together – there is little value working to protect birds in one country, if they are doomed to die of exhaustion in the next. And this is a truth that extends to every aspect of our world – only by working together, across borders, can we effectively build and maintain a happy, healthy planet.
In this lecture, BirdLife CEO Patricia Zurita discusses how birds and their flyways show us a common path to conservation and peace, and explains the critical role local action (underpinned by strong science) in support of a collective global agenda will enable us to better address the environmental challenges of our time, and help build lasting bonds between peoples based on shared heritage, human empathy and a collective vision of the future.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Patricia is the Chief Executive Officer of BirdLife International, the world’s largest nature conservation partnership, bringing together 120 organizations worldwide. BirdLife is driven by the belief that people, working for nature locally, but connected nationally and internationally through a global partnership can deliver high impact and long-term conservation for the benefit of nature and people.
Patricia was previously the Executive Director of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) a global multi-donor fund enabling civil society to participate in and benefit from conserving some of the world’s most critical ecosystems. During Patricia’s tenure, CEPF granted more than US$ 170 million in more than 80 countries and territories located in 23 biodiversity hotspots around the world, including in two Asian hotspots: Indo-Burma (China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar) and the Western Ghats of India.
Prior to leading CEPF, Patricia led the Conservation Stewards Program in CI, which is dedicated to the provision of economic incentives to local and indigenous communities in developing countries in exchange for their commitment to protect biodiversity through conservation agreements. Key portfolios in Asia included conservation agreements in Cambodia, China (Sichuan and Qinghai), and India. Before that, Patricia was the Policy and Economics Director of CI’s Andes Program.
An Ecuadorian national, Patricia holds a master’s degree in Environmental Management and Natural Resource Economics from Duke University, and has worked with the Ecuadorian Government, the World Bank and the World Resources Institute.
Programme Outline
4.30pm: Registration of guests
5.00pm: Welcome and Introduction to the Asia Environment Lecture,
Assoc Prof Edward Webb, Chairman, NUS Bachelor of Environmental Studies [BES] Programme Management Committee & Director, BES
5.15pm: 5th Asia Environment Lecture 2017 – “Birds, Humans and our Sustainable Future”
Ms Patricia Zurita, CEO, Birdlife International
6.00pm: Question and Answer Session
Moderator: Professor Tommy Koh
Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore
6.30pm: Tea Reception
7.30pm: End of Event
Full details in this pdf.
FREE but registration required by 27 Oct (Fri).
