About
Students, faculty and staff are invited to attend the first Nicholas Institute and UPEP Environmental Institutions Seminar Series presentation of the Spring 2023 semester. Our speaker will be Dr. Binbin Li, assistant professor of environmental sciences of the Environmental Research Center at Duke Kunshan University.
Although biodiversity conservation and development are often regarded as having a trade-off relationship, there are regions where they have co-benefits, where conservation through expanding protection and reducing deforestation can not only benefit biodiversity but also reduce climate change's impacts on human society, including health risks. Dr. Li will introduce her work on how the high overlap between areas with biodiversity challenges, those experiencing increasing natural disasters under climate change, and those with high spill-over risks of zoonosis diseases indicate a more sustainable path of development for these regions. This is the key to implementing a post-2020 global biodiversity framework and mainstreaming biodiversity conservation.
China is one of the most biodiverse countries and faces great challenges in balancing biodiversity conservation and development. Dr. Li will introduce how recent environmental policies have developed in China to protect biodiversity and their consequences for local livelihoods and endangered species conservation. An interdisciplinary approach has been used to promote sustainable livelihoods around protected areas to reduce human disturbances, such as livestock grazing, while engaging local communities in conservation through incentives.
Part of the UPEP Environmental Institutions Seminar Series, organized by the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability and the University Program in Environmental Policy (UPEP), a doctoral degree program jointly offered by the Nicholas School of the Environment and Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.
This event is aligned with the Duke Climate Commitment, which unites the university’s education, research, operations, and public service missions to address the climate crisis. The commitment builds on Duke’s longstanding leadership in climate, energy, and sustainability to educate and deploy a generation of climate- and sustainability-fluent innovators and create just, equitable solutions for all.
This is an in-person event with no virtual viewing option.