Research News
Voices on the Rio+20 Conference: Johannes Förster
The UFZ researcher Johannes Förster, PhD student, Department Computational Landscape Ecology, talks about his experiences in Rio.
Which topic interested you most during the conference?
Johannes Förster: I am interested in interdisciplinary initiatives for the sustainable use of land and resources, which were presented during the conference in the context of the "Green Economy" topic (TEEB, amongst others). Here, there still were difficulties in agreeing on a definition of Green Economy.
Were you able to observe progress?
Förster: In the Natural Capital Declaration, 39 enterprises and more than 50 states declare themselves willing to improve their assessment of the role of natural capital or, rather, of the external costs in their economy. PUMA is one of the first enterprises to do this. The manner of land use for the production of raw materials often plays a great role.
Were you able to contribute your expertise?
Förster: I coordinated side events of the TEEB initiative and contributed a poster illustrating my work in GLUES to the ISEE conference. In the Riocentro, we announced the new report "TEEB for Water and Wetlands" and presented some of the prospective content.
