This document discusses the need for a new sustainability paradigm in Malaysia and outlines developments that have led to this need. [1] It describes how early sustainability efforts in Malaysia were segregated across environmental, economic, and social pillars. [2] Rio+20 and initiatives like Future Earth call for a more integrated approach to sustainability science that considers interactions between these pillars. [3] Achieving sustainability will require transdisciplinary research collaborations to understand social and environmental dynamics and identify pathways for transformation towards sustainability.
Integrated approaches to innovative climate change adaptation and resource us...Martin de Wit
Some of the greatest environmental challenges in the world today are climate change and resource depletion, both of which could have dire consequences for Africa if not handled innovatively. Africa is considered to be very vulnerable to climate change and the unsustainable depletion of resources. Innovative ways of response are, therefore, urgently needed in order to effectively cope with these challenges.
It cannot be assumed, as so often is done on a project level, that such responses or interventions are merely financial, technical or institutional. Social, institutional, political and cultural support systems in Africa are malfunctioning or under severe stress already, hence a systematic transdisciplinary approach that acknowledges complexity and takes account of the whole system transitioning is needed for effective climate change adaptation and efficient resource use.
The aim of the paper is to further explore the parameters of innovative approaches to climate change adaptation and resource use in African conditions. We present a short outline of the academic literature on complexity, transdisciplinarity and systems approaches and apply these to the fields of climate adaptation and resource use.
Suggested parameters for an integrated conceptual model are formulated. It is argued that innovative approaches to complex issues such as adapting to climate change and improving resource efficiency in Africa would require an integrated, systems and transdisciplinary approach that takes African contexts as a point of departure, and that explicitly include an analysis of human behaviour as a force of change. This integrated approach provides a basis for the development of sustainable innovations for climate change adaptation and resource use in Africa.
Integrated approaches to innovative climate change adaptation and resource us...Martin de Wit
Some of the greatest environmental challenges in the world today are climate change and resource depletion, both of which could have dire consequences for Africa if not handled innovatively. Africa is considered to be very vulnerable to climate change and the unsustainable depletion of resources. Innovative ways of response are, therefore, urgently needed in order to effectively cope with these challenges.
It cannot be assumed, as so often is done on a project level, that such responses or interventions are merely financial, technical or institutional. Social, institutional, political and cultural support systems in Africa are malfunctioning or under severe stress already, hence a systematic transdisciplinary approach that acknowledges complexity and takes account of the whole system transitioning is needed for effective climate change adaptation and efficient resource use.
The aim of the paper is to further explore the parameters of innovative approaches to climate change adaptation and resource use in African conditions. We present a short outline of the academic literature on complexity, transdisciplinarity and systems approaches and apply these to the fields of climate adaptation and resource use.
Suggested parameters for an integrated conceptual model are formulated. It is argued that innovative approaches to complex issues such as adapting to climate change and improving resource efficiency in Africa would require an integrated, systems and transdisciplinary approach that takes African contexts as a point of departure, and that explicitly include an analysis of human behaviour as a force of change. This integrated approach provides a basis for the development of sustainable innovations for climate change adaptation and resource use in Africa.
Forestry and landscapes: Solutions for sustainable developmentCIFOR-ICRAF
Presented by Peter Holmgren, CIFOR's Director General, at the Bogor Agricultural Institute (Institut Pertanian Bogor or IPB), Indonesia, on February 17, 2017. Part of the IPB Talks series.
Presentation by Cheikh Mbow at Our Common Future Under Climate Change conference session on Climatic Variability and the Social and Human Dimensions of Vulnerability. Paris, France, 8 July 2015
Presented during AO: Monitoring the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – Launch of the Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring (FERM) and Dryland Restoration Initiative Platform (DRIP) session of GLF Africa
On November 10, 2010 the Bay Area Open Space Council convened a workshop at the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation to discuss climate change and its impacts on land conservation.
Read more about the event here: http://openspacecouncil.org/blog/by-guest-blogger-kelly-cash-on-the-morning-of-the-day-that-the-san-francisco-giants-would-win-the-world-series-in-the-evenin/
See photos from the event here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/openspacecouncil/sets/72157625226473375/
From 27-29 October 2014, WLE, in cooperation with the CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRI) and the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry (FTA), held a workshop on Institutions for Ecosystems Services in Washington DC.
The goals of the workshop were to:
-Encourage sharing and discussion on research methods and tools to study the links between institutions and ecosystem services
-Synthesize lessons about institutional arrangements needed to ensure that ecosystem services projects are able to deliver benefits to local resource users and produce local, regional, and national global environmental benefits
-Identify policies and program interventions that can strengthen these institutions
-Outline priorities for future research, policy, and project implementation, particularly of relevance for PIM, WLE, and FTA programs
Experts and policymakers explore how ocean-based activities can contribute to efforts to limit emissions that contribute to global temperature increase.
Learn more at https://www.wri.org/events/2019/10/ocean-solution-climate-change-5-opportunities-action
Workshop Final Report - Training-Workshop to Develop Concept Notes of Indigen...UNDP Climate
Training-Workshop to Develop Concept Notes of Indigenous Peoples for the Green Climate Fund for Community-Based Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation
Public Participation and Lay Knowledge in Environmental Governance: A Case St...Shahadat Hossain Shakil
This paper analyzes the debate of public participation within environmental governance process. In doing so, significance of local knowledge in climate change adaptation process has been evaluated. An adaptation project from the coastal areas of Bangladesh has been selected to reveal more specific result and to focus the study in a very specific angle. Local knowledge has been proved as a vital factor within the adaptation planning for coastal areas in the face of threat posed by climate change. Insights from similar studies has been drawn and evaluated. Finally public participation within the broader domain of environmental governance has been found inevitable.
Forestry and landscapes: Solutions for sustainable developmentCIFOR-ICRAF
Presented by Peter Holmgren, CIFOR's Director General, at the Bogor Agricultural Institute (Institut Pertanian Bogor or IPB), Indonesia, on February 17, 2017. Part of the IPB Talks series.
Presentation by Cheikh Mbow at Our Common Future Under Climate Change conference session on Climatic Variability and the Social and Human Dimensions of Vulnerability. Paris, France, 8 July 2015
Presented during AO: Monitoring the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – Launch of the Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring (FERM) and Dryland Restoration Initiative Platform (DRIP) session of GLF Africa
On November 10, 2010 the Bay Area Open Space Council convened a workshop at the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation to discuss climate change and its impacts on land conservation.
Read more about the event here: http://openspacecouncil.org/blog/by-guest-blogger-kelly-cash-on-the-morning-of-the-day-that-the-san-francisco-giants-would-win-the-world-series-in-the-evenin/
See photos from the event here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/openspacecouncil/sets/72157625226473375/
From 27-29 October 2014, WLE, in cooperation with the CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRI) and the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry (FTA), held a workshop on Institutions for Ecosystems Services in Washington DC.
The goals of the workshop were to:
-Encourage sharing and discussion on research methods and tools to study the links between institutions and ecosystem services
-Synthesize lessons about institutional arrangements needed to ensure that ecosystem services projects are able to deliver benefits to local resource users and produce local, regional, and national global environmental benefits
-Identify policies and program interventions that can strengthen these institutions
-Outline priorities for future research, policy, and project implementation, particularly of relevance for PIM, WLE, and FTA programs
Experts and policymakers explore how ocean-based activities can contribute to efforts to limit emissions that contribute to global temperature increase.
Learn more at https://www.wri.org/events/2019/10/ocean-solution-climate-change-5-opportunities-action
Workshop Final Report - Training-Workshop to Develop Concept Notes of Indigen...UNDP Climate
Training-Workshop to Develop Concept Notes of Indigenous Peoples for the Green Climate Fund for Community-Based Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation
Public Participation and Lay Knowledge in Environmental Governance: A Case St...Shahadat Hossain Shakil
This paper analyzes the debate of public participation within environmental governance process. In doing so, significance of local knowledge in climate change adaptation process has been evaluated. An adaptation project from the coastal areas of Bangladesh has been selected to reveal more specific result and to focus the study in a very specific angle. Local knowledge has been proved as a vital factor within the adaptation planning for coastal areas in the face of threat posed by climate change. Insights from similar studies has been drawn and evaluated. Finally public participation within the broader domain of environmental governance has been found inevitable.
Communities respond to sustainable development in diverse ways. Using local wisdom and resources and accessing global networks, community members work together to sustain their economic and social wellbeing, and regenerate their natural ecosystems. The Sustainable Dynamics Model captures the processes with which interdependent actors and stakeholders leverage each other’s forces and capabilities to achieve their visions of a sustainable community. This exploratory study that aims to introduce and define the Sustainable Dynamics Model emanated from an observational case study of a sustainable community-based ecotourism project through the Asian Productivity Organization Workshop on Agrotourism Development and Marketing in Bali, Indonesia. Later on, it evolved into interdisciplinary action research seeking to integrate sustainability solutions initiated by various stakeholders to the local community’s vision of a global banjar (community). Focus group discussion and workshops, interviews and case studies propelled the gathering of information on the processes of implementing these solutions from local and international stakeholders. The main lesson that emerged from these local initiatives is that achieving social, economic and ecological balance within the community depends on the dynamics of the actors and stakeholders participating in the collaboration. Developing a sustainable community requires human-level (self) transformation: personal wellness and creative autonomy leading towards the creation of opportunities for social, economic, and environmental transformation.
Landscape Approach Initiatives and Traditional Village Systems: Leaning for S...SIANI
This study was presented during the conference “Production and Carbon Dynamics in Sustainable Agricultural and Forest Systems in Africa” held in September, 2010.
Towards Sustainability of Open Space’s Planning and Management in Nigeria: Ro...Agboola Paul
This paper critically explores the influencing roles plays by science and technology on evolving a sustainable environment integrated with appropriate open space planning and management. It identified and discussed the strategic imperatives for sustainable development, and recommends the need for the government of developing countries to initiate an effective policy formulation. The significance of the study hinged on efforts geared towards matching up with open space planning and managements in Nigeria as developing countries
A Curriculum Model to Underpin Education for Sustainable DevelopmentESCalate
This is an enquiry-based model that addresses the cognitive, affective and action domains. It is illustrated by children in a Devon primary school who “identified a real issue that concerned them”.
Global Collaboration – United Beyond our Diversity Through the Global Teenage...Brandon Zoras
This presentation will highlight the use of digital learning circles and global collaboration on major world issues. Using a Wiki as a space to collaborate, students from around the world work in learning circles to, pose questions, investigate and publish answers at a global scale. The Global Teenager Project allows for highly engaging lessons that will link to the curriculum as well as the students own community. This session will provide examples of thematic learning circles grade 6- 12 and particularly highlight the journey a class of Senior students have taken. Participants will learn how to connect and start the program in their own class or school. The wiki will be shared, the research process and clips from web conferences made between a Toronto based school and a global partner from Kenya.
Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SSCP) Knowledge-Action Network (KAN) is a global network of researchers and practitioners interested in ways that systems of sustainable consumption and production can be created, nurtured and contribute to a more sustainable world. SSCP KAN works to advance a more systemic approach to SCP, and to encourage and enable an urgent transformation in theory and practice to SCP systems.
Indicator approach to understanding resilience of Socio-ecological Production...Bioversity International
Presentation by Kaoru Ichikawa from UNU-IAS and the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI).
This was presented during a seminar hosted at Bioversity International on 'The Indicators of Resilience in Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS)' in January 2014.
Find out more: http://www.bioversityinternational.org/research-portfolio/agricultural-ecosystems/landscapes/
1. The Pathway to a New
Sustainability Paradigm for
Malaysia
Mohd Nordin Hasan
Director
ICSU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
2. Plan
• Origins of interest in SD in Malaysia
• UNCED 1992 and after
• EPU, Selangor, LESTARI
• Three pillars, segregated paradigm through
2002 Earth Summit
• Rio+20, The Future We Want and ICSU’s
Future Earth
• Prerequisites for success and possibilities of
a new paradigm
2
4. Developments in Malaysia
• Series of state conservation strategies developed for
Malaysia (Kedah, Kelantan, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan,
Perlis, Sarawak, Selangor, Wilayah Persekutuan, Sabah)
during 5th and 6th Malaysia Plan Period 1986 – 1990; 1991
– 1995.
• M. Nordin, 1990. The Conservation Strategy Malaysia
Projects: National Resource Assessment and Analysis for
Development Planning and Implementation. Proceedings
International Conference and Workshop on Global Natural
Resource Monitoring and Assessments: Preparing for the
21st Century. Vol. 2 pp. 763-768. Fondizione G. Gini,
Venezia (Italy).
• 1993 – National Conservation Strategy (EPU) 4
5. Own interest in SD
• Has always been on knowledge for SD
• Mohd Nordin Hj Hasan, Zakri A. Hamid and Chow
Kok Kee, 1992. National Response to UNCED 1992:
Science and Technology Issues. Proceedings
National Seminar on Malaysia and UNCED: The
Road From Rio. Ministry of Science, Technology and
Environment, Kuala Lumpur.
• Little direct engagement at the community and political
level – but active with national and international NGO
• Main role as knowledge provider – the how and why
(sometimes!); EPU, LESTARI, Selangor State
• Supplied technocrats (state; federal) and the sometimes
receptive business and industry
5
6. Was there an “old”
paradigm?
• Landmark …1976 3rd Malaysia Plan interplay between
environment and development given due consideration in
development planning
• Focus: Avoiding impairment of the country’s land and
forest resources, pollution from industries and
environmental degradation from urban development
• Institutions: Promulgated the Environmental Quality Act
1974 and established the Department of the Environment
• Goal: Not to impair productivity of Malaysia’s land and
forest resources and cause extinction of unique elements
of natural ecosystems
• Scope: Included health of Malaysians, sustainability of
recreational resources and productivity of fisheries
6
7. Our Common Future
• Then came the “three pillars”! 1987 Brundlandt’s Our
Common Future and after UNCED 1992, Agenda 21
• The environmental focus started it all
• Economics? ….a difficult preposition, nevertheless the
EPU established a sub-section on environment in 1994
that became Environment and Natural Resources Section
of the EPU (Freddie Cho, Himmat Singh, Ali Hamsa)
• Social? ….. poverty alleviation model
• The three pillars - largely compartmentalised
7
8. • Environment
• Mohd Nordin Hj Hasan, 1998. Review of Environmental Quality Management in
Malaysia. In Mohd Nordin Hj Hasan, Lizuryati Azrina Abdullah and Ibrahim Komoo
(Eds.) National Review on Environmental Quality Management in Malaysia: Towards
the Next Two Decades. Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI),
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. pp 1-9. ISBN 983-9444-11-5
• Economics
• Mohd. Nordin Hj. Hasan, 1992. Environmental Management as a Strategy
for Sustainable Development. In Teh Hoe Yoke and Goh Kim Leng
Malaysia's Economic Vision: Issues and Challenges. Pelanduk
Publications. 421-437.
• Social/Institutional
• Mohd Nordin Hj Hasan, 1994. Sustainable Development: A Challenge for
Malaysia. In Noor Aziah Hj Mohd Awal and Siti Faridah Abdul Jabar (Eds.)
An Appraisal of Environmental Law in Malaysia: People, Development and
Sustainability. Faculty of Law Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Asia
Foundation. pp 7-19. 8
9. Socio-economic success
• Meeting the needs of current generation
• Malaysian economy in 2011 was about fourteen times the
size it was in 1980s (PPP GDP $447b 2011 est.)
• GDP growth of 5% to 7% since 2007
• Brought development - economic and financial benefits,
alleviated poverty, enhanced the education and health
services, and brought enduring peace and stability
• In 2007 - 3rd largest economy in South East Asia; 28th
largest in the world by purchasing power parity.
6 November 2012 Universiti Malaya 9
10. MDG
Malaysia has made remarkable progress in achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the globally
agreed blueprint for halving extreme poverty, halting the
spread of diseases, promoting access to education and
improving health care – ahead of the 2015 deadline.
UN Secretary General
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/statme
nts_full.asp?statID=1486
22 March 2012
10
12. Rio+20
• Until Rio+20 – model was disjointed incrementalism
• The Future We Want.
• 283 paragraphs and 53 pages long
• Statements on a common vision; desirable end-points
• Renewing political commitment;
• Green economy in the context of sustainable development
and poverty eradication;
• Institutional framework for sustainable development;
• Framework for action and follow-up; and
• Means of implementation.
12
13. From the scientific
perspective
• 3 key requirements
• More integrated knowledge
• Greater valuation of ecosystem services
• Understanding interdependence –
economic, social, ecological
• At all scales – local/community, nations,
global
13
14. In practical terms the global challenges are
• Feeding 9 billion people within sustainable
planetary boundaries
• Valuing and protecting nature’s services and
biodiversity
• Adapting to a warmer and more urban world
• Transitioning to low carbon societies
• Providing income and innovation opportunities
through transformations to global sustainability
• Reducing disaster risks
• Aligning governance with stewardship
14
17. COSUST special issue for PuP
Without understanding the social and
political dynamics, aspirations, beliefs
and values, and their impact on our own
behavior, we only describe the world’s
physical, biological and chemical
phenomena, observe and document
their changes, and apply technology to
secure access to resources but would
ultimately fail to ensure sustainability.
Transdisciplinary research can contribute
to solutions for a sustainable world.
There is no other viable way forward.
The sustainability challenges must be
met and the Earth system science
community will have an important role.
Source: Rik Leemans presentation to MAIRS 17
18. Co-design and co-production of
knowledge requires the
involvement of researchers and Dissemination of
stakeholders during the entire Results
research process. (translation, transparency,
dialogue, responsivity)
Scientific Integration
(interdisciplinarity,
consistency, uncertainty)
Relevance
(transdisciplinarity,
stakeholder involvement) Co-Production
Implementation
(funding calls, proposals,
review, etc.)
Research Definition
(research scale, research questions)
Joint Framing
(topic depends on societal
emergence) Co-Design
Slide from G. Klepper’s presentation at Planet Under Pressure
21. WMO as
observer
Science and Technology Alliance for
Global Sustainability 21
22. A global platform
for international research collaboration
• augments earth system science with impacts of
environmental change on people, adaptation and
transformation
• delivers interdisciplinary research on global
environmental change for sustainable development
• strengthens partnership between
researchers/funders/users (co-design)
22
23. • How and why the global environment is changing,
• What are likely future changes and what the
implications are for human wellbeing and other
species,
• What choices can be made to reduce harmful risks
and vulnerabilities and enhance resilience,
• and how this knowledge can support decisions and
sustainable development?
24. Transformation
towards
Sustainability
Global Dynamic
Development Planet
25. What is then the pathway to a new
sustainability paradigm for Malaysia?
Sept,2012 Hazards w.shop, KL 25
26. Dynamic Planet
What are the states, variability and trends in biodiversity, climate, soils, cryosphere, biogeochemistry,
hydrology, and oceans?
What is happening to the human and geophysical driving forces of change such as consumption, population,
technology, greenhouse gases, and evolution and how do they interact?
What are the scenarios for the future including natural variability, the risks of tipping points and catastrophic
change?
Development
What are the patterns, trade offs and sustainable options for land use?
How can we ensure secure and sustainable food, water, air, energy and materials for our people?
How is global environmental change risking human health, biodiversity and ecosystem services?
What energy options are available to provide energy for all with reduced environmental impacts?
Transformation towards Sustainability
How can we align governance to manage environmental change and sustainable development?
What are the options for innovative green technology and economics to promote, for example, lower carbon
futures and more rewarding work?
How do information, values and policies influence individual and corporate behavior to more sustainable
patterns of production, trade and consumption?
What triggers system transformations and what leverage points can be used to promote deliberate and
equitable change towards sustainability?
27. In conclusion
New paradigm requires
• Stakeholders working together to co-design and coproduce
knowledge and know-how
• Trans- and multi-disciplinary approach to the search for
knowledge and understanding that cuts across social,
economic and ecological dimensions
• Global frameworks are being developed that could be
interpreted for local and national applications
• The path to a new sustainability paradigm is wide open
and it’s up to us all to rise to the occasion
27