幸运飞艇计划

On 24 March 2021,聽Postdoctoral fellow聽Alicia May Donnellan Barraclough聽from the University of Bergen聽takes part in the UNESCO Biodiversity Forum to celebrate 50 years of聽Man and Biosphere聽(MAB), UNESCO's longest running programme. At the forum, she was announced as one of five global MAB Young Spokespeople selected by UNESCO.

Bringing science to global diplomacy

鈥淚 want to contribute bringing science to the forefront of global diplomacy. The role as a young spokesperson for MAB gives me increased opportunity to do so,鈥澛爏ays Donnellan Barraclough, who has so far been a MAB Youth Focal Point.

鈥淭his was launched during the forum after Jane Goodall, who is the ambassador of MAB鈥檚 50^th聽anniversary, wanted to include young people as ambassadors for the programme because she believes in the importance of creating intergenerational engagement for biodiversity.鈥�

Goodall is a British primatologist and anthropologist, who has founded the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots programme, working extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.

Involving local communities

Donnellan Barraclough is already familiar with the workings of the UNESCO system, having been postdoctoral fellow for the University of Bergen鈥檚聽UNESCO Chair Inger Elisabeth M氓ren聽for the past year and a half.

鈥淚 have studied nature鈥檚 contribution to people and have worked closely with the Nordhordland Biosphere Reserve, which in 2019 was declared the first Norwegian biosphere under the MAB programme鈥� says the trained ecologist who is passionate about involving local communities in working towards a sustainable future.

鈥淚n its 50^th聽year, the MAB programme is more relevant than ever to bring people back into the picture in nature conservation in the middle of an ecological crisis, which is nowhere near being solved,鈥� says the young researcher, 鈥渆ven if it was founded 50 years ago, recent developments show how pioneering about sustainability the MAB programme was.鈥�

United for Biodiversity towards COP15

The UNESCO announcement comes shortly after the University of Bergen joined the EU Commission鈥檚 United for Biodiversity alliance, which points towards the COP15 high-level meeting taking place in Kunming, China 11-24 October 2021.

鈥淏eing part of the first university in the world to join the United for Biodiversity coalition is great leading up to the upcoming COP15 meeting. This expands our platform for speaking more broadly and generally on biodiversity,鈥澛爏he says pointing to the leading role universities must take by presenting science and knowledge to secure biodiversity globally 鈥� and to engage in science diplomacy for biodiversity.

鈥淏iodiversity has become young people鈥檚 concern. Increasingly young people participate in biodiversity and governance. I guess this is a bit of a new research frontier. This is quite key for all of the Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable transformations.鈥�