Due to habitat destruction, pollution, poaching, illegal hunting and fishing, and climate change, species around the world are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. This is best recorded by the IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, in its periodical Red List.

In the past decades the relationship between forests and climate change has focused on the amount of carbon stored in forests and the amount of carbon dioxide released when forests are converted in other land uses. Only recently we begin to understand the relationship between patters of rainfall and forest cover.

Our present-day crops for food and agriculture have once been developed from wild plant species through adaptation by humans, a process that is known as domestication. This process resulted in crops in which only a subset of the wild genetic diversity was represented, a concept that is referred to as the domestication bottleneck.

Johan van de Gronden leads us from diagnosis to therapy

Barry Commoner’s first law of ecology basically says it all: Everything Is Connected to Everything Else. In this session, Prof. Dr. Klaas van Egmond will bring together the “spherical” SOS’s from a systems ecology perspective and give us insights into what the connections are. He will also talk about what the implications for our civilisations are.

Our physical health and spiritual well-being are intrinsically linked to ecosystems. All life rests on them, meaning in other words: do not invoke the wrath of Mother Nature, but enjoy her benign beauty. Our expert speaker Johan van de Gronden, moral philosopher and conservationist will provide us with his insights of many years working in this field.

In times of fake news, fake science and social media, scientific accuracy is at risk of being eroded. However, its importance for painting an accurate picture of how the world works, where we are at and where we will be going is more important than ever.

The spherical themes discussed at this Symposium also have strong security implications. The degradation of the natural environment can cause or exacerbate conflicts, and conflicts in turn can lead to the degradation of the environment, leaving us in a vicious cycle. Speaker General (ret) Tom Middendorp, former Chief of Defence of the Netherlands, has many years’ experience in the military and knows exactly why environmental degradation is a threat to our security.

Panel discussion with speakers on the way forward. Introductory remarks by Hugo von Meijenfeldt and contributary remark by Alide Roerink. This panel discussion will take place in the framework of... Read More