The last day of UGI2011 greeted me with yet another cancelled lecture; this time the talk was entitled “Remote Sensing and GIS-based Integrated Analysis of Land Cover Change in Dzce Plain and its Surroundings” by Dr. Cercis Ikiel of the University of Sakarya in Turkey. The next talk on my agenda was Dr. Lu Liang’s talk on “The Impact of Land Cover Changes on the Biodiversity of Global Migratory Birds“. Now, any one who knows me is aware of my interest (some say obsession) in the conservation and study of birds using geospatial technologies, so I was really looking forward to this talk. However, there was some mishap (again) in scheduling because the prior speaker was not present and they had to prepone Dr. Liang’s talk. However the person in charge of the session said that they “could not find him”. In any case, I did not know what was going on, or whether Dr. Laing was going to be there, so I left to get some breakfast.
The remainder of the day was less frustrating; Dr. Christian Kull of Monash University in Australia presented a though-provoking talk on “Politics and Scale in Biodiversity: Alpine Pastures Versus Tropical Rainforests” where he discussed the juxtaposition of two seemingly different case studies. He sets the scene by stating that in the Swiss Alps, forest clearance for village establishment 600 years ago is celebrated, and biodiversity on anthropogenic pastures and meadows is prized. However, in Madagascar, stopping rain forest clearance by village farmers is seen as the top conservation priority, and anthropogenic vegetation formations are seen as indicators of degradation. Dr. Kull acknowledged some fundamental differences between the cases, but argued that the juxtaposition shows that when scientists, policymakers, and the public state that a particular place or ecosystem is high in biodiversity and worthy of protection, they are making strategic decisions about scale and inclusion. He concluded the talk by stating that these decisions, in the end, are political, reflecting the outcomes of discursive and material strategies of different interest groups in different cultural, political, and economic contexts.
Equally interesting was a talk by Dr. Manuel Cabalar Fuentes of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain entitled “Policies for the Protection of Biodiversity in Spain and its Effects at a Regional Scale: The Case of Galicia“. The talk centered on the verification of the effects of official biodiversity protection policies in Spain at the regional level, citing the case of Galicia. Specifically, Dr. Fuentes reviewed the historical development of nature protection policies in Spain, the knowledge of environmental legislation in Spain and the steps proposed in the protection of biodiversity, and finally critical analysis of the results of the aforementioned protective policies, with special attention to Galicia.
Abdulhakim Abdi
