Nature's glass: half-full or half-empty?
Professor Andrew Balmford, Professor of Conservation Science, University of Cambridge
Chaired by Brian Eversham, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough
Monday 8 October 2012, 7.00pm
Madingley Hall, Cambridge
Watch a video of the lecture
This video (length: 1 hour, 5 minutes) includes:
- 00:00 - Dr Rebecca Lingwood: welcome and introductions
- 01:45 - Brian Eversham: introduction to speaker
- 04:09 - Professor Andrew Balmford: 'Nature's glass: half-full or half-empty?'
- 48:00 - Professor Andrew Balmford: audience questions
- 63:00 - Dr Rebecca Lingwood: closing remarks
- Install Adobe Flash player if you are unable to play this video on your computer.
- View and download the video in different formats on the University media website.
We would love to hear your views on the issues raised in the lecture. To post a comment, use the 'Add comment' link at the bottom of this page.
Abstract
The world’s governments failed to meet their pledge of reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Wild populations, their habitats, and the benefits they provide for people, are continuing to decline. But is the situation hopeless? In this talk, Professor Balmford examines a series of case studies where things are getting better rather than worse. He explores how the motivations for conservation, the approaches adopted, and the people involved are changing and becoming increasingly diverse. He investigates what lessons these examples yield about how conservation might increase its success rate - and examines what together these stories tell us about the prospects for nature in the 21st century.
About Professor Balmford
Andrew Balmford is Professor of Conservation Science in the Department of Zoology at Cambridge. His research focuses on the costs and benefits of effective conservation, quantifying the changing state of nature, conservation planning, evaluating the success of conservation interventions, and exploring how conservation efforts might best be reconciled with activities such as farming, especially in developing countries. He helped found the Cambridge Conservation Forum, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and the Student Conference on Conservation Science.
In 2000, Professor Balmford was awarded the Zoological Society of London Marsh Award for Conservation Biology. In 2003, he was included on a list of the top 50 visionaries building a better world by Scientific American for his work on economic development and its impact on the environment. In 2010 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
About the Madingley Lectures
The Madingley Lectures take place at Madingley Hall, home of the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education (ICE). This lecture series, given by eminent speakers across a wide range of subjects, is an important part of ICE's commitment to public engagement.