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Do you need a quick and effective introduction to measuring biocapacity and Ecological Footprint? This crash-course will expose you to underlying principles, applications, and limitations of this tool for policy-making.

Footprint Policy Seminar

Monday, June 7: 9:00 am – 1:00 pm
Instructors: Dr. Mathis Wackernagel and Dr. Alessandro Galli

Location: Colle di Val d’Elsa

Background
The Ecological Footprint is an accounting tool that makes ecological limits understandable to governments, businesses, and the public. Footprint accounting compares a population’s demand on resources with nature’s ability to renew these resources and, by providing a common unit, helps businesses and governments to establish benchmarks, set quantitative targets and evaluate alternatives for future activities. 

Relevance to Public Policy
Most global trends show increases in resource demand and a clash with the planet’s regenerative capacity. Examples of the effects are climate change, fisheries collapse, biodiversity crisis – and in lower-income countries economic hardship and food shortages. These trends are not bucking, in spite of rapid technological advances.  Business-as-usual scenarios based on moderate projections of UN agencies imply humanity would be using more than twice the planet’s regenerative capacity by 2050. Reaching this level of overshoot may be ecologically impossible.

Public (and private) infrastructure built today – roads, power plants, housing; water systems, urban expansions – may last 50 or even 100 years. Since infrastructure shapes the way we operate, as cities or businesses, today’s investment decisions largely determine the level and type of resource consumption for decades to come. Poor investment choices can lock us into this ecologically (and economically) risky business-as-usual scenario. Good choices will build the foundation for prosperity.

Public policy affects many long-term issues: education, pension funds, security, research and innovation. All of those will be increasingly affected by the global resource context. If we can track this trend, we can translate this information into successful economic strategies.

Who should attend?
This policy seminar is intended for policy practitioners who are interested in applying the Footprint in their own work. It is geared towards people working for governments, think-tanks, or policy oriented NGOs. The seminar is designed to prepare participants of the Roundtables with the basic concepts behind Footprint accounting. It serves people who want a firm understanding of Ecological Footprint’s policy relevance and its limitations. It supports participants in learning how to interpret results, and to understand how these results can be used to inform policy decisions at national, regional or city. It will also inform about how to apply the concept in project evaluation, for instance in the context of international development.

Outcomes:
Upon completion of the seminar, participants should be able to:

Skills:
Participants will learn to:

Prerequisites:
None, but basic training in natural sciences and quantitative analysis will enhance the learning outcomes of participants.

Required and recommended readings:

Date: June 7, 2010; 9:00 am – 1:00 pm

Cost: For pricing information, click here

For more information contact nina@footprintnetwork.org

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