Look up from your lab bench or desk and reach out to the world - Keynote Address Day 4

In her keynote address on the final day of the Congress, Angela Cropper, Deputy Executive Director of UNEP, emphasized the need for greater integration between organizations working in natural resource management. “While we are working on different issues, we are all working for the same global goals”.

“A sectoral approach has been largely ineffective in ecosystem management,” said Cropper “the challenge is to understand and address the management of natural systems in a more systematic manner”.

The necessary tools, approaches, capacity and policies must be designed and developed together. Cropper challenged participants to look up from their lab benches and desks to reach out to the world. ““We must bridge science with policy to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts”.

There are many current and emerging opportunities, such as payments for environmental services and REDD, which can provide incentives for agroforestry to protect and sustainably manage natural resources, advance objectives of sustainable food security and carbon sequestration while providing other benefits.

The depth of research results and pilot studies presented at the Congress must be scaled-up with urgency and the policy needs addressed.

Additional effort is required of specialists to work smarter, more strategically and move from system thinking to system doing.