Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2017, 6.00 pm – approx. 8.00 pm
Venue: Festsaal, Main Building of the University of Bonn
A get-together reception follows.

The lecture will be given by:
Dr. Richard A. Byron-Cox, Ph.D. International Law
UNCCD Action Program Alignment and Capacity Building Officer
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Opening remarks:
Prof. Dr. Michael Hoch, Rector
University of Bonn
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Historically, land was important to the state as it inter alia determined size of territory, geopolitical influence, and came with resources ranging from gold and silver to the free labor of inhabitants of conquered territory. Today, land maintains its importance to the state for some of the aforementioned reasons, but there are additional very important factors including its social, environmental and agricultural values. Put another way, land’s bio-productive value is also crucial to the state’s future well-being. 

This recognition of land’s bio-productive value in the context of future development is highlighted among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in the autumn of 2015. No. 15 of these goals has among its targets to “… strive to achieve a land-degradation neutral world.” With this target, land degradation neutrality (LDN) became “en vogue” language in the sustainable land management discourse. And quite a few in the scientific community and policy-making bodies of a government, concerned with the question of land in one way or the other, have now turned their attention to this issue.

But what really is LDN? And even if we found a universally accepted definition, can LDN be achieved? If so, what must practically be done to achieve this? What is/are the approach(es) to be used? And how can one say that LDN is a path the world must follow? Dr. Byron-Cox will discuss those questions in his lecture.

Dr. Byron-Cox is a lawyer specialized in international law, diplomat and writer who has been working directly on the issues of sustainable land management and the environment over the last two decades. He played a key role in designing and coordinating the implementation of the first project aimed at putting the LDN concept into practice. This project ran under the auspices of the UNCCD Secretariat, involved some 14 countries from around the world and was a tremendous success. Dr. Byron-Cox is also an experienced lecturer having been a special guest and/or distinguished lecturer at universities around the world: from Oxford and Yonsei Universities to the Universities of Cologne and Trinidad and Tobago. He has masterminded the UNCCD Capacity Building Marketplace (www.unccd.int/marketplace), and writes on subjects ranging from international law to global environmental governance. In his lectures, Dr. ByronCox aims at giving his audience serious “food for thought” on the questions he raises. Consequently, this lecture is an exercise that begins with his presentation but goes beyond it, inviting the thoughts and views of the attendees.

Registration:
Please register via email to s.gansen [at] uni-bonn.de (s[dot]gansen[at]uni-bonn[dot]de) or online form on http://www3.unibonn.de/forschung/euroconsult/veranstaltungskalender.
The event is free of charge but the registration is binding. Please register by April 20, 2017. The number of seats are limited.