Luc GnacadjaPast Executive SecretaryUN Convention toCombat Desertification

JILL AND KEN ISCOL DISTINGUISHED ENVIRONMENTAL LECTURE EVENTS

Printed using FSC certified paper, made with renewable power.

About the Iscol LectureThe Jill and Ken Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecture brings eminent scholars, scientists, newsmakers, and opinion leaders to Cornell to address environmental issues of paramount importance to our planet. Hosted by the Atkinson Center, the Iscol Lecture recognizes interdisciplinary scholarship on the frontier of scientific inquiry; provides opportunities for Cornell students, faculty, staff, and the public to gain new knowledge about pressing environmental issues; and enriches the university and community. A faculty committee, representing a cross-section of academic disciplines, selects the Iscol lecturer.

2014 Iscol Committee Sara Pritchard (chair), Lauren Chambliss, Todd Cowen, Francis DiSalvo, Drew Harvell, Peter Hess, Mark Milstein, Karen Pinkus

For more information: www.acsf.cornell.edu/iscol

TUESDAy, ApRIL 22 – WEDNESDAy, ApRIL 23Cornell UniversityAtkinson Center for a sustainable Future

2014

Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future 200 Rice HallIthaca, New York 14853

www.acsf.cornell.edu (607) 255-7535

@AtkinsonCenter

T U E S D A y , A p R I L 2 2Classroom Visit9:05 – 9:55 A.M. | 125 Riley-Robb Hall

Mr. Gnacadja joins the Society and Natural Resources class for a Q&A session exploring international sustainable development goals to build human security while protecting natural resources and environmental health.Facilitator: Richard Stedman, Professor, Natural Resources

Graduate Student Luncheon11:45 A.M. – 1:15 P.M. | 300 Rice Hall

An opportunity for graduate students to talk with Mr. Gnacadja about his career and his views on how the global community can work together to ensure future generations the benefits of healthy and productive land.For advance registration, call Paula Euvrard (255-7535).

Classroom Visit1:25 – 2:40 P.M. | 100 Caldwell Hall

Mr. Gnacadja joins Environment and Society students for a discussion of how international measures to guarantee a land degradation–neutral world can further both soil security and human security.Facilitator: Whitney Mauer, Lecturer, Development Sociology

A D D I T I O N A L p U B L I C E V E N T S For more information about the Iscol Lecture and these special sessions with Luc Gnacadja, please call (607) 255-7535 or visit www.acsf.cornell.edu/iscol.

W E D N E S D A y , A p R I L 2 3panel Discussion: Waterless Lands and Languishing Livelihoods 8:30 – 10:00 A.M. | Yale-Princeton Room, Statler Hotel

The recent United Nations Environment Programme report Assessing Global Land Use: Balancing Consumption with Sustainable Supply is the starting point for this panel discus-sion exploring the potential and consequences of expanding global cropland to meet ever-growing demand. Hosted by the Institute for the Social Sciences Land Theme Project.Panelists: Robert Howarth, UN Report Author and Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Gail Holst-Warhaft, Adjunct Professor, Institute for European Studies; Prabhu Pingali, Professor, Applied Economics and Management; Rebecca Schneider, Associate Professor, Natural ResourcesFacilitators: Wendy Wolford and Charles Geisler, Professors, Development SociologyFor advance registration, call Paula Euvrard (255-7535).

Classroom Visit 12:20 – 1:10 P.M. | 116 Kennedy Hall

Mr. Gnacadja joins Environmental Conservation students for a Q&A session about how land degradation threatens environmental health and strategies for restoring arid land.Facilitator: Joseph Yavitt, Professor, Natural Resources

Tuesday, April 22 | 5:00 P.M.Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall

served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and UN Assistant Secretary-General from 2007 to 2013. He was a guiding voice for sustainable land development in the negotiations leading up to Rio+20, the June 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. Gnacadja argued, “A land degradation–neutral world

is the final piece of the puzzle that unites the challenge of land degradation with the tools at our disposal and the level of ambition needed to achieve the future we want.” The international community affirmed this goal in The Future We Want, the outcome document adopted in Rio.

Born in Benin, Gnacadja earned an architecture degree at the African Crafts School of Architecture and Urbanism in Lomé, Togo, and later studied at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the World Bank Institute. Gnacadja was Benin’s minister of environment, housing, and urban development and represented Benin as the head of delegation to UNCCD and the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change and Convention on Biological Diversity.

A passionate advocate for landscapes and their ecological restoration, Gnacadja continues to work for international policies to ensure land stewardship and restoration, so that future generations will enjoy the benefits of healthy and productive land. Gnacadja received a 2002 Green Award from the World Bank for promoting environment-friendly public expenditure reform in Benin.

Land is the crucial natural capital resource at the nexus of our food and water security. We need fertile soil—the skin of the land—as much as the air we breathe, yet we routinely take soil for granted. Land degradation is ac-celerating, especially in the developing world, threaten-ing both environmental health and human security. Soil security is a prerequisite for human security and must be a vital part of the sustainable development goals we set. The global community can work together to balance land degradation and restoration for a more resilient future.

JILL AND KEN ISCOL DISTINGUISHED ENVIRONMENTAL LECTURE

2014

LAND & SOIL IN THE GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITy AGENDA

T U E S D A y , A p R I L 2 2Classroom Visit9:05 – 9:55 A.M. | 125 Riley-Robb Hall

Mr. Gnacadja joins the Society and Natural Resources class for a Q&A session exploring international sustainable development goals to build human security while protecting natural resources and environmental health.Facilitator: Richard Stedman, Professor, Natural Resources

Graduate Student Luncheon11:45 A.M. – 1:15 P.M. | 300 Rice Hall

An opportunity for graduate students to talk with Mr. Gnacadja about his career and his views on how the global community can work together to ensure future generations the benefits of healthy and productive land.For advance registration, call Paula Euvrard (255-7535).

Classroom Visit1:25 – 2:40 P.M. | 100 Caldwell Hall

Mr. Gnacadja joins Environment and Society students for a discussion of how international measures to guarantee a land degradation–neutral world can further both soil security and human security.Facilitator: Whitney Mauer, Lecturer, Development Sociology

A D D I T I O N A L p U B L I C E V E N T S For more information about the Iscol Lecture and these special sessions with Luc Gnacadja, please call (607) 255-7535 or visit www.acsf.cornell.edu/iscol.

W E D N E S D A y , A p R I L 2 3panel Discussion: Waterless Lands and Languishing Livelihoods 8:30 – 10:00 A.M. | Yale-Princeton Room, Statler Hotel

The recent United Nations Environment Programme report Assessing Global Land Use: Balancing Consumption with Sustainable Supply is the starting point for this panel discus-sion exploring the potential and consequences of expanding global cropland to meet ever-growing demand. Hosted by the Institute for the Social Sciences Land Theme Project.Panelists: Robert Howarth, UN Report Author and Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Gail Holst-Warhaft, Adjunct Professor, Institute for European Studies; Prabhu Pingali, Professor, Applied Economics and Management; Rebecca Schneider, Associate Professor, Natural ResourcesFacilitators: Wendy Wolford and Charles Geisler, Professors, Development SociologyFor advance registration, call Paula Euvrard (255-7535).

Classroom Visit 12:20 – 1:10 P.M. | 116 Kennedy Hall

Mr. Gnacadja joins Environmental Conservation students for a Q&A session about how land degradation threatens environmental health and strategies for restoring arid land.Facilitator: Joseph Yavitt, Professor, Natural Resources

Tuesday, April 22 | 5:00 P.M.Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall

served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and UN Assistant Secretary-General from 2007 to 2013. He was a guiding voice for sustainable land development in the negotiations leading up to Rio+20, the June 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. Gnacadja argued, “A land degradation–neutral world

is the final piece of the puzzle that unites the challenge of land degradation with the tools at our disposal and the level of ambition needed to achieve the future we want.” The international community affirmed this goal in The Future We Want, the outcome document adopted in Rio.

Born in Benin, Gnacadja earned an architecture degree at the African Crafts School of Architecture and Urbanism in Lomé, Togo, and later studied at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the World Bank Institute. Gnacadja was Benin’s minister of environment, housing, and urban development and represented Benin as the head of delegation to UNCCD and the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change and Convention on Biological Diversity.

A passionate advocate for landscapes and their ecological restoration, Gnacadja continues to work for international policies to ensure land stewardship and restoration, so that future generations will enjoy the benefits of healthy and productive land. Gnacadja received a 2002 Green Award from the World Bank for promoting environment-friendly public expenditure reform in Benin.

Land is the crucial natural capital resource at the nexus of our food and water security. We need fertile soil—the skin of the land—as much as the air we breathe, yet we routinely take soil for granted. Land degradation is ac-celerating, especially in the developing world, threaten-ing both environmental health and human security. Soil security is a prerequisite for human security and must be a vital part of the sustainable development goals we set. The global community can work together to balance land degradation and restoration for a more resilient future.

JILL AND KEN ISCOL DISTINGUISHED ENVIRONMENTAL LECTURE

2014

LAND & SOIL IN THE GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITy AGENDA

Luc GnacadjaPast Executive SecretaryUN Convention toCombat Desertification

JILL AND KEN ISCOL DISTINGUISHED ENVIRONMENTAL LECTURE EVENTS

Printed using FSC certified paper, made with renewable power.

About the Iscol LectureThe Jill and Ken Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecture brings eminent scholars, scientists, newsmakers, and opinion leaders to Cornell to address environmental issues of paramount importance to our planet. Hosted by the Atkinson Center, the Iscol Lecture recognizes interdisciplinary scholarship on the frontier of scientific inquiry; provides opportunities for Cornell students, faculty, staff, and the public to gain new knowledge about pressing environmental issues; and enriches the university and community. A faculty committee, representing a cross-section of academic disciplines, selects the Iscol lecturer.

2014 Iscol Committee Sara Pritchard (chair), Lauren Chambliss, Todd Cowen, Francis DiSalvo, Drew Harvell, Peter Hess, Mark Milstein, Karen Pinkus

For more information: www.acsf.cornell.edu/iscol

TUESDAy, ApRIL 22 – WEDNESDAy, ApRIL 23Cornell UniversityAtkinson Center for a sustainable Future

2014

Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future 200 Rice HallIthaca, New York 14853

www.acsf.cornell.edu (607) 255-7535

@AtkinsonCenter