[MUSIC] So now that you've played the trade off game we're going to do a quick round table with the different module leaders. The purpose is to introduce you to each of them. They are going to justify why we think you'll be interested in listening to their module. And we're also going to propose some of what we're going to call transversal questions that we'd like you to keep in mind, throughout the entire course, and that we will then discuss or debate together at the very end of the course. So Juliet, can I perhaps begin with you? Who are you, what are you going to be talking about, and yeah. >> So, thank you. I'm Juliet Fall, I'm a geographer. I'm working on environmental and political issues. And I'm going to be speaking a little bit about the context, where the idea has come from and how it fits into the current political and economic climate that we find ourselves in now. >> So do I understand you're going to bring a little bit of a critical voice as well? >> I'm going to bring a little bit of a critical voice, trying to give the students tools to think about how ideas emerge and how they fit in to global trends. >> Excellent, thank you. Salvo. >> Hello, I'm Salvatore Di Falco environmental economist at University of Geneva. And my purpose is to provide students with a overview of the methods that we use in environmental evaluation applied to ecosystem services. I will try to be as well as, exhaustive, and critical as possible. >> Excellent, thank you. So we have an external speaker as well, who is not from the university, it's Louise Gallagher, who is from the Luc Hoffmann Institute, which is nearby Geneva, we're very fortunate in the region to have lot of expertise. So Louise, can you briefly introduce yourself? >> Sure, thanks for inviting me along. So I'm trained as an Environmental Economist also, but having worked in environmental policy issues now for about ten years, so the Luc Hoffmann Institute is the latest part of my work and we've set up to be a partner to WWF looking at the science policy practice interface. Essentially, how do we strengthen the connection between those three elements in order to reach better outcomes for conservation. >> And that's what you're going to be speaking about in the MOOC as well? >> Yeah, I'm largely focusing on mainstreaming, so underpinning this ecosystem service approach is really a desire to see, well the information being used to change something and mainstreaming is almost like the science of bringing that information into decision making. So I think it's one of the most critical elements in fact of this whole area. >> Excellent, yeah I agree with that. And well we had this a little bit of a debate, about where these different chapters belong. And it's interesting, we'll be talking about mainstreaming at the end, which of course in reality is often where you begin. But we wanted to begin with some case studies and some practical stuff. And for those of you who are sort of in the field and applying this, it would be of interest to you to listen to module five as well. >> Great. >> Our next speaker is Anthony Lehmann. >> Yes, I'm a biologist by formation. I'm working at the University of Geneva with expertise in geographic information system and statistical modeling. which brought me in my career to work a lot on species distribution modeling in the fist place and later on hydrological modeling. And those work in fact, naturally took me to the assessment of ecosystem services. I'm really glad to see now that, in fact search a tool and approach, is bringing in fact all economy, policy, decision makers together around the table, and as a effective way of hopefully improving situation on biodiversity, which was the first aim. >> So in preparing this MOOC and of course before, we've obviously had lots of conversations between us about the merits of this approach, and the dangers, and the added value. And what we've done for the students is we've come up with a short list of questions that we've each come up with that we'd like you to keep in mind as you go through the different modules. So that we can then discuss them but also you can also formed your own opinions by the time we get there. So Juliet, what was the question you came up with? >> I think the question I'm really interested in, is thinking about the question of values. The idea being is the ecosystem service approach helping us look at values, make decisions in a particular way. Or is it feeding into existing power imbalances? So in particularly looking at this question of the extent to which it is a neoliberal instrument. >> All right, thank you, Salvatore? >> Well in a sense it's very related to Juliet's question. If you think about the other methods that are also out there, in what way the ecosystem approach actually help us balancing in a better way those competing interests that are in society. >> Excellent, thank you. And Louise? >> Yeah, so I'm focused on the outcome element of things. So I really am interested to know that is this method going to help us get to the biodiversity outcomes and the ecosystems service outcomes that we believe that we need to be achieving. So if we adopt this as a wholesome method that we used within government or private sector or in academia what does that really bring us for biodiversity. >> Thank you, Anthony. >> Well I think my main interest in all this, coming from more natural sciences and tools is to see, well this is still a young field. But it's still not really operating, and what is missing? Is it the lack of data, and tools and models? Or is it something else? >> Excellent, those are all really interesting questions and of course, I will end with a really overarching question is should we as academics or as practitioners, as a society is this an approach we want to endorse? Are we going to help making a better world or is this going down a wrong path? So this is again aligned a little bit with the critical thinking that is going to bring. So there we go that’s the end of our round table, we look forward to seeing you at the end of the course. [MUSIC]
