Prepare for Impact!
When people and environment collide in the tropics
CDU Symposium, 11-12 May 2006
Mal Nairn Auditorium, Casuarina campus, Charles Darwin University
South East Asia and Tropical Australia are undergoing major changes, and these changes are likely to intensify in the next decade. Booming economies in China and India, and potentially other countries, are likely to drive exponential increases in demands for natural resources. Climate change is likely to have severe impacts, ranging from those associated with changes in severity of cyclones to those associated with sea level rise in shallow oceans. Land cover transformations, already a common feature in many parts, could well decimate biodiversity. Human disease outbreaks, which have already caused alarm and economic disruption, could remain a feature of the region. The challenges are immense; it is timely to reflect on transforming forces and our responses.
These issues are addressed in a challenging symposium about environmental change, its impacts and the response in tropical Australia and neighbouring South East Asia.
International speakers from South East Asia (Indonesia and India, among others) and central America (Panama) with leading Australian researchers and policy makers, will come together with community members and practitioners to explore these themes in Darwin in May 2006.
Key Symposium Themes and Speakers
This symposium will focus on several themes.
- Drivers of change
- Values and livelihoods
- What are the changes and their impacts?
- The future - the inexorable, and the manageable
For each theme there will be a number of invited speakers, chaired panel responses and facilitated open floor audience discussion sessions.
About the Charles Darwin Symposia
The aim of the Charles Darwin Symposia discussions is to create stimulating and enriching debate which will enable people of differing perspectives, disciplines, vocations and contexts to signpost policy and research issues relevant to imagining and managing our future. It enables people to begin conversations and discussions they can then take to other contexts, igniting actions and thoughts that extend the influence of ideas in unexpected directions.
The Charles Darwin Symposium Series is designed to mark the University as a space where diverse ideas about contemporary life and issues can be debated by a broad cross-section of the community.
The series attracts high quality speakers, blending local, national and international, academic, professional and lay perspectives on issues of importance to the Territory and our special place in the world.
Co-convenors
Professor Bruce Campbell
Email: bruce.campbell@cdu.edu.au
Phone: +61 8 8946 7792
Fax + 61 8 8946 7720
Dr Guy Boggs
Email: guy.boggs@cdu.edu.au
Phone: +61 8 8946 7138;
Fax + 61 8 8946 7088
School for Environmental Research, Bld 31
Institute of Advanced Studies
Charles Darwin University
Darwin NT 0909
