Uforest national launch event in Ireland with the Trinity Business School
Business has a lot to answer for in relation to the climate emergency, but also has much to contribute to the necessary changes in behaviour required to ensure people and the earth have a future together. This was the main focus of the event “Working with nature: focus on forest”, organised by the Trinity Business School on the 18th of October 2023. The event discussed the potential for transforming our traditional economy to a nature-positive economy, with particular attention to new reforestation projects and forestry-based enterprises. A perfect occasion to present the Uforest project!
During this event, our Irish partner – the Trinity College Dublin – presented Uforest and the project’s activities, especially the planting campaings, to 60 attendees interested in urban forestry. In addition, thanks to the participation of our partner the European Forest Institute, we also had the chance to present our international network on urban forestry: the Uforest Alliance. Finally, the event represented an opportunity to discuss and network with different researchers and nature-based enterprises interested in innovation, urban forestry, Nature-based Solutions, and much more.
“I was particularly impressed with the diversity of topics and the detailed knowledge of the speakers. Great that you are also looking at the bigger picture of forestry, biodiversity and ecological restoration across Ireland.” – Ian Withehead (European Forest Institute)
Check out the list of experts and the topics they covered:
- Jane Stout: Professor of Ecology and Vice-President for Biodiversity and Climate Action at Trinity College Dublin, speaking about Trinity’s plans for transforming itself to a nature-positive campus.
- Mary-Lee Rhodes: Co-Director of the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) in the Trinity Business School, speaking about the ‘nature-positive’ programme of research in the CSI, the Uforest project and the upcoming community tree-planting event in Darndale.
- Martha O’Hagan-Luff: co-Principal investigator in FOREST project, speaking about the environmental, societal and economic impacts of recovering native forest biodiversity and innovative financial instruments to support afforestation.
- Ian Whitehead: Member of the European Forest Institute (EFI) Resilience Team in Bonn, introducing the audience to the Uforest Alliance and the potential for transformation through forestry-related Nature-based Solutions.
- Kieran Farrell: Responsible for the Connecting Nature Enterprise Platform at Horizon Nua, speaking about the different nature-based enterprise communities of practice currently bubbling up across Europe.
