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Prof. Thomas Elmqvist
Programme Director, EASAC Environment Programme
CV
Thomas Elmqvist (Sweden) has over 20 years of experience working in international programs dealing with biodiversity and ecosystem services, such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2001-2005, where he was leading one of the subglobal assessments. Between 2005-2014, he served as a Chair of the Scientific Committee of bioSustainability of Diversitas an ICSU program where he also was part of the initiating processes of establishing the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services (IPBES). In 2006-2008 he chaired the Man and Biosphere International Coordinating Council of UNESCO. In 2008-2010 he served as a member of the TEEB project ”The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” a G8+5 - initiative and was a coordinating lead author of the chapter ”Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services”.
He has been involved in several UN projects and during 2010-2013 he lead the UN-project ”Cities and Biodiversity Outlook - Assessment of urbanzation, biodiversity and ecosystems” (decision X/22 vid CBD COP10 in Nagoya, Japan). The publication has now been downloaded more than 1.3 million times and has served as an important basis for the UN-CBD policy on urbanization and biodiversity. During 2014-2016 he served as acting director of Future Earth Swedish Secretariat and also led the Future Earth Project “Urban Planet”.
Since 2017 he is a permanent Member of the High Level Group on Policy and Innovation – European Council, https://www.highlevelgroup.eu/innovation-policy-management) contributing with input into the processes of biosphere economy policy development.
He is a full Professor at Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University and a fellow of Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies (STIAS), South Africa, Adjunct Professor, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, USA, Guest Professor, Institute of Future Initiatives, University of Tokyo, Japan and a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.
Recent Awards:
- BioDiversa Award for Excellence in Science and Impact 2018.
- Ecological Society of America award “Best paper in Sustainability Science -2019”.
He currently serves as Editor in chief for the new Nature Research journal npj Urban Sustainability, and as associated editor for the journals Sustainability Science and Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.
He has published well over 100 papers, multiple books and book chapters and has an h-index of 60 (ISI, Web of Science 2024-10-03) and 86 (Google Scholar 2024-10-03).
Abstract
Abstract:
Food production and food security in a changing climate
In a world characterized by accelerating climate change and polycrises that may threaten to overwhelm societies, food production and food security will be high on the global agenda. Under these scenarios, there will be an absolute need for agricultural landscapes to be managed to fulfill multiple purposes, i.e. maintaining production of nutritious food, while enhancing carbon storage and biodiversity. There is increasing scientific evidence that this is indeed possible, where win-win strategies could be found both at the farm and landscape scale by restoring soil productivity through e.g. increasing the use of perennial crops, reduce tilling, and connecting high biodiversity landscape features and where these insights need to be reflected in future agricultural policies.