PSC-Mercator fellow Sergei Schaub and his supervisor Prof. Robert Finger wrote about the question “Ist Diversität im Grasland ökonomisch wertvoll?” in the Agrarpolitik Blog. A topic which Sergei addresses in is PhD project DIVERSEGRASS, which is funded by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland. Read more …
John Garcia-Ulloa, a PSC Science and Policy alumni, worked on a “Comprehensive Trade-off Analysis of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) Implementation”. Based on this work and a secondment within the framework of his fellowship, he co-authored the recently published IUCN report on “Oil palm and biodiversity: A situation analysis by the IUCN Oil Palm Task Force”.
The situation analysis primarily focuses on oil palm in the context of biodiversity conservation based on literature published before 31 January 2018, and aims to provide a constructive pathway to addressing sustainability challenges in the palm oil industry. This report does not assess the social and economic implications of palm oil production and expansion but will refer to these when they are likely to have an impact on biodiversity conservation. Through identification of key knowledge gaps, the situation analysis will also provide direction to the Oil Palm Task Force in terms of seeking to address these knowledge gaps in the remainder of the 2017-2020 Quadrennium. Read more …
A summary of the public panel discussion about Synthetic biology for natural products considering perspectives from academia, policy, public and industry. The panel discussion took place at the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC) Symposium “Plants for Health – from research to application” on December 1st, 2016. Read more …
Written by Devang Mehta (ETH Zurich, Plant Biotechnology, Marie Curie IDP BRIDGES fellow)
Biofertilization and Bioirrigation for sustainable mixed cropping of pigeon pea and finger millet (BIOFI) is a project that combines biotechnology and socio-economic research. The Indo-Swiss Collaboration in Biotechnology (ISCB) released a film showing pictures and insights to the BIOFI meeting in Chennai, India. Members of the PSC as well as network partners are involved. Find the film here …