Leading expert on biological diversity receives the Volvo Environment Prize

Leading expert on biological diversity receives the Volvo Environment
Prize

“We must prepare for another future”

 A few days ago, the major UN meeting in Nagoya, Japan, convening over
18 000 delegates and 130 environment ministers, reached agreement on a
plan to protect biological diversity.

“This is very god news and a step forward, however; we must prepare
ourselves for another future since the ecosystem services are already so
altered,” says Professor Harold Mooney, Stanford University. Professor
Mooney is one of the world's most prominent researchers into ecosystem
services and biological diversity. He is in Sweden to receive this
year's Volvo Environment Prize.

Commentators have expressed relief that the Nagoya did not collapse,
instead producing an agreement, albeit one of compromises. World leaders
are now committed to protecting biological diversity on 17 percent of
land surface area and 10 percent of marine regions.

 Harold Mooney is a doyen in the field of ecosystem services and
biological diversity, one of the hottest topics in the global
environment and sustainability debate. His research has focused on plant
ecology and for several years he was a driving force in the UN's
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment program, charting the impact of
humankind on biological diversity.

 Put simply, ecosystem services are services provided by nature that
benefit mankind, such as vegetables, fish and timber. Other ecosystem
services are also vital, such as the cleansing of air and water and the
capacity to keep the chemical balance in the atmosphere at the right
level.

 “We take these functions for granted,” says Harold Mooney, “but they
are exposed to great threats today. In the future, things will be
greatly different. It is no longer a question of trying to retain what
we have and restore what we have lost. We must, simply, prepare
ourselves for a different future.”

 He is, however, optimistic about the future since awareness of the
issue is growing across the world. Harold Mooney has been active in the
foundation of IPBES, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which may soon become as familiar
as the UN climate panel, IPCC. The IPBES mandate is similar: to create
scientific consensus and communicate the results to decision-makers
within politics and business.

 There will be an opportunity on 3 November for media interviews with
Professor Harold Mooney, one of the world's leading researchers in
ecosystem services and biological diversity. The professor will be in
Sweden to receive the Volvo Environment Prize. Harold Mooney is prepared
to comment on the outcome of the recent major UN meeting in Nagoya on
biological diversity.

 Professor Harold Mooney will receive the prize at a ceremony in
Stockholm on 4 November when he will also participate in a panel
discussion at a seminar on the value of biological diversity.

 Material available for the media:

  · Photographs - Harold Mooney, Stanford University
  · Film - HD-format, approx. 10 minutes on ecosystem services and
Harold Mooney's research

To book interviews during Professor Mooney's visit to Sweden, contact:

Johanna Cederström, Tel +46 (0)70 492 42 65
johanna.cederstrom@wirten.se (johanna.cederstrom@wirten.se)  or

Claes Sjöberg, Tel +46 (0)70 662 64 71
claes.sjoberg@miljorapporten.se (claes.sjoberg@miljorapporten.se)

 For more information on the Volvo Environment Prize and this year's
laureate:Annelie Karlsson, Scientific Advisor to the Volvo Environment
Prize, tel +46 (0)31- 772 4961
annelie.karlsson@chalmers.se (annelie.karlsson@chalmers.se)

 November 2, 2010

 

Harold A. Mooney is a professor of Environmental Biology at Stanford
University

in California, USA, and senior fellow of the Institute for International
Studies, at

Stanford. His scientific production encompasses 35 books as well as
articles in

Science and Nature. He is one of the most frequently quoted researchers
in

ecology and environmental sciences.

 

The Volvo Environment Prize is an annual award given to people for
outstanding scientific discoveries or inventions within the area of
environment and sustainable development. The prize is awarded by an
independent foundation. The prize consists of a diploma, a glass
sculpture and a cash sum of SEK 1.5 million (approx. EURO 160,000 or USD
225,000). Since the first award, there have been 37 winners, among them
many famous names, including three Nobel Prize winners. Website:
www.environment-prize.com (http://www.environment-prize.com/).