As humans, we believe we are separate from nature at times, although we are part of an ecosystem that includes animals, plants, insects and bacteria. Biodiversity is the backbone of life as it is necessary for humans both for environmental and climate protection purposes, as well as to sustain our economy. However, biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, with species disappearing on a daily basis all across the planet. Climate change is accelerating this process. The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 is a key point in the European Green Deal, but is it enough to put biodiversity on a path to recovery? The European Parliament has sounded the alarm, calling for a ‘Paris Agreement’ and a European Biodiversity Law, in order to restore our ecosystems.

What impact does the loss of biodiversity have on our environment? Is the EU’s present biodiversity strategy sufficiently ambitious? Is it true that commercial concerns frequently take precedence over biodiversity?

Politicians, scientists, and students gather in this debate café to discuss these questions among other issues.

Click here for the livestream
 

Moderator
Rick van der Kleij, experienced debate leader, in government, science and business.

Speakers

• Anja Hazekamp is a biologist and animal advocate. Representing the Dutch Party for the Animals as an MEP since 2014, Hazekamp doesn’t focus on the short-term interests of humans above all, but on the entire planet and all her inhabitants instead. A unique and planet-wide focus.

  Under her co-rapporteurship, the European Parliament adopted an ambitious position on the Farm to Fork Strategy to make the European food system resilient, fair, healthy, sustainable and animal-friendly. She has also been striving to stop lengthy and cruel transports of live animals, for which she initiated a parliamentary inquiry committee.

• Prof. Pim Martens is the dean of Maastricht University College, Campus Venlo. He has a PhD in applied mathematics ànd biological sciences, is professor of sustainable development, a scientivist, and integrates scientific knowledge with his passion for animals and nature. He is intrigued by the complexity and interactions between human and non-human animals and nature, and has published over 100 scientific publications on sustainability science, climate change, biodiversity loss, and our relationship with animals. 
• Prof. Raf de Bont holds the chair History of Science and the Environment at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University. His research interest concerns the history of science and the environment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He particularly published on human-animal relations, scientific ecology and nature protection, the relation between laboratory and field science, degeneration and evolution theories, and the representation of science (and scientists) in culture at large.

• Prof. Louise Vet is former-director of NIOO-KNAW (1999-2019) and emeritus professor in Evolutionary Ecology at Wageningen University. 

  Her research involves the functioning of multitrophic interactions, delivering basic knowledge for the sustainable development of agro-ecosystems. Vet is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). 

  In addition to her research, Louise Vet actively disseminates the great importance of ecological knowledge for a sustainable economy to politicians, business, and the public. She is known as a fervent proponent of nature-based integral sustainability principles (regarding energy, circularity, and biodiversity), which she herself has put into practice when building the prize-winning sustainable NIOO laboratory-office complex in Wageningen, for which she received the 2012 Golden Pyramid state prize for excellence in commissioning work in architecture. 
  She serves on a diversity of national and international boards and committees like Urgenda; Circle-economy; Commonland; DOB-Ecology; WWF-NL. In addition, Vet initiated and is chairing a broad societal coalition of scientists, nature organizations, farmers and companies to bend the curve of biodiversity decline (Deltaplan Biodiversiteitsherstel) and she provides scientific advice to the European Commission through the European Academies Science Advisory Council.