CHOICE4

Land use changes are responsible for approximately 10% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Tropical forest ecosystems can contribute to both pillars of addressing global warming, namely mitigation and adaptation:

-Tropical forests and plantations are important potential carbon sinks, their biomass can provide energy as a substitute for fossil fuels, while reducing deforestation and forest degradation and improving forest management (REDD+) can significantly reduce anthropogenic GHG emissions.

-The ability of human societies that are still predominantly rural to adapt to climate change depends in part on the state of available natural resources, while the necessary adaptation of tropical ecosystems to climate change can be facilitated by human intervention.

As part of the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and REDD+, voluntary markets, and ecosystem-based adaptation provide new opportunities for tropical forestry, as well as potential leverage for protecting or restoring tropical forests. The module provides an understanding of the basic concepts of climate change, the role of tropical ecosystems in the global carbon cycle, and technical, political, and economic responses to climate change issues.

Module content:

This module provides basic knowledge on topics such as the carbon cycle, the mechanisms and consequences of climate change, and the technical and political measures for mitigating and adapting to this change. The potential of tropical agroecosystems is assessed on the basis of scientific studies and existing operational projects.

Teaching and learning methods:

-Classes (18 hours)

-TD (3 hours).

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This course covers the basics of plant architecture and whole-plant development (stem and root) as part of assessing the condition and functioning of trees with a view to managing them in line with objectives. The consideration and management of trees meet different criteria depending on the context (forest, fruit or urban). The following topics will be addressed in a theoretical and practical manner with real-life scenarios. (1) General information on the morphology and architecture of the whole plant, (2) Tree life cycles, growth patterns (3) Trauma (competition, pruning, biological aggressors) and architectural reactivity (4) Practical work on the diagnosis of forest, fruit and urban trees.

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The objectives of this EU are to explore key concepts related to climate change, illustrate important notions in ecology and evolution in light of climate change in many different ecosystems, and summarize the various scientific and societal issues and challenges posed by CC.

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"Businesses play a central role today in the dynamics of ecosystem degradation, and as such are increasingly called upon to contribute to their protection. How, then, can we improve the way businesses take biodiversity issues into account and their involvement in the territorial management of ecosystems? Furthermore, while conservation science and ecology offer a growing number of indicators and data for assessing biodiversity in its many forms, how can this information be structured so that it provides a basis for strategic and collective action and dialogue among stakeholders?

An approach based on environmental accounting as a management science discipline makes it possible to address these issues of structuring environmental indicators and information systems, the responsibilities of the various actors who interact with ecosystems, and the associated forms of accountability.

The field of ecological accounting and its recent developments in biodiversity aims to transform the accounting systems traditionally used by companies to better take into account the value of natural capital (biodiversity, ecosystems), and thus anchor it at the heart of management processes at different levels of corporate management. Innovation in ecological accounting also exists in other areas (national, ecosystem-wide) and can thus help to create links at different levels of ecosystem governance.

Interactive lectures are punctuated by exercises of varying lengths that put students in an active role:

- reading and lively discussion of scientific articles in the field;

- game for comparative analysis of natural capital accounting tools and models, etc.

-A tutorial on applying ecosystem accounting approaches based on a case study.

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