On July 10th, 2020, the second seminar of the United Nations Environment Programme -International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP) was held online. The theme of this session was the project of "Sustainable Livelihood and Green Development Strategy Research in Environment-Economic Fragile Areas Along Silk Road" and the sustainable livelihoods database development. The keynote speaker was Dr. Bai Yunli, assistant researcher of the Institute of Geographical Sciences and resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and core member of the UNEP-IEMP research group. More than 20 members from UNEP-IMEP and other organizations participated in the seminar.
During the seminar, Dr. Bai Yunli firstly introduced the background of the project "Sustainable Livelihood and Green Development Strategy Research in Environment-Economic Fragile Areas Along Silk Road", then explained the scientific and policy objectives, the main tasks, and expected outputs. Then she focused on the development of the sustainable livelihoods database.
Based on the database of sustainable livelihoods, the project focuses on the environmental change, poverty, and livelihood status of typical countries in the environment-economic vulnerable areas and their relationships. By analyzing the impact of environmental change on poverty and livelihood, this paper evaluates the impact of poverty reduction and livelihood improvement policies in typical countries, simulates the development trend of poverty and sustainable livelihoods, and puts forward effective programs to alleviate poverty and improve sustainable livelihood in the environment economy vulnerable areas.
Secondly, Dr. Bai Yunli focused on the design logic, existing data, usage specifications, and other database construction contents of the sustainable livelihoods database, as well as the potential research topics and ideas that can be supported by the database. The participants provided valuable suggestions on the further work of the project and discussed possible cooperation opportunities.
As one of the implementing organization of the project, UNEP-IEMP is committed to providing policy suggestions for poverty alleviation, livelihood improvement and climate change adaptation for relevant countries in the context of economic globalization and environmental change. UNEP-IEMP actively utilizes its advantages as an international platform to promote South-South cooperation and strengthen international exchanges and cooperation, helping the UN in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 13: Climate Action, and Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals, etc.
The seminar helps the members of UNEP-IEMP gain a better understanding of UNEP-IEMP's work as well as the project results, and provided opportunities for exchanges and cooperation for researchers who are interested in the subject.
Dr. Yunli Bai at the second seminar held by UNEP-IEMP
