Night of ideas – Visit of Professor Gilles Boeuf in Bishkek

January 16, 2018

The world's population has grown from 2 billion in 1945 to nearly 8 billion today and continues to grow. How does this fast and important phenomenon fit into the story of life on Earth? What are the consequences for biodiversity and ultimately for humanity itself?

To this now are superimposed the effects of climate change. What are the causes and what solutions do we have to ensure the best future for our children?

As part of the "Night of Ideas" 2018, the Embassy of France in Kyrgyzstan invites you to discuss these issues with the French biologist, Gilles Boeuf, who is visiting Kyrgyzstan from January 22 to 24.

Two conferences open for the public, will be organized:

• Biodiversity facing climate change

Monday, 22 January 2018, at 4pm, at the American University of Central Asia – AUCA, CH-1 (7/6, Aaly Tokombaev street)

Contact: Public Relations office, +996(312)915000 (244), pr@auca.kg

• The human in biodiversity

Tuesday, 23 January 2018, at 6 pm, at the French Alliance in Bishkek (242, Ogonbaev street)

Born in 1950, oceanologist and ecologist, professor at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, president of the Scientific Council of the French Agency for Biodiversity, former president of the Museum of Natural History of Paris, Gilles Boeuf is one of the world's leading biodiversity experts. He also advises numerous institutions (National Forest Office, CIRAD, Monaco Marine Science Center, Marine Protected Areas, Agropolis International) as well as policy makers.

Gilles Boeuf is renowned for his scientific contributions on the evolution of biodiversity during the Anthropocene (current period of human life history, where human activities upset the terrestrial ecosystem), on the extinction of species, as well as on the consequences of climate change on the living.

He has been warning for many years about the pressure that the growing humanity, and its way of life, production and consumption, have on the ecosystem and on biodiversity - an issue as important and threatening as the climate change. With the reduction of biodiversity (the loss of 50% of vertebrate populations in just 40 years, according to a 2016 WWF study), we have entered a serious ecological crisis. For some ecologists, if nothing changes, we may be on the eve of a sixth mass extinction in the long history of life (the fifth being the disappearance of dinosaurs 65 million years ago).

Gilles Boeuf is committed to proposing solutions and engaged in preserving the environment. For example, he participated last December at the summit "One planet Summit" organized by President Emmanuel Macron to mobilize state and non-state actors around the implementation of the Paris agreement and the efforts of the United Nations to fight against climate change. His advocacy work calls for rethinking our models of development, more in harmony with nature, to a "global human consciousness", as the philosopher Edgar Morin says.

The Embassy of France is delighted by the arrival of Gilles Boeuf in Kyrgyzstan, a country that has a significant share of the world's biodiversity and a country that is, like France, engaged in the fight against climate change.

With thanks from the French Embassy in Kyrgyzstan to the Alliance française de Bichkek, the National Library of the Kyrgyz Republic, the American University of Central Asia, and the Institut français d’études sur l’Asie centrale.

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