Read the abstract: Minorca / Boracay
Minorca has been chosen to host the 5th edition of Greening the Islands International Conference on behalf of Spain’s Balearic Islands. The annual gathering – to be held on 17-18 May 2018 – will be held be in association with the Government of the Balearics, the Municipality of Minorca, the Biosphere Reserve Institution of Minorca and the Spanish Solar Photovoltaic Industry Association (UNEF).
The event will also see a new partnership with the World Network of Island and Coastal Biosphere Reserves, which meets in Minorca the following week. This co-operation has inspired a new topic to concentrate on in this edition of Greening the Islands: the “biosphere”.
The topic sheds new light on how islands can be put forward as laboratories for finding an equilibrium between Nature and human activity, with populations fluctuating due to tourism and migration. This subject will be discussed in the opening session, with special guests from the world biosphere network, and investigated in all the thematic sessions of the island circular economy that we introduced last year in Favignana.
In November, Greening the islands conferences will move to Philippines on the Boracay Islands for the 6th edition of the conference on 15-16 November 2018. The conference, in line with previous editions, will focus on the enlarged concept of circular island economies, developing the nexus between energy, water and mobility and embracing also waste, agriculture, culture and traditions.
But we will be also adding the important concept of sustainable tourism into the mix since Boracay is a small, touristic island that pays particular attention to human impact on its environment. The conference will give the opportunity to all Asian small islands to develop sustainable policies covering energy, water, mobility as well as tourism.
Both conferences will be held “online events” thanks to the live streaming and the interactive functions of the GreeningTheIslands.net web platform, which facilitates the involvement of a larger number of island stakeholders.
