Professor Guy Poppy at Rio+20 Earth Summit

Professor Poppy will be blogging and tweeting from the summit. You can read his blog here and follow his updates on Twitter @GuyPoppy1

Professor Guy Poppy, the University's Director of Multidisciplinary Research is attending the Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

World leaders, governments, international institutions and major groups are coming together at the Rio+20 Earth Summit this week, to discuss and establish a range of actions to ensure a safer, more equitable, cleaner, greener and more prosperous world for all.

The University of Southampton will have a presence in Rio and attend events at and leading up to the summit, as well as participating in the Symposium on Sustainability Rio+20, held by Munasinghe Institute for Development and Vale Technological Institute.

Guy Poppy, Professor of Ecology and Director of Multidisciplinary Research at the University, will address the symposium to encourage the use of the ecosystem services approach to ensure there is enough food in the world for everyone.

Professor Poppy comments: "We face a perfect storm of food, water and energy shortages by 2030. With the global population now exceeding 7 billion and on its way to 8 billion, coupled with the lack of suitable land, feeding people will become increasingly difficult. We need to sustainably intensify agriculture by using technology, nature and knowledge to ensure both food and ecological security. We must realise that agriculture is an ecosystem and it needs to be managed accordingly so we can use the ecosystem service approach to maximise food security whilst maintaining a biodiverse environment."

Professor Poppy will also elaborate on his new research project that seeks solutions to addressing food and nutritional security in poor communities in Colombia and Malawi, whilst exploring how best to manage the important forest and agriculture environments.

Professor Poppy will be blogging and tweeting from the summit. You can read his blog here and follow his updates on Twitter @GuyPoppy1

 For more information about our multidisciplinary research, please visit our website https://www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary or follow us on twitter @multisoton.