A successful networking event was held last month to launch WISERD’s Environment, Tourism and Leisure thematic reference group.
‘Community, Environment and Sustainability in Wales’ was held at Bangor University as part of Universities Week. The well attended event provided a network and knowledge exchange opportunity for grassroots activists, NGOs, policy makers and academics from across Wales and further afield, with interests in local community sustainability and environmental campaigns and initiatives.
A packed programme of talks ranged from overviews of community-led environmental and artistic projects, to campaigns, initiatives and businesses.
The talks encompassed local level national networks of expertise across Wales, as well as global links through overviews of the latest climate change research being undertaken in Wales, and projects connecting communities in Wales and Africa.
Dr John Barry from Queens University Belfast provided a rousing keynote talk on the topic of ‘Vulnerability and Resilience in Contemporary Green Thought’.
Dr Alexandra Plows, WISERD Research fellow at Bangor University, said: “We were very pleased with the variety of people at the event, who ranged from ‘green champion’ teachers from local schools through to an economist from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) who had travelled from London”.
The Environment, Tourism and Leisure group is convened by Professor Michael Woods of the School of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University.