Keynote Speakers
主旨演讲嘉宾
Jedediah Brodie
Professor Jedediah Brodie is the Craighead Endowed Chair at the University of Montana and a conservation biologist whose research focuses on tropical forest ecology, climate resilience, and species interactions. Working across tropical regions, he studies how anthropogenic pressures such as hunting, habitat alteration, and climate change affect biodiversity, habitat connectivity, and forest carbon dynamics. His research combines long-term field studies, including camera trapping, acoustic monitoring, and drone-based surveys, with ecological modeling to try to understand the structure of ecological communities and how critical functions such as forest carbon storage change under climate and defaunation pressures. Brodie has contributed to large-scale conservation planning, including helping develop landscape connectivity strategies and identify 350,000 hectares for new protected areas in Malaysia. He recently served as an elected councilor for the ATBC, is a research fellow at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, and co-chairs the IUCN-WCPA Climate Change and Protected Areas Specialist Group.
Discussion Panel:
30×30 in the Tropics: Beyond the Numbers
Panelist
The global commitment to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030—known as the “30×30” target—is one of the most ambitious conservation goals ever adopted by the international community. Embedded in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, it represents a collective promise to halt biodiversity loss, safeguard ecosystem functions, and secure nature’s contributions to people (NCP). Yet for the tropics, which harbour the majority of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and some of its most vulnerable human communities, 30×30 is not simply a numbers game. It forces hard questions about which lands get protected, how protection is enforced, and what counts as success.
The concept is important not only for global policy but also for frontline conservation science and practice in developing regions in the tropics. It tackles how a binding global target can drive national expansion of protected and conserved areas. It also raises critical questions: Are we expanding protection into places that truly matter for biodiversity or simply the cheapest and most politically convenient lands? How do we prevent “paper parks” from inflating progress while delivering little on the ground? Can the 30×30 framework respect Indigenous rights and local livelihoods, while engaging them equitably in the governance? How should we measure and safeguard the material and immaterial benefits that nature‑dependent communities derive from intact ecosystems? And in a rapidly changing climate, how do we design protected area networks that remain functional as connected landscapes?
The panel is moderated by Prof. Binbin Li (Duke Kunshan University) and brings together four leading experts: Prof. James Watson (University of Queensland), Prof. Carly Cook (Monash University), and Prof. Jedediah Brodie (University of Montana). Together, they will examine how 30×30 can move beyond counting hectares—toward quality, justice, and lasting impact for tropical biodiversity and people.