FROM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
FIRST GLOBAL SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND BIODIVERSITY „GLOSS 2008“ (RAIPUR, INDIA)
Professor Vitalija Rudzkienė, Dean of Economics
and Finance Management Faculty, Mykolas
Romeris University, participated in the First Global
Summit on Sustainable Development and Biodiversity
2008 “Gloss 2008” (Raipur, India). The summit
was organized by VRM Foundation and Chhattisgarh
Environment Conservation Board in association
with other agencies, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The
purpose of the summit was to critically examine the
replicability of viable practices in sustainable environmental
governance, sustainable entrepreneurship,
indigenous mechanism of biodiversity conservation,
sustainable communication, critically assess the role
of civil society organizations in safeguarding the
biodiversity resources and protecting intellectual and
cultural property right of local communities relating
to threat of global warming. Scientists from a lot of
countries and continents (India, USA, Canada, Malaysia,
Pakistan, Namibia, etc.) participated in this
international summit.
The participants of the summit “Gloss 2008”
noticed that although a good number of International
Conventions have been concluded to influence
formulation of policy at national level for bringing
balance between social well-being and eco system
through sustainable development approach, very
little has been achieved in this direction. A gap between
macro level policy and micro level issues and
needs is widening. A small attempt has been made to
understand the vision of the stakeholders and assess
the time-tested technologies, values and mechanisms
of conserving, regenerating and preserving the ecosystem.
In the summit Prof. Vitalija Rudzkienė presented
her paper “Sustainability during Transition
and the Impact on Environment and Biodiversity”
(co-author Marija Burinskienė, Vilnius Gediminas
Technical University). The paper deals with cardinal
changes that are observed during transition from the
planned and closed system to the free market open
economy. The theoretical models and analysis of the
processes of inclusion of national economics into
the global economy with regard to the sustainable
development, and the impact of such processes on
the environment and biodiversity were presented and
discussed. The analysis revealed that greater openness
of the national economy is accompanied by widening
areas of intensive application of knowledge
and technologies and by the transformation of public
consciousness and models of thinking. The changes
offer favourable conditions for the skilled population
are apt to be concentrated in major cities and
surrounding regions. Significant structural changes
in the national economy and in the balance of the
primary energy resulted in a decreased amount of
greenhouse gas emissions. These changes reveal that
the transition economy development direction adheres
to the sustainable energy principles and grounds
the economy growth not on expansive resource use
but on application of more efficient technologies.
Researches also revealed that even if the impact of
human activities is eliminated, the impact of the global
warming on the swamp ecosystem remains.
Prof. Vitalija Rudzkienė
Mykolas Romeris University,
Lithuania