Presentation at 7th International Conference on Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management in Melbourne, Australia

Charles Lin presented on the practice of synecoculture in Taiwan at the 7th International Conference on Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management.
Following is the report from Charles Lin.

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Title:

“Integration of agricultural education and biodiversity: Introducing synecoculture into an elementary school in Taiwan”

We were invited to present our work at the 7th International Conference on Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management.

The conference was held in Melbourne, Australia on July 26 and 27. Our presentation was scheduled on the first day at the session of young research forums.
The issue most discussed this time is about the indigenous seeds’ preservation and database building.

As for our presentation, we got the positive feedback from all the audiences. Foremost, Biodiversity into agricultural education is highly praised. Besides, they appreciate the outstanding graphic, slides and presentation design.
One of the keynote speakers as well as the organizer, Mini N Vijayan,
she was very interested in the topic of agricultural education and asked us to update her if any opportunity arises she would like to join.

The only thing we got challenged is from one of the keynote speakers, he questioned that Synecoculture is difficult to be commercialized. Also, polyculture will be complicated to manage. As for this part, we believe that with the appropriate development of information and communication technologies, it can be overcome.
Moreover, two of the speakers defended our standpoint, they advocated that polyculture might be difficult to manage, however, it’s an important attempt to fight against the climate change and environmental problem. They are looking for our continued work in fusing the biodiversity with agricultural and biodiversity education.

As for the personal opinion toward future development of Synecoculture, education is the absolute answer.
Not only teach the biodiversity, but also let students enjoy the food, explore the food. Raise their interests is the most efficient way to increase the consciousness of the given issue. Further, digitalization of the contents can make the wider influence.
Nowadays, most of the agricultural education is still superficial, there are only little changes. We hope our project is able to bring the new page for it.

Pictures of Melbourne taken by Charles Lin: