Global COE Program - Kyoto University - In Search of Sustainable Humanosphere in Asia and Africa

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If the earth's natural resources continue to be used by humanity at the same speed as it had been used in the 20th century, it is obvious that not only scarcity of specific resources but also the influence of discharge will bring significant negative impact on the humanosphere. Plunderous resource-use seeking and exhausting one kind of resource after another, should be consciously transformed into a new way of natural resource-use which maximizes the potential vitality and reproductivity of nature at both the local and global levels.

This initiative, therefore, aims for a new paradigm, towards securing human co-existence with nature under the global system by integrating advanced-technology with area studies which cover both natural and social sciences. In seeking a new paradigm from the perspective of our initiative, we will endeavor to answer various questions: changes in the conceptualization of nature and environment, rethinking such taken for granted notions as forest or nature; introducing new ideas regarding property rights towards natural resources; and reconsidering the highly complex transformation process of the human-nature system which can only be understood by the accumulation of enormous research activities all around the world. A new scientific evaluation and estimation of the future is required, which can only be accomplished by comprehensive integration and continuous updating of such varied and multiple levels of information.

Actual topics to be discussed in this initiative towards the new paradigm formulation include the linkage between people's livelihood at the local level and environmental issues at the global level, local management of natural resources under globalization, living with disaster and disease, and issues of appropriate technology. In doing so, we pay attention not only to the seasonal changes of the environment, but also long-term transformations over years and decades and the diversity, including forms of human adaptation. It has been the contribution of area studies to point out that local technology, institutions, and culture which are themselves diverse and dynamic, actually include within it, the necessary wisdom towards making maximum use of the potential vitality and reproductivity of nature. Seeking linkage between such local wisdom as explored by area studies specialists on the one hand, and advanced-technology on the other within the long-term global changes would be the foundation towards formulating a new paradigm for our future.

 Towards our program goal

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