Collegio futuro winter school 2026, workshop IV Nature conservation and resource struggle
As human demand for land continues to grow, the pressure on our planet’s ecosystems intensifies. Balancing the need for food, infrastructure, and resources with the urgent call for nature restoration has become one of the defining challenges of our time.
Mankind uses more and more resources of our planet. Some estimate that up to 80% of ice-free land has been in some form transformed by human activities, yet still there is increasing demand for land to increase food production and to build infrastructure. Because of intensive use, some parts of land have been degraded, which shrinks available land even more. Therefore, less land remains available for nature to support diversity and natural processes, which in turn may compromise delivery of ecosystem services natural ecosystems provide to humanity. Many people believe that this situation is not sustainable, and we need to provide more land for nature by land restoration. This is even reflected by several policies, such as the EU nature restoration law or the ongoing United Nations decade of ecosystem restoration. In this Collegio futuro workshop, we will search for solutions to the conflict between the need for land for nature restoration and resource use by human communities. We will explore variation in land use and degradation patterns across various communities, which vary in socioeconomic and environmental conditions, and we will search for tailored solutions to the conflict between human use of land and nature.
Supervision:
Prof. Mgr. Ing. Jan Frouz, CSc.
Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University,
Full professor and director of the Environment Center at the Charles University
Research: Soil ecology, Sustainable use of natural resources
Prof. Ladislav Miko
Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic & Charles University in Prague
Guest speaker for the second online Collegio futuro session on international policymaking (20 January 2026).
Research and engagement:
- Soil biologist, ecologist and environmentalist, specialized in soil ecology and biology of soil mites.
- Former Minister of Environment of the Czech Government and Director for Biodiversity at DG Environment, and Director General of DG Health and Food Safety of European Commission.
- Advisor to Minister of Environment and special envoy of Czech Government for international negotiations Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
