Climate change, species extinction or biodiversity loss: It has become obvious that the challenges of the present cannot be overcome alone. A comprehensive picture unquestionably requires a multitude of perspectives. The Museum für Naturkunde with its "Netzwerk Naturwissen" (Network of Nature Knowledge) is the venue for a collaboration with partners from Berlin and Brandenburg.
Encounter and exchange generate new knowledge. In view of the current ecological change processes and challenges, the Netzwerk Naturwissen is establishing a platform that rethinks collaborations and promotes mutual learning processes. Together with partners from different disciplines and institutions, the network opens up a space to explore different answers to a jointly posed question on the annual topic of "species extinction". After all, it is obvious that no one discipline/perspective alone can adequately describe and shape the complex interactions between nature, societies, technologies and the environment. In view of the global ecological, political and social changes, we are rather dependent on different partners with their experiences, insights and expertise. Even beyond the strict boundaries of the sciences.
A "map of knowledge" is being created as an orientation and documentation tool, and as an offer to enter into a conversation about the momentous questions on which it is based.
Find out who is part of the Netzwerk Naturwissen and what drives them! Explore our Netzwerk Naturwissen map.
Past Events
Mar. 15, 2023, Netzwerk Naturwissen reads...
In our reading circle we discuss a text together every month. Would you like to join us? Then register for our next meeting via netzwerknaturwissen@mfn.berlin.
This time: The Ethics of De-Extinction. (2014) Shlomo Cohen
Mar. 3, 2023, Netzwerk Naturwissen im Gespräch: film screening and discussion: “Aufschrei der Jugend”
Following the Global Climate Strike on 3 March 2023, the Netzwerk Naturwissen will show the film "Aufschrei der Jugend" ("Youth Outcry") at the museum and then discuss with the director Kathrin Pitterling, representatives of Fridays for Future Willi Schwope and Louis Motaal, as well as with Timothée Ingen-Housz (Berlin University of the Arts and member of the network), for example, which forms of protest we can use to draw attention to the current environmental crises. We want to discuss how images work here more precisely and what significance their public perception has for socio-politically issues. Which new stories can be told to get into action?
If you would like to join us please register via Email at netzwerknaturwissen@mfn.berlin.
The three discussants (from left) Timothée Ingen-Housz, Louis Motaal and Kathrin Pitterling talk about the form of climate protests. The discussion was moderated by Anna Schunck (r.).
Feb. 9, 2023, Netzwerk Naturwissen im Gespräch: film screening and discussion: “The Nature Makers”
The Netzwerk Naturwissen invites you to a new gathering at the museum on 26th January 2023 at 4.30pm: This time, we will look at the documentary film "The Nature Makers", which deals with extraordinary nature and species conservation projects in the USA. The 70-minute film “is a moving portrait of passionate people and the extraordinary creatures they’re fighting to preserve.”
“In a world increasingly dominated by humans, three teams of wildlife conservationists go to extraordinary and seemingly unnatural lengths to try to save three threatened species in the American heartland. Stunningly photographed in the Grand Canyon and on the American prairie, “The Nature Makers” follows rugged biologists who’ve deployed helicopters, giant bulldozers and a host of human tools to defend wild nature.”
The film will be shown in the original version (English).
Feb. 8, 2023, Netzwerk Naturwissen reads...
- Slowing Time in the Museum in a Period of Rapid Extinction (2022) Dolly Jørgensen, Libby Robin, Marie-Theres Fojuth
Jan. 11, 2023, Netzwerk Naturwissen reads...
- The geopolitics of extinction. From the Anthropocene to the Eurocene. (2017) Jairus Victor Grove
Dec. 14, 2022, Netzwerk Naturwissen reads...
- Our Future in the Anthropocene Biosphere: Global sustainability and resilient societies. (2020) Carl Folke, Stephen R. Carpenter, F. Stuart Chapin, Owen Gaffney
Dec. 13, 2022, Netzwerk Naturwissen im Gespräch: Die Artenkrise: Komplexe Herausforderungen- Gemeinschaftliche Lösungen?
From December 7-19, the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) will take place in Montreal, where political negotiation processes will decide how to respond (or not) to global species extinction. In the context of a panel discussion of our network Naturwissen, we want to critically question the chances, but also the problems of previous measures for the protection of biodiversity.
(event will be held in German)
At the panel discussion "Netzwerk Naturwissen im Gespräch," the four discussants, moderated by Ivy Nortey, got to talk with each other about the species crisis. From left: Ivy Nortey, Konstantin Kreiser, Filibert Heim, Maike Weißpflug, Jörg Freyhof.
Dec. 12, 2022, Publication of the open letter: "15th UN World Conference on Nature: Our Future in Your Hands!"
Filibert Heim from Netzwerk Naturwissen, a member of Fridays for Future and a biouniversity student at Göttingen University, together with members of BUNDjugend, Greenpeacejugend, Fridays For Future and NAJU published the Open Letter: "15th UN World Conference on Nature: Our Future in Your Hands!" at the Museum für Naturkunde.
The Open Letter was addressed to Chancellor Scholz, Minister Lemke, Minister Özdemir and Minister Schulze on the occasion of the World Conference on Nature COP15.
The alliance of members of youth movements and youth environmental organisations outlines in its letter the dramatic loss of biodiversity and the insufficient/measures taken so far by the global community to reverse the trend. The authors then propose some key demands/measures to counter the sixth mass extinction.
For example, the authors call for the protection of 30 per cent of the Earth's terrestrial and marine surface, the halting of environmentally harmful subsidies and the restoration of 20 per cent of degraded ecosystems. For these demands, the authors have the support of over 1200 scientists and a broad alliance of over 35 nature and environmental protection organisations.
Presentation of the open letter, "15th Un-World Nature Conference: Our Future in Your Hands" at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. From left: Landelin Winter: Fridays for Future; Wolfgang Lucht: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK); Katrin-Boehing Gäse: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F) Christoph Heinrich: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). (© WWF-Deutschland 2022)
Dec. 7-18, 2022, "Jenga Turm der Biodiversität" installation. WWF as a guest of the MfN's Netzwerk Naturwissen.
come see the installation during the opening hours of the museum
Today, animal and plant species are disappearing faster than ever before for good - already one million species are threatened. We are currently experiencing the greatest extinction of species since the end of the dinosaur age. From Dec. 7 to Dec. 19, 2022, the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) will take place in Montreal, Canada. WWF is using the event as an opportunity to bring the topic of nature and species conservation to the public with the help of a four-meter-high "Jenga Turm der Biodiversität" (Jenga Tower of biodiversity). The tower will be a guest of the Naturwissen network at the Museum für Naturkunde from December 7, 2022. The message: on the subject of biodiversity, everything is connected! If you remove something (this can be a species, or a habitat), the tower becomes unbalanced and can collapse. But: it is not too late. We can stabilize the tower if we act now.
© WWF_Deutschland