Conference Program

This is a preliminary schedule and subject to change. This page will continue to updated as we get closer to the conference dates. If you are interested to register as an attendee to the conference, please register using this e-form. The deadline to register for for onsite registration is April 22, 2025. Please note that there is a limit on the number of onsite audience participants – so do not delay if you would like to join us onsite. The deadline to register for online participation is May 5, 2025. 

All conference events will take place on the University of Helsinki, City Centre Campus in the Language Center at Fabianinkatu 26.

The conference is held in Finland’s time zone, which is Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) also represented as UTC+3. All times listed below are in Finland time. If you would like to check the time in your own time zone, here is a link to our favorite time zone converter (https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html).  

May 6, 2025 – Just GLOBE Day (Pre-Conference)

All sessions during the pre-conference day will take place in the Language Centre, Room 115 (1st floor)

9:00-9:15 Welcome & Intro to Just GLOBE Project

9:15-10:45 Environmental (In)Justice, Extractivism, and (De)Coloniality

  • Moderator – Lawrence Damnyag, FORIG, Ghana
  • Speakers
    • Markus Kröger, University of Helsinki – Extractivism in the web of life
    • Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen, Natural Resources Institute Finland – Decolonial Environmental Justice in the Just GLOBE Project
    • Eric Mensah Kumeh, University of Oxford – Environmental injustice and green extractivism in the APSD case of bioeconomy and green transition in Ghana
    • Frank Kwaku Agyei, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Ghana – How the state justice system institutionalizes injustice: The case of the Agogo Farmer-Herder Conflict

10:45-11:00 Break

11:00-12:30 Environmental Justice (EJ) and Care Work/Labour

  • Moderator: Eeva Houtbeckers, University of Eastern Finland
  • Speakers
    • Stefania Barca, University of Santiago de Compostela/CISPAC – Earthcare as labour (Online)
    • Violeta Gutiérrez Zamora, Luke and Khampheng Phengsavat, BNDA – Ecological Care Labor and Bamboo Value Chains: Cultivating Environmental Justice
    • Timnoy Salitxay, Souphanouvong University, Business Incubation Center – Plant science research for a just rural development
    • Phong An Huynh, GRET Laos – Development work on the ground

12:30-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:30 Transformations in the EU’s External Environmental Policy & Governance

  • Maria Brockhaus, University of Helsinki
  • Speakers
    • Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen, Natural Resources Institute Finland – EU green transition as an obstacle for socioecological transformations: Deradicalizing degrowth, decoloniality and justice in the EU’s green politics
    • Maria Backhouse, Augsburg University – Carbon Offsetting as Externalization. Insights from the Brazilian Amazon Basin
    • Toni Haastrup, University of Manchester – EU, feminist foreign policies and transformations
    • Connie McDermott, University of Oxford – EU global forest governance – what is it transforming, and for whom?

15:30-16:00 Break

16:00-18:00 – Creating space for multispecies (MSJ) & more-than-human (MTH) Science-Policy Interface (SPI)

Opening presentation – Resisting technocracy in science advice to policy: a case study within the European Commission –Jacopo Giuntoli (Independent Researcher, Italy) and Ansel Renner (Independent Researcher, Spain)

Panel Discussion

  • Moderator: Irmeli Mustalahti, University of Eastern Finland
  • Speakers
    • Ghana and Lao partners – Academics and practitioners in research and development 
      • Emmanuel Acheampong, Professor, KNUST University, Kumasi, Ghana
      • Phong An Huynh, Practitioner, GRET, NGO Development sector
      • Lawrence Damnyag, Principal Scientist, Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG)
    • EU based – Academics and practitioners in research and development 
      • Jacopo Giuntoli, Independent & consultant for the European Commission’s Joint Research Center
      • Tiina Huvio, Executive Director, Finnish Agri-Agency for Food and Forest Development (ffD)
      • Juha Hiedanpää, Research Professor, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

May 7, 2025 – Just GLOBE Conference

All keynote sessions during the conference day will take place in the Language Centre, Juhlasali (3rd floor) and parallel sessions will be in either the Juhlasali (3rd floor) or Room 115 (1st floor)

9:00-10:30 First Keynote Session (more information about our keynote speakers)

  • Danielle (Dany) Celermajer, Sydney Environment Institute
  • David Schlosberg, Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:30 First Set of Parallel Sessions

  • Session A – Language Centre Juhlasali (3rd floor)
  • Session B – Language Centre, Room 115 (1st floor)

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-15:15 Second Set of Parallel Sessions

  • Session C – Language Centre Juhlasali (3rd floor)
  • Session D – Language Centre, Room 115 (1st floor)

15:15-15:45 Break

15:45-17:00 Second Keynote Session (more information about our keynote speakers)

  • Christoper Raymond, University of Helsinki
  • Sabaheta Ramcilovik-Suominen, Natural Resources Institute Finland

17:00-17:15 Conference Wrap Up

17:30 Walk to University of Helsinki Botanical Garden from Kielikeskus

17:45-20:00 Reception at University of Helsinki Botanical Garden (pre-registration required)