Significant initiatives in advancing and mainstreaming integrated natural resources management, such as the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, UN Framework Conventions on Climate Change, and UN Convention on Biodiversity, have brought transformations in the global landscape. Sustaining these transformations requires proposing and implementing sustainable solutions using interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches for the agriculture, aquatic, environment, and natural resources.

To package and promote rich experiences in future-proofing and sustainable development through integrated natural resources and environment management (INREM), the University of the Philippines Los Baños – Interdisciplinary Studies Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Environment Management (UPLB-INREM) led the organization of a three-day international conference with the theme “Future-Proofing Sustainable Ridge-to-Reef Transformations through INREM.”

More than 200 participants composed of early career and experienced researchers, professionals, practitioners, students, and other INREM stakeholders from state universities and colleges, research institutions, national and local government units, and civil society. The participants came from diverse regions, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, India, Ghana, Ethiopia, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States. The three-day conference featured nine (9) plenary sessions on various themes, including natural resources and environment management as the backbone of resilience; seascapes focusing on oil spill disasters; forest landscape governance; building sustainable and resilience future of small islands; rural-urban linkages; environment and economics research; social decisions/socio-ecological systems; capacity development at multiple scales; and transformative education for INREM. There were eleven (11) parallel sessions for a total of forty-eight (48) research papers, and two special sessions for early career researchers presenting ten (10) undergraduate and four (4) graduate research papers.

In addition, there were twenty-two (22) poster presentations covering a wide range of topics, including policy and governance; socioeconomic analysis; biophysical assessment; pollution and environmental degradation; ecosystem-based adaptation and disaster risk reduction and coastal and marine resources.