Ramon Folch

						Biographical sketch
						Ramon FOLCH Barcelona, 1946 Graduate (1968) and PhD (1976) in Biological Sciences

						PhD in Biology, socio-ecologist. Folch's work focuses on research and sustainable regional and town planning in an approach that he himself helped to define and develop. Since 1994 has directed his own firm, ERF, Gestió i Comunicació Ambiental, SL. He is a member of the Spanish Section of the Club of Rome and of the Institute of Catalan Studies' Plant Ecology Area. He has also been chair of the Social Council at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia Social Council (2004-08), general secretary of the International Advisory Board of the Latin-American Faculty of Environmental Sciences (La Plata, Argentina) and professor of the UNESCO/FLACAM Chair for Sustainable Development (1989-2006). After several years of academic activity as Professor of Botany at the University of Barcelona (1968-75), Ramon Folch directed the environmental services of Barcelona Provincial Council and the Autonomous Government, or Generalitat, of Catalonia (1975-82); he later devoted himself to international technical cooperation, to social aspects of ecological problems and to scientific communication in the environmental field. Former environmental management advisor to UNESCO and member and general secretary of the Spanish Committee of the UNESCO MAB Programme (Madrid-Paris, 1982-94), member of the UNESCO commission set up to follow up developments after the Rio Summit (Paris, 1992-97) and holder of the Catalan Institute of Technology's Chair for Environmental Metatechnology and Socio-Ecology (Barcelona, 1996-98). In the professional field, Folch has drawn up or directed numerous planning and environmental studies and projects, either at the head of an ERF interdisciplinary team and/or in cooperation with other firms in the field. As a researcher and project director, he has taken part in environmental and health research and cooperation projects in Europe (Spain, Italy, Andorra), Africa (Senegal, Chad, Ivory Coast and Congo [former Zaire], as well as Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean) and America (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Cuba, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Paraguay), and was the representative for Spain on the European Union's DG Research Commission on Organisms and Systems Biology (Brussels, 1986-87). Ramon Folch is the author and/or editor of many articles and some thirty books, including Suarem, el clima que ens espera, L'energia en l'horitzó del 2030 (Energy towards 2030, 2005), El territorio como sistema (The territory as system, 2003), La dèria de mirar (The Craze for Looking, 2000), Diccionario de Socioecología (Socio-ecology dictionary, 1999) and a four-volume series devoted to socio-ecology Sobre ecologismo y ecología aplicada, Sobre ecología, educación y desarrollo, Sobre educación ambiental y socioecología and Ambiente, emoción y ética (On ecologism and applied ecology, On ecology, education and development, On environmental and socio-ecological education and Environment, emotion and ethics, 1977/1990/1993/1998). Director of Història Natural dels Països Catalans (Natural History of the Catalan Lands, 16 volumes, 1984-92) and Biosphere (11 volumes, in Catalan, English, German and Japanese versions, 1993-98), director of the e-magazine Sostenible, director and scriptwriter of the television series Mediterrània (50 programmes on Mediterranean-type ecosystems in southern Europe, northern Africa, South Africa, California, central Chile and southern Australia, 1987-89) and Natura (13 programmes on environmental management in Catalonia, 1990-91), director/curator of such exhibitions, amongst others, as Estimada Terra (Beloved Earth, Barcelona Cultural Olympiad, 1992-93), Dos Millones de Siglos (Two Million Centuries, Argentinian Pavilion at Expo 98 in Lisbon), Mediterrània, territori i paisatge (Mediterranean: landscape and territory, Barcelona, 1999, digital version: Atlas ambiental del Mediterráneo, or Environmental Atlas of the Mediterranean), Habitar el món (Inhabiting the World, 2004 Barcelona Forum, winner of the 2004 City of Barcelona Multimedia Award), Barcelona Sensacions (Barcelona Sensations) and Cambio climático. Preguntas y respuestas ("Climate Change: Questions and Answers") (travelling since 2007).
						PDF archive see Ramon Folch publications



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