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Yossapon Boonsom
Director of Shma Company LimitedDay 1 - Keynote Speaker
Community for Landscape and Environment with focus on Green Space for the Community
Yossapon Boonsom is a Thai landscape architect and the director of Shma Company Limited. He received a degree in Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Chulalongkorn University and continued his studies at a postgraduate level in Master of Arts in Urban Management & Architectural Design at the University of Wales (Domus Academy, Milan).
After completing his studies, he worked as a Landscape Architect in Singapore for 5 years before establishing Shma Company Limited along with two partners. Shma Company Limited is a Landscape Architectural design and research practice which aims to transform the territory through landscape design with projects across Thailand and Asia pacific. Their works include transforming abandoned areas into public spaces, meeting the resident's needs through creative and inclusive spaces, improving the connection between the people and the environment, and collaborating with communities to come up with solutions tackling the current environmental challenges. Shma’s projects has been awarded and shortlisted World Architecture Festival (WAF 2012 - 2018) and International Federation of Landscape Architects Congress.
At a larger scale of the public agenda, Yossapon Boonsom is the co-founder of Friends of the River (FOR) which is established as a non-profit organization, aiming to be a creative force which stimulates social awareness and participation to creatively develop Chaophraya River with the principle that encourage sustainable relation between city, community and the river through public participation process.
His talks and books tackle landscape resilience, city transformation through a human-centered approach, city revitalization, and public green spaces in the community and their ability to improve the quality of residential living spaces.
Dr. Theresa Mundita Lim
Executive Director of ASEAN Centre for BiodiversityDay 1 - Plenary Presentation
Community Spaces as Integral Component of Green Infrastructure for Biodiversity Conservation
Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim is the current Executive Director of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) where she leads the Centre in facilitating regional cooperation and coordination on biodiversity conservation for it to be sustainably managed and used, and equitably shared for the well-being of people. Some of her notable international roles in the conservation sector were as the Chair of the Convention on Biological Diversity Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (CBD-SBSTTA) from 2017 to 2018, Chair of the 15th and 18th Meetings of the ASEAN Working Group Meeting on Coastal and Marine Environment (AWGCME) in 2014 and 2017, Chairperson of the 4th ASEAN Experts Group (AEG) on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) Meeting in 2006, and Chairperson of the 16th ASEAN Working Group on Nature Conservation and Biodiversity (AWGNCB), also in 2006. Her core competencies and extensive experience and expertise are in local, regional, and international governance, management, policy development, implementation, and innovation, partnership-building, science and policy linkages, and advocacy in the fields of biodiversity conservation and wildlife protection.
Prof. Simon Bell
Chair Professor at Estonian University of Life Sciences and Associate Director of OPENspace Research Centre, Edinburgh College of Art, University of EdinburghDay 2 - Keynote Speaker
Landscape architecture: What does the future hold?
Challenges and Opportunities in a Changing World
Simon Bell is a forester and landscape architect, having taken his bachelor's degree in Forestry at the University of Whales, his M.Phil in Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh and his PhD in Landscape Architecture at the Estonian University of Life Sciences. He is currently a professor and the Chair Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Estonian University of Life Sciences. He is also the Associate Director of OPENspace Research Centre at the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, which primarily researches the full benefits of having access to outdoor environments.
He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters in UK, a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute in UK and a member of the Estonian Union of Landscape Architects. He was awarded the Travelling Fellowship by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to Japan. Simon Bell also engages in numerous international activities; he was president of the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools from 2012 to 2015 and 2015 to 2018. He was also Chair of the Cost Action E33 Forest and Recreation and Nature Tourism from 2004 to 2008.
His researches focus mainly on how accessibility to forests and other green spaces as well as blue spaces (his current field of active research) impact health, well-being, and quality of life in peri-urban regions. His books and publications include case studies of park spatial accessibility and its relationship with the park's use patterns, regeneration of deteriorating urban areas, landscape value and perspectives on future land use, and innovative approaches to researching landscape and health. He is a great believer in the potential of landscape architecture to play a much more leading role in solving the many problems facing us, since it can connect to many other disciplines in ways that once seemed unlikely.
Anna Gonzales
Sustainability Manager at Ayala Land Inc.Day 2 - Plenary Speaker
Community Empowerment and Economic Improvement through Landscape with focus on Best Practices Locally
Anna Maria M. Gonzales has served as Ayala Land’s Sustainability Manager since 2011. As the lead for sustainability for the Philippines' most diversified property developer of large-scale mixed use estates, she oversees initiatives that create value for the environment and society. Her unit is responsible for the company’s carbon neutrality program and collaborates with other teams to avoid emissions through planning and design, energy conservation, and renewable energy sourcing. Her unit manages carbon forests in the company’s vast land bank. Through trainings and enhancing policy, the sustainability unit also ensured various business units and subsidiaries of Ayala Land integrate the company’s Four Focus areas of Site Resilience, Pedestrian Mobility and Transit Connectivity, Eco-efficiency and Local Economic Development.
Anna is an architect, environmental planner (EnP) and Certified BERDE (Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence) Professional. Before joining Ayala Land, Anna established and headed a technical service non-profit serving various planning, design and empowerment needs of rural indigenous and urban poor communities starting in her mid-20s. She worked on various community infrastructure projects with private sector, NGO networks and ODA organizations and briefly served government as a project administrator and Deputy Secretary General of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. She is a product of the University of the Philippines College of Architecture, and the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies in Rotterdam, where she obtained a postgraduate certificate in Neighborhood Development Planning. She subsequently honed her skills and knowledge in sustainability related short courses, notably Urban Ecological Restoration at International Urban Training Center (IUTC) in South Korea, and Conservation of Heritage Buildings from Lund University, Sweden. Using these courses as a platform, Anna continuously works with different teams to innovate on planning, design and development approaches to create sustainable communities for the Philippine setting. Anna was Hubert Humphrey fellow for urban and regional planning at Rutgers University in 2011-2012.