This workshop is jointly organised by The Ecological and Environmental Economics - EEE Programme, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics - ICTP, UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme - MAB, and The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis - IIASA.

In order to reduce emissions and to remove greenhouse gases as part of climate change control, increased efforts are being placed on promoting carbon economies that are less dependent on fossil carbon and through investments in bio-carbon and bio-carbon sequestration.

Proponents, and they are many, of bio-carbon sequestration activities stress that land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) initiatives, if properly designed, can bring important multiple benefits in terms of climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, rural development and poverty reduction in developing countries, However, there are also some critics that argue that this may not be the case. They cite scientific uncertainties, risks for investments in mono-cultures with negative impacts on biodiversity, as well as the possibility that offset schemes will benefit developed rather than developing countries.

Much interest has also been recently placed on the potential of �cellulosic� ethanol, a highly efficient way of making fuel from agricultural waste at almost zero emissions. Again, intensive penetration of this technology as well as other bio-carbon technologies, calls for an accurate design of integrated land use, agricultural, and bio-carbon sequestration policy.

The key target of the workshop, which will bring together experts from climate change research, finance, economics, ecological sciences and the biodiversity conservation community, is therefore to explore modelling tools, scenarios and associated research requirements for assessing the feasibility and the policies necessary for the effective linking of the objectives of the UNFCCC, the CBD and the MDGs through LULUCF investments.

Questions the Trieste workshop could help address for this purpose include some of the following:

- An overview of cost effectiveness of GHG mitigation measures in the agro-forestry sector. State of the art modelling effort and policy implications.

- What kind of data collection and synthesis, modelling and research will help measurement uncertainties and inaccuracies with regard to carbon sink and emission related complex landscapes in order to move LULUCF and �avoided deforestation� and similar actions closer to be part of carbon trading schemes?

- What are real potentials of bio-carbon, in the transport, heating and electricity generation sectors and to what extent land competition can be a concern?

- How can we promote/encourage economic and financial modellers to experiment with existing data and information on LULUCF with marginally more research so as to make carbon trading and markets take better notice of the opportunities and requirements of biodiversity conservation at the landscape level?

- How can we help ensure that the views, concerns and expertise of developing countries are being fully considered and incorporated in international climate change control research and related policy-making?