-------------------------At May 2008


SCOPE's scientific programme consists of projects focused on the concepts and practices of sustainability: maintaining the life-support system of humankind by safeguarding the natural resources over time.

Its aim is to contribute to designing processes and practices which reduce the depletion rate of non-renewable resources, identify substitute resources, and assure a sustainable supply of renewable resources.

SCOPE holds that these resources must be managed in accordance with the strongest possible scientific basis, cultural sensitivity and social justice.

Cluster 1 – Managing Societal and Natural Resources

Cluster 2 – Ecosystem Processes and Biodiversity

Cluster 3 – Health and Environment

Outreach Activities

Archive - Projects Completed Since 2003


Cluster 1 - Managing Societal and Natural Resources (MSNR)

Cluster coordinators: P.G. Risser (USA), N.O. Adedipe (Nigeria)

Projects founded on scientific research, but emphasising its applications in developing options for practices and policies for a more sustainable biosphere.


Cluster 2 - Ecosystem Processes and Biodiversity (EP&B)

Cluster Coordinators: C. Heip (Netherlands), C.B. Field (USA)

Projects focused on ecosystem processes, their interactions with human activities, and the relation between biological diversity and ecosystem functioning.


Cluster 3 - Health and Environment (H&E)

Cluster Coordinator: V.P. Sharma (India)

Projects that develop methods to assess chemical risks to human and non-human species and use case studies of environmental contamination to assess the health and environmental risks of specific chemicals.


Outreach Activities

  • The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) and SCOPE are undertaking over 2008-2010 an assessment of research and institutional needs to cope with the effects of climate change on Andean biodiversity. This sub-regional assessment will help guide future research, capacity building and institutional development in a region that is highly susceptible to climate change and is home to important reserves of biodiversity. Project activities will concentrate on the Andean region (particularly in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru).

  • The IAI and SCOPE are also developing a Rapid Assessment project in collaboration with PETROBRAS on biodiversity, ecosystem services, landuse change and energy crops in the La Plata Basin. This sub-regional assessment over 2008-09 aims to (1) characterize the advance of crop lands in the LPB both over the past 25 years and present trends and forecasts, and evaluate social & economic drivers of the expansion, (2) analyse the impact of crop expansion in the LPB on ecosystems and ecosystem services, and the feedback from ecosystem services to social and economic wellbeing, and (3) develop guidelines for landuse decisions and best management practices.

  • The UNEP Year Book 2008 (formerly the GEO Year Book) is the fifth annual report on the changing environment produced by the United Nations Environment Programme in collaboration with many world environmental experts. SCOPE contributed the Emerging Challenges section “Methane from the Arctic: Global Warming Wildcard”.