Linking the Sciences of Environmental
Change to Society and Policy - lessons from 10 years of research networks
in the Americas
The steering
committee for the project is chaired by Holm
Tiessen (Germany), with Osvaldo Sala
(Argentina, co-chair), Mike Brklacich (Canada), Reynaldo
Victoria (Brazil) and Fabio Feldman (Brazil)
As global drivers
of climate and ecosystem change are being better understood, the science
of Global Change is focusing increasingly on regional impacts. Such
regional impacts commonly have strong human dimensions both in the form
of human drivers of change and in the impact of global change on the
vulnerability and sustainability of societies, their institutions and
their ecological support base.
The Interamerican Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) has supported
a number of projects on global change science in the Americas, which
have generated a wealth of knowledge on such topics as biodiversity,
biogeochemistry, land quality, ecosystem function, climate change and
variability, regional hydrology and oceanography. Although the relevance
of much of this work to decision-making, and its critical links to the
socio-economic basis of the region are evident, communication between
the natural and human sciences and between science and societies has
been limited. At least one network has synthesized scientific findings
into high-level advocacy towards the Millennium Assessment. Other IAI
networks have had closer involvement with society with significant extension
and policy components because their themes explicitly addressed human
dimensions such as risk management, land or other resource use. Several
other large science projects in the Americas such as the LBA (Large-Scale
Biosphere-Atmosphere experiment in Amazonia) have made strenuous attempts
to improve communication with the policy sector. Yet, communication
between the sciences and with decision makers and stakeholders has been
largely ad hoc and has not developed into a strong and prominent component
of the science effort.
The urgency of educated
and effective responses to the challenges of Global Change requires
that the dialogue linking science to societal processes become firmly
established and effective based on:
- information
flows from science to levels of governance - local, regional, national,
international and commercial - as appropriate for the scales of Global
Change impacts, adaptation and mitigation;
- mechanisms of
science governance that facilitate the integration of natural and
social sciences, assessments, policy formulation and advocacy through
entire project cycles from conception and planning to implementation
of results.
SCOPE and IAI are
working together on a RAP workshop that will be held on 27 November-2
December 2005 in Ubatuba, Brazil.
Background papers
will provide a synthesis of results and lessons from the past 10 years
of science projects, analyzing specifically the (potential or real)
links to society and policy. In addition, four major crosscutting issues,
have been identified and will be discussed at the workshop, with due
consideration given to education and capacity building:
- Science policy
- generating and steering science for policy relevance;
- Making science
credible, practical and operationally valuable to policy and society;
- Stakeholders:
identification and integration into the science process (and enhancing
the north-south dialogue);
- Articulating
science for different sectors of society.
Last up-dated 3 August 2005