Friday, April 20, 2007

Millinium Ecosystem Assessment Follow-up Group

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Follow-up Group formed.

"One of the recommendations from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Partners Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in September 2004 was that ICSU and UNESCO should take the lead in addressing how the experiences from the MA could help identify needs for additional research that could fill some of the knowledge gaps identified by the Assessment. The need for such an analysis has also been stressed in the follow-up discussions in relation to the development of a proposal for a GEF Medium Size Grant. UNU has later agreed to join ICSU and UNESCO in this follow-up activity and it has been decided to move forward despite the uncertain fate of the GEF proposal.......

ICSU, UNESCO and UNU will convene a Scoping Group of experts with relevant natural and social science disciplinary competence representing experiences from the MA as well as the relevant sub-global assessments to produce a report on the priority research gaps that need to be filled in order to improve any future global or-sub-global Millennium Ecosystem Assessment."

The report of the working group "will be transmitted to ICSU, UNESCO and UNU. If the report recommends further development of international and/or regional coordinated approaches, ICSU, UNESCO and UNU will engage the wider science community and other potential MA partners (e.g., IUCN, WRI, etc.) to consider appropriate mechanisms to develop a science and implementation plan, related time schedules, resource needs and possible partnerships, to address the identified research gaps."

The working group is chaired by Harold Mooney, and includes two other people from the United States --Doris Capistrano and Ruth DeFries.

Harold Mooney

Read the full discussion of the working group on the International Science Council website.

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