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In Focus

-A Vision and Strategy-

Dear Colleagues,

As the new IHDP Executive Director as of January 2010, I would like to share with you both my enthusiasm and my plans for the years to come, as we can, I am sure, expect many challenges, as well as opportunities during this time.

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Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change

The 2010 Berlin Conference, to be held in Berlin from 8-9th October, will be the 10th conference in the well established series of European Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. This year’s conference will adress the “Social dimensions of environmental change and governance”.
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E-Zine 1|2010

Dear Readers,

A new IHDP Executive Director and two major conferences organised by our core research projects UGEC and GLP later this year are just some of the highlights of what looks to be a very promising 2010!
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CCAFS Launch Conference: Securing food security in the face of climate change

Climate change represents an immediate and unprecedented threat to the food security of hundreds of millions of people who depend on small‐scale agriculture and natural resource management for their livelihoods.
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Survey on Global Environmental Change Data, Methods and Models

The European Science Foundation’s RESCUE project (Responses to Environmental and Societal Challenges for our Unstable Earth at http://www.esf.org/rescue/) would like to hear from those in the research community who are involved with global change modeling and data, or policy makers who make use of research results.
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The New Global Change Committee of Norway

The Research Council of Norway has appointed a new Global Change Committee for the period 1.10.2009 to 31.12.2012. The Committee will be a link between Norwegian and international research on global environmental change and serve as a Norwegian Contact for IHDP.
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Iceland Ranks at Top of 2010 Environmental Index at World Economic Forum

The 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 163 countries on 25 performance indicators tracked across ten policy categories covering both environmental public health and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy goals.
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Special Feature on Land Use and Ecosystems published in Sustainability Science

GLP Sapporo Nodal Office has just edited a special feature on "Land Use and Ecosystems" in Sustainability Science (January 2010 edition). The Special Feature documents progress in Land Change Science Research.

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IGBP/IHDP Side Event in COP 15: Science, Society, and Adaptation

Copenhagen - The joint IGBP/IHDP side event at COP 15, supported by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the United Nations University (UNU), addressed the intersections between Science, Society, and Adaptation. Simultaneous to the intensifying of the COP 15 negotiations on 12 December 2009, the event drew around 100 participants
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Dr. Anantha Duraiappah Appointed as IHDP's New Executive Director

The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Anantha Kumar Duraiappah as its new Executive Director. Dr Duraiappah, an environmental-development economist with more than two decades of experience at the international level, will assume his new position in January 2010.
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Update 3.2009: Governance as a Crosscutting Theme in Human Dimensions Science

With contributions from many different IHDP projects, this issue focuses on the importance and relevance of governance topics in the many different research areas of human dimensions science.
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Outcome of the 6th Bonn Dialogues

The conditions of sustainable production of biofuels and the mechanisms concerning food and energy security were vividly debated by top experts in the field. An audience of 120 people participated in the event hosted by Deutsche Welle in Bonn. Listen to and read about the event here.
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New Global Carbon Budget Released

According to research published on 17 November 2009 in Nature Geoscience, emissions of carbon dioxide continue to outstrip the ability of the world’s natural ‘sinks’ to absorb carbon. The report, updated annually by a global team of climate experts shows that global carbon emissions from fossil fuels rose 2 percent last year to a record high of 1.3 metric tons per person.
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1st Announcement: Global Land Project Open Science Meeting 2010 - Land Systems, Global Change and Sustainablility

The Global Land Project first Open Science Meeting (GLP OSM) will be held from 17-19th October 2010 at Arizona State University and is organized in close cooperation with IHDP's Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) project (UGEC will hold its 1st International Science and Practice Conference from the 15-17th October, with the 17th October organized jointly with GLP).
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Former IHDP Scientific Committee Member Elinor Ostrom wins Nobel economics prize

Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson won the Nobel economics prize for their analyses of economic governance. Ostrom, a former Scientific Committee member of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) is the first woman to win the prize since it was founded in 1968, and the fifth woman to win a Nobel award this year – a Nobel record.
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Chinese National Committee - IHDP Workshop: Human Dimension of Global Environmental Changes

On 21 October 2009, the Chinese National Committee for the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (CNC- IHDP) organised a workshop in the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. This workshop was held at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
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Eating the Planet: Feeding and fuelling the world sustainably, fairly and humanely – a scoping study

In 2050, around 9.2 billion people are currently forecast to inhabit our planet. Providing sufficient food in terms of quantity and quality in a sustainble manner is one of humanity*s central challenges. A new report commissioned by Friends of the Earth, UK and Compassion inWorld farming now shows that biomass demand for food strongly interacts with future bioenergy potentials.
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Volunteering for our Planet

The United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) has launched a global campaign to create awareness about volunteer activities that take place on environmental issues, sustainable development, and in support of adapting to or mitigating climate change. www.VolunteeringForOurPlanet.org is tracking the time environmental volunteers spend volunteering in the six months between World Environment Day, 5 June, 2009 and International Volunteer Day, 5 December, 2009. More than 325,000 hours have already been registered.
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6th Bonn Dialogues: Energy & Food Security

The next Bonn Dialogues discusses the issue of "Energy & Food Security - Much Ado About Nothing?". The public symposium takes place on Tuesday, 10 November 2009, at 6:00 pm at Deutsche Welle in Bonn. The energy and food issue are interconnected and constitute two of the biggest challenges in the near future. The production of biofuels has increased considerably. Large areas of rain forests are being cleared for soybean and oil palm cultivation to produce biofuels which are needed for energy production.
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UN-HABITAT’s e-Debate on Inclusive Sustainable Urbanization

UN-HABITAT is organising an e-Debate on Inclusive Sustainable Urbanization. The debate will be moderated by David Simon, member of the UGEC Scientific Steering Committee and Head of the Development Geography Department at the University of London.
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