Executive Summary

This document constitutes the Science Plan for the project on the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC), which in turn is part of a larger science planning enterprise taking place under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP).

The  core  of  the  IDGEC  project  is  an  analysis  of  the  roles  that social institutions  play  as  determinants  of  the  course  of human/environment interactions. Institutions are systems of rules, decision-making procedures, and programs that give rise to social practices, assign roles to participants in these practices, and guide interactions among the occupants of the relevant roles. Unlike organizations, which are material entities that typically figure as actors in social practices, institutions may be thought of as the rules of the game that determine the character of these practices.

Institutions loom large as causes  of  large-scale  environmental problems that  are  both  systemic  (e.g.,  climate  change,  ozone  layer  depletion) and cumulative (e.g., loss of biological diversity) in nature. Faulty structures of property rights, for example, can lead to severe depletions of stocks of living resources or to excessive uses of ecosystems for the disposal of airborne and waterborne pollutants. Conversely, institutions often figure prominently in efforts to solve or manage environmental problems. The establishment of limited-entry arrangements to prevent the ravages of overfishing and of regulatory  regimes  to  control  emissions of  ozone-depleting  substances  or greenhouse gases are examples of obvious relevance to global environmental change.

Four sets of priorities define the scope of the IDGEC project and give it a distinct  identity  within  the  family  of  projects  addressing  issues  of global environmental change. A fifth priority was added after the inauguration of the project. These priorities encompass:

1.  Research Foci,

2.  Analytic Themes,

3.  Regional Applications,

4.  Programmatic Partnerships,

5.  Flagship Activities.