NEWSLETTER

Dear ESEE Member,

We are pleased to send you the monthly edition of the new electronic ESEE newsletter.
Supported by the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water the Sustainable Europe Research Institute SERI is able to maintain the website of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) and publishes this newsletter.

The newsletter is distributed only to members of the European Society for Ecological Economics. To join ESEE or renew your membership please visit www.euroecolecon.org.

If you want to publish intersting news, or information about events, job openings and new publications on the website or in the newsletter, feel free to send an email to esee@seri.at. We are also open for suggestions to improve our communication channels.


Content:

1. News from ESEE and its members

  • Note from the ESEE President Arild Vatn
  • Call for nominations to stand for election to the ESEE Administrative Board
  • Registration for ESEE 2007
  • Future ESEE conferences
  • New Research Centre on Steps to Sustainability in Sussex
  • GoverNAT: New Project coordinated by UFZ (Felix Rauschmeyer)
  • Spanish translation of ecological economics book
  • Jouni Paavola is moving to the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI)

2. Other news

  • State of the World 2006: China and India Hold World in Balance

3. Hot topic

  • Towards sustainable development in the EU: the revision of the SDS

4. Events

  • ESEE 2007: Integrating Natural and Social Sciences for Sustainability
  • PhD Student and Early Stage Researcher Workshop at ESEE 2007
  • ISEE 2006: Ninth Biennual Conference of International Society for Ecological Economics on "Ecological Sustainability and Human Well-Being"
  • 8th Annual International Round Table Seminar Environmental Policy and Economics and International Environmental Relations
  • Sustainable resource management, raw materials security, Factor-X resource productivity - tools for delivering sustainable growth in the European Union
  • Energy and Environment: The Future of European Financial Instruments International Seminar on European Project Development
  • Symposium "Integrated Coastal Zone Management"
  • SRPU - 40th anniversary conference: The Future of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Linking Research And Practice
  • ALTER-Net Training Course “An Introduction to Ecological-economic Modelling for Designing and Evaluating Biodiversity Conservation Policies and Strategies”

5. Job openings

  • UNESCO VACANCY
  • Job Opportunity at DNV - Project Manager for Climate Change Services
  • Vacancy Announcement: Senior Policy Researcher of Long-term Perspective and Policy Integration Project (LTP) at IGES

6. Publications

  • Ecological–economic modelling for strategic regional waste management systems
  • Fairness in Adaptation to Climate Change

1. News from ESEE and its members:


Note from the ESEE President Arild Vatn

First of all I will thank you for supporting my candidacy as president for the ESEE. It is an honour and great opportunity to be involved in leading an organization with such a creative membership. It is, however, also very demanding. I enter the job with great respect for all that has been done by those going before me. However, there is also more to do. I feel very dedicated to the job and will put much effort into developing the society further. However, I cannot do this without the active engagement of you as members. There are several issues I would like to address concerning building the ESEE and strengthening ecological economics.

For now I will mention three issues regarding membership and membership activities. First, ESEE membership is too low. There have been a number of problems with the membership database in recent years. This has now been fixed, but we need to work to get old members back and recruit new ones. For this we call for your help. Sigrid Stagl is putting together a flyer, which would be useful when informing colleagues about ESEE. An electronic copy will be sent to all members soon. Second, 10 posts to the ESEE Administrative Board are up for election in 2006. This is a major round of elections and demands engagement from the membership. A specific note from Wendy on this is also posted in this newsletter. I would just like to emphasize that these posts offer important and interesting challenges for all of you. We recognize that the present board has better representation in the west and north of Europe than in the south and east. While this partly reflects the current membership, we would hope to redress the balance in this round of elections. An election committee consisting of Jouni Paavola, Felix Rauschmayer, Inge Röpke and Juan Sanchez is set up not least to ensure that we get a competitive election. However, the main route is to get nominations directly from the membership.

Third, we need to strengthen the engagement of the membership in the development of ESEE. Many of you do already contribute a lot – for example work on committees, conferences, newsletter and lately the summer school set up by ESEE. But more can be done. One idea is to establish a system of country representatives to support the board and the editor of the newsletter. Currently, the activities of the board and of the editors are very dependent on their personal contacts. We need to broaden these through such a system. The board will get back to you on this issue when the elections are over this fall. Finally, I would like to thank Fritz, Andrea and Ines who have been so successful in financing and running our monthly newsletter. The board has decided that the newsletter will mainly come in electronic form in the future, although one issue per year will be on paper. That one will be issued right before the ESEE/ISEE conferences respectively. The editors – Andrea and Ines from now on – would (I am sure) appreciate more inputs from members.

Best regards, Arild


Call for nominations to stand for election to the ESEE Administrative Board

The terms of many members of the ESEE board are about to end. We therefore propose to hold elections for 10 posts to the ESEE Administrative Board. Elections take place in two phases. First, this announcement is a call for nominations. Second, a vote of fully paid members registered with the ISEE as ESEE 2006 members will be conducted by mail ballot to decide amongst the nominated individuals.

Administrative board members are elected for a 3 year term and can expect to be involved in: attending annual board meetings, work on two of the four standing committees (conference & meetings, publications & publicity, education, and fund raising & membership), producing their own initiatives, supplying items for the ESEE Newsletter. Election to the Board offers an opportunity to become involved in the running and future direction of the ESEE.

Those standing for the Board have to be fully paid members and require the agreed support of 5 fully paid current members of the ESEE. Nominees should also provide a half page statement of their background and intended contribution to the Board and Society.

Nominations should be sent to ESEE secretariat by email (w.kenyon@macaulay.ac.uk), or to the postal address Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, UK by 15th September 2006, and should include:

  • A list of 5 fully paid ESEE members who agree to support the candidates nomination
  • A short statement of intent and background (12pt, single spaced, in English)

These details will be supplied (including possible website posting) as part of the election process to ESEE members.

Warm regards, Wendy Kenyon (ESEE Secretary)


Registration for ESEE 2007
Note that the registration for ESEE 2007 is open now! Come and join us when we talk about "Integrating Natural and Social Sciences for Sustainability" in Leipzig, Germany, from 5-8th June 2007. Keynote speakers include Elinor Ostrom, Malte Faber, Dick Norgaard, Inge Roepke, Clive Spash, and Carl Folke. The first deadline for submitting symposia is 20 September, the deadline for submitting abstracts and papers is 20 November. Have a look at www.esee-leipzig2007.org and think about your contribution! (see also 4. Events)


Future ESEE conferences
If you are interested in hosting one of the next ESEE conferences (2009 or 2011), please contact Sigrid Stagl, s.stagl@sussex.ac.uk, ph. ++44-1273-872784.


New Research Centre on Steps to Sustainability in Sussex
Some of the biggest global challenges of the 21st Century lie in how to combine environmental sustainability with better livelihoods and health for poor people in developing countries, as well as how to harness science and technology towards their wellbeing and social justice. To address these issues the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) announces the award of funding for a significant new research centre - the Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS) Centre.

The centre, based at the Institute for Development Studies and Science Technology Policy Research (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, will see ESRC inject £3.8 million over an initial five-year period to explore the pathways through which technologies, ecologies and social systems interact and how these can be used to address some of the global challenges facing us now.

For further information, contact: Professor Melissa Leach (IDS) on 01273 678685, M.Leach@ids.ac.uk or Professor Andy Stirling (SPRU) on 01273 877118, A.C.Stirling@sussex.ac.uk.


GoverNAT: New Project coordinated by UFZ (Felix Rauschmeyer)
A new project will start this autumn with heavy participation of ESEE researchers: “Multi-level Governance of Natural Resources: Tools and Processes for Water and Biodiversity Governance in Europe” (GoverNat).
Download more information.


Spanish translation of ecological economics book
Common / Stagl: Ecological Economics. An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, is currently being translated into Spanish. This edition is expected to appear in 2007.


Jouni Paavola is moving to the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI)
Jouni Paavola is moving to the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), University of Leeds, from the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), University of East Anglia. At CSERGE, Jouni worked as a Senior Research Associate in the Programme on Environmental Decision-Making, focusing on the role of institutions and justice in environmental governance and particularly in the governance of adaptation to climate change. Jouni will take up a Lectureship in Sustainability in Leeds in September 2006, teaching environmental economics and climate change modules for the MA in Ecological Economics and other postgraduate courses, and continuing his research on environmental governance.

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2. Other news:


State of the World 2006: China and India Hold World in Balance
The dramatic rise of China and India presents one of the gravest threats—and greatest opportunities—facing the world today, says the Worldwatch Institute in its State of the World 2006 report (© Sonnenseite.com)
[more]

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3. Hot topics:


Sustainable Development in the European Union
Sustainable development has been a fundamental objective of the European Union since 1997. Article 2 and 6 of the EU Treaties clearly establish the objectives and principles of sustainable development, integration, and environmental protection for the EU’s policies and activities.
According to Article 2 the Community has "to promote throughout the Community a harmonious, balanced and sustainable development of economic activities [and] a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment, the raising of the standard of living and quality of life, and economic and social cohesion and solidarity among Member States".
Article 6 states that "environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Community policies and activities, in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development".

The EU policies for sustainalbe devlopment are presently characterised through the following strategies and concepts:

  • The "Cardiff Process" describing the sectoral strategies for the integration of the enviornmental dimension into other policies
  • The "Lisbon Strategy" for employment, economic reform and social cohesion (March 2000), to which the environmental dimension was added at the Stockholm European Summit (Spring 2001).
  • The Strategy for Sustainable Development (SDS), first formulated during the 2001 European Council in Gothenburg. In the Declaration of Gothenburg the European Union emphasised the importance of sustainable development and added the environmental dimension as an equally important issue compared to economic and social renewal.

Although the EU has explicitly stated that sustainable development is the over-arching principle of all EU policies, in reality, the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs dominates the political agenda. This dominance of the Lisbon goals unfortunately reinforces various unsustainable trends in the area of climate change, biodiversity, poverty and exclusion, demographic pressure and ageing, management of natural resources and transport.
Out of the need to face these challenges the Commission started a review process of the SDS in 2005.
The revision of the SDS was one main task of the Austrian EU Presidency. The prepared compromise text was adopted by the European Council during the summit on 15-16 June 2006.
It defines sustainable development as the "overarching objective" and sees the Lisbon strategy as the "motor of a more dynamic economy". The renewed sustainable development strategy also underlines the need for better regulation and full integration of SDS in all policies.

It identifies seven key challenges with corresponding targets and actions (most of which are repetitions of targets already defined in other policy papers):

  • climate change and clean energy
  • sustainable transport
  • sustainable consumption and production
  • conservation and management of natural resources
  • public health
  • social inclusion, demography and migration
  • global poverty and global sustainable development challenges

Download new strategy.
More information on this topic: ESDN Quarterly Reports.

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4. Events:


ESEE 2007: Integrating Natural and Social Sciences for Sustainability
5-8 June 2007, UFZ - Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany

The European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE), in co-operation with the German associations for ecological economics VÖÖ and VÖW, invite you to meet in Leipzig for the 7th international conference.
The conference will explore contemporary scientific approaches for putting the concept of Sustainable Development into research and into practice, and it will focus on bridging natural and social sciences. It will address sustainability topics such as loss of biodiversity, human vulnerability to global change and water problems on all geographical and institutional levels. The conference aims to contribute to a better understanding of societal and natural processes and their interaction by integrating scientific methodologies to overcome the shortcomings of disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches. Impediments to inter- and transdisciplinary research will be examined and new research concepts for sustainability identified.

Visit the conference website.


PhD Student and Early Stage Researcher Workshop at ESEE 2007
3-5 June 2007, Leipzig
Ahead of the seventh ESEE conference in Leipzig Germany, a special two and a half day workshop will be organized for and by PhD students and Early Stage Researchers. The objectives of this workshop are essentially three fold: (1) create and organize a student network in the field of Ecological Economics, (2) confront students’ perspectives on interdisciplinary science and the prospects of Ecological Economics, (3) provide a forum for students to share experiences and stimulate collaboration. The workshop's programme includes lectures, group discussions and a field trip in the vicinity of Leipzig. Prof. Richard Norgaard, Dr. Sigrid Stagl and Dr. Martin Drechsler will inspire and provoke discussions with their presentations. More info on this exciting event will be available on the ESEE 2007 conference web site (http://www.esee2007.ufz.de) but mark the dates on your calendar now: June 3 to 5, 2007!


ISEE 2006: Ninth Biennual Conference of International Society for Ecological Economics on "Ecological Sustainability and Human Well-Being"
15-18 December, 2006, New Delhi.
Important dates:
- submission of abstracts: July 31, 2006
- intimation of acceptance: August 31, 2006
- submission of full paper: October 31, 2006

For more information visit http://www.isee2006.com/index.htm


8th Annual International Round Table Seminar Environmental Policy and Economics and International Environmental Relations: Call for abstracts
The University of Economics, Prague Department of Environmental Economics and the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic in co-operation with the Ministries of the Environment of the Republic of Hungary, of the Republic of Poland and of the Slovak Republic are preparing the 8th Annual International Round Table Seminar Environmental Policy and Economics and International Environmental Relations of PhD. students, young scientists and researchers (till 39 years old).

The main goal of the seminar is an exchange of views and discussion on selected current problems of these areas. The selected presented papers and discussion interventions will be published in the seminar proceedings book (in the English language). Preliminary date of the seminar is 12-13 October 2006 (Venue: The University of Economics, W. Churchilla sq. 4, Prague 3)
For further information download the preliminary programme.



Sustainable resource management, raw materials security, Factor-X resource productivity - tools for delivering sustainable growth in the European Union
December 6-7, 2006 at the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium.
The deadline for paper proposals is July 7, 2006. An international review panel will review all submissions. Notification of the decision will be sent by e-mail no later than 25 August 2006. Full papers are expected by November 30, 2006.
Download the conference programme.


Energy and Environment: The Future of European Financial Instruments International Seminar on European Project Development
September 21 - 22, 2006, Malta
The programme focuses on the environmental protection related financial instruments of the EU to be launched in early 2007.
For further information download the programme.


Symposium "Integrated Coastal Zone Management"
June 11 - 14, 2007, Arendal, Norway
The "International Symposium on Integrated Coastal Zone ManagementThe Institute of Marine Research (Arendal Norway) in cooperation with the International Council for the Exploration iof the Sea (ICES).
The main objective of the Symposium "Integrated Coastal Zone Management" is to present current knowledge and to address issues on advice and management related to the coastal zone.
This international multi-disciplinary conference is intended to promote science and integration of knowledge for the sustainable management of coastal resources. It will provide a venue for scientists, engineers, managers and policy-makers to discuss recent advances and innovative ideas, share experiences and develop networks.
Contributions are solicited for the following areas of research as well as others the authors propose and that are considered particularly relevant:

· Coastal habitats
· Impacts on coastal systems
· Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)
· Coastal governance

Venue: Arendal Kultur- og Rådhus, Arendal, Norway
Deadline for abstracts is 1st December 2006

For further information click here.


SRPU - 40th anniversary conference: The Future of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Linking Research And Practice
September 11-13, 2006, Brighton, United Kingdom
SPRU celebrates its 40th Anniversary in 2006 with a conference taking place on the 11-13 of September which invites participants to engage in a critical evaluation of the present and future research agenda of the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) field. This conference will explore empirical, theoretical and applied policy approaches to enable us to conceptualise the contradictory nature of modern science, technology and innovation, and thus provide practical policy guidance. We are particularly interested in contributions that address the intersections of science, technology and innovation and adopt forward-looking approaches in investigating their impacts on society. For further information please visit the Conference website at www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/conf2006.


ALTER-Net Training Course “An Introduction to Ecological-economic Modelling for Designing and Evaluating Biodiversity Conservation Policies and Strategies”
18-23 September 2006, Bad Schandau (Nationalpark Sächsische Schweiz, Germany)
Ecological-economic modelling is a helpful way of combining social and natural science knowledge to achieve better results for biodiversity conservation policies. The importance of this methodology is being documented by an increasing number of research articles in leading economic as well as ecological journals.
The course addresses young scientists (PhD students and young post-docs) from ecology, economics or modelling. It offers an introduction into the main ecological and economic concepts of conservation as well as ecological-economic modelling. Emphasis is placed on both lectures and active teamwork on given manageable projects. For more information visit: http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=3488

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5. Job openings:


UNESCO Vacancy

The U.S. Committee for UNESCO supports the work of the World Health Organization to improve the quality of life for millions of people around the world by promoting democratic governance, poverty reduction, rural development,crisis prevention and recovery, energy and environmental issues, and reducing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It accomplishes these aims by building a broad-based American constituency that educates for international development and by identifying U.S. resources for specific WVI projects that support U.S. national interests.
Click here to read the vacant posts
.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS/SELECTION
Applicants are selected on the basis of academic credentials, experience and other relevant factors. Successful Aplicants are invited to come to Washington, for an interview/ Training Candidates are interviewed on their related knowledge, skills and abilities. Application is open to all interested applicants
from any nationality.
HOW TO APPLY
Please send your resume/CV to: recruitment@us-fr.it.st.


Job Opportunity at DNV - Project Manager for Climate Change Services
DNV has specialised in delivering independent, third party services for climate change activities, and has over the past decade been engaged in a number of CDM and JI validation, verification, and certification activities. As a result of our expanding business, we are now looking for additional capacity within our core team in Oslo, Norway. Strong candidates may also be considered for recruitment at other DNV units than Oslo, Norway. For further information and for submitting an application please refer to http://www.dnv.no/careers/index.asp?local=Y&country=nor or contact us through ClimateChange@dnv.com.


Vacancy Announcement: Senior Policy Researcher of Long-term Perspective and Policy Integration Project (LTP) at IGES

Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) is currently seeking applicants for Senior Policy Researcher of Long-term Perspective and Policy Integration Project (LTP) who takes charge of 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recyle) policy area (one position). For more details on the position and how to apply can be found in the Recruitment Announcement at http://www.iges.or.jp/en/news/saiyo/recruit20/index.html

 

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6. New Publications:


Ecological–economic modelling for strategic regional waste management systems

S.E. Shmelev, J.R. Powell; in: Journal of Ecological Economics

This paper summarises some recent work exploring the development of a multi-criteria optimisation tool for achieving sustainable solutions for municipal solid waste management systems (MSWMS). The aim of the project was to provide a new methodological background for the regional solid waste management modelling taking into account spatial and temporal patterns of waste generation and processing, environmental as well as economic impacts of the system development with a particular emphasis on public health and biodiversity. The research has focused on integrating three different approaches to the spatial-temporal analysis of the MSWMS, namely a life cycle inventory analysis, which helps to identify emission patterns within the MSWMS, a multi-criteria optimisation approach, which helps to find compromise solutions among environmentally and economically preferred options, and a geographic information systems approach, which provides a tool for identifying waste management facilities, transportation environmental and social impacts, aswell as analysis of environmental impacts on valuable ecosystems. A Russian methodology for calculating environmental damage was used to weight the importance of different sub-territories covered by the system as well as simplifying the analysis of emissions from the waste treatment plants. The approach provides a new perspective for the analysis of municipal solid waste management systems at the regional scale. The principal novelty of the proposed complex MSWstrategic management model is an integration of the different types of data–geographical, environmental and economic–using relational database technology. Simulations using the dataset for Gloucestershire were performed on a simplified version of the model. Simulations were undertaken to explore the potential effects on waste management infrastructure of introducing the EU Landfill Directive. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the methods utilised has suggested that a relatively affordable and easy to use tool can be developed for strategic analysis of the municipal solid waste management systemin a region, giving useful support to the decision-maker regarding the potential development paths and trade-offs between economic and environmental performance of a proposed waste management system.

Download


Fairness in Adaptation to Climate Change
Edited by W. Neil Adger, Jouni Paavola, Saleemul Huq, and M. J. Mace

As a global society, we need to take action not only to prevent the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change but also to adapt to the unavoidable effects of climate change already imposed on the world. Fairness in Adaptation to Climate Change looks at the challenges of ensuring that policy responses to climate change do not place undue and unfair burdens on already vulnerable populations. All countries will be endangered by climate change risks from floods, drought, and other extreme weather events, but developing countries are more dependent on climate-sensitive livelihoods such as farming and fishing and hence are more vulnerable. Despite this, the concerns of developing countries are marginalised in climate policy decisions that exacerbate current vulnerabilities. Fairness in Adaptation to Climate Change brings together scholars from political science, economics, law, human geography, and climate science to offer the first assessment of the social justice issues in adaptation to climate change. The book outlines the philosophical underpinnings of different types of justice in relation to climate change, present inequities, and future burdens, and it applies these to real-world examples of climate change adaptation in Bangladesh, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, and Hungary. It argues that the key to adapting to climate change lies in recognizing the equity and justice issues inherent in its causes and in human responses to it. For details and to order, see http://mitpress.mit.edu/0262511932


Resolving Environmental Conflicts: Combining Participation & Multi-Criteria Analysis
Contents of Land Use Policy, special issue 23 (2006)
Guest editors: Felix Rauschmayer and Heidi Wittmer
Download the list of contributions to this special issue.

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The ESEE Newsletter is published by the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE). Its purpose is to inform ESEE members of developments both within the Society and in other areas of potential interest. It is published monthly and is sent free to ESEE members. The views expressed are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society as a whole.

The European Society for Ecological Economics is a not-for-profit organisation devoted to the development of theory and practice in ecological economics in Europe. Membership is open to all interested individuals working in Europe or in other areas on request. For membership details please visit: http://www.euroecolecon.org.

If you have any suggestions on how to improve our Newsletter please let us know. If you would prefer not to receive it, please send an Email with the subject unsubscribe to esee@seri.at

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