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UPDATES FROM REGIONAL SECTIONS AND WORKING GROUPS

AUSTRALASIA

Inaugural Section Meeting

The Australasia Section welcomes you to its inaugural meeting, The Biodiversity Extinction Crisis--An Australasian and Pacific Response, at the University of New South Wales from 10-12 July 2007. Registration is now open. This meeting, the first of its kind in the Australasian region, aims to draw together conservation professionals from the greater Australian / Pacific region (including Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the Pacific Island Nations). The meeting will be of interest to researchers, students, managers, policy makers, and social scientists from governmental and non-governmental organizations. We hope that meetings of the Australasia Section will become regular events in the region. Please join us.

We have assembled exceptional plenary speakers, excellent symposia, exciting sessions, and extraordinary social functions. Our plenary speakers include Michael Soulé, Michael Archer, Stuart Bunn, Chris Dickman, Alexandra de Blas, Hugh Possingham, Peter Brussard, David Towns, John Woinarski, Dick Watling, and David Claudie. The meeting will focus on five major themes: (1) challenges particular to the Australasian / Pacific region, (2) managing threatening processes of universal importance, (3) case studies of conservation in action, including biodiversity monitoring and assessment, (4) conservation science and policy, and (5) conservation science and the community (non-government organizations, indigenous people). Six symposia are being organized that focus on these theme: (1) whole of landscape conservation in Australia--approaches and case studies, (2) the role of invasive species in extinctions, (3) whether dingoes have a role in the conservation of Australian ecosystems, (4) conservation genetics within the Australasian region, (5) legislative and institutional arrangements for biodiversity protection in Australia and the Pacific, and (6) community partnerships for effective conservation.

Our social events will kick off with a mixer on the evening of 9 July at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales. On 10 July, there will be a mixer / luncheon exclusively for students attending the meeting. On that same evening we will hold a special public forum on Climate Change and Water at Taronga Zoo. On the evening of 11 July, join us for a dinner and harbor cruise. There will be additional options for post-meeting sightseeing tours in the Sydney area. For further details, visit www.biodiversity2007.com.

Harry Recher

MARINE

The Board of Directors of the Marine Section has been busy moving several initiatives forward. If you would like to participate in Section activities, please contact President Ellen Hines (ehines@sfsu.edu).

Survey. Results of the Marine Section survey have been summarized. Results and priority follow-up tasks for Section Board and membership are posted on the Section's Web site.

Annual meeting. Three members of the Section Board, Phaedra Doukakis, Ellen Hines, and Anne Salmon, will attend the 2007 annual meeting. Anne is co-organizer of a symposium onecosystem consequences of fishing. A social for members of the Marine Section and their friends will be held at 7:30 P.M. on 2 July at the Pine Lodge. Among our speakers will be Myra Finkelstein, a Smith Fellow currently at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We also will hold a Section members' meeting at a date and time to be announced. Further information will be distributed via the Section's listserv and Web site.

Section Board meeting. The Section Board and SCB's Executive Director Alan Thornhill met from 15-19 March in Moss Landing, California.

The main issue discussed during the meeting was the International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC). The meeting, tentatively titled "Making marine science matter: from data to policy and management," will be held in Washington, D.C. during the first half of 2009. We currently are discussing how to incorporate the name and objectives of the International Marine Protected Areas Congress into this meeting. The meeting will be designed to be international and multidisciplinary, with outreach to and involvement of policy makers, the general public, and the press. It will embrace a participatory, product-oriented approach, using working groups and blue ribbon panels that produce tangible products (e.g. white papers, vision documents). Current Board member John Cigliano is Chair of the nascent Steering Committee for IMCC. Discussions are underway regarding co-conveners or cooperators. Section members and others who are able and willing to assist in organizing the meeting are encouraged to contact John (jaciglia@cedarcrest.edu).

New committee structure and chair appointments. The Board decided to reorganize the existing committee structure and appoint a chair for each committee. We encourage members to participate on committees by contacting committee Chairs. Please see the Section Web site for more information on committee structure, chairs, and activities.

Section Board president. The Board voted on a policy regarding the Section's president. Henceforth, the president will serve a two-year term and must serve one year on the Board before election to the presidency. Current president Ellen Hines was approved to remain on the Board for an additional year, with her term ending 31 December 2008.

Section Policy initiatives. After forming a new policy committee, the Board discussed how to more actively participate in SCB policy work. Members are encouraged to view the SCB policy priorities document and contact the Section's policy committee chair, Chris Parsons, if they would like to become involved.

Web site and listserv improvements. The Board is working to make these tools more relevant and useful, guided in part by the survey results. Please visit the new featured Web sites and the SeaStar on the Section's home page. We encourage members to contact Amber Himes (amber_himes@fws.gov) with further suggestions and additions.

Ellen Hines

FRESHWATER WORKING GROUP

Working Group Members and Issues Featured in BioScience

Two members of the working group, Robin Abell and Josh Viers, were featured in the March 2007 issue of BioScience (volume 57, issue 3), which drew attention to freshwater conservation. The same issue of BioScience also contained an article by Richard Blaustein on resource equity issues in and around protected areas (pages 216-221). There is a sidebar discussing the Skukuza Symposium on Freshwater Protected Areas, which both Josh and Robin attended. They relay the many challenges and benefits of conserving freshwater ecosystems and biological diversity.

2007 Annual Meeting

Please visit our booth at the 2007 annual meeting, where we will be selling t-shirts to benefit freshwater conservation activities. A field trip on freshwater conservation will be held on 1 July. The trip fee of $30 includes transportation, lunch, and refreshments.

Results of a survey of working group members are expected soon. Thanks to all those who helped to develop or answered the survey. The results of the survey will inform the strategic planning process of the working group.

North America Section Meeting

During the North America Section's meeting with the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation in Little Rock, Arkansas, we will present an informational poster about the Freshwater Working Group and propose new research questions regarding the effects of transportation networks on freshwater ecosystems.

Aventino Kasangaki

SOCIAL SCIENCE WORKING GROUP

Call for Submissions to the Working Paper Series

"Conservation social science is the study of the conservation-relevant aspects of human society, including the relationships among humans and between humans and their environment. Since successful conservation inevitably requires changes in human behavior, drawing upon decades of social science research to better understand what people do, and why, provides valuable insights for conservation policy and practice." (Mascia, M. 2007. Conservation social science: what's in the black box? SCB Newsletter 13(2):1, 11.)

The goal of the Social Science Working Group (SSWG) Working Paper Series is to provide a forum for conservation social science research, and especially for work that highlights the successful application of social science tools and approaches to conservation policy and practice. The intent of the series is to function as a venue to promote current research, as well as to provide authors and researchers with a forum to offer and receive critiques on work in the final stages of completion. Through its simplified review process, the series offers rapid dissemination of critical conservation social science work to the SCB community, social science peers, students, and other conservation professionals. This is an opportunity for authors to offer their work for initial public viewing and commentary before its submission to an appropriate journal. The SSWG hopes that the Working Paper Series will become the place where conservation social scientists turn for the most current and critical insights into the field.

The SSWG Education Committee will review submissions; submissions will not be distributed for formal peer review. Papers should be ~10,000 words. After approval, papers will be archived on the SSWG Web site indefinitely at the discretion of the SSWG Board. The author retains the copyright and authority to remove the paper from the Web site at any time. For submission procedures and style guidelines, or if you have any questions or comments concerning the Working Paper Series or the SSWG, please visit us at www.conbio.org/workinggroups/SSWG/

Subscriptions to Discussion List Soar

The number of subscribers to the SSWG discussion list has been increasing steadily and has now passed 600, doubling in the last year and a half. The list serves as a forum for news, announcements, and discussions on a wide range of conservation social science issues, with a growing number of active participants. Please consider subscribing to participate in this vibrant community.

Nejem Raheem

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