Back to TIDES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND CONSERVATION

Up to Table of Contents

Ahead to ANNOUNCEMENTS

UPDATES FROM REGIONAL SECTIONS AND WORKING GROUPS

• AFRICA
• AUSTRALIA
• EUROPE
• MARINE
• NORTH AMERICA
• FRESHWATER WORKING GROUP
• FreshWater List
• SOCIAL SCIENCE WORKING GROUP
• WORKING GROUP FOR ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS AND SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE

AFRICA

Communications and Mentoring Program Update

The Africa Section's Communications and Mentoring Programme, established with support from the MacArthur Foundation, aims to coach young African conservation biologists through research work, writing theses or dissertations, writing manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals, and development of grant proposals.

The program was launched at SCB's 2007 annual meeting in South Africa. Ten mentees were selected from across Africa, with special focus on Albertine Rift nations and young women. Mentors were selected on the basis of their academic profile and years of experience.

Mentors used electronic communication to guide their mentees through a seven month period. A framework was developed by the Programme Coordination Unit to assist both the mentors and the mentees. Questionnaires also were administered to mentees and mentors at different stages to monitor and evaluate the impact of the program. After four months of intensive mentoring, draft manuscripts and research proposals written by mentees were forwarded to independent reviewers. Reviewers' comments were used to revise the documents.

Toward the end of this first phase of the program, the Section's board decided to provide a travel grant to attend SCB's 2008 annual meeting to a mentee with an outstanding manuscript or proposal. A selection committee was established to assess mentees based on a priori and objective scientific criteria. Bright Boye Kumordzi emerged the winner for his manuscript "Elephant population survey in Digya National Park, Ghana." He used a systematic segmented track line design and dung-count surveys to determine the distribution and densities of the Digya elephant population in the park.

Feedback from the questionnaires underscores the importance of the program to career development of aspiring young African conservation biologists. The program also has potential to be integrated with the activities of SCB's Student Affairs Committee.

We hope to place 20 new mentees before the 2008 annual meeting. We therefore solicit potential mentees, mentors, and independent reviewers. Please contact Ademola Ajagbe (babademo2001@yahoo.com) to volunteer or for more information about the program.

Ademola Ajagbe

AUSTRALIA

A Web-based facility for recording natural history observations of New Zealand is now available at www.nzbrn.org.nz/

The journal Pacific Conservation Biology has a new Web address: http://pcb.murdoch.edu.au. The old address redirects to this new location.

The Section seeks a host for our regional meeting in December 2009. Please contact Craig Morley (cmorley@doc.govt.nz) for more information.

The Nature of Northern Australia

The future of northern Australia has become an issue of national and international prominence. As awareness of climate change and changing weather have increased, so have difficult debates about the future agricultural role of northern Australia and the future of the region's remote indigenous communities. At the same time, new research suggests that northern Australia is of global importance for conservation of savanna and rain forests, but patterns of land management continue to precipitate extinctions.

During the next few years, decisions will be made for northern Australia that not only will have major long-term impacts on the region's environment and its people but are likely to be of global significance.

Four Australian scientists--John Woinarski, Brendan Mackey, Henry Nix, and Barry Traill--have finished a landmark study on the environment of northern Australia. Their work describes and discusses mechanisms that underlie the region's natural history. They also suggest paths forward that may be sustainable for both the region's human inhabitants and its biological diversity. The full study is available at http://epress.anu.edu.au/titles/all_titles.html#N

Nicola Nelson

EUROPE

In February the Board of the Europe Section met at the IUCN Regional Office for Europe in Brussels. During this busy and productive meeting we reviewed the Section's activities in 2007, developed a work plan for 2008, and dedicated a day to preparation for the second European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB), Conservation biology and beyond: from science to practice. The ECCB will be held 1-5 September 2009 at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. Visit www.eccb2009.org for details. The deadline for submission of proposals for symposia and workshops is 31 August 2008.

During the board meeting we filled the committee chairs that were vacated when three board members finished their terms of office at the end of 2007. We are pleased to announce that Gábor Lövei was elected as chair of the membership committee. In 2008, Gábor will work closely with Javier Bustamante, the Section's elections officer, to become familiar with this new role; Javier's term of office expires at the end of 2008. Nuria Selva, already an active member of the policy committee, was elected as chair of that group. Vassiliki Kati became chair of the education committee.

The committees have been active since the board meeting. The communications committee has been preparing new Section marketing materials, including a poster and a flyer. The committee also has been working with the Local Organizing Committee of the ECCB to produce marketing materials for the congress. Please contact Europe@conbio.org if you can help distribute or display marketing materials.

The education committee has been preparing for the launch of an undergraduate conservation biology summer school in Greece in September. More details about this exciting new venture for the Section will be announced in the coming weeks.

The work of the policy committee recently led to the Section's resubmission of the Bialowieza Resolution to the new Polish Minister of Environment, Maciek Nowicki. The resolution (available at www.conbio.org/sections/europe/Policy/BialowiezaResolution.pdf) was first submitted in 2003, when Poland was not yet a member of the European Union. Now, Bialowieza Forest in eastern Poland, the last primeval lowland forest in Europe, is a Natura 2000 site. However, most of its area (82%) is still logged commercially. The resolution expresses a desire for enhanced protection of the forest as a treasure of biological diversity in Europe and a reference point for scientific research and conservation.

The Section board continues to work to enhance the profile and reputation of the Section among practitioners, academics, and government administrators at both the national level and the European level. While we were in Brussels we had the opportunity to meet with Ladislav Miko, Director of the Protecting the Natural Environment section of the Directorate General for the Environment in the European Commission. Our productive meeting led to SCB's involvement in the commission's Economics of the Global Loss of Biological Diversity project. We hope to develop and build on this relationship in the future.

The Section will have an exhibit in the "Plaza of Diversity" at the upcoming Convention on Biodiversity in Bonn (27-30 May) to promote SCB, the Section, and the ECCB. If you are attending this meeting, please visit the exhibit and introduce yourself to Barbara Mihók, the Europe Section Coordinator.

Once again the board encourages the participation of Section members in our diverse activities. We look forward to meeting with Section members during the 2008 annual meeting in Tennessee. Please contact us (europe@conservationbiology.org) with any questions or comments.

Owen Nevin

MARINE

The call for contributions for the first stand-alone meeting of SCB's Marine Section is now open. Please visit www.conbio.org/IMCC for more details and let others know about opportunities to contribute and volunteer.

First call for symposia, workshops, and break-out sessions: 3 April - 1 June 2008, decisions by 15 July

Second call for 1500 word submissions: 1 August - 15 September 2008, decisions by 30 October

First call for contributed papers and posters: 1 September - 15 October 2008, decisions by 30 November

Second call for 1500 word submissions for oral presentations: 1 December 2008 - 15 January 2009, decisions by 1 February

The Freshwater Working Group and the Marine Section are sponsoring a social event at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga on Monday, 14 July at 7:00 P.M. Refreshments will be available. The city of Chattanooga's free electric shuttles run from hotels to the aquarium.

Phaedra Doukakis

NORTH AMERICA

The Section recently held elections for four positions on its Board of Directors. Dominick DellaSala was elected President Elect. Carlos Carroll, Jodi Hilty, and Colleen Cassady St. Clair were elected as members at large. The terms of office of these four new board members will begin immediately after SCB's 2008 annual meeting.

FRESHWATER WORKING GROUP

Events at the 2008 Annual Meeting

All are invited to join us for the following events in Chattanooga.

Joint Freshwater Working Group-Freshwater Mussel Conservation Society field trip to the Duck River, a global hotspot of freshwater biological diversity. Sunday, 13 July.

Freshwater Working Group members' meeting. Monday, 14 July, 12:00 noon. Location will be printed in the meeting program. Please bring your lunch and join us.

Freshwater Working Group-Marine Section social. Monday, 14 July, 7:00 P.M., at the Tennessee Aquarium.

Proposed Activities, 2008-2010

Our application to SCB's Board of Governors for reauthorization of the working group included the following list of proposed activities for the coming three years.

-- Work on a real-world freshwater conservation problem to contribute not only to solving the specific problem but also to developing methods that have broader, transferable applications.

-- Participate in SCB policy development

-- Develop a freshwater conservation course for the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners

-- Develop a "virtual exchange program" to link courses in freshwater ecology and conservation across the globe

-- Develop a Google Maps page showing the locations and activities of our members

-- Continue posting citations for recent freshwater papers to the FreshWater listserv and the working group's Web site.

-- Organize activities at annual meetings, meetings of other SCB groups, and meetings of other organizations.

-- Complete our strategic planning

-- Recruit new members

-- Secure grant funding to support and expand our activities

FreshWater List

Join the FreshWater email list at http://list.conbio.org/mailman/listinfo/freshwater/. The traffic is low, and the postings about freshwater conservation issues, publications, jobs, resources, and more are diverse and informative.

Ken Vance-Borland

SOCIAL SCIENCE WORKING GROUP

Social Science Expert Directory

The Social Science Working Group encourages all SCB social scientists to join its new Conservation Social Science Expert Directory. The online directory is designed to foster communication and collaboration among conservation social scientists, between social scientists and natural scientists, and between researchers and practitioners. Through its user-friendly search tool, the directory provides easy access to the wealth of professional expertise within the conservation social science community. Users may search for conservation social scientists by name, location, degree information, discipline, geographic area of expertise, conservation and social science specialty, and research terms.

Interested in sharing your knowledge with conservation professionals around the world? Join the Directory! www.conbio.org/WorkingGroups/SSWG/network/dirindex.cfm.

Working Group Reauthorized

SCB's Board of Governors voted on 2 March, 2008 to reauthorize the Social Science Working Group for an additional three years. Accordingly, the SCB Executive Office will continue to support the ~675 working group members by providing support for our listserv, email, and Web site; marketing materials; membership tracking; and other forms of technical and administrative assistance. After completion of the three-year term, the working group must apply for reauthorization for another three years.

2008 Working Group Board Elections

The working group soon will hold elections for four board seats: economics representative, political science representative, and two at large representatives. Individuals elected to board seats will are responsible for chairing a working group committee, facilitating participation of their disciplinary colleagues in SCB activities, and supporting the working group's mission, vision, and goals. Please vote--make your voice heard!

Nejem Raheem

WORKING GROUP FOR ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS AND SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE

2008 Annual Meeting

Corey Peet (working group secretary) and member Jon Rosales have organized a symposium for SCB's 2008 annual meeting, Economic Growth and Biodiversity: The Elemental Arguments. The symposium will serve as primer on the conflict between economic growth and conservation of biological diversity and will address major impasses in people's minds about this conflict. The symposium will feature speakers who are leading scholars in the field and who are writing articles on the same theme for an upcoming special section in Conservation Biology.

The working group will also hold a members' meeting that will feature an interactive discussion session on how SCB can inform policy on economic growth. The session will specifically feature the working group's draft position on economic growth.

Board Elections

Six positions on the working group's board will be open for the next election cycle, which will occur around the time of the SCB annual meeting. The open positions are Chair Elect, Indian Chair, Student Chair, Marine Chair, North American Chair, and Secretary.

Rob Dietz

Back to TIDES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND CONSERVATION

Up to Table of Contents

Ahead to ANNOUNCEMENTS