Other sites
Sections
Strengthening international science for the benefit of society

Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools
Home > News centre > Latest news > Archive 2006-2010 > Ecosystem Change and Human Well-being – Research and Monitoring Priorities Based on the Findings of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
ICSU Newsletter

Receive updates from ICSU four times a year, including exclusive content for newsletter subscribers.

Sign up
 

Ecosystem Change and Human Well-being – Research and Monitoring Priorities Based on the Findings of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

— tags:

The ICSU-UNESCO-UNU ad hoc Group on follow-up activities to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was tasked with developing a science agenda based on experiences from the MA. This group of experts with relevant natural and social science disciplinary competence representing experiences from the MA as well as the relevant sub-global assessments, was convened with the following Terms of Reference:

  1. Based on the outcomes of MA in general, and subsequent literature that has been developed [1] , identify key knowledge gaps that should be filled through additional scientific research;
  2. Prioritize research needs and indicate, whenever possible, the need for research at global versus regional scales;
  3. Consider whether scientific progress will best be achieved through a decentralized bottom-up approach, regional foci through research/assessment projects, and/or an internationally coordinated research effort;
  4. Suggest ways by which a research agenda could be further developed to address the identified priority knowledge gaps; and
  5. Discuss and agree on possible mechanisms for implementing research to fill targeted knowledge gaps.

The report of the work of this group is now available for download . The research that this report and other publications will stimulate can provide a firm scientific basis for a possible second assessment of how ecosystem services contribute to, and depend on, human well-being.

[1] Carpenter, S. R., R. DeFries, T. Dietz, H. A. Mooney, S. Polasky, W. V. Reid and R. J. Scholes. (2006). "Millennium Assessment: research needs." Science 314 : 257-258; Mooney, H. A., J. Agard, D. Capistrano, S. R. Carpenter, R. DeFries, S. Diaz, T. Dietz, A. K. Duraiappah, A. Oteng-Yeboah, H. M. Pereira, C. Perrings, W. V. Reid, J. Sarukhan, R. J. Scholes and Anne Whyte. Submitted. “Research for global stwradship: Building on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. PNAS (submitted). .

Document Actions