Contents 

1. Editorial: New Knowledge, Robust Evidence and Development Impact

2. Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation: Lessons from Bolivia

3. ESPA Job Opportunity: Research Associate, Ecosystems and Poverty Alleviation

4. ESPA Evidence Challenges Questionnaire

5. Welcome to Jessica Williams and Matthew Bunce

6. ESPA Project Highlight:  The REDD Game: A didactic tool for designing effective, efficient and equitable policies to deliver REDD in Bolivia

7. International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED): Job Opportunity

8. DFID Job Opportunities

9. Articles of Interest to the ESPA Community

10. ESPA Events: ESPA Annual Conference

11. Other Events: EcoSummit 2012 and Climate Change, Deforestation and the Future of African Rainforests

12. Other News and Information of Interest to ESPA

13. Useful ESPA Documents

14. ESPA Adverts from Projects

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Editorial: New Knowledge, Robust Evidence and Development Impact

Paul van Gardingen, ESPA Director

I frequently get asked; what does ESPA do?

It would be very easy to go into detail about the very exciting research that the programme conducts around the world and the very dedicated researchers that are working on our projects, however, for once, I’ll take a step back and give a much simpler and direct answer.

As ESPA’s Director, I see that the programme exists to provide new knowledge, robust evidence and development impact.

The world-class research that ESPA funds is designed to generate new knowledge that fills gaps that limit our understanding of how ecosystem services lead to the alleviation of poverty. In addition, through illustrating how our local stakeholders can put ESPA’s research into use, we need to generate robust evidence of why investing in these processes is beneficial compared to the counterfactual of business-as-usual (non-action) or alternative approaches to either poverty alleviation or ecosystem management.

In this month’s newsletter I describe my visit to Bolivia and two projects there which are doing this.  Through the generation of new knowledge and evidence we expect ESPA projects to work with other stakeholders to build real, significant and sustainable development impact. 

Success for the ESPA programme requires new knowledge, robust evidence and development impact linking ecosystem services for poverty alleviation.

This very simple statement helps me to think about the programme as we start to commission new work and prepare to welcome a large number of new researchers into the ESPA community. The process of commissioning new ESPA Consortium Projects has now led to a small number of shortlisted consortia. The ESPA Directorate and Secretariat will now work with each of these teams in an interactive process to ensure that their research ideas meet the needs, aspirations and true potential of the ESPA programme. We realise that ESPA’s research agenda is a very challenging one and want to give all ESPA researchers as much support as possible to deliver the success that we all seek. Over the same period the Directorate will also be awarding a set small of projects as ESPA Evidence and Impact Research Grants. The closing date for these is 26 October 2011.

At the end of October, we will host ESPA’s first Annual Conference in London.  All existing projects and the shortlisted Consortium Projects should now have their invitations for this event.  Day 1 (25 October) is reserved for researchers on ESPA Framework Projects.  Day 4 is reserved for members of the consortia linked to the shortlisted Consortium Projects.  Days 2 and 3 are open to the wider ESPA community and people are invited to apply for additional spaces through email to admin [at] espa.ac.uk.

Looking forward to 2012, we are now working with ESPA’s funders to consider both future research calls and the types of support that will be provided by the ESPA Directorate.  We have just launched an online questionnaire to support our planning process and we encourage you to participate and have a voice in determining the future direction of the programme.  There will also be opportunities to discuss your ideas during the Annual Conference.

One of the reasons that the ESPA Directorate exists is to support projects delivering both research excellence and development impact.  I am pleased to welcome two new members to our team who will be working closely with projects over the coming year. Matthew Bunce has joined the Knowledge Team based out of Imperial College London. Matthew will work with the Knowledge Director, Professor Georgina Mace to generate a synthesis of ESPA’s research to date and through this to plan for future research calls and activities. In Edinburgh, the core Directorate team has been joined by Jessica Williams as our new Data, Evidence and Partnership Co-ordinator.  Jessica will work directly with projects to help assist in capturing evidence of what projects have achieved and making sure that this information is accessible to all global stakeholders with an interest in ESPA. Of direct interest to ESPA’s Principal Investigators, will be Jessica’s role in assisting you in your reporting with the aim of making it much easier to provide the information the programme requires. Our aim is to collect high quality information, with projects being required to report each outcome only once during the lifetime of a project.

Over the next six weeks leading up to the Annual Conference, I will meet electronically or in person with staff from each of ESPA’s 18 current Framework Projects. I’m really looking forward to hearing how these are progressing and the types of outcomes that are starting to emerge.  I’ll be encouraging projects to share this during the Annual Conference. In addition, in early October we will be publishing the first in a series of ESPA impact stories, starting with a selection of our Framework Projects. I hope that you’ll find these interesting and also hope that other projects will want to “tell their story” – the key theme of ESPA’s Communication Strategy that will be published in the lead up to the Conference along with a new Impact Strategy.

The next few months will be very busy for the ESPA Directorate, but that does not mean that we want to stop hearing your news.  If you’d like to offer a blog entry, have your project highlighted, or perhaps offer up material for one of our new impact stories, please contact us on admin [at] espa.ac.uk.

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Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation: Lessons from Bolivia

Paul van Gardingen, ESPA Director

ESPA Programme Framework Grants: What types of investment can most cost-effectively ensure ecosystem service provision? A randomized program evaluation (NE/I00436X/1) and The REDD Game: A didactic tool for designing effective, efficient and equitable policies to deliver REDD in Bolivia (NE/I003185/1)

A visit to ESPA projects in Bolivia was one of the highlights of my recent visits to all of the ESPA regions.

ESPA has two Framework Projects currently active there. One, managed by Fundación Natura Bolivia, is trying to apply methodologies adapted from experimental economics to answer the question of “What types of investment can most cost-effectively ensure ecosystem service provision?”. The other project links the London School of Economics and Conservation International, Bolivia to develop “The REDD Game” as a tool to design effective, efficient and equitable policies to deliver REDD in Bolivia.

As this was my first trip to Bolivia I was very keen to meet with local stakeholders so that I could ask why ecosystem services were important to them. I joined the team from Natura Bolvia as they implemented their ESPA research programme. Their project is working with researchers from Harvard and MIT to apply the methodology of a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) in ESPA. Whilst very common in other areas of development activity, such as health and education, RCT’s are very seldom, if ever, used by environmental projects. 

The work funded under the ESPA project is helping Natura Bolivia to test what types of methods of Payments for Ecosystem Services are likely to work, contrasting payments in kind designed to provide alternative income (bee hives) with both direct cash payments and support to improve the intensification of cattle farming through capacity building and provision of fencing materials.

To date the project has been implementing a very rigorous and comprehensive baseline survey of all communities in the study area of the Rio Grande-Valles Cruceños Protected Area in the Andes. The social baseline survey covers a wide range of indicators of poverty and well-being.  They are also conducting a detailed environmental baseline surveying both forest cover and aspects of the watershed.

Water is the key to understanding this system and the proposed scheme for payments for ecosystems services. People living in towns and villages in the Santa Cruz valleys have noticed that the amount of water supplied from the hills, and its quality, has declined significantly in recent decades. There is growing understanding that loss of forest and the degradation of ecosystems are contributing to this process.  In terms of water quality, it is known that the increasing numbers of cattle roaming in the watersheds are leading to declines in water quality as they travel along streams and defecate in them.  I was able to see all of these processes myself and to talk with local communities about their views.

Once a significant source of water for Samaipata, one of the main towns in the Santa Cruz valleys, the loss of forests and degradation of ecosystems has probably been the major reason for the very significant reduction in water now available at this site

Travelling further up into the Andes, in the small community of Huantas I was able to participate in a feedback session with the community when they heard the results from their baseline survey. In addition to the adults from the community some of the young people from the school joined in, after travelling to the event on their family’s donkey!

Huantas: “School parking”

The field staff from Natura Bolivia used their presentation to feedback statistics from the field study, something that is considered best practice and will be highlighted in the ESPA Ethics Guidance which will be published in October.

Feedback on the baseline survey, a discussion about the effects of the degradation of ecosystems on the availability of water and its quality

After the feedback there was discussion about the way that the village uses its land including an exercise in participatory mapping of the land, its use and ownership.

Participatory mapping of forest and water resources

After talking with the community in the school, it was time to visit the community’s forests and watershed itself. Again I was very pleased to be able to do this with members of the community and to be part of the discussion about their lives and how important their ecosystems were to them. 

The aim of the project that Natura Bolivia is undertaking is to understand how best to use payments for ecosystem services to provide opportunities and incentives for communities like Huantas to both enhance their livelihoods and protect their forests and the associated watersheds.

The nearby towns all know that this is important and are willing to pay for improved water supply.  What we need to know now is how best to make these payments effective, and that is the research result that I am eagerly awaiting from this project.

Visiting the forest and watershed from the Huantas community in Bolivia

There were many aspects of the Natura Bolivia project that had made me visit, and I was not disappointed. I saw a very good example of the innovative use of experimental economics in an environmental project. ESPA’s Framework Projects are intended to try out new ways of working and conducting research. It is also an example of a project that is working very well with local communities and is adopting best practice in terms of the way that the socio-economic and environmental monitoring data are being recorded and processed. I was reminded, just how important it is to have the grounding of visiting the communities that our research is intended to benefit.

I was really impressed by this project and the way that they are working to empower their local stakeholders, with the first step being respecting their knowledge and listening to their views.  Many other ESPA projects could learn from this experience and the Directorate has asked this project to document the way they are working so that this can be shared with the community. 

Finally, I am also eager to see the results of the comparative analysis of different ways of making payments for ecosystem services. After talking with the community I was reminded that cash income alone is not sufficient to make the link between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation.

During my visit, we stopped to take water samples in a small stream that supplied water to one of the small towns to populating the valley. Whilst we were taking samples from the clear water, we were interrupted by a small herd of cattle coming down the stream, turning what was clear water into a muddy soup in minutes. I also saw at first hand why the water so often has high coliform counts and why so many children suffer from debilitating, and usually avoidable, diarrhoeal diseases. I was left thinking about why ESPA’s research is so important, whilst also asking myself; did I drink the water when I was in the town?

I really appreciated the time that Nigel Asquith and the team from Natura Bolivia gave me to share their project, but as always my most sincere thanks go to the communities that I visited.

 Cattle walking down a stream used to supply water for a small town less than 2km downstream

A few days later, I was back in Santa Cruz, where we held an ESPA workshop for local stakeholders. It was really encouraging to see the interest in ESPA and its research agenda.  I also had the opportunity to meet with one of the research staff from the other ESPA project in Bolivia, which works out of La Paz to consider options for REDD in Bolivia (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). 

I was very interested to hear how the project, which links the London School of Economics and Conservation International (Bolivia), is progressing. REDD is one of the global “hot topics” in ESPA’s domain, but one which is even more so in Bolivia where the government currently questions if REDD as it is currently envisaged is going to be appropriate for Bolivia. In this environment, the types of research that ESPA can provide become even more important.  ESPA is a research programme and as such it is designed to provide objective evidence in an apolitical environment that can inform policy debate.  When I discussed this with Dr Lykke Andersen I was told of some of their preliminary analysis of data relevant to REDD which suggested that, in the context of Bolivia, REDD may not be very effective in reducing poverty. Indeed, it suggested that large-scale application of REDD could make many people poorer as food prices increased. I was then told that the same analysis suggested that getting communities more involved in the process suggested that alternative policies could be designed that would have very significant improvements in the impact on poverty for only small reductions in the ability to sequester carbon.  This work is ongoing and I know that there are many in the global policy community who will be very interested when the final results are published.

Other parts of the same project are currently developing more advanced analysis using the same data which will help to understand the potential impacts of decisions relating to REDD using agent-base modelling techniques, a tool that several of ESPA’s Framework Projects is exploring.

As I left Bolivia I was impressed with the quality of the research that our projects are delivering as well as the potential that they have to produce real and significant development impact. I was also struck by the realisation that the two projects are telling two parts of the same story which brought me to an important role for the ESPA Directorate.

ESPA as a programme has the potential to deliver very significant impact that is much greater than its individual components. As our Framework Projects progress and as the new Consortium Projects commence, we will be looking for ways to build links and synergies between projects.  After my visit to Bolivia, I can see one such opportunity and over the coming months the Directorate will be working to encourage the links so that our research reaches its full potential to deliver the types of impact that can change the lives of the poor.

Grantham Institute for Climate Change, South Kensington Campus

Salary: Level B £31,300 – £39,920 per annum (Salary on Appointment will be up to £37,800)

Fixed Term: three years, to start to as soon as possible

The Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA:www.espa.ac.uk) Directorate and Grantham Institute for Climate Change are seeking an Ecosystems and Poverty Alleviation Research Associate.

The ESPA Directorate is responsible for ensuring that the science and knowledge developed through the £40 million ESPA programme is of the highest quality. This innovative research programme will provide the tools for poor nations to use nature’s potential to reduce poverty, deliver sustainable growth and improve the lives of their most vulnerable communities. You will be based in theGrantham Institute at Imperial College London, established to drive climate related research and translate it into real world impact.

Working closely with Professor Georgina Mace, ESPA’s Associate Director for Knowledge, the post-holder will help to develop the science that underpins an understanding of how ecosystems benefit poor and vulnerable people. You will lead on the monitoring and analysis of current knowledge in order to identify gaps in ESPA’s scientific programme, and synthesise the information to underpin its development and delivery. Working with ESPA’s Directors and task leaders, you will support the communication of this knowledge to users and may be asked to organise research workshops and other meetings, with administrative support for such tasks found from elsewhere within the Directorate and Institute.

The post holder will operate at a high level, working with a diverse range of people both within and outside the ESPA Directorate and College. Much of the impact from your work will depend on your success in working in interdisciplinary teams, where you will be able to benefit from the Grantham’s expertise and best practice in this area.

You must be educated to PhD level or have an equivalent level of professional qualification and experience. You must have an excellent research background in an area of ecosystem science relevant to ESPA and broad knowledge of the ecosystems services approach to sustainable development. In addition to your proven ability to undertake and produce research outputs, you must demonstrate sound knowledge of the key issues surrounding global environmental change, ecosystem services and processes, together with their impacts on people and poverty. You must have experience of translating and communicating science to a wider user group and working within an interdisciplinary research environment. The ability to analyse and synthesise complex information is essential to this role, together with excellent communication skills, high level analytical and problem solving skills, and an ability to develop and apply new concepts.

Our preferred method of application is online via our website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/employment; (please select “Job Search” then enter the job title or vacancy reference number into “Keywords” – vacancy ref: NS2011172NT). Please complete and upload an application form as directed.

Alternatively, if you are unable to apply online, please contact Gosia Gayer, Tel: 0044 (0)207 594 9666; Email: g.gayer [at] imperial.ac.uk to request an application form.

Closing date: 24 October 2011 (midnight BST)

Interviews will be held on the 8^th November 2011 at Imperial College London.

Further Information:

• Read the full job description

• Apply

The ESPA Directorate has released an online questionnaire for the ESPA community, and we would be very grateful if you could take the time to share your views.

The questionnaire asks what the emerging evidence challenges are for ESPA, particularly in the time since the Situation Analyses were carried out (2007–2008). There then follows a section on what support the Directorate can give to enhance understanding in these areas.

There are 3 pages of questions, and most questions consist of tick-boxes, with the option of adding more information if desired.

The results from this questionnaire will inform the workplan of the Directorate for the coming years, and so input from the ESPA community is vitally important.

Welcome to Jessica Williams and Matthew Bunce

 

Jessica Williams: Data, Evidence & Partnership Co-ordinator

Jessica joined the ESPA Directorate on the 5^th of September as the Data, Evidence and Partnership Co-ordinator. Jessica is based at The University of Edinburgh, along with the other core Directorate members.

Jessica’s role at ESPA will include assisting projects with the capture of evidence and outputs. She will be liaising with projects to gather information and will be in contact with many projects over the coming year. Jessica looks forward to finding out more about the projects and their teams. 

Jessica is also working on the ESRC-DFID scheme.

Previously, Jessica worked in the Audit Commission’s Knowledge Management team and for the Arts and Humanities Research Council as a Senior Evaluation Officer.

Dr Matthew Bunce: ESPA Knowledge Synthesis Researcher

Dr Matthew Bunce (FIMarEST) has joined the ESPA Directorate as Knowledge Synthesis Researcher.  Matthew will work with the ESPA Director at the University of Edinburgh and with ESPA’s Assistant Director for Knowledge at Imperial College London (Grantham Institute for Climate Change). He will be working on research outcomes and will contribute to publications produced under the knowledge theme of the Directorate.

Matthew joined the ESPA Directorate in September 2011 after doing field research and co-authoring ESPA’s Marine and Coastal Situational Analysis (Africa/South Asia) under the leadership of Professor Kate Brown (ESPA I-PAC). His prior interdisciplinary research (ESRC-NERC) at Plymouth University (Marine Institute) and the University of East Anglia (International Development UEA/Tyndall Centre for Climate Change) focused on coastal social-ecological systems, conservation and development and climate change in Africa.

A Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology (FIMarEST), and postgraduate of the London School of Economics in marine sciences, economics, law and policy, Matthew has worked on sub-tropical marine protected areas and more generally on conflicts between environment and development initiatives in vulnerable areas facing rapid environmental change.

His experience as a bilingual (French) academic and consultant includes wider donor and commercial projects in a global range of development and investment contexts from agriculture to fisheries and forestry. As a French bilingual resident of the Ivory Coast, Rodrigues (Mauritius) and Tanzania for four years, Matthew has worked extensively across Africa, including in fragile and conflict states from Sierra Leone, subsequently leading the Africa desk of a major global political and security risk consultancy.

Matthew is a Chartered Scientist (CMarSci) and registered expert at the UK Department for International Development for fragile and conflict state stabilisation.

Matthew will attend the annual conference in October as part of the ESPA Directorate.

Lykke E. Andersen, Conservation International – Bolivia, ESPA Programme Framework Grant

The primary objective of the REDD Game project is to create a visually attractive, user-friendly, computer-based analytical tool, the ‘REDD Game’, which simulates the behaviours of different actors and their interactions in a small community on the agricultural frontier.

To be used by policymakers, local stakeholders and academics, the Game is envisaged as an innovative tool to explore social, economic and environmental outcomes of alternative policy interventions to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

The REDD Game project held its first joint workshop in La Paz from the 4th to the 8th of April 2011. At this opportunity we first pooled all our multidisciplinary inputs (household survey, theoretical framework, econometric analyses, anthropological analysis, etc.) and then agreed on the fundamental structure of the tool. This structure can best be described as a micro-economic household optimization engine embedded in an Agent Based Modeling (ABM) vehicle. The engine provides a solid theoretical foundation for the basic optimizing behaviour of households, while the ABM vehicle provides dynamism, heterogeneity, interactions and realism. We feel this is a very productive way of bringing together the respective strengths of Agent Based Modeling and micro-economic theory.

It was decided that NetLogo is the most adequate programming language for us to use for programming the Game, as it has a reasonably attractive interface (although not by computer game standards) while still allowing advanced users full access to the programming code. Our second joint workshop, held in London from the 18^th to the 22^nd of July 2011, was therefore dedicated to creating the basic community set-up in NetLogo and programming the optimization engine.

We are looking forward to hearing how other ABM teams are handling the challenge of almost infinite opportunities.

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International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED): Job Opportunity

IIED is currently advertising for a Principal Researcher, Food and Agriculture. The closing date for application forms is 4pm Monday 3 October.

This is a permanent contract, within the Natural Resources Group and attracts a salary of £47,052 - £51,849 per annum plus benefits (up to £58,553 available for exceptional candidates).

This is a senior and very exciting position. The post holder will be responsible for developing a programme of research, driving internal collaboration and building external partnerships in optimising IIED's international influence for sustainable food and agriculture.

Applicants will have the ability to conduct research, nurture relationships, integrate ideas, and represent to multiple stakeholders. The ideal candidate will have a post-graduate degree in a relevant discipline e.g. agricultural economics; experience of international policy frameworks, agreements and initiatives affecting food and agriculture and climate change; and excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to inspire engagement among diverse partners.

Full details, including the background to the post and the job description, can be found on our website http://www.iied.org/general/jobs/principal-researcher.

To increase their capacity to provide international development advice around the developing world DFID wants to build a pool of professional advisers that they can call upon quickly as their programme expands.

They are looking for Senior Advisers and Advisers in the fields of:

Climate and Environment, Education, Humanitarian, Conflict, Infrastructure, Livelihoods, Social Development and Procurement

DFID especially welcomes applications from specialists in business and the broader private sector, as well as government, non-governmental organisations, universities and think tanks.

Vacancies will be based in DFID's overseas offices and UK headquarters (London and East Kilbride, Scotland).

Many vacancies will be in post-conflict and conflict affected countries and you will be required to visit and work in such countries during your first few years of employment with DFID.

The Procurement specialist roles will be primarily in East Kilbride, Glasgow, with the potential for some posts to be based in London.

DFID is an equal opportunities employer and selection is on merit. Candidates must be UK nationals, nationals of a member state of the European Economic Area (EEA), Swiss or Turkish Nationals or Commonwealth citizens.

To find out more about the vacancies please visit the DFID website: www.dfid.gov.uk

Closing date for applications: 30 September 2011.

Articles of Interest to the ESPA Community

ESPA in the Media

Janet Ranganathan, of the World Resources Institute and of the ESPA I-PAC, has written an article for Solutions magazine outlining a new approach to feeding the world. The article describes how to feed 9 billion people in a changing climate while sustaining ecosystems.

Forest Companies of the Future (essentially businesses built around ecosystem services) featured in the UK’s Guardian newspaper recently. The article is written by Janet Ranganathan, Vice President of Science and Research at the World Resources Institute and of the ESPA I-PAC, and Göran Persson, former PM of Sweden and now head of Sweden’s largest forest company, Sveaskog.

This article outlines part of the World Resources Institute’s efforts to get more mainstream opinion leaders talking about ecosystem services.  See the article on Guardian website.

Featured in the International Business Times on September 6th, was an article describing a major global report co-authored by an Australian academic which highlights the need for healthy ecosystems as the basis for sustainable water resources and stable food security for people around the world.

 

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ESPA Events

As part of the ESPA Global Forum, we will host a number of events throughout the lifetime of the programme. These will be used to address specific research questions, to build the community, and to strengthen the capacity of researchers around the world. Please register with the ESPA Global Forum in order to be alerted when new events are scheduled.

ESPA Annual Conference: 25^th–28^th October 2011, London, UK

The ESPA annual conference will bring together ESPA researchers to share ideas and form new partnerships. In 2011, it will be held in London during October. Invitations have been sent to projects already. If you have yet to reply please so by way of email to admin [at] espa.ac.uk (Ruth Swanney) no later Monday 03^rd October.

EcoSummit 2012 will bring together the world's most respected minds in ecological science to discuss restoring the planet's ecosystems. Talking at the event will be Nobel Prize laureate Elinor Ostrom, Pulitzer Prize winners E.O. Wilson and Jared Diamond, Kyoto Prize winner Simon Levin, Stockholm Water Prize laureates Sven Jørgensen and Bill Mitsch, and many others in the first conference ever linking the Ecological Society of America (ESA), The International Association for Ecology (INTECOL) and the Society for Ecological Restoration International (SER).

Topics 

Sustainability and Resilience Ecosystem Creation and Restoration/Ecological Engineering Global Change Ecosystem Services Ecological Indicators Biodiversity and Biological Conservation Climate Change Ecological Complexity Ecotoxicology

Ecological Economics Ecological Modelling Biological Invasions Ecosystem Health Environmental Policy Ecological Knowledge Coastal Problems Caused by Upland Pollution Sources Watershed/River Catchment Management Ecohydrology

To read more please visit the EcoSummit 2012 website.

Climate Change, Deforestation and the Future of African Rainforests

International Conference, 4–6 January 2012, Oxford, UK

The conference will last three days and have an interdisciplinary structure. The first day will focus on setting the scene by exploring the functional ecology and climate (past, present and future) of the region. The second day will focus on a broad review of contemporary and future threats to the region, both through land use pressures and climate change. The final day will explore scenarios for the future of the African rainforests in the 21st century.

Day 1: Setting the scene

Ecology and ecosystem function

Climate change past, present and future

Day 2: Threats and opportunities

Current drivers of change

Day 3: Scenarios for the future of the African rainforests in the 21st century

For enquiries, please contact the Conference Events Manager, Cécile Girardin: cecile.girardin [at] ouce.ox.ac.uk

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Other News and Information of Interest to ESPA

•  Interesting work on payments for ecosystem services

See the latest Ecoagriculture Newsletter for news on Payments for Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Landscapes.

 

• Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

See the September News Update from CIFOR.

  

• The International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation: Call for Papers 

The International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation wishes to invite scientists and researchers in all areas of Biodiversity and Conservation to submit review articles for the 2011 December Special (Anniversary) Review Issue.

The articles in the International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation December Special Review Issues continue to be the journal’s most accessed, downloaded and sought after papers.  

The reviews, commentaries and perspectives should be in the author's area of research or specialization.

Kindly see the instructions for authors designed for the submission guidelines: (http://www.academicjournals.org/ijbc/Instruction.htm). 

Prospective authors should submit their review manuscripts to toijbcspecialreview [at] academicjournals.org on or before 15th October, 2011.

  

• New Global Restoration Council

A global effort to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands by 2020 is being launched in Bonn, Germany.

The announcement comes during the Bonn Challenge Ministerial Roundtable, where a select group of government officials, business leaders, and international forest experts are gathering to catalyze support for global forest and landscape restoration.

At the meeting, Göran Persson, former Prime Minister of Sweden, will propose a new Global Restoration Council to help galvanize action for forest and landscape restoration and build support to achieve The Bonn Challenge. The Council will be facilitated by the World Resources Institute( WRI)and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

To read more on this please go to the WRI website.

  

• ESRC International Partnerships; UK/US Call on Ecology of Infectious Diseases

 

Two new funding opportunities:

1. The Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) International Partnerships and Networking scheme (open to all countries);
2. A joint UK/US call on the Ecology of Infectious Diseases.

Further information is given below.

1) ESRC International Partnerships and Networking scheme

ESRC has launched its ‘new-look’ International Partnerships and Networking scheme, open to all countries. Each award will be for up to £25,000 for between two and four years, and applicants are encouraged to seek co-funding from the partnering country. The deadline is 12 October 2011. 

See more on the ESRC International Partnerships and Networking scheme on the ESRC website.

2) Ecology of Infectious Diseases

A joint UK/US call on Ecology of Infectious Diseases, funded through the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The focus of US-UK Collaborative Projects should be on understanding the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases of livestock and aquaculture systems, especially food-borne and vector-borne diseases.  Those considering submitting a proposal as a US-UK Collaborative Project are strongly encouraged to contact BBSRC first - they should start with Sadhana Sharma (contact details are in the call), and ask for her help with finding the right programme officer in their area of interest. The deadline is 07 December 2011.

See more on the call on Ecology of Infectious Diseases on the NSF and the BBSRC websites.  

Also, don't forget that the NSF's Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) call is still open, with EPSRC and ESRC participation on the topic of Sustainable Materials for Energy: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12819.  The deadline for preliminary proposals - it's a two-stage process - is 19 October 2011.

 

• CDKN Research Calls

Research calls of global or regional breadth are designed by CDKN to promote research of the highest scientific standards with clear policy impact. CDKN is committed to expanding existing knowledge and theoretical understandings, as well as fostering direct integration between researchers and policy makers throughout the research process.

Research Calls under CDKN comprise:

• Research scoping and call design in line with CDKN Research principles
• Targeted, competitive open calls
• Independent vetting of proposals by international expert panel
• Research questions, which address themes of global or regional priority
• Significant research time input, usually one year or more
• Large value of global research calls, typically between £200k and £500k per project
• Lower-value regional specific calls

In early 2011 CDKN has launched its first global research call, with a total value of £800k, as well as regional research calls in South East Asia and Africa through our partner organisations SEI SUMERNET in South East Asia and START International in Africa.

A second global research call was launched on 1^st September 2011, with a total value of £4M. More information is available here.

CDKN is also planning to launch two regional calls later this year, one in South Asia and one in the Caribbean. Further information on those will follow.

Please follow the links below for further information.

• Global Research Call September 2011 – launched 1^st September 2011
• Regional Research Call South Asia – (details not yet available)
• Regional Research Call Caribbean – (details not yet available)

Read here for information about past research calls we have run, including examples of the successful projects that received awards:

• Pilot Research Call January 2011 (now closed)
• Regional Research Call Africa (now closed)
• Regional Research Call South East Asia (now closed) 

Useful ESPA Documents

Many useful ESPA related documents are held on the ESPA website.

Of particular interest to current ESPA researchers are the ESPA Knowledge Strategy & Research Framework and the Impact Framework documents.

The ESPA Knowledge Strategy & Research Framework document is intended to provide a starting point to conceptualise ESPA’s research. It builds upon the figure presented in the 2010 Announcement of Opportunity, which was modified following feedback from the ESPA research community during early workshops in support of the call.

ESPA Adverts from Projects

This section of our Newsletter will be devoted to adverts and requests from ESPA projects (e.g. adverts from projects requesting data or information on a particular topic or a simple request for some specific help/advice from the ESPA global community).