Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

Pole-to-Pole Summits: The Role of Science in International Policy  (POLE-TO-POLE SUMMITS)

Outline
As human populations and demands for limited resources continue to expand, at global to local levels, it will become increasingly urgent for scientists to help manage environmental and ecosystem changes. The Polar Regions provide unique vantages to explore issues relating to the science-policy interface generally as well to probe these societal issues in depth for polar environments and ecosystems. The three Pole-to-Pole Summits during the 4th IPY (from March 2007 to March 2009) will be convened to address Theme 6 regarding societal issues of ”partnership and public involvement in research and policy formulation.” Objectives of the three Pole-to-Pole Summits are: *Objective 1:Develop a century-scale view of how science can and will contribute to the sustainable development of our civilization, as envisioned by the United Nations. *Objective 2:Examine the range of international environmental and ecosystem agreements that exist (with the emphasis on those relevant to the Polar Regions), testing them for performance both against their objectives and against each other. *Objective 3:Identify and assess alternative strategies to manage, share and make decisions about information for international legal systems and science systems. *Objective 4:Consider what is needed to make environmental and ecosystem policies more effective in the future, in terms of both new "law" and new science using a range of modelling and scenario-testing tools; and, *Objective 5:Highlight the policy precedents and interdisciplinary science models from the Polar Regions that will contribute to environmental and ecosystem governance over the next century at national, regional and global levels. The framework of “institutional interplay” will be combined with digital-record integration technologies (e.g., http://webhost.nvi.net/aspire) to link the summits and evaluate interactions among policy systems that have common geographic or conceptual scopes. Results from the summits will be disseminated through video and professional publication channels for education purposes, broadly speaking. The venues for the summit series will be: *2007 in an Arctic nation with the following natural science (impact assessment and habitat change) and social science (information sharing and governance models) themes; *2008 in a developing nation with the following natural science (global teleconnections and climate dynamics) and social science (technology development and institutional interplay) themes; and *2009 in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty with the following natural science (ecosystem dynamics and biodiversity) and social science (resource utilization and international cooperation) themes. The summits will be convened in conjunction with the national academies from the host nations and supported by diverse sources. The summits will involve leading scientists, policy makers and other key stakeholders to share interdisciplinary and international perspectives with each other “in the interests of science and the progress of all mankind” (as envisioned by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty).

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
With the Polar Regions as models, the Pole-to-Pole Summits will illuminate the critical roles of Earth system science (which includes all of the life sciences) in the interdisciplinary development of international policies that contribute to the sustainable development of our civilization at local to global levels.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
Collaboration will involve stakeholders from nations and organizations who are contributing to the Antarctic Treaty System and the Arctic Council. More broadly, the Pole-to-Pole Summits will involve collaboration with the community of stakeholders who are actively contributing to United Nations’ programs such as UNEP, UNESCO and FAO.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
The Pole-to-Pole Summits does not involve field activities that require unique logistic support from national Arctic and Antarctic programs.

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: n/a
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
No logistic support for polar research is required.

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
The Pole-to-Pole Summits will build on the legacy of the 3rd IPY (renamed the International Geophysical Year) and the precedents of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty to manage nearly 10% of the Earth for “peaceful purposes only” based on the “freedom of scientific investigation.”

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
The Pole-to-Pole Summits is being considered by the US National Committee for the IPY and has been endorsed by the Korean Polar Program. Positive feedback has been received from colleagues in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Comments are pending from colleagues in other nations.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
Exp

The Pole-to-Pole Summits builds on science, policy, education and information technology projects that are being: 1) funded by the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) program in the United States (e.g., http://webhost.nvi.net/aspire); and 2) utilized by international government programs, national government agencies, non-governmental organizations, corporations and academic institutions around the world.

How will the project be organised and managed?
Planning for the Pole-to-Pole Summits will be coordinated through a project management office at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A diverse Central Advisory Board will be established in 2005 to provide guidance, oversight and continuity for the entire project from 2007- 2009. Additional Groups of Experts will be established to assist with planning each of the three summits. Members of these advisory groups will be composed of men and women from different nations (developed, developing, polar and non-polar) with natural or social science expertise and interdisciplinary breadth. Additional advice will be solicited from individuals who have contributed to the implementation of other international summits, such as the World Summit on the Information Society.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
Each summit will be professionally videotaped and transcribed for public broadcasts that will be coordinated with media organizations (e.g., C-Span) to provide broad and timely dissemination. A website will be established to further facilitate international outreach and engagement. Another deliverable will be a series of books with peer-reviewed articles from each summit. Dissemination strategies will be developed to integrate these published and archived products into diverse interdisciplinary education forums that involve university and graduate programs as well as K-12 classes.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
The original videotapes and transcripts of the summit discussions along with logs of the Pole-to-Pole Summits website activities will be professionally archived for long-term preservation and historical access. These activities will be conducted in coordination with the Joint Committee on Antarctic Data Management and other relevant organizations. Results also will be published in scholarly journals as well as in the series of books with peer-reviewed articles from each summit.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
Efforts will be made to support the project management office with external funds from benefactors such as Donald Bren, who already has donated $20M to the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management alone and more than $60M to educational programs in general. Additional funds will be solicited separately from diverse sources (government, private foundations, companies and individuals) to support the three summits as well as the semi-annual meetings with the Central Advisory Board and associated Groups of Experts. It also is anticipated that funding will be shared among diverse sources from different nations.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
Generally, societal issues in the Polar Regions are considered with a focus on the Arctic. Environmental and ecosystem policies, however, provide essential societal frameworks for managing the Arctic and Antarctic as well as the rest of the Earth system. In this societal context, science reveals the variability and relative scales of events associated with geological, physical, chemical and biological processes in the Earth system. Science also reveals how constituents in the Earth system, such as water and life, respond to environmental changes (e.g., climate, fisheries or pollution impacts). Understanding natural and human-induced variations in the Earth system is the domain of scientists whereas the translation of these insights into effective ecosystem and environmental management is the domain of policy makers. The Polar Regions provide unique models to explore the interdisciplinary nexus of science and policy that is essential for the sustainable development of our society at local to global levels.

PROPOSER DETAILS

Pro Paul Berkman
Bren School of Environmental Science & Management
Univeristy of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
93106-5131
USA

Tel: 805-893-8437
Mobile: 805-636-6216
Fax: 805-893-7064
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation