GLOBAL LAND PROJECT

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GLP International Project Office moves to INPE in Brazil

The International Project Office (IPO) of GLP has moved from the University of Copenhagen (where it was hosted from 2006-2011) to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
 
From 1st January 2012, please direct all GLP related communication to Giovana
Espindola, the new Executive Officer of GLP and Camille Nolasco, the new Project Officer for GLP, using the contact details below. If you need to contact Tobias Langanke after January 2012, please use langanke.tobias(at)gmail.com

International Project Office (IPO)
Global Land Project (GLP)
National Institute for Space Research (INPE)
Av. dos Astronautas, 1758
Prédio Planejamento Sala 12
Jd. Granja 12227-010
São José dos Campos - SP - Brazil
 
Tel.:+55 12 32087110     
www.globallandproject.org
 
Giovana Espindola
Tel.: +55 12 32086987     
E-mail: giovana@dpi.inpe.br
Skype: giovana.mira
 
Camille Nolasco
Tel.:+55 12 32087110     
E-mail: camille.nolasco@inpe.br
Skype: camille.nolasco


Workshop at GLP Open Science Meeting 2010 leads to publication on payments for ecosystem services in the journal Science

On invitation of one of GLP's Scientific Steering Committee members (Billie Turner II) a group of world leading scholars and scientists met in a side event of GLP's Open Science Meeting "Land Systems, Global Change and Sustainability", Arizona State University, 17-19th October 2010 to discuss issues around payments for ecosystem services, and to draft a high-level publication outcome.
The resulting report, “Paying for Ecosystem Services: Promise and Peril” was now published in the Nov.4 issue of the journal Science. The study’s authors include Ann Kinzig, Charles Perrings, Terry Chapin III, Steve Polasky, V. Kerry Smith, Dave Tilman and B.L. Turner II, experts in economics, geography, business, urban planning and ecology at Arizona State University, University of Alaska and University of Minnesota.

Short summary:
Current competing pressures on land for food production, biofuel production, urbanization and many others uses, have severe implications for the provision of ecosystem services. This has led to growing enthusiasm for the use of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes that allow governments and non-governmental organizations to pay for environmental public goods.
The authors of this publication take a critical look at the opportunities, but also the possible pitfalls related to existing environmental markets and market-like mechanisms.
Issues discussed, include lessons learned from past payment schemes, uncertainties in the science underpinning schemes, the problem of perverse incentives, tradeoffs caused by interdependence between services, ecosystem services produced on public lands or seas beyond national jurisdiction, as well as requirements for observations and measures of the importance and condition of ecosystem services. Scientific modeling to predict results of payment schemes before they are set in place by policymakers should therefore take into account a broad range of factors. Charles Perrings from Arizona State University points out that “in developing scientific models for future mechanisms it is crucial to model the behavior of the physical system in interaction with the social system, for example by including socioeconomic data.”

More information:
The conference webpage is still online here and includes links to video recordings of most of the plenary presentations here
The direct link to the plenary that presents the results of the side-event, which lead to the publication here

Thanks:
Thanks to Billie Turner II for organizing this side event to the OSM! Support for the conference and the workshop leading to this publication was provided from NSF (SBE 1025699), NASA (NNX10AK05G), NOAA (through UCAR), INPE (The Brazilian Space Research Institute), Alterra Wageningen, the University of Copenhagen, the School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning at Arizona State University (ASU) and the Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU. The conference could also not have happened without the generous local support of Corrie Griffith and Michail Fragkias from the International Project Office of UGEC (IHPD's Urbanization project).

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On this page you find News considered relevant for the GLP and for others interested in the coupled human-environment system.