Sustainable Development Page 2
(ECP and CTSP grantees, reports, and other sites of interest for
conservation geography, mapping and GIS. Grantees are coded by
program and year of grant at the end of their name/state, i.e. e91 means
ECP grant in 1991. c=cstp, cm=ctsp-mac, cs=ctsp-software)
FAO World Agricultural Information Centre Project.
(FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. Tel: +39.0657051, Fax: +39.0657053152)
The East African Regional Biodiversity Project is the first GEF project
to become operational in Africa. There is a focus on coordination, awareness,
research and training activities; with emphasis on biodiversity in the
wetlands and forest sectors. Current
Agricultural Research Information System (CARIS).
Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS)
FAO Global Plant Protection Information System.
(FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. Tel: +39.0657051, Fax: +39.0657053152,
Email: plantinfo@fao.org, GPPIS Supervisor. Tony Putter, tony.putter@fao.org, Fax:+39 6 57056347)
ISAR: Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia, Washington, DC e92.
(1601 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 301, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: 202-387-3034,
Fax: 202-667-3291. Contact: Eliza K. Klose, Executive Director, Email: postmaster@isar.org
alternate url)
"In the post-Soviet era ISAR's mission is to support local initiatives and
empower local citizens seeking to create a more just and sustainable society.
ISAR is guided in its work by the belief that meeting the social and ecological
challenges of today depends on more equitable distribution of resources, open
access to information and greater cooperation among groups and individuals."
ID21, UK.
"This is the ID21 Development Research reporting service, a selection
of the latest and best UK-based development research. This new online
service offers hundreds of summaries of problem-solving work on critical
development dilemmas around the world.... Hosted by the Institute of Development
Studies, the initiative is known as ID21 - or Information for Development
in the 21st Century. Its key feature is a searchable online collection
of short, one-page (500-word) digests of the latest social and economic
research studies across 30 key topic fields."
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Canada.
(161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 0Y4 Telephone:
1 (204) 958-7700, Fax: 1 (204) 958-7710, Email: info@iisd.ca. Geneva Office:
Mark Halle, Le Viaduc CH-1271, Givrins, Switzerland, Tel: 41-22 369-3754
Fax: 41-22 369-3758 Email: mark.halle@iprolink.ch.)
"IISD's mission is to promote
sustainable development
in decision making internationally and within Canada. For
development to be sustainable it must integrate environmental stewardship,
economic development and the well-being of all people—not just for today
but for countless generations to come. " See also:
Measurement and Indicators for Sustainable Development.
"The transition to sustainable development requires changed behavior and practice
in business, government and everyday life. Such progress requires that we understand
and be able to measure the effects of policies and actions on the economy,
the environment and people's well being. This concern about assessing
progress towards sustainable development has fueled a growing international
interest in measurement techniques. Measurement, as an indispensable tool
to make the concept of sustainable development operational, helps decision-makers
and the public to conceptualize objectives, evaluate alternatives, make
policy choices, and adjust policies as well as objectives based on actual
performance." SEARCH.
Island Resources Foundation, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands c95.
(6292 Estate Nazareth #100, St. Thomas, VI 00802-1104, Tel: 340/775-6225, Fax: 340/779-2022
Email: etowle@irf.org. GIS Contact: Bruce Potter, IRF, 1718 "P" Street
NW Suite T-4, Washington, DC 20036, tel:202/265-9712 fax:202/232-0748
Email: bpotter@irf.org) "Island Resources Foundation is a private,
non-profit organization based at Red Hook in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands,
dedicated to solving the environmental problems of development in small
tropical islands....Increasing access to environmental information, and
especially increasing the use of environmental information in the planning
and management of development of small tropical islands is a central objective
of Island Resources...Island Resources Foundation believes Geographic
Information Systems are essential tools for the interpretation and display
of environmental information necessary for planning and management of
small tropical islands. Virgin
Islands Conservation Data Center: A guide to help users to find out
what spatial Features the CDC has in its Geographic Information System.
See: Environmental Information
and Geographic Information Systems with downloadable data libraries.
"Island Resources Foundation believes Geographic
Information Systems are essential tools for the interpretation and
display of environmental information necessary for planning and management
of small tropical islands. The Foundation is working with a group of GIS
Users in the Virgin Islands to share information and ideas about GIS applications
in the Territory. " See also: ECMAP: The Eastern Caribbean Mapping
Cooperative. Don't miss A
Sermon on Information Imperialism: "We are seriously concerned
about finding ways to encourage and promote the posting of information
on the Internet by and about the Caribbean. There are minor technical
problems to establishing 'servers' for such archiving or electronic libraries,
but more critical is the need to think of ways to break down what Franklin
McDonald calls the 'culture of secrecy.' In both of the examples given
above, the Internet can contribute either to improved decision-making — because
of the ability to marshal more information at almost no cost — or to distorted
decisions, if the networks are systematically biased in the information
they present. This is 'information imperialism,' especially if all of
the information affecting St. Kitts' bond ratings, or St. Lucia's sub-division
planning, comes only from continental or developed country sources."
Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, Ky e95.
(433 Chestnut Street, Berea, KY 40403. Tel: (606) 986-2373, Fax: (606) 986-1299, GIS Contact:
Shepard McAninch Ecologist/Director GIS Lab, Email: smcaninch@maced.org)
"MACED provides opportunities and resources to help citizens build sustainable,
healthy, equitable, democratic and prosperous communities in Kentucky
and Central Appalachia." GIS PROJECTS:
"MACED developed the
Forest Resource Model (FRM) to provide citizens, landowners and government
with stronger decision-making. The FRM expands our understanding of the
forest resource at the local, regional, state and national levels. Many
decisions and attempts to influence policies are based on insufficient
and anecdotal information. We make business decisions about forest products
companies with this inadequate information. The FRM is an attempt to begin
the process of providing better information about the forest resource.
The model is Geographic
Information System (GIS) based and through organizations like MACED
citizens can have access to modeling capability that allows them to test
their own assumptions about the local forest resource. see also FRM
Online Maps. See
Investing in Kentucky's Future for another example of their recent GIS work.
The Mountain Institute, Franklin WV c95.
(See under ECP International.)
National Center for Appropriate Technology, Mt.
(3040 Continental Drive, Butte, Montana 59702. Tel: (406) 494-4572, Toll free: 1-800-275-6228
(ASK-NCAT), Fax: (406) 494-2905, Email: info@ncat.org)
"
NCAT/ATTRA (Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas) began investigating
use of GIS systems in 1995, when an NCAT staffperson wrote a white paper
about potential GIS use in our organization. At that time, we concluded
that although it was an attractive technology, the costs outweighed the
benefits. Since then, GIS software and hardware have become more inexpensive
and datasets more available. In late 1997, NCAT/ATTRA made a commitment
to begin implementing a GIS system. We have discussed our plans with GIS
experts and have made contacts with two organizations (not including CTSP)
that will provide assistance implementing our GIS plans."
Rogue Institute for Ecology and Economy, Ashland OR c97.
(762 A Street, Ashland, OR 97520 USA. Tel: (541) 482-6031, Fax: 482-8581, Email: info@rogueinstitute.org)
"The Institute was founded in 1989 to bring together ecology and
economy in ways that strengthen communities. The attempt to pit jobs against
the environment was threatening both communities and their landscapes.
Rather than buy into this misleading debate, we began working at the local
level, within communities, to show that healthy economies and healthy
environments are fundamentally linked."
GIS STATUS: "Probably the largest factor in the direction
of our GIS program is that it is very directed by our projects. This means
that the amount of time spent on GIS tasks is dictated by funding for
specific projects...We think it is important to realize how GIS with a
windows interface quickly became a bit of a "fad" and everyone wanted
one, even if they didn't know what they were going to do with it. In some
ways we fell into this trap because we had project ideas for which we
thought we were going to use GIS that did not manifest. We quickly identified
other uses, but it is still a slow process for us to incorporate GIS into
our daily project work. (i.e.): Ecosystem Workforce Training Partnership
(EWTP): In this program, retraining crews of displaced timber workers
learn ecosystem management skills applicable to today's jobs in local
forests. Specific jobs range from stream restoration and thinning to assessment
tasks and mapping. For one project in 1998, crews were responsible for
mapping out some soil types, plant associations, and basic physical characteristics
for two forestry units. The final requirements in the contract asked for
maps of the data. The Forest Service expected hand drawn maps. Using our
GIS system, however, we were able to create maps that completely exceeded
the Forest Service's expectations." Also see their GIS work in
Landowner Stewardship Project —
a collaborative approach to ecosystem management: "In this project
we worked with neighboring private landowners to
help them develop forest management plans that complimented each other.
The intent was to help them see their property as a part of the larger
landscape and use this awareness to guide their land management decision
making processes. GIS maps were a valuable tool for several elements of
this project. Maps helped landowners see where their lands and their neighbors
had similar components that needed parallel management regimes. It also
helped them make decisions as we could show them specifically where on
their property we were recommending activities. In January of 1999 we
will begin a similar project in the Upper Rogue watershed of southern
Oregon. We have already talked to Jackson County about a CD-ROM they recently
published with applicable data to help us make similar maps for this new area."
Rural Advancement Foundation Intl., Pittsboro NC c96.
(Hope Shand, 118 E Main St. Room 211, Carrboro NC 27510-2300 USA, Tel: (919) 960-5223,
Fax: (919) 960-5224, Email: hope@rafi.org) "RAFI is an international non-governmental
organisation headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada) with an affiliate
office in Pittsboro, North Carolina (US). RAFI is dedicated to the conservation
and sustainable improvement of agricultural biodiversity, and to the socially
responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies."
Check out their
SEED MAP. Don't miss their
extensive papers and discussions on genetic engineering and the new "terminator"
and "traitor" technologies which render developing country crop
plants sterile after one harvest. SEARCH.
The Sustainable Development Institute, Wa.
(3121 South Street NW, Washington, DC 20007. Tel: (202) 338-1017, Email: susdev@igc.org)
"Founded in 1993, SDI specializes in communications about environmental aspects of economic
development in coastal and tropical forest regions."
Atlantic Coastwatch Newsletter: "A pithy newsletter about environmentally
mindful forms of economic development along the Atlantic seaboard - from
the Gulf of Maine to the eastern Caribbean. Published every two months,
with news of people, places, issues, problems and solutions."
Community Forestry Project "The project highlights positive examples of
communities as custodians protecting forests from destruction and degradation.
Examples and recommendations are presented to global policy making bodies,
aid donors and lenders, and the public."
UNESCO CSI: Environment and Development in Coastal Regions and in Small Islands.
(Email: csi.webmaster@unesco.org) "UNESCO endeavour launched in January
1996. Its goal is to assist Member States towards environmentally-sound,
socially-equitable and culturally-appropriate development in coastal regions
and in small islands. CSI contributes to the advancement of pertinent
knowledge, the integrated application of research findings and capacity-building
in transdisciplinarity. It serves as a platform for cross-sectoral, cooperative action.
All text by the respective organizations/authors
January 2, 1997
Web layout & design: Charles Convis, ESRI Conservation Program
April 2, 1996
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