Acronyms

Access

Logo

Contact

Project Leader	Dr. Louis LEBEL SARCS Science Coordinator Faculty of Social Sciences Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200 THAILAND Tel/Fax: +66-53-263-215 Email: llebel@loxinfo.co.th
Funding	US $45,000 (year 2)
Participating countries	Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, USA, Vietnam

Introduction/Background
The main product of the project is to produce an assessment book. This is now in full draft form, except for one of the eight chapters. All chapters still require final editing and better cross-chapter integration.

The project is in the second year of a two-year project. (First year title: "Completion, publication and launch of the assessment report: Policy Implications of Global Change for Development in Southeast Asia"). Each year was funded by a separate APN grant. After the first year the project was approximately 3 months behind its overall schedule. This second year has been similar, so that overall the project is expected to be completed around June/July 2001. There are a couple of important reasons for the delay in completing the editing of the chapters, of which will in the end contribute to a stronger assessment report.

(1) During 2000 I was involved in the preparation of IGBP-START regional synthesis book. This required substantial work reviewing background and more basic science findings for the region. I wrote the chapter on Southeast Asia for this book. This helped me work with authors in the region improve the scientific basis of the chapters in the APN assessment book. Thus, the two activities have been highly complimentary, with APN activity having a much greater emphasis on policy.
(2) The preparations for Global Change and Sustainable Development Conference, 17-19 February 2001 have created a fantastic opportunity for the authors to present and discuss the assessment with a wider audience.

Outline of activities conducted
In April 2000 we held a working group meeting of lead authors in Bangkok. Since then most of the interaction has been through electronic communication, though from time to time I have been able to meet and discuss progress with the chapters with individual authors as part of other activities. Most of the work has thus been on an individual basis revising and editing the chapters.

Outcomes/Products
Draft assessment book.

Future directions/Follow-up work
The largest activity under the project will be participation in the Global Change and Sustainable Development Conference to be held 17-19 February 2001. The current APN assessment project was in a real sense a key factor behind the focus of this conference on exploring the global change/sustainable development nexus. The original framework for this "development-centered" analysis of global change issues came out of the SARCS Integrated Study Science Plan completed in 1999.
The major sponsor of the conference is START (SARCS) but there are a number of other minor sponsors bringing participants to the meeting, including APN through the current project grant. There will be a side meeting of authors at the conference. More information about this conference can be found at http://www.icsea.org/sarcs2001/

Apart from this conference the main activity will be the completion of the chapter on coastal zones and marine resources with the team of authors and the overall editing of the book.

Once the book has been submitted for publication we will prepare a short summary to some of the key conclusions and use this in a series of co-sponsored short briefing workshops at the national level in a couple of key cities in the region. These will take place in the 2nd half of 2001.
 
 

Dates	Major Activities
17-19 February 2001	Global Change and Sustainable Development Conference, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Includes side-meeting of authors
March - May	Final editing and follow-up with lead authors on revisions
June	Preparation and submission to publishers
August-October	Follow-up national-level seminars

Levered activities
Apart from the conference the APN assessment book project has helped leverage interest, funding and opportunities for funding in a number of ways.

The APN assessment book project, for example, led to an invitation to contribute a chapter for a book on integrated regional assessment co-sponsored by CIRA (US group) and START.  The focus of this activity is a self-critical analysis of the assessment process and methods used in the SARCS network including many references to the APN assessment book. This is one way for us to learn from the experience of conducting assessments with different approaches. The chapter should be complete in the next two months.

During 2000 I have become involved in the planning and design of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. One outcome of this liaison is that Southeast Asia has been selected as one of the two sub-global regional assessment case study areas to be supported directly by the process.  This assessment will include development of scenarios that should build on the analysis done as part of the APN assessment book.

The APN assessment book project continues to have a close relationship with on-going regional synthesis activities of SARCS (START) in the Southeast Asia region, and thus, with all three of the major programmes IGBP, IHDP and WCRP. For the future, this experience will contribute to planning for new integrated cross programme projects on carbon and food systems (water to come).