Website: http://www.esa.org/science_resources/sustainability.php

Country: United States of America


The ESA Sustainability Science Initiative, supported by the Science Office, is intended to develop a series of activities to examine and articulate the intellectual foundations for a new sustainability science. It began formally with a special session, “Ecological Sustainability in a World of Constant Change: Developing a New Research Agenda for ESA,” organized by Vice President for Science Gus Shaver, President Nancy Grimm, and Science Director Cliff Duke at the 2005 Annual Meeting. A Steering Committee led by Gus Shaver and including Terry Chapin, Cliff Duke, Ann Kinzig, Debra Peters, and Osvaldo Sala planned an NSF-sponsored workshop “Ecological Foundations of Sustainability in a Constantly Changing World” held at Woods Hole, Massachusetts in March 2007. This workshop reviewed recent advances in ecological theory and identified how those advances can improve our understanding and achievement of sustainability. The workshop also set the stage for a symposium at the 2007 ESA Annual Meeting, a larger international workshop to be cosponsored by ESA, UNESCO, and SCOPE, and several publications.