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The project on Institutional Dimensions of Global
Environmental Change (IDGEC) is now formally closed. IDGEC completed
its synthesis phase following the IDGEC Synthesis Conference in
December 2006 and several months of preparation of publications.
The Earth System Governance Project was formed to take the IDGEC research
themes in new directions under a new science plan. To find out more,
please go to: earthsystemgovernance.org
IDGEC was a long-term international research
project developed during the 1990s under the auspices of the International
Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP)
and operated as one of IHDP's core projects. IDGEC sponsored
and coordinated research on the roles that institutions play as
determinants of the course of human/environmental interactions with
respect to global environmental change. The project generated
knowledge about social institutions and, at the same time, built
and disseminated the intellectual capital needed to devise policies
to mitigate global environmental change problems.
Description of IDGEC
IDGEC was grateful to its sponsors and conference participants for making the IDGEC Synthesis Conference such a success. Synthesis of IDGEC research now continues with the preparation of several volumes based on the project's major analytic themes.
The papers and posters submitted for the Conference remain posted on the website as a resource for those interested to read examples of IDGEC research.
Information
Conference abstracts, papers, and presentations
Conference posters
Conference pictures
Press release
What are institutions?
Institutions are clusters of rights,
rules, and decision-making procedures that give rise to social practices,
assign roles to participants in these practices, and govern interactions
among occupants of those roles. Unlike organizations, which are
material entities that typically figure as actors in social practices,
institutions may be thought of as the rules of the game that determine
the character of these practices.
Institutions loom large as causes of
large-scale environmental problems that are both systemic (e.g.,
climate change, ozone layer depletion) and cumulative (e.g., loss
of biological diversity) in nature. Faulty structures of property
rights, for example, can lead to severe depletions of stocks of
living resources or to excessive uses of ecosystems for the disposal
of airborne and waterborne pollutants. Conversely, institutions
often figure prominently in efforts to solve or manage environmental
problems. The establishment of regulatory regimes to control emissions
of ozone-depleting substances or greenhouse gases is an example
of obvious relevance to global environmental change.
A thumbnail history
IDGEC's history can be traced to a feasibility study submitted to the IHDP Scientific Committee (SC) in September 1995. That study initiated the process of creating a Scientific Planning Committee and drafting an IDGEC Science Plan that was approved by the IHDP SC in late 1998. The first IDGEC Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) was appointed during the spring of 1999.
The SSC met for the first time in June 1999 and mapped out an implementation strategy for IDGEC. From the outset, Dr. Oran Young, now a professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), chaired the IDGEC SSC until 2006, when he assumed responsibilities as chair of the IHDP SC. Agus Sari, Country Director of Ecosecurities for Indonesia, has since chaired the IDGEC SSC.
An IDGEC International Project Office (IPO) was established later in 1999 at Dartmouth College with funding provided by the US National Science Foundation. The IPO, headed by an Executive Officer and now located at UCSB, has played a critical role in the work of IDGEC beginning with the identification of issues ripe for systematic analysis and continuing through to the presentation and publication of findings. The current Executive Officer is Dr. Heike Schroeder, a political scientist from Germany.
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