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UPDATES FROM REGIONAL SECTIONS AND WORKING GROUPS
EUROPEIn February 2007, the Section Board met in Uppsala, Sweden. Major tasks addressed at this meeting included the preparation of a strategic plan and work plan for 2007-2010, a review of the outcomes of the first European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB), and consideration of bids to host the second ECCB in 2009. The Section's strategic plan for 2006-2010 built on SCB's global strategic plan for the same period of time, identifying key elements of the strategy to be developed and applied on a European scale or in a specific European context. Based on the Section's strategic plan we have developed a work plan to be implemented over the next several years. If you are interested in becoming more involved in Sections activities, read the plans (available at www.conbio.org/Sections/Europe/) and discover the areas in which we best can use your skills. After the first and successful ECCB we reviewed the impacts the Congress has had on the Section. One immediate impact was a large increase in Section membership. During the registration period for the Congress and during the meeting itself, Section membership increased by 59% to 660 and membership in SCB by Europeans increased by 32% to 780. Almost one year later, we have retained an impressive 97% of Section members. If you joined SCB and the Section during the ECCB please remember to renew your membership and retain the associated benefits. Although no additional cost is associated with Section membership, the proportion of SCB members who also are Section members is notably low in several countries: Norway (50%), France (50%), Switzerland (48%), Portugal (40%), United Kingdom (37%), and the Netherlands (12%). If you are not yet a Section member, please visit SCB's Web site and join; remember that you can be a voting member of two Sections. In addition to boosting membership, the ECCB generated income for the Section that will enable us to support Section development and activities. During its February meeting, the Board also reviewed proposals to host the second ECCB in 2009. From the strong proposals received a location has been selected. We will announce the venue and dates after a site visit in September 2007. Our meeting in Uppsala coincided with the release of the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In response, the Board issued a press release, "Nature conservation helps fight climate change," which was featured by several local and national news outlets. The press release is available on the Section's Web site. As many of you know, Uppsala was the home of Carl Linnaeus; we were fortunate to be able to visit Linnaeus' summer house in the year of the 300th anniversary of his birth. Events to mark the anniversary in Uppsala, London, and elsewhere celebrated Linnaeus' impact on the science of biology. This theme was developed by Sjögren-Gulve, Långström, Baldi, Ibisch, Kati, Livoreil and Selva in a letter that appeared in the August 2007 issue of Conservation Biology. The diverse activities of the Section have continued during the last few months. In April, Per Sjögren-Gulve represented the Section at a meeting in Geneva to discuss the need for an International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity (IMoSEB). This regional consultation was co-hosted by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the secretariat of Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Swiss Biodiversity Forum, and the Natural History Museum of Geneva. The meeting was attended by 45 participants from 17 countries. After three regional consultations, there appears to be consensus that an IMoSEB would be valuable, but needs for such a mechanism and its optimal role may differ among continents. The European meeting suggested that a consortium of expertise networks would be useful. A full report form the meeting is available on the Section's Web site. The Section's education committee currently is developing course materials to be used during a Conservation Summer School in Papigo, Greece in July 2008. This session will offer students the opportunity to spend a week in the field and in lectures with leading conservation educators from across Europe. More details will appear in future newsletters. The Section meeting at SCB's 2007 annual meeting was well attended with almost 30 participants. However, this represents only a small proportion of the Europeans who attended the annual meeting. Please remember that the ECCB Abstract Book, a valuable resource to share with our professional community, is still available to download at www.eccb2006.org. As always, the Board encourages the participation of Section members in our activities. Please contact us (europe@conservationbiology.org) with any questions or comments. Owen Nevin
MARINEBoard of Directors The Section is pleased to announce the election of five new Board members: Will Burns, Leslie Cornick, Daniela Maldini, Jennifer Smith, and Michael Webster. These additions will allow us to accomplish a great deal in the coming months and broaden the Board's diversity of expertise and experience. Visit the Section Web site for more information about these officers. 2007 Annual Meeting Board members Phaedra Doukakis, Ellen Hines, Anne Salomon, and Jennifer Smith attended SCB's 2007 annual meeting, which featured three marine symposia and more than 100 oral and poster presentations with marine content. Members discussed Section activities and plans at a meeting on 5 July. The Section held a fantastic social on 2 July at the Port Elizabeth Oceanarium Bayworld. More than 120 people attended the event, which featured presentations by Myra Finkelstein, a Smith Fellow from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Stephanie Ploen from Bayworld. Special thanks to the local organizing committee and Amanda Lombard and to World Wildlife Fund for donating beverages. During a policy workshop, the Section presented possible areas of focus for SCB policy work in the marine realm, stressing that our Section is not bound by geography and can be cross-cutting. We described how our board and Section has policy expertise as well as scientists interested in influencing policy at local, national, and international levels. The Section further emphasized the need to incorporate peer-reviewed, reputable, objective science into the policy process. We suggested that SCB could help contribute science to policy by obtaining observer status at international meetings of important treaties and conventions. The Board is working to compose a policy statement for the Section and hopes to solicit member input in the near future. We particularly welcome suggestions for SCB policy activities related to climate change and fisheries. If you would like to contribute to policy, please contact Chris Parsons (ecm-parsons@earthlink.net). International Marine Conservation Congress We have begun planning for the International Marine Conservation Congress, which will be held in Washington, D.C. during the second quarter of 2009. We hope that the meeting will bring together researchers, practitioners, stakeholders, and organizations interested in marine conservation. This meeting's theme, Making Marine Science Matter: From Data to Policy and Management, will concentrate on multidisciplinary issues. Steering and program committees are nearly established. Other committees, including fundraising, venue, and local organizing, also are being formed and need volunteers. If you are able to help, please contact John Cigliano (jaciglia@cedarcrest.edu). Phaedra Doukakis
NORTH AMERICAMembers of the North America Section met in two major venues in recent months to discuss science, policy, and Section business. In May we met jointly with the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET) in Little Rock, Arkansas. We co-hosted the week-long conference, and on 24 May the Section sponsored a symposium, Reconciling Conservation Planning and Transportation Planning on a Regional Scale. This session, which featured speakers Dan Smith, Lenore Fahrig, Tony Clevenger, Seth Riley, Clinton Epps, Paul Beier, and Julia Kintsch, was reportedly the best attended of the conference. The ICOET organizers were pleased that the Section could attend and extended an open invitation for us to host additional symposia in future years. We welcomed many new members at the conference. In addition to two brief meetings of the Board, we held a two-hour members' meeting, which included a policy discussion led by John Fitzgerald, SCB's Policy Director, and Dominick DellaSala, chair of the Section's policy committee. Most members of the Section Board attended these meetings, and approximately 30-40 individuals attended the members' meeting, a greater number than typically attend Section meetings at SCB's annual, global meetings. SCB's 2007 annual meeting had a strong showing of North Americans. After South Africa, the United States contributed the second highest number of delegates to the meeting. Board members Reed Noss, Erica Fleishman, Jon Rosales, and Martin Main (whose term began at the close of the members' meeting) attended the entire meeting. I presented the Section's approach to policy during a policy workshop, gave an overview of Section activities at the SCB members' meeting, and led a discussion of a small (but lively) group of members at our Section meeting. Several orders of business were conducted and decisions made at the various meetings. First, the Board elected Kathy Granillo as Secretary and Nick Haddad as Treasurer. Remarkably, heretofore these posts have been vacant. Second, the frequency of global and Section meetings, and how these meetings might be coordinated to encourage participation in both, has been much discussed. The Section Board recommended to SCB's Board that global meetings be held biennially, with Section meetings in the odd years. We also voted to pursue a meeting of the Section, ideally to be held in conjunction with another society or with one of our larger chapters. SCB's Board did not reach consensus on the issue of meeting frequency; for now the status quo will prevail. Because SCB's 2008 and 2010 annual meetings will be held in North America (in Chattanooga, Tennessee and somewhere in Canada, respectively), and there was concern that a Section meeting in 2009 might draw people away from SCB's annual meeting in China, the Section Board agreed not to pursue a full Section meeting in 2009. Among the options discussed by the Board and with the membership, the idea of "partial" meetings, much like our hosting of a symposium at ICOET in 2007, appears to have the most support and is unlikely to conflict with global meetings. At our next conference call, the Board will discuss meeting options and decide whether we need a Section-level conference committee. Possible venues for hosting a symposium during 2009 include meetings of the American Ornithologists' Union, American Society of Mammalogists, and Natural Areas Association. Finally, several representatives from SCB chapters in North America attended ICOET and the 2007 annual meeting. I believe we are making great progress toward our new model of governance and political action. In this model, chapters are nested within (and coordinate with) SCB's Sections, which in turn are nested within our global SCB community. I thank Tom Sisk, chapter representative on SCB's Board of Governors, and Fiona Nagle, chair of the Chapters Advisory Committee and ex officio member of the Section board, for their assistance in advancing this approach. Please join me in extending thanks to the outgoing Board members whose terms ended at the close of the members' meeting in Port Elizabeth: Pam Krannitz, Brian Czech, and Michael Reed. (Michael, who just led a joint SCB / American Ornithologists' Union review of the draft recovery plan for the Northern Spotted Owl, is staying on as a member of the Section's policy committee). And please help me welcome our two new Board members: Marty Main (who already chaired our Section's education committee) and James Gibbs. We pledge to keep you engaged in good work. Reed F. Noss
FRESHWATER WORKING GROUPSponsored Memberships We have recruited 76 new or renewing members from developing countries thanks to The Nature Conservancy's sponsorship program [see SCB Newsletter 13(3) for more information]. Thanks to The Nature Conservancy and to all those who nominated candidates for sponsorship. We encourage the newly recruited members to become active in the working group. 2007 Annual Meeting The Freshwater Working Group was well represented at SCB's 2007 annual meeting. Six of ten Board members and many working group members attended and participated actively. Working group members Pierre de Villiers and Joshua Viers coordinated a pre-meeting workshop on biodiversity conservation in vineyard settings. Held in Stellenbosch, South Africa, this workshop drew more than 50 participants from a variety of sectors worldwide, including researchers, students, growers, and politicians. The workshop used a catchment-to-coast framework to help frame the issues, challenges, and future directions of conservation on working landscapes. A field day included visits to areas being cleared of non-native vegetation and prepared for stream rehabilitation. Several members gave guest lectures on the freshwater day of Bob Pressey's pre-meeting short course Systematic Conservation Planning and the Role of Software: from Data to Implementation and Management. Topics presented on the freshwater day included differences between terrestrial and freshwater planning, catchment mapping, longitudinal connectivity, application of the complete planning process to freshwater environments, planning for climate change, and case studies from Australia and South Africa. On 1 July a freshwater-oriented field trip initiated by the working group and organized by the Albany Museum visited the Baviaanskloof Wilderness. Issues such as non-native invasive freshwater fishes and the effects of road networks on freshwater ecosystems were discussed during the trip. Many thanks to the organizers and guides from the Albany Museum. We were excited to add freshwater issues to the SCB policy discussion during the workshop organized by Policy Director John Fitzgerald. Board member Dirk Roux presented five freshwater policy priorities to workshop participants. These are highlighted in a related article. Thirty-three presentations related to freshwater conservation were offered during three contributed oral sessions: fish conservation, freshwater conservation, and wetland conservation. Almost 20 posters presented at the meeting focused on freshwater-related subjects. Two freshwater-oriented symposia were held, including Freshwater Conservation Assessment, Planning, Governance and Management: Case Studies, Emerging Issues, and Key Lessons from Around the World, organized by Jeanne Nel and colleagues. Six of our Board members gave presentations in that symposium. Working group member Mao Angua-Amis received a student award for his presentation, "Do freshwater and terrestrial priorities overlap in conservation assessments?" Congratulations Mao! On 3 July 2007 we held a meeting of the working group's Board. We agreed to a bylaws change adding the past president as an ex officio Board member. Simon Linke reported that during the previous day's SCB education committee meeting, he committed to developing a college-level freshwater conservation course for the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (http://ncep.amnh.org). We agreed to continue working closely with John Fitzgerald following his positive reception of the working group's policy issues. We also agreed to complete our strategic planning before the end of the year, after thoroughly digesting the results of our members' survey. Board members also met with David Aborn, organizer of SCB's 2008 annual meeting, to discuss possible freshwater activities next year. We intend to take advantage of the high freshwater biodiversity in the region, and the fact that the Tennessee Aquarium (www.tnaqua.org) in Chattanooga houses the world's largest freshwater aquarium, to ensure that freshwater conservation issues have a high profile at the 2008 meeting. We agreed to begin recruiting people who would be interested in either joining one of our committees or assisting with a specific project for the 2008 meeting, including field trips, symposia, workshops, and, of course, fundraising. If you would like to help in any way, please contact Ken Vance-Borland (ken.vance-borland@oregonstate.edu) or Aventino Kasangaki (aventinok@yahoo.com). We also enjoyed social events at the meeting. Mordy Ogada produced a series of beautiful Freshwater Working Group t-shirts; many of them sold, and we donated the remainder to the local organizing committee. Dirk Roux and Jeanne Nel organized a well-attended dinner. Mao Amis organized a 5 km fun walk and run that was held on 3 July. Join the Freshwater Working Group by logging into your SCB member account and going to My Section and Working Group Affiliations.' Subscribe to the freshwater listserv at http://list.conbio.org/mailman/listinfo/freshwater/. Aventino Kasangaki and Ken Vance-Borland
SOCIAL SCIENCE WORKING GROUPSocial Science on Display at 2007 Annual Meeting Conservation social science was prominently featured at SCB's 2007 annual meeting. Eleven symposia, three workshops, two short courses, and dozens of contributed oral presentations and posters focused on the social aspects of biodiversity conservation. Attendance at these sessions was high and presentation quality was excellent, once again illustrating the vibrant social science community within SCB. The working group was particularly pleased to sponsor two short courses that targeted African researchers and practitioners: Ethnoecology and Community Conservation (co-sponsored with the Global Diversity Foundation) and Social Science in Conservation Planning. The very well attended working group social, jointly sponsored with the Africa Section, was a key step in building a global community of conservation social science practitioners. We look forward to replicating these successes at the 2008 annual meeting. Resources for Networking The working group's membership committee has launched two resources to facilitate networking among conservation social scientists. The Conservation Social Science Expert Directory provides easy access to the wealth of professional expertise within the conservation social science community. Anyone with internet access may use the Directory's user-friendly search tool to find a conservation social science expert by name, academic discipline, conservation expertise, or geographic areas of interest. Interested in sharing your knowledge with conservation professionals around the world? Join the Directory! www.conbio.org/workinggroups/sswg/ResDirectory.cfm Ambassadors Program In order to facilitate sharing of knowledge about conservation social science in countries underrepresented in the working group's membership, the membership committee has launched the Social Science Working Group Ambassadors program. Ambassadors are volunteers who will represent the working group in these regions by (1) disseminating information about working group activities and resources to researchers, practitioners, and students interested in conservation social science, (2) encouraging working group involvement and feedback, and (3) communicating ideas for working group activities and membership involvement to the appropriate Board members. We already have a number of passionate, dedicated conservation social scientists, but we are looking for more! If you are interested or know someone who would be a perfect Ambassador, please contact our Ambassador Coordinator, Annie Claus (annie.claus@wwfus.org). Conservation Fellowships for Young Africans The working group is proud to announce the winners of our young African conservation fellowships (below). The call for proposals for this fellowship was distributed in English and in French via the working group's listserv and other venues. We received more than 40 applicants from seven countries and were impressed by the overall quality of the applicants. With help from The Christensen Fund, the winners will receive two years of SCB membership, including print copies of Conservation Biology and Conservation magazine. In addition, the fellows will serve as a portal between the working group and local research communities. Martin Adeimile, Savannas Forever Tanzania
Mike Mascia, Joshua Drew, and Najem Raheem
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