GECHS and UK Geography

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Please feel free to incorporate these slides into
your own presentations, especially when talking
about global environmental change, human
security, and the GECHS network. The GECHS IPO
would appreciate being informed of their use
prior to public meetings. info_at_gechs.org
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Global Environmental Change and Human Security

• GECHS a core project of the International Human
  Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental
  Change

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Outline

• Project Context
• structure
• About GECHS
• background
• Overview of Activities
• research

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A Network of Networks
The Four Global Programmes Biodiversity
(DIVERSITAS) Weather and Climate (WCRP) Physical
Environment (IGBP) Social Environment (IHDP)
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GECHS and IHDP

• Emphasize social science perspectives on global
  environmental change
• Acknowledge that environmental changes are taking
  place within the dynamic context of other social
  changes
• Work at the science-policy interface to increase
  response capacity and mitigate environmental
  change

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International Project Office

• Administrative
• Funders
• NFR
• Norad
• UiO
• Governance
• Scientific Steering Committee
• IHDP

• Coordination
• Research
• SSC
• Associates
• Endorsed Projects
• Outreach
• Workshops
• Publications
• Conferences

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Scientific Steering Committee

• Karen OBrien (chair), Department of Sociology
  and Human Geography at the University of Oslo,
  Norway
• Jon Barnett, School of Anthropology, Geography
  and Environmental Studies in the University of
  Melbourne, Australia
• Ken Conca, Department of Government and Politics
  at the University of Maryland, USA
• Hans-Georg Bohle, Department of Geography,
  University of Bonn, Germany
• Indra de Soysa, Department of Political Science
  at the Norwegian University of Science and
  Technology, Norway
• Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Department of Public Law,
  University of Nairobi, Kenya
• Alexander Lopez, Mesoamerican Center for
  Sustainable Development of the Dry Tropics at the
  Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica
• Lyla Mehta, Institute of Development Studies,
  University of Sussex, UK
• Kwasi Nsiah-Gyabaah, Sunyani Polytechnic, Ghana
• Joni Seager, Environmental Studies at York
  University, Canada
• Jinxia Wang, Center for Chinese Agricultural
  Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

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Workshops

• Human Security and Climate Change (2005)
• migration, conflict and cooperation,
  vulnerability and adaptation
• Mainstreaming Adaptation into ODA (2006)
• relationship between vulnerability and poverty
  reduction
• Adaptation as a Social Process (2006)
• synergies and opportunities for research across
  the Nordic countries
• Shifting the Discourse (2007)
• equity and justice, ethics, development, and
  human rights

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Publications
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The Basis for GECHS

• Environmental change is first and foremost an
  issue of human security!
• Environmental change interacts with other
  processes of change.
• Biophysical, social, economic, institutional, and
  technological conditions create the context for
  vulnerability.
• This dynamic context influences outcomes,
  including conflict and cooperation.

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Notions of Security

• State or national security
• The ability of a nation to protect its national
  values from threats, both internal and external.
• Environmental security
• Linkages between environmental conditions and
  national/regional security interests.
• Human security
• Freedom from fear, freedom from want focus on
  the well-being of individuals and communities.

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Human Security and Vulnerability
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Human Security is

• having the capacity to overcome
  vulnerabilities and to respond positively to
  environmental change.
• Conditions for human security include
• Having the options necessary to end, mitigate or
  adapt to threats to human, environmental and
  social rights
• Having the capacity and freedom to exercise those
  options
• Actively participating in pursuing such options.

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GEC and Human Security
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GECHS Research Themes

• Multiple, interacting processes of change
• Conflict, cooperation, and governance
• Vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation
• Knowledge and power

• Climate change
• Water
• Gender
• Poverty
• Scarcity
• Human health

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GECHS Activities

• Human Security and Climate Change
• vulnerability, adaptation, and opportunities for
  poverty reduction
• Understanding the Global Water Crisis
• scarcity, governance, conflict and cooperation
• Southern African Vulnerability Initiative
• vulnerability assessments leading to polities and
  interventions that enhance human security
• Environmental Peacemaking
• Role of the environment in post-conflict peace
  building
• Shifting the Discourse
• equity and justice, ethics, development, and
  human rights

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Vision of GECHS contributions

• Reframing global environmental change as an issue
  of human security
• Broadening the community of researchers involved
  in human dimensions of GEC research
• Positioning global environmental change on the
  human security agenda
• Strengthening the interface between scientists
  and practitioners.

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For more information
GECHS International Project Office
University of Oslo Department of Sociology and Hu
man Geography P.O. Box 1096 Blindern N-0317 Oslo
NORWAY Tel [phone] Fax [phone]
3 Email info_at_gechs.org Web www.gechs.org