URBIS Gains Traction

The URBIS Partnerships initiative has gained some traction within the UN system and appears to be poised to become a major player in the Global Biodiversity discussion. A landmark agreement was signed at the COP 10 meetings in Nagoya, Japan by CBD Global Partnership of Cities and Biodiversity and other collaborators.

Click here for a journal article about URBIS.

Presentation at City Summit, COP 10- Nagoya, Japan

I recently was invited to contribute to the climate change discourse on an international stage, at the COP 10 (Convention on Biological Diversity) meetings in Nagoya, Japan. Here are some photographs and the presentation I gave as part of the Cities and Biodiversity Summit.

COP 10 cities & biodiversity summit

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World Expo Shanghai

I was fortunate to be a part of a number of events hosted by the Swedish Government and the Stockholm Resilience Center at the World Expo in Shanghai!

One event was the "Future cities, Future citizens" Open Seminar at Nordic Light House, Shanghai, China.

I was especially proud of the work of Rocking the Boat at the event.

For pictures of the amazing city of Shanghai, see here.

Greening in the Red Zone in AnthroNews

October Anthropology News In Focus commentaries on disaster relief and recovery are now posted on the American Anthropological Association's Current Featured News page, free to the public throughout the month. This month’s In Focus articles are by Susanna M Hoffman; Jane Henrici; Miriam S Chaiken; Roberto Barrios; Michele Ruth Gamburd and Dennis B McGilvray; Keith G Tidball; Susann Ullberg; Lakshmi Fjord; and Anthony Oliver-Smith. Full issue content is available via AnthroSource, including additional thematic articles from other sections by contributors Graham A Tobin, Linda M Whiteford, Eric C Jones and Arthur D Murphy; Laura Wagner; Jérôme Grimaud; Marisa O Ensor; Howard F Stein; and Adam Koons.

This month’s issue also features color photographs in the online version.

After the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, AN immediately began hearing anthropologists discuss how they might contribute to recovery efforts. This was no surprise, given anthropologists’ frequent engagement with human rights, public health and social justice issues. With many practicing and academic anthropologists deeply involved with short- and long-term disaster relief and recovery efforts throughout the world, this thematic series explores how anthropology can make a difference in such challenging circumstances.

NAAEE 2010

The North American Association of Environmental Education held its annual meeting in Buffalo, NY this year. I was fortunate to be asked to serve as one of two respondents to the keynote address, given by Stephen Kellert. The remarks I made can be found here.

Dr. Kellert and I enjoyed some down-time after our presentations and explored Niagara Falls from the ever-popular Maid of the Mists. It was great getting to know him better, and comparing notes on biophilia, Urgent Biophilia, and even how hunting and fishing might be explored as expressions of Biophilia... stay tuned for more on that.

A-bomb survivor trees

Citizen Science in Disaster and Conflict Resilience presented at ESA

Citizen science in disaster and conflict resilience esa 2010

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Ecology of Environmental Education Presented at ESA

Tidball joins the journal Ecology and Society editorial board.

http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/about/editors.php .

Emergence

Had to post this... emergence being so important to resilience...

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2005/02/18

Trees please

Trees please

Citizen involvement in wetland restoration

See also a related report in the Cayuga Lake Watershed News here.

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INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL GRANT AWARD

EINAUDI CENTER INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL GRANT AWARDS

Keith Tidball was among the 62 research travel grants for the 2010-2011 academic year awarded by the Einaudi Center. The recipients came from a variety of graduate fields across seven colleges. Most recipients (40%) are headed to Asia. A sizable number are traveling to Europe (25%), Africa (25%) and Latin America (10%) respectively.

Tidball's research proposal is titled "Greening and Greenspace as Conflict Amelioration in a South African Informal Settlement."

To view recipients of travel grants and explore the new interactive world map that provides an overview of their destinations, see http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/funding/tg_recipients.asp.

URBIS Partnership Proposal presented at World Urban Forum, 22-26 March 2010, Brazil

A Conversation with Students in Stockholm

I was invited to speak with a group of about a 100 young people attending Global College, an upper secondary school that is located in the center of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Global College is a public school with approximately 400 students between the ages of 16-19, and 25 teachers. All public schooling in Sweden is free of charge and co-educational.

Thomas Elmqvist from the Stockholm Resilience Center spoke about global change and teh importance of resilient strategies for the urban environment. I spoke with the students about New York City's Million Trees campaign. The questions these students asked were insightful and plentiful. I was impressed. And I was proud of New York City.

Presentation at Stockholm Resilience Center

Memory and disaster resilience src mar 2010

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NYC Million Trees Symposium a success

Click here for the Cornell Chronicle news story about the event.

Presentation at NYC Million Trees Symposium

Krasny & tidball mtnyc 2010

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New article published in the Journal of Extension

Civic Ecology: Linking Social and Ecological Approaches in Extension

Marianne E. Krasny, Cornell University

Keith G. Tidball, Cornell University

Civic ecology refers to the philosophy and science of community forestry, community gardening, watershed enhancement, and other volunteer-driven restoration practices in cities and elsewhere. Such practices, although often viewed as initiatives to improve a degraded environment, also foster social attributes of resilient social-ecological systems, including volunteer engagement and social connectedness. Civic ecology education refers to the learning, as well as the social and ecosystem outcomes, that occur when young people and other novices engage alongside experienced adults in civic ecology practice. As Extension considers its role in civic ecology education, there will be opportunities for both participation and leadership.

Click here for the full article.

UNESCO URBIS Partnerships concept

I have been working with colleagues at UNESCO NYO and the Stockholm Resilience Center, among others to build upon the work of CUBES to promote the concept of urban biosphere reserves. This concept was explored in depth in the book Urban Biosphere and Society: Partnership of Cities, edited by my colleague Christine Alfsen-Norodom.

Taking cues from the New York State Agricultural Environmental Management program's multi-tiered approach to stewardship, we are now working towards a designation process that uses a tiered approach to enable cities to work their way through comprehensive planning processes that link social and ecological sustainability. Successful implementation of five "urban sustainable comprehensive planning" tiers is envisioned to result in high-visibility designations of cities as "URBIS Partnership Cities of Distinction."

This prototypical concept is a work in progress, and is expected to be unveiled at a UNESCO URBIS Open House on March 4,2010, and in more depth at a poster presentation at the Million Trees NYC Research Symposium March 5-6, 2010.