Das Projekt "Bridging the gap conference (BTG2008)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia durchgeführt. Objective: The Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia is delighted to host the 4th Bridging the Gap conference: Responding to Environmental Change from Words to Deeds at the occasion of 10th anniversary of Bridging the Gap conferences. Conference will gather participants from policy, research, business and civil society communities. It will look at the past ten years of Bridging the Gap conference progress and will seek to close the gaps in most prioritised and emerging issues in European Union. It will address gaps in policy, research and in capacities of society to respond to emerging issues and uncertainties to be better prepared for the future and to move toward more sustainable development. Well being gaps will be addressed by looking at environment related impacts to human health and at the provision of ecosystem services. Three headline issues will be the common thread through five themes of the conference. The headline issues of the conference: Need for urgent action To put environment in the hearth of economic decision making To improve communication between scientists, policy-makers, politicians, business and civil society.
Das Projekt "How to achieve sustainable water ecosystems management connecting research, people and policy makers in Europe (AWARE)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Istituto di Studi per l'Integrazione dei Sistemi durchgeführt. Objective: The issue of concern of the AWARE project is the anthropogenic deterioration of water ecosystems, in particular in coastal areas. The new approach proposed by the AWARE project to enhance connectivity between research and policy-making exploit the concept of integrated adaptive ecosystem management, engaging scientists, policy makers and the public (the latter including both stakeholders and lay citizens/water users) into comparable case studies of participatory scenario-building. The emphasis given to the role of the public enlarges the concept of organisational learning to the wider concept of social learning. The specific objectives and WPs of the AWARE project will include therefore: - WP1: to design and prepare the pilot experiments of participatory scenario-building - WP2: to perform three case studies of participatory-scenario building in different coastal regions of Europe - WP3: to make an evaluation and assessment of the pilot case studies and of the proposed approach - WP4: to foster networking between science institutions, policy authorities and stakeholders in the case study areas and at EU level, and disseminate the approach elsewhere in Europe. The AWARE consortium includes 13 partners of complementary expertise in the field of aquatic ecosystems studies (UU, UPMC, ULB, UNIPR), social sciences (ADELPHI, ICCR, Missions Publiques), system analysis (ISIS, JRC-IES, UNISI) and integrated water management (BIOFORSK, POLIEDRA), plus the Environmental Service from the Provincial Administration of Ferrara. The consortium will be complemented by an advisory group of 20 policy makers and stakeholders.