2011 International Climate Change and Natural Resources Management Seminar

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The second annual International Seminar on Climate Change and Natural Resources Management took place from May 8_29, 2011 in Washington, D.C. and California. This was the second Seminar funded by the United States Forest Service International Programs (USFS IP) and involved 22 participants from 19 different countries as well as 8 leadership team members from USFS IP, the University of California, Davis (UCD), and the Training Resources Group (TRG).

Natural resources management under climate change requires complex cooperation between diverse regional governments, national parks, NGOs, and researchers. The diverse range of climate change’s impacts requires research, mitigation, and adaptation practices that interact with all aspects of community life. In response, the Seminar presentations ranged from researchers, to policymakers, to field-level resource managers and researchers, who provided a wide range of information and prompting spirited interdisciplinary discussions. The Seminar Leadership Team provided the context for each day’s presentations so that participants could relate the presentation topics to their countries and assess the strengths and weaknesses of different strategies. 

The Seminar participants gathered in Washington, D.C for four days of orientation to national and international programs. They then traveled to California for seven classroom training days and eight field training days, which were conducted as an extended transect to relevant sites, topics and qualified speakers. UCD was chosen as the host University because of California’s leadership in passing progressive environmental and climate change legislation and UCD’s extensive environmental research and education programs. In both Washington, D.C. and California, participants met with scientists, foresters, park rangers, resource managers, and political analysts to discuss a variety of climate change topics from different perspectives. Major management themes included: watershed management best practices, forest and fire management, institutional capacity development, educational programs to engage public interest, weather and other monitoring efforts, and carbon markets.

The participants’ geographical breakdown was as follows:

North and South America: 8 – Ecuador, Colombia (2), Guyana, Peru, Brazil, Mexico (2)

Eastern Europe: 3 – Georgia, Bulgaria, Armenia

Africa: 6 – Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Ethiopia (2), Cameroon

Asia: 4 – Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia

Middle East: 1 – Jordan