DIVERSITAS
International Programme on Biodiversity Sciences
www.diversitas-international.org/
| Type of Structure: |
program |
| Regional Scope : |
global
|
| Parent Organisations : |
IUBS.ICSU, SCOPE.ICSU, UNESCO.UN |
| Child Organisations : |
agroBIODIVERSITY, bioDISCOVERY, bioGENESIS, bioSUSTAINABILITY, ecoHEALTH, ecoServices, ESSP, GMBA
No more in operation : ALPNET
|
| Duration : |
1991 to present |
| Contact Address : |
Dr. Anne Larigauderie
Executive Director
DIVERSITAS
MNHN, 57 Rue Cuvier - CP 41
F-75231 Paris Cedex 05
France
Phone: +33 (0) 1 40 79 80 40
FAX: +33 (0) 1 40 79 80 45
e-Mail: anne(at)diversitas-international.org
URL: http://www.diversitas-international.org/ |
Objectives of DIVERSITAS:
Biodiversity changes in rhythm with its own evolutionary and ecological dynamics, but also as a result of deliberate and unintentional human actions. In turn, it affects human societies, which have to adapt to these changes. In order to understand and predict this cycle of interactions, the mission of DIVERSITAS is to:
- promote an integrative biodiversity science, linking biological, ecological and social disciplines in an effort,
- to produce socially relevant new knowledge; and
- provide the scientific basis for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
DIVERSITAS achieves these goals by synthesizing existing scientific knowledge, identifying gaps and emerging issues, and promoting new research initiatives, while also building bridges across countries and disciplines. The Programme also investigates policy implications of biodiversity science, and communicates these to policy fora, including international conventions.
The primary means by which DIVERSITAS carries out its mission is through catalysing research aligned with its four Scientific Core Projects and engaging scientists in the following activities:
- developing common international frameworks for collaborative research.
- forming research networks to tackle focused scientific questions.
- promoting standardised methodologies.
- guiding and facilitating construction of global databases.
- facilitating efficient patterns of resource allocation, and
- undertaking analysis, synthesis and integration activities on particular biodiversity themes.
Key issues adressed by DIVERSITAS' core projects are:
- Developing new strategies and tools for discovering and navigating biodiversity; investigating the dynamic of diversification; assessing the evolutionary history of biotic assembly; predicting evolutionary responses to environmental perturbations. (bioGENESIS)
- Assessing current levels of biodiversity; developing the scientific basis for monitoring and observing; understanding and predicting changes. (bioDISCOVERY)
- Expanding biodiversity and ecosystem functioning science to larger scales and over a greater breadth of the biological hierarchy; linking changes in ecosystem structure and functioning to changes in ecosystem services; assessing human response to change in ecosystem services. (ecoSERVICES)
- Developing new knowledge to guide policy and decision making that support sustainable use of biodiversity; evaluating the effectiveness of current conservation measures; studying the social, political and economic drivers of biodiversity loss, as well as social choice and decision making. (bioSUSTAINABILITY)
Last update: 3/29/11
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