ECI Annual Review 2006/2007 - Environmental Change Institute ...

Global Environmental Change and Food
Systems (GECAFS) is an international,
interdisciplinary research project
focused on understanding the links
between food security and global
environmental change. Professor Diana
Liverman is Chair of the Scientific
Advisory Committee and ECI hosts the
International Project Office.
GECAFS’ Goal
To determine strategies to cope with the
impacts of global environmental change
(GEC) on food systems and to assess
the environmental and socio-economic
consequences of adaptive responses
aimed at improving food security.
This goal will be achieved by improving
understanding of the interactions
between food systems and the Earth
System’s key socioeconomic and
biogeophysical components. The
research agenda is specifically targeted
towards delivering the new science
necessary to underpin policy formulation
for improving food security in the face
of GEC.
GECAFS’ Aims
•
•
•
•
Investigate how GEC affects food
security at regional scale;
Determine options to adapt regional
food systems to cope with GEC and
changing demands for food;
Assess how potential adaptation
options will affect the environment,
societies, and economies;
Engage the international global
environmental change and
development communities in policy
discussions to improve food security.
Research
Conceptual and methodological
research on:
• Food Systems, to improve
understanding of the interactions
between food systems and GEC.
•
•
•
Vulnerability and adaptation, to
(i) integrate social science and
natural science concepts of what
makes a food system vulnerable to
GEC; and (ii) use this understanding
to investigate adaptation options.
Scenarios to construct plausible
futures of socioeconomic and
environmental conditions for food
system analyses.
Decision Support to improve dialogue
between scientists and policy-makers
on the interactions between food
security and environment.
Regional Research
Conceptual and methodological
research is integrated with studies on
vulnerability and impacts, adaptation,
and feedbacks in:
•
•
•
Indo-Gangetic Plain
Caribbean
Southern Africa
Through this research GECAFS delivers
science-based tools and products,
including:
• An analytical framework for food
systems research (based on
activities related to producing,
processesing, distributing, trading,
and consuming food, and food
security issues related to food
availability, access, and use) to help
assess food system sensitivities to
GEC and identify adaptation options;
• Analytical methods to assess the
factors that make food systems
vulnerable to GEC, and to assess
policy and management options for
reducing exposure to risk and/or
increasing coping capacity to deal
with environmental stresses caused
by GEC;
• Region-specific scenarios of future
socioeconomic, ecological, and
environmental conditions involving
food systems;
• Decision support approaches to help
communicate GEC issues to policymakers
and to analyse how different
adaptation options for food systems
may affect the environment, society
and, economies; and
Science Advisory Committee
Diana Liverman - Chair,
Environmental Change
Institute, University of Oxford,
UK
Ahsan Ahmed, Bangladesh
Unnayan Parishad Bangladesh
Hans-Georg Bohle, University of
Bonn, Germany
Angela Cropper, Cropper
Foundation, Trinidad & Tobago
Oran Hesterman, WK Kellogg
Foundation, USA
Barbara Huddleston, UN-FAO
Italy
John Ingram - Secretary, GECAFS
IPO, UK
Anne-Marie Izac - Vice Chair
Future Harvest Alliance Office,
CGIAR, Italy
Jim Jones, University of Florida,
USA
Richard Mkandawire, New
Partnership for Africa’s
Development, South Africa
Prabhu Pingali, UN-FAO, Italy
Mark Rosegrant, International
Food Policy Research Institute,
USA
Mahendra Shah, International
Institute for Applied Systems
Analysis, Austria
Luis Vieira, EMBRAPA, Brazil
International Project Office Secretary: John Ingram
•
Assessment of a number of current
regional food systems, their
vulnerability to GEC, and their policy
contexts for possible adaptation
options.
More info at: www.gecafs.org
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•