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Regional Organizations and Activities
Inter-American Institute For Global Change Research
The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) is
an intergovernmental organization dedicated to augmenting the scientific
capacity of the region, and to providing information in a useful
and timely manner to policy makers on all aspects of global change.
The Institute was established by an Agreement adopted in Montevideo,
Uruguay, on May 13, 1992. Its primary objective is to encourage
research beyond the scope of national programs by advancing comparative
and focused studies based on scientific issues important to the
region as a whole. With the recognition for the need to better understand
the natural and social processes which drive large scale environmental
change, the IAI encourages interactive exchanges between scientists
and policy makers. It serves as a helpful source of information
of scientific research focused on the Americas' most pressing environmental
issues.
The members are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, U.S., Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala,
Jamaica,
Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Dr. Marc Denis Everell, ADM of MSC, is Canada's Permanent Representative
on the IAI Executive Council and the Conference of the Parties.
A Scientific Advisory Committee
provides overall
scientific guidance for the development, implementation and maintenance
of the of the Institute's Science Agenda and research programs.
The U.S. National Science Foundation hosted the IAI Secretariat,
the administrative arm that manages the day-to-day operations of
the Institute, from September 1994 until September 1996. Since
1996
the Secretariat has been located on the campus of Instituo Nacional
de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) in São José dos Campos,
Brazil.
The scientific community and national representatives that make
up the IAI have worked together to identify the most pressing
scientific
issues relevant to the Americas and to the scientific community
linked to global change. Following a recent review, the following
four themes were adopted for the Science Agenda:
- nderstanding Climate Change and Variability in the Americas
- Comparative Studies of Ecosystem, Biodiversity, Land Use
and Cover, and Water Resources in the Americas
- Understanding Global Change Modulations of the Composition
of the Atmosphere, Oceans and Fresh Waters
- Understanding the Human Dimensions and Policy Implications
of Global Change, Climate Variability and Land Use
The IAI has forged links with other International Global Change
Research Programs such as:
- Asia Pacific Network (APN)
- European Network for Research in Global Change (ENRICH)
- International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
Programme (IHDP)
- International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP)
- World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)
- International Research Institute (IRI)
- Global Change System for Analysis, Research, and Training (START)
Each country participating in the IAI benefits from the enhancement
of regional relationships, the establishment of new institutional
arrangements, open exchange of scientific data, and information
generated by the Institute's research programs, and the implementation
of IAI Training and Education Programs. The IAI serves as our avenue
for bilateral work in this hemisphere (e.g. U.S., Brazil) and
provides a potential avenue for linking some environmental science activities between NAFTA
parties, who are working on environmental collaboration through
the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC).
In addition, IAI serves as an important regional mechanism whose
work could feed into other regional / global initiatives in which
EC is actively engaged, and vice versa (e.g. Health and Environment
Ministers of the Americas [HEMA] process, Health and Environment
Linkages Initiative [HELI], and the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change [UNFCCC] process.
Canada's objectives for the IAI are:
- pursuit of Canadian global change research objectives that require
or benefit from inter-American scientific collaboration;
- dialogue on climate change policy matters in the region;
- capacity building in the developing countries of the Americas
so that their positions and policies become more science-informed;
- learning from experience in other countries, particularly regarding
climate impacts and adaptation (a good example is adaptation on
a national scale to El Niño forecasts in Peru).
http://www.iai.int/
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