Harvard University / Equator Initiative Research Project on Science and Technology for Sustainability

Introduction / Background

Publications

• Community-based Conservation and Leadership: Frameworks for Analyzing the Equator Initiative
  Vanessa Timmer, CID Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Working Paper No. 2 Science, Environment and Development Group, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University November 2004
• Characteristics of Leadership and Five Equator Prize 2002 Finalists
  Vanessa Timmer, CID Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Working Paper No. 3 Science, Environment and Development Group, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University November 2004
• Taking Root: Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Reduction Come Together in the Tropics (Lessons Learned from the Equator Initiative)
  Vanessa Timmer and Calestous Juma. Environment Magazine. Vol 47, No 4, pp 24-44.

Other Outputs

• Research Projects in Sustainable Development Seminar Slide Presentation

Links / Resources

• Equator Initiative presentation at Harvard Occasional Speaker Series

Introduction / Background

From 2002 until 2005, Professor Calestous Juma and his pre-doctoral Research Fellow, Vanessa Timmer, led this collaborative project based in Cambridge , Massachusetts. The collaborative project included several case studies of finalists from the Equator Initiative 2002 Awards and the production of a series of publications listed above. The focus of the project was on social learning, leadership, and community-based conservation. This research endeavour falls under the auspices of the Sustainability Science Project and the Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability (ISTS).

The following five Equator Prize 2002 finalists were chosen for preliminary analysis on leadership:

• Association of Manambolo Natives (FITEMA) - ( Madagascar)
• Honey Care Africa Ltd. - (Kenya)
• Tribal Communities of the Jeypore Tract of Orissa / MSSRF - (India)
• Inter-institutional Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture on Hillsides / River Cabuyal Watershed Users Association (CIPASLA - ASOBESURCA) - (Co lombia)
• Programa de Campesino a Campesino, Siuna (PCaC) - ( Nicaragua)

This project culminated in a May 2005 article for Environment - Taking Root: Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Reduction Come Together in the Tropics: Lessons learned from the Equator Initiative - which outlined the international context within which the Equator Initiative has emerged and the possible challenges the initiative faces in facilitating local solutions to biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction.

For more information please contact vanessa_timmer@gmail.com