[photopress:group.jpg,full,centered]

From left to right in Dalanzadgad, Mongolia: Jargal, Gail, the leader of the local herder's group and her son, Joni, Bataar, the two other sons of the local leader, Uska, Dawn and Bagii.

by Dawn Bazely & Carol Irving
SWiM Team Project Newsletter, March 2007

Water is essential for life on earth. As global warming increases, many areas of the world will become much drier. Sonya Nergui, a Botany Professor at the National University of Mongolia (NUM), visited York University in Spring 2006. She has been charged with heading and developing NUM's Water Research Centre in Ulaanbaatar, which will be vital in allowing Mongolia to cope with pressures on water resources.

Sonya's visit was part of an international agreement between the National University of Mongolia and York University, Canada. In the Fall of 2005, Adrian Shubert, York University's Associate Vice-President, International, signed the agreement in Mongolia.

The agreement also provides for student exchanges between the two universities. At York, Sonya was hosted by Prof. Gail Fraser in the Faculty of Environmental Studies and by Associate Dean of Science & Engineering, Paula Wilson. Dawn Bazely led a grant application to AUCC. We settled on a project about Human Security and Water. In addition to Sonya's visit, there has also been an exchange of Administrative staff between York and NUM.

How did six York University students and faculty come to be in the Little Gobi desert in Fall 2006? And, how did four Mongolian visitors come to be looking at Niagara Falls in November 2006, and commenting on it being "a lot of water!"? We all participated in the Sustainable Water in Mongolia (SWiM) project, a Students for Development project of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) that is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). We thank the AUCC and CIDA for their strong support of our project.

More stories like this one are included in the first SWiM (Sustainable Water in Mongolia) Team Project Newsletter available here for download in PDF format.

[photopress:petervictor.jpg,thumb,alignright]
We are pleased to announce that York University Professor Peter Victor has been elected to the Board of Directors of the David Suzuki Foundation (they have a very useful website, at www.davidsuzuki.org). Dr. Victor is with the Faculty of Environmental Studies, applying his Ph.D. in Economics (University of British Columbia) to a variety of issues central to ecological economics, including: measures of progress (i.e. revising the national income accounts, ecological footprinting); measuring the full cost of companies and their products; and simulating the prospects for renewable energy and conservation to smooth out the transition away from dependency on oil. Dr. Victor is also on the Executive board of IRIS.

Congratulations, Peter!

Including a new Director and expanded facilities for student use

"I wanted the job," says Bazely, "because, as an ecologist, everything I do is about understanding how to manage ecosystems in ways that will sustain them into the future." She also sees her three-year appointment as a chance for York "to show the world how to use true interdisciplinary collaboration to make sustainability real and give York's interdisciplinary branding guts and legs."

Over the past 25 years, Bazely has done field research in many ecosystems, including arctic tundra, sub-arctic and temperate salt-marshes, deciduous forests, temperate managed grasslands and prairies and her research findings on white-tailed deer and lesser snow geese have informed wildlife and conservation management in Canada. In 2003 she published a book on the ecology and control of invasive plants with Judy Myers of the University of British Columbia. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary project based in Canada, Norway and Russia on human security in the Arctic, specifically the impact of oil and gas development on people and ecosystems. Bazely has collaborated with many other scientists outside her field and says communication is key to implementing sustainable solutions. "We already have much of the scientific know-how essential for achieving sustainability," she says. "Sure, there will always be a need for innovative scientific research, but the chief barrier to progress is communicating the science in meaningful ways that motivate people to alter their behaviour. Achieving sustainability will require enormous amounts of innovative thinking, learning to listen to people's concerns about their security, confronting their differences and reaching a consensus for change," says Bazely. "The challenge facing academics is not just to step out of our silos and talk to each other about our research, but also to work with outside communities."

Stan Shapson, York's vice-president research and innovation, announced the appointment. "Dr. Bazely is an internationally renowned scientist, dedicated to York University and keen to provide the leadership and ideas necessary to move our research agenda forward. I'm confident that she will help set in motion the growth of IRIS into Canada's preeminent centre for sustainability research." York established IRIS two years ago. Sustainability is one of four University-wide research priorities and the institute brings together researchers from many disciplines, including environmental studies, science and engineering, business, law, education, social sciences and humanities to produce sustainable solutions to a broad array of political, economic, scientific, social and environmental challenges. The institute not only promotes interdisciplinary collaboration among academic researchers, but partnerships with policy-makers, industry and non-governmental organizations.

The IRIS offices, in York Lanes (rooms 347 and 349) have been little-used for the past two years, but Dawn has furnished 349 with comfy chairs, a growing library and computers, and hopes that it will become a home-base for a wide range of undergraduate and graduate students with interests in sustainability.