IRDC Announces Call for Concept Notes

The Rural Poverty and Environment Program at IDRC is announcing a call for concept notes on: Action research on ‘Value chains and the rural poor in disadvantaged regions’

The research must be located in a disadvantaged region in one of the following four RPE priority regions: the Sahel Belt of West Africa; the Nile Basin; South Asia; the Mekong Delta; or the Philippines.

Deadline is Friday 29th June 2007 by 16:00hrs (UK time).

For more information visit the following link:
http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-81757-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

We appreciate your assistance in helping us to circulate this call widely.

Please contact Wendy Manchur, wmanchur@idrc.ca for additional information.

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en français

Appel à Notes Conceptuelles:

‘Chaines de Valeur et les pauvres ruraux dans les régions désavantagées’

La recherche doit être située dans une région désavantagée de l’une des
quatre Régions du l’initiative de programme Pauvreté rurale et
environnement (PRE): la ceinture sahélienne d’Afrique Occidentale; le
Bassin du Nil; Asie du Sud; le Delta du Mékong; ou les Philippines

Date limite: le vendredi 29 juin 2007 avant 16 heures, heure locale (UK).

Cliquez ici pour consulter l’appel à notes conceptuelles:
http://www.idrc.ca/fr/ev-81757-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Wendy Manchur
Research Officer
International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Rural Poverty and
Environment (RPE) Program Initiative wmanchur@idrc.ca http://www2.blogger.com/www.idrc.ca/rpe
Phone: +613-236-6163, ext. 2314; Fax: +(613) 563-0815
P.O. Box 8500, 250 Albert Street,
Rm 1044, Ottawa ON K1G 3H9 CANADA

Regards,

Helen Raij
Research Officer
Rural Poverty and Environment (RPE)
IDRC, Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office
Av. Brasil 2655, Montevideo, Uruguay http://www.idrc.ca/rpe

source: email communication from Nakul Chettri [nchettri@icimod.org]

Invitation to attend a talk on Social Development and Agricultural Transition in Kerala

Hello Readers,

You are cordially invited to attend a talk at ATREE on Social Development and Agricultural Transition in Kerala by Forrest Fleischman as per the schedule below:

Date: 18th May (Friday)

Time: 4.00 pm

Venue: ATREE terrace

Forrest Fleischman, who is a new graduate student at Indiana University, has been conducting some research in Thrissur forthe past several months. He will be visiting ATREE on 18 May and talking to us.

Here is the title & Abstract:
=========================================================================================================Title: Social Development and Agricultural Transition in Kerala

Abstract
Kerala is considered a model for social development policies, howeverthe impact of those policies on natural resources has not been wellstudied.

I am in the midst of a field survey of farmers in Thrissur district, examining the impact of social change in Kerala, including land reform, widespread education, economic growth, andpanchayat-based planning, on agriculture.

Land reform and past population growth (resulting in very small average landholdings), high labor costs, and the availability of high paying jobs to educated Malayalees who are willing to migrate, are driving forces in the expansion of highly biodiverse home gardens, which decrease labor inputs and produce goods which are more useful in the homes of the rising middle class.

The sustainability of this agro-ecosystem is threatened by increasing construction and a lack of interest in agriculture among the younger, more educated generation.
=================================================================================================================
Regards,

Kalpana Prasanna

Executive Assistant to the Director
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology & the Environment
No.659 5th A Main Road Hebbal, Bangalore 560024

kalpana@atree.org
tel: +91-80-23530069

2007 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition

Hello Readers,

Submissions are being accepted for the 2007 round of the Global Development Awards and Medals Competition, which carries prizes in cash and travel of over US $180,000!

Submissions can be for a new research proposal or for a completed research paper on any of the five themes below:

1. Fragile States: Addressing Vulnerability

2. Household Exposure to Risk: Effects on Poverty

3. The Rule of Law: Providing Security for Development

4. Women's Rights, Security and Development: Challenges and Opportunities

5. Natural Resources: Risks and Implications for Sustaining Development

The deadline is September 17, 2007.

Under each theme, GDN welcomes submissions from all branches of the social sciences (Economics, Political Science, Sociology etc), especially multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary projects.

Submissions from qualified female researchers are particularly encouraged.

The finalists will present their papers and proposals at GDN's Annual Global Development Conference in Brisbane, Australia in January 2008.

Please disseminate this information amongst your colleagues. For more information on the competition, including full descriptions of the themes, visit our website at
http://www.gdnet.org/2007awards.

Best Wishes

GDN Secretariat

Address for registered mail and courier: 2ndFloor, West Wing, ISID Complex Plot No. 4, Vasant Kunj Institutional Area New Delhi 110 070, India.

Address for regular mail: Post Box No. 7510 Vasant Kunj P.O. New Delhi 110 070 INDIA Tel: + (91) 11 2613 9494 / 2613 6885 Fax: + (91 11 2613 6893 / 4170 4248

Source: Email communication from Nitin, Librarian, ATREE

News Watch

What you must know about the forest rights bill and India's hill stations

Take a look at this: The forest rights bill

http://www.indiatogether.com/2007/apr/env-forbill.htm


Are India’s hill stations trekking the McLeodganj trail?

http://www.indiatogether.com/2007/apr/env-passland.htm

Stanford researchers topple long held view about invasive plant species

In the April 26 issue of Nature, Stanford University researchers show that invasive species can thrive even in resource poor conditions. Their study compared the resource use efficiency rates of 19 invasive species of plants with 19 closely related indigenous plants.

Reporting on the team’s findings, Dr Jennifer Funk, lead author of the study says, “Invasive plants were more efficient on short-time scales, but overall there was no difference in the long term. We were surprised that the invasive plants were not at a disadvantage under conditions where resources were scarce."

This study topples a long held myth that invasive species are not cause for serious concern in resource poor environments. The reasoning that went with the belief is that invasive plants cannot compete on an equal footing with indigenous plants of that area.

References: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/may2/plants-050207.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070430/full/070430-10.html

This news story has been adapted from a Stanford University press release

image source: Plant database of the Eco-Informatics Centre
http://www.ecoinfoindia.org/pics/eco/images/Lantana_camara2.jpg

Yale researchers on hunt to track pals for Lonesome George

For decades, Lonesome George, the giant Galapagos tortoise living in Pinta on the northern Galapagos Island was believed to be the last living member of his species.

The Guinness Book of World Records had even credited Lonesome George as the “rarest living creature.” Now that view will have to go a sea change. That’s because researchers from Yale University have found another tortoise who has half his genes in common with Lonesome George.

According to the researchers, the new tortoise is a first generation hybrid between the native tortoises from the islands of Isabela and Pinta”. This interesting observation was made by Dr Adalgisa Caccon and Dr Jeffrey Powell who work at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale.

The native tortoises found on the island of Isabella belong to a species called G becki. The species that Lonesome George belongs to is called Geochelone abingdoni. The research team has identified more than 2,000 tortoises of G. becki living on the neighboring volcanic Isabela Island.

Dr Caccon says, “It will take a team of about 20 people about three to four weeks to do a first, exhaustive sampling and transmitter-tagging of the tortoises on the volcano. Then once individuals of interest are found — either hybrids with Pinta or pure Pinta animals — an equivalent field expedition will have to be mounted to find the animals and bring them in captivity”.

Adds Dr Powell, “These findings offer the potential for transforming the legacy of Lonesome George from an enduring symbol of rarity to a conservation success story.”

Source: Yale University Press Release: http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/07-04-30-03.all.html

This news story is adapted from a Yale University press release

image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lonesome_george.jpg

Bonobo and chimp gesticulations give rich fodder for gesture theory of language

The gestures that chimps and bonobos make while communicating with one another offer interesting clues to support the gesture hypothesis of how language evolved. Dr Amy S. Pollick and Dr Frans B. M. de Waal at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta have published a paper in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reporting their observations.

The investigators studied chimps and bonobos, a total of 34 primates. They found that chimps and bonobos use facial / vocal signals in a similar way but the way the two groups used gestures to communicate varied significantly both, within and between the two species.

The investigators conclude their interesting paper by saying, “Gestures seem less closely tied to particular emotions, such as aggression or affiliation, hence possess a more adaptable function. Gestures are also evolutionarily younger, as shown by their presence in apes but not monkeys”. The team conclude their paper with the confident assertion that their study supports the gestural origin hypothesis of language.

References: Ape gestures and language evolution. Amy S. Pollick, and Frans B. M. de Waal. doi:10.1073/pnas.0702624104. published online Apr 30, 2007; PNAS
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0702624104v1.pdf

Corballis MC (2002) From Hand to Mouth: The Origins of Language (Princeton Univ Press, Princeton).

image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bonobo_009.jpg

New online bird watching game launched

If you’ve been too busy to go out on a bird watching tour, then may be you would like to spend some time playing an online game. Called Cone Sutro Forest, the game has been developed by the Berkeley Automation Sciences Lab.

The game is based on the birds spotted in the Sutro Forest of San Francisco. You can play the game in 4 easy steps. All you have to do is to register on the site after which you watch a live video of the birds. Then, using the robotic camera, you can take a snap of the birds and then identify the birds. You get points for taking good photos and classifying the birds correctly.

The site even has a link to BabelFish making it an attractive birding sight to explore even for the non English speaking community.

Perhaps you wish to play the game right now. If so, don’t forget to read the online tutorial at: http://cone.berkeley.edu/concierge/tutorial. If you have some bright ideas for tuning up the game’s scope do email the team.

Sources: http://www.c-o-n-e.org/
http://cone.berkeley.edu.

image source: IMSI Clip Art

Sir David Attenborough flags off Britain’s Save the Moths Campaign

Sir David Attenborough, President of the Butterfly Conservation launched a campaign on May 2nd 2007 to save Britain’s moths. The campaign is funded by a £806,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund based on the observation that Britain’s 337 moth species have decreased to a third.

Source: http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/species/moths_count/index.php