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INTERNATIONAL SECTION NEWSAUSTRAL AND NEOTROPICAL AMERICA Nominations for the Board of Officers now open In June 2003, three of the nine Director positions on the Board of Officers of the Austral and Neotropical America (ANA) Section will open for election. The term of office is two years. We are looking for motivated members to join us in this important task. The outgoing directors currently chair the commissions of Conservation, Communications, and Nominations, Policy, and Audit, and these are the principal areas that would require support. However, these are not the only options, and the responsibilities of the new directors would be defined after they formally join the board. Those interested in nominating themselves must send, by 31 March 2003, a short message (preferably in Spanish or Portuguese and also in English), describing their motivation for running for a position on the board and presenting a brief summary of their professional experience. Please remember that all candidates must be current SCB members, as well as voting members of the ANA Section. Officers may not serve on the board of any other section during their term of office. Submit nominations to ANA Secretary Lorena Calvo, lcalvo@guate.net. Christian Olivo, Director of Nominations, Policy, and Audit Board Meeting in Cuba From 24-27 November 2002, the Board of Directors of the ANA Section held its first meeting at La Havana, Cuba. During the meeting, directors discussed several operational aspects of the section and possible ways of contributing to the overall mission of SCB. The meeting was structured to (1) discuss conservation challenges in the lands south of the Rio Bravo, (2) delineate the role and function of the section, and (3) establish a set of section activities for the next year. Directors established responsibilities for four Commissions (Conservation, Education, Membership, and Communication), and defined financial needs for development of the section. Promotion of the section and SCB by different media (web page, Spanish version of the SCB brochure, and submission of manuscripts addressing themes related to the section) was discussed, as were the benefits of attracting non-professionals to SCB (e.g., local people with experience, influence, or interest in conservation). After a basic analysis of the state of the science in the region, various impediments to the progress of conservation biology were identified. The first and most evident was the insufficient number of people with appropriate training to develop local and regional conservation efforts (partially related to the limited presence of conservation curricula in undergraduate and graduate programs). The second was the difficulty of accessing scientific information, which is related to a culture unaccustomed to publishing research results and to the limited capacity of institutions to obtain and provide books and journals. The third was the shortage of financial resources to carry out what the trained people propose. It is evident that ANA best can contribute to resolving the first and second challenges; supporting specific projects seems to be an option. Among the initiatives considered were organization of occasional training courses on conservation biology (at the moment three are being organized), creation of a book about successful conservation experiences in the region, and exploring ways to provide key institutions with a collection of conservation journals. Some members of the section are developing a more detailed analysis of training and scientific production in the region. This analysis will be presented at the 2003 SCB meeting. Other important themes discussed during the board meeting were organization of a symposium about ANA (as part of the 2003 SCB meeting), and the possibility of proposing Brazil as a host of the 2005 SCB meeting. Finally, members of ANA and SCB held working sessions with their colleagues in Cuba geared toward creating a closer and more productive international technical relationship with Cuban scientists. As planned at the 2002 SCB meeting, ANA's first working exercise concluded with good results. The process of constructing ANA just started, but the interest of our members is enough to think that consolidation of the section will continue and contribute to the mission of maintaining biodiversity, its intrinsic values, and its present and potential uses for human welfare. ANA would like to thank the Cuban scientists and administrative staff for their kind cooperation. They not only provided their ideas for the success of the meeting and facilitated our visit, but also offered us their enthusiasm and happiness. We also acknowledge the colleges and authorities of the Centro de Investigaciones Marinas de la Universidad de la Habana for giving us space to carry out the sessions, and the people who organized our field trip. Miguel Vásquez In October 2002 SCB's Board of Governors ratified our bylaws, so we are now an official section of SCB! Section members and others interested in the Australasian region are encouraged to check our website periodically to keep informed: www.conbio.org/SCB/Activities/Sections/OzNz/. Sadly, David Norton stepped down as President due to ill health. We all wish him well and warmly welcome Menna Jones as acting President. The Australasian Section held its first Board of Directors meeting and members' meeting on home turf at the Ecology 2002 meeting in Cairns, Queensland, 2-6 December (minutes are posted on the web site). About 50 people attended the members' meeting. Discussion focused on what the section can offer to both complement and enhance the roles played by existing scientific societies in the region. Ideas were generated for how the section should proceed and develop over the next few years. To promote this debate, a compilation of the proposed role and activities of the section will be posted on a discussion page on the web site. SCB's Executive Director, Alan Thornhill, attended our meetings, provided a booth with complementary journals and information on joining SCB, and had a day exploring the Great Barrier Reef! A number of new members were recruited during the Ecology 2002 meeting. The inaugural SCB-Australasia Student Prizes (two-year memberships to SCB) for a poster and spoken presentation were awarded to Samantha Fox (James Cook University) and Jennifer Martin (University of Melbourne), respectively. Samantha's work examined the genetics, geography, and management of spectacled flying-foxes; Jennifer's work was on den-tree use by Bobucks (Trichosurus caninus) in north-eastern Victoria. Awards were presented at the Ecology 2002 meeting in Cairns. See the Australasian Section's web site for abstracts from these presentations. The Wildlife Conservation Society sponsored an award for best conservation paper at the New Guinea Biological Society Conference 2002. The award, membership to SCB, went to Ricardo Tapilatu from the State University of Papua for his talk Marine turtle population of Bird's Head Papua region with special emphasis on the leatherback turtle: a review on population status and conservation strategies. Ricardo's abstract is posted on the Australasian Section's website. Our committee chairs have been developing plans and goals for the short-term progression of the section. However, the committees are still in their formative stages and chairs are seeking those with ideas and enthusiasm who would like to actively participate. Please feel free to contact any of the board members, listed below, to become involved. Australasian Section symposia are being developed for meetings of the 2003 Ecological Society of Australia in Armidale, NSW; a 2003 meeting in Goroka, Papua New Guinea; and the 2004 meeting of SCB in New York City. We are accepting submissions from those who are interested in hosting SCB 2007 in the Australasian region. Five Board of Directors positions will open for next year, including President, President Elect, and three one-year terms. If you are interested in running for a board position, contact Caroline Gross (cgross@metz.une.edu.au) for details. If you have a job / studentship that you would like to post on our website, contact Angie Penn, a.penn@unsw.edu.au. Your board members are
Acting President / Membership and Student Awards, Menna Jones, menna.jones@anu.edu.au
We welcome comments and input from our membership and would greatly like to hear from you. Karen Firestone The marine board is pleased to announce that the two symposium proposals submitted by the section have been selected for the 2003 SCB meeting. The first, Comparing Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems: Implications for Conservation Theory and Practice, was submitted by board members Leah Gerber and Elliott Norse. The second, Marine Reserves: a Global Perspective, was submitted by board members Elise Granek and Carolyn Lundquist. An additional marine-related symposium sponsored by Tom Good of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Conservation Planning for Wide-Ranging Species: Scientific Challenges and Strategies, also has been selected. All three symposia will feature international groups of scientists discussing research at the forefront of marine conservation biology. In addition, we expect large numbers of marine abstracts to be submitted, which should encourage a great deal of interest and attendance by marine researchers. And to continue marine traditions, the Marine Section again will be hosting a social event in Duluth. Details will be announced in the May 2003 newsletter. We also are pleased to announce that section President John Ogden has been nominated as a final candidate for the U.S. National Marine Protected Area Federal Advisory Committee. Committee members represent a broad stakeholder community, including scientists, commercial and recreational fishermen, and resource managers. Their duties include providing advice and recommendations on implementation of Executive Order 13158, which covers Marine Protected Areas, as well as assessing the status of Marine Protected Areas in the U.S. For additional information on the section or to join the marine listserv (marinelist@conbio.org/a>), visit http://www.conbio.org/Activities/Sections/Marine/ or contact any of the section officers. To join any section committees (see the section bylaws on the website for further information on activities), please email Carolyn Lundquist (c.lundquist@niwa.co.nz). Carolyn Lundquist On 6 December 2002, the Bush Administration proposed significant changes to the regulations governing planning and management for the national forests of the United States. At issue is how and to what extent forest supervisors must protect biological diversity in the national forests, which comprise 191 million acres (77.3 million hectares) and contain a significant fraction of the nation's endangered species. The North American Section has formed a committee of scientists to study the proposed changes and to file comments with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The committee will be chaired by Norm Christensen, professor and founding dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Committee members are Erica Fleishman, Phil Lee, John Marzluff, Adina Merenlender, Scott Mills, Peter Moyle, Barry Noon, and Don Waller. The deadline for receipt of comments is 6 March, so the committee will be working on a tight schedule. SCB members with ideas or information they would like to share with the committee should contact the chair, normc@duke.edu. The American Institute of Biological Sciences project on Infrastructure for Biology at Regional to Continental Scales (IBRCS) aims to help the scientific community determine the needs and means for increased physical infrastructure and connectivity (e.g., site placement, data collected, data analysis, and database networking) in terrestrial and aquatic field-based observational platforms. The project, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, has a special focus on the National Ecological Observatory Network program. One of the most important aspects of the IBRCS project is its 20-member working group, a mechanism to engage the broader scientific community. The group intends to (1) cover as many areas of expertise as possible within a manageable size and budget and (2) hear from and report to the scientific community on a regular basis. We are pleased to announce that the working group includes Raymond O'Connor, who was officially nominated by SCB. We are also pleased that several other members of SCB, including Michael Allen, Eric Nagy, and past Secretary Hillary Swain, were chosen to serve on the working group as well. More information is available at http://ibrcs.aibs.org or from Jeffrey Goldman, jgoldman@aibs.org.
David Wilcove
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