Global Change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START)

START is the international scientific community's response to the needs for regional research with a global scientific perspective and the development of competence and consensus on scientific issues worldwide. The fundamental purpose of a system of networked regional research centers and sites is to promote research on the regional origins and impacts of global environmental changes such as global warming, and through training and fellowship programs, to enhance indigenous scientific capacity to engage in focused research on critical regional environmental issues of global importance.

START will be a world-encompassing system of Regional Research Networks (RRNs), each of which includes at least one Regional Research Center (RRC) and a number of Regional Research Sites (RRSs). Each of the RRCs serves as the information center for the RRN, with additional coordination functions both within and between regions. A major function of the RRC is to provide a multidisciplinary setting within which results from various disciplines concerned with global change phenomena can be synthesized in a framework that is policy-relevant. Thus, by necessity this synthetic function will include both natural and social science aspects. The RRCs will also have access to regional and global data bases that are necessary for analyzing both the contribution of the regions to global change phenomena as well as the impacts of global changes within the regions. The RRSs are institutes in the region with specialized expertise that allows them to carry out research on important components of the specific core projects of the global change research programmes. Both RRCs and RRSs will also host training courses and provide foci for capacity-building in the region.

Within START, 13 regions have been identified covering the globe. All of these biogeographic regions are important in terms of global change because each is distinctive, and only together can they provide a complete representation of environmental changes in a global context. Priority has been given to developments of RRN/RRC in regions covering primarily developing countries. Considering the combined factors of sensitivity to global and climatic change, scientific unknowns, and the existence of available infrastructure, three regions have been identified as of highest, immediate priority for assistance in establishing START RRNs: Equatorial South America, Northern Africa, and the Tropical Asian Monsoon region.

Links between START and the UN System

The technical session of the Second World Climate Conference (SWCC 1990) called for "a special initiative (that) would create a network of regional interdisciplinary research centers, located primarily in developing countries, and focusing on all the natural sciences, social sciences, and engineering disciplines required to support fully integrated studies of global change and its impacts and policy responses and (to) study the interaction of regional and global policies." In addition, a special working group on developing countries at the SWCC stressed the need to ensure the full participation of scientists and policy makers from developing countries in all aspects of global change research, assessment and policy development.

The development of START addresses such perceived needs and has been fully supported and encouraged by the UNEP Governing Council in its decision 16/36 (May 1991). Inter alia, the Council (i) "welcomes the initiative of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme to address regional problems of global importance through its Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START)"; and (ii) "requests the Executive Director to provide, within available resources, support to the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme regional research centers and networks, which should be planned and implemented in conjunction with the relevant World Climate Programme activities."

At the twenty-seventh session of UNESCO's General Conference, an amendment was adopted to its draft programme and budget for 1994-95 (27 C/5) stating that it "requests the Director-General to instruct the UNESCO Regional Offices in science and education to collaborate with the START Regional Research Networks in developing national/regional capacity for global change research"; and "further requests the Director-General to strengthen the START efforts by harnessing the existing capacity at UNESCO headquarters such as the UNESCO/UNEP International Environmental Education Programme and relevant ongoing programmes of the Science Sector." In his note to the draft resolution, the Director-General stated that he "would support efforts to strengthen UNESCO's co-operation with international programmes concerning global change in general, and the START initiative in particular."

START Standing Committee and Secretariat

The International START Secretariat, located in Washington, DC, is supported primarily by USA funding through the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

START Regions and Status of Activities in These Regions

ANT (Antarctica)

• plans for a START regional research network are being developed by the Global Change in the Antarctic (GLOCHANT) working group of ICSU's Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR);
• May 1994 meeting in Cambridge, UK, to finalize a proposal for submission to SCAR and START-SC. The START-SC will consider this proposal at its 8th meeting in Brussels (September 1994).

ART (Arctic)

• discussions with International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) have been initiated to develop a regional research network for the Arctic.

CAA (Central Arid Asia)

• discussions initiated with Academy of Sciences in Mongolia and Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences;
• will also be discussed at Workshop on Middle East Regional Cooperation in Environmental Studies, Jordan, April 1994;
• possible IGBP regional meeting in 1995.

CAR (Caribbean)

ESA (Equatorial South America)

TSA (Temperate South America)

• covered by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, an intergovernmental arrangement;
• 16 nations have decided to take part in IAI and 5 have already ratified;
• initial support from GEF/UNDP in addition to that from participating nations;
• scientific research themes identified;
• research planning workshops have been organized or are planned on the following topics:

- ocean-land atmosphere interactions in the intertropical Americas

- ENSO and interannual climate variability

- tropical ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles

- the study of impacts of climate change on biodiversity

- comparative studies of temperate terrestrial

- ecosystems.

MED (Mediterranean)

• ad hoc planning committee formed at the November 1993 meeting in Toulouse;
• scientific research themes identified;
• interim secretariat/planning center co-located with MEDIAS, Toulouse, a French initiative;
• second planning meeting tentatively scheduled for May 1994 in Alexandria, Egypt;
• a MED/NAF/SAF regional training session on numerical modeling techniques and applications is being planned for early 1995.

NAF (Northern Africa)

• scientific research themes identified;
• START regional committee established, holding its second meeting in Accra, Ghana in April 1994;
• interim secretariat established at Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Accra;
• close collaboration with CEC, MEDIAS, MEDCOM and SAFCOM;
• initial funding received from GEF/UNDP for developing detailed research agendas for the scientific themes, for hiring staff for the regional Secretariat and for implementing a minimal electronic network connection;
• a training workshop on remote sensing methodology and applications carried out in Niamey, Niger (December 1993) with START co-sponsorship;
• A scientific workshop to develop research agenda on past global changes in Africa held in Mombasa, Kenya (December 1993). Report being published by PAGES/IGBP.

OCE (Oceania)

• discussions with Australia and New Zealand regarding development and support of OCE;
• Australia and New Zealand are taking the initiative in organizing the planning process - a mini-meeting is planned during late 1994.

SAF (Southern, Central and Eastern Africa)

• regional planning committee established and has met twice;
• interim secretariat located at University of Malawi, Lilongwe;
• July 1994 regional workshop in Botswana to discuss research priorities and network arrangements.

TAM (Tropical Asian Monsoon Region)

• regional committee (SARCS) established;
• interim secretariat established in Singapore (1992-1994);
• permanent secretariat and RRC being developed at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (April 1994, staff being hired);
• funding for initial programme activities received from GEF/UNDP;
• as per UNDP/GEF project document, a number of workshops planned:

- land use / land cover methodology (Thailand), March 1994

- greenhouse gas emissions methodology (Philippines), April 1994

- socio-economic research workshop (Singapore), April 1994

- coastal zone management (Indonesia), May 1994

- GCMs tutorial (Australia), May 1994

- ecosystem modeling (Malaysia), July 1994

• fellowship programme under development;
• small grant programme being developed with IFS.

TEA (Temperate East Asia)

• planning committee established and meetings held in Beijing and Tokyo, next meeting planned for Ulaanbaatar (August 1994);
• scientific research themes identified;
• secretariat established at Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (September 1993);
• symposium cum summer school on Frontiers of Global Change Research to be held in Beijing, August 1994.

SAS (South Asia)

• first planning committee meeting, Colombo, Sri Lanka, February 1994;
• proposal for interim secretariat and RRC at National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi;
• research workshop on Climate Variability and its Implications being organized in New Delhi, November 1994.

Address

Tel: 1-202-457 5840
Fax: 1-202-457 5859