ORI GIN AL PA PER Earth system governance: a research framework

The Earth System Science Partnership, which unites all major global change research programmes, declared in 2001 an urgent need to develop ‘‘strategies for Earth System management’’. Yet what such strategies might be, how they could be developed, and how effective, efficient and equitable such strategies would be, remains unspecified. It is apparent that the institutions, organizations and mechanisms by which humans currently govern their relationship with the natural environment and global biochemical systems are not only insufficient—they are also poorly understood. This article presents the science programme of the Earth System Governance Project, a new 10-year global research effort F. Biermann (&) J. Gupta Institute for Environmental Studies, Department of Environmental Policy Analysis, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] M. M. Betsill Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA J. Gupta UNESCO-IHE, Delft, The Netherlands N. Kanie Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan L. Lebel Unit for Social and Environmental Research, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand D. Liverman University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA D. Liverman H. Schroeder Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom B. Siebenhüner Oldenburg University, Oldenburg, Germany F. Biermann R. Zondervan Earth System Governance Project, International Project Office, Lund University, Lund, Sweden 123 Int Environ Agreements (2010) 10:277–298 DOI 10.1007/s10784-010-9137-3