Support ALTER-Net's 'ultimate research question' and support biodiversity research

ALTER-Net has been asked to post our ultimate research question to the web discussion “ICSU visioning process” (see http://visioning.icsu.org). The International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC) have started a consultation process to engage the scientific community to explore options and propose implementation steps for a holistic strategy on Earth system research. This research strategy should both encourage scientific innovation and address policy needs. After consulting different ALTER-Net colleagues and those involved in the work on the ALTER-Net Common Research Strategy, the following question has been posted:

• How does mankind, responsible for climatic and other anthropogenic changes including geo-political and cultural processes, interact with biodiversity, ecosystems and the services they provide?

Why is this the ultimate question (refering to the introduction of the ALTER-Net Common Research Strategy)?:

The widespread recognition of the considerable value of biodiversity and ecosystems for man kind has led to an increasing need to understand and assess the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services and to assess the changing state of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and public attitudes towards them. Understanding the changing state there is a need to analyse the impact of the most significant drivers, including human behaviour, and their interactions on biodiversity. Analysing options for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and evaluating the effectiveness of policy and communication instruments should help with what to do about the changing state of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

We would like to encourage you to log in at the website http://visioning.icsu.org and vote for our posted question. When biodiversity related research questions get a high number of votes it shows the importance of this area to focus on in the (near) future. Please go through this voting procedure before 15th August. We apologise for the short notice but there was a delay in our question going live on the ICSU website.

Thanking you in advance.