How to Improve the Dialogue Between Science and Society

This policy brief, n° 3 in the UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization]-SCOPE [Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment]-UNEP [United Nations Environment Programme] Policy Briefs Series, argues that it is critical to construct the dialogue between science, policy, and society in order to provide educated and effective responses to global environmental change (GEC). Specifically, it explores strategies being used by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), which is an intergovernmental organisation in the Americas dedicated to GEC research and its socioeconomic implications. The IAI supports research through multinational collaborative research networks (CRNs), involving over 450 scientists in 19 countries. This policy brief builds upon a range of forward-looking lessons that have emerged from the IAI-SCOPE analysis of GEC science-policy dialogue in the Americas.

The brief begins by discussing the links between policy and GEC, which includes climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, loss of biodiversity, changes in hydrological processes and the supply of freshwater, land degradation, and stresses on food-producing systems - providing an explanation of how GEC significantly affects human health and well-being. It then explores IAI-SCOPE's efforts to move toward policy-relevant science, which included the creation of background chapters and case studies on the GEC science-policy interface. These materials - one focus of which was communicating science to the media, decision-makers, and the public - were discussed at a workshop held in Ubatuba, Brazil, in December 2005.

Lessons learned from this assessment are shared in the brief. Here are a few of the communication-related lessons:

• Early engagement of scientists and policy-makers, from the initial framing of the research questions, builds trust in both the science and policy process.
• Societal and policy relevance of science is determined by attributes that should be learned through a dialogue between science, society, and policy sectors.
• Provide accessibility: Communication with resource and land users - either directly or indirectly - in understandable terms is critical. The brief suggests using empirical observations as examples for explanation and using appropriate and possibly novel formats to communicate science findings.
• Evaluating GEC knowledge needs continuous re-adjustments and dialogue to avoid mismatches between the mutual expectations of all concerned stakeholders. It requires diverse mechanisms for their engagement and often involvement of mediators such as non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations.

The brief concludes with a list of relevant readings, with URLs, and "useful links".

Editor's note: The policy brief was based on "SCOPE 68 - Communicating Global Change Science to Society: An Assessment and Case Studies", edited by H. Tiessen, M. Brklacich, G. Breulmann, and R.S.C. Menezes, published by Island Press, Washington, D.C., United States.