A theme for discussion: How can we communicate the main results of CRN2047 activities within the framework of a science - policy dialogue without losing the message in translation?

BONINSEGNA, J.A.; MONTAÑA, ELMA

Uspallata Pcia de Mendoza

Workshop; Science Meeting CRN0247B; 2013

IAI

A significant part of IAI?s mandate is that ? (in order to)?.better understand the natural and social processes which drive large scale environmental change, the IAI encourages interactive exchanges between scientists and policy makers. The goal of the IAI is to augment the scientific capacity of the region and to provide information in a useful and timely manner to policy makers? Researchers working in programs funded by IAI must therefore find ways to get involved in producing information that is both relevant and useful to global environmental change governance. This is not an easy task for researchers who are themselves very busy with their own research and unfamiliar with the methods, language and timing of political processes. Neither is it simple for decision makers, trapped within their own agendas, priorities and political constraints, to penetrate the scientific jargon and bring it to focus on their particular interests. The aim of this presentation is to provoke reflections on the opportunities for fostering science-policy dialogues and to trigger a discussion on the best ways for achieving dialogue without the message getting lost in the process. To this end we propose the following exercise. We will take the most relevant conclusions that arise from two papers published in high impact journals under the umbrella of CRN0247 and examine this scientific evidence from the point of view of policy- and decision-makers who must respond to the demands of the socio-productive milieu. In this way, the scientific knowledge may be transformed into information likely to be used for planning, to decide courses of action and make decisions related to climate and water-related issues in different temporal frameworks (short term, long term, etc). Then, we will discuss specific real-world cases and possible global environmental change scenarios in which this information could be effectively used. These discussions will analyze the factors involved (the type of scientific evidence and information provided, the physical, social and economic processes and mechanisms, potential interplay between the actors plus the political and scientific contexts) in a search for insight and general lessons to be learned on successfully bridging science and policy.