Background to the Regional Workshop The evolution of the strategic role for science and technology for SD lead to a strong recommendation from early workshops, meetings, and consultations (e.g., Friibergh) that we must review, assess, and obtain perspectives at a regional and local level and across the many stakeholders. This lead to the development of 5 regionally-based workshops on science and technology for SD, and with the help of the Packard Foundation and many others local sources these were held between Nov 2001 and March 2002. Others may follow, I.e., All locally planned and implements.

First Order “Core Questions” 1. Methods and models 2. Long-term trends 3. Vulnerability in particular kinds of places 4. Critical limits or boundaries 5. Incentive systems 6. Monitoring and reporting 7. Research, observations, assessment, and decision support (ROADS) The initial set of core questions for sustainability science from Friibergh address the following topics. These are meant to complement the core questions of existing global change programs. Corell will elaborate on these 1-4 deal with understanding the interactions between nature and society 5-6 deal with expanding social capacity to encourage a transition towards sustainability 7 deals with learning to do better Full text of Qs in Science article [* Methods and models that integrate the earth system and human development * Long-term trends in envt and dev *Vulnerability of a system in particular kinds of places, ecosystems or livelihoods *Can limits or boundaries be defined to provide effective warning systems *What incentive structures - markets, rules, norms, information are most effective *Monitoring and reporting to provide useful guidance *Research, observation, assessment, and decision support systems be used for adaptive management and societal learning]

These Regional Workshops Seek to Engage… Environment and development communities Natural and social sciences Multiple sectors of human activity Geographic and temporal scales Scholars and practitioners Knowledge and action

These Regional Workshops are: Exploring the scientific questions and research strategies that are relevant to their region, Identifying the institutions and infrastructure needed to address these questions and strategies, Identifying the means of overcoming the barriers to implementing such an agenda, and Identifying those areas of knowledge where we know enough to inform action, but where that knowledge is not being used.