Over forty years ago, the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment proclaimed that decision-makers require access to the best available scientific information to achieve effective environmental management (United Nations, 1972). To fill this need, various governments and inter-governmental partnerships have produced many state of the environment reports (SOEs), which present current scientific understanding […]
Grey Literature
New EIUI Paper on How Information in Grey Literature Informs Policy and Decision-Making
A new paper published by members of the Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research team emphasizes that simply advocating the use of information without understanding the contexts of its use will likely be ineffective in closing the gap between research and policy-making. As the growing number of studies on the science-policy interface demonstrate, the […]
Is Demonstrating the “Bottom Line” of the Oceans More Effective Than Scientific Information in Influencing Global Change?
The World Wildlife Fund’s recent report, Reviving the Ocean Economy: The Case for Action – 2015, positions the world’s oceans with major global powers (Hoegh-Goldberg et al., 2015). The oceans are ranked as the seventh-largest economy on the planet – as if combined they were a country. The numbers are staggering: WWF conservatively estimates that […]
Improving Use and Awareness of Scientific Information: An EIUI Study of the Gulfwatch Monitoring Program
Chemical contamination is a threat that impacts all waterways, especially those closest to human activity. Contamination of ecosystems can lead to consequences within trophic (food-web) structures and can percolate up trophic levels and impact human populations. Countless examples exist of mercury poisoning from contaminated fish overwhelming coastal communities. Other contaminants, such as other trace metals, […]
New Book About the Bedford Institute of Oceanography
Voyage of Discovery: Fifty Years of Marine Research at Canada’s Bedford Institute of Oceanography is being officially launched this week. This commemorative volume marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO) celebrated in 2012. The BIO-Oceans Association announced the publication as a “major treatise reviewing the history and marine research accomplishments of […]
Vital Global Ocean Reports Must be Noticed to Have Influence
Reports written and published by major ocean organizations, by definition grey literature, may be very influential if given coverage by the press, are noticed by politicians, policy makers and marine resource managers, and offer proposals for positive action. One such example is the recent report by the Global Ocean Commission (GOC) “From Decline to Recovery: […]
New EIUI Paper on Enablers and Barriers to Use of Marine Environmental Information
A new paper published by members of the Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research team reports on an investigation of enablers and barriers in the use of marine environmental information. Based on interviews with nineteen members of the primary Working Group of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment (GOMC), an American-Canadian […]
Editorial on the Availability of Marine Scientific Information in Canada Published in Marine Pollution Bulletin
An editorial, “Managing Ocean Information in the Digital Era—Events in Canada Open Questions about the Role of Marine Science Libraries,” penned by Peter Wells (EIUI and International Ocean Institute), has been published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin. Initiated by deep concerns about recent major cutbacks to the marine science libraries of the Canadian federal government, […]
Marine Information Matters: Report of the EIUI-Partnership Workshop, 20-21 September 2013
The Environmental Information: Use and Influence research program is pleased to present the report of the workshop, Marine Information Matters: Probing Its Use and Influence in Policy and Decision Making, held on 20-21 September 2013, in collaboration with our governmental and non-governmental partners. The workshop report contains an overview of the public lecture by Dr. […]
EIUI Team Publishes Bibliography of Publications of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, the Environmental Information: Use and Influence Research team has published Celebrating 25 Years of Knowledge on the Gulf. A Bibliography of Publications of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment. This comprehensive bibliography of over […]