As appearing in SOURCE | September 15, 2016

CSU professor of anthropology Kathleen Galvin has been named as a lead author to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ (IPBES) Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Galvin, director of The Africa Center in CSU’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability, was nominated by the U.S. government to participate in the IPBES program. Authors are selected through an international process led by the IPBES multidisciplinary expert panel (MEP) and the three IPBES co-chairs. The team of authors includes 122 experts split among six chapters.

Galvin is part the global assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem services team whose goal is to strengthen the science-policy interface on biodiversity and ecosystem services through an iterative process, at the same time recognizing and taking into account the polycentric nature and diversity of governance and knowledge systems at different scales. It is also expected that the assessment will support efforts for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at the national and international levels.

The Chapter 3 team is focused on critically evaluating the evidence available for assessing progress toward meeting major international objectives related to biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, with special attention given to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and relevant Sustainable Development Goals. These analyses will use multiple evidence bases, including natural and social sciences and indigenous and local knowledge.

A lifetime of work with herders

Galvin has dedicated her career to studying and working with herders in African and Asian rangelands with threatened biodiversity. She has conducted interdisciplinary social-ecological systems research for more than 30 years. She has addressed issues of land use change, conservation, climate variability, diet and nutrition of pastoralists, and resilience and adaptation strategies.

She has worked with ecologists, modelers, remote sensing and GIS experts to understand human-ecological interactions. Currently, she is looking at the trade-offs of community-based conservation for people, livestock and the environment throughout the African continent.

Galvin’s work on environmental changes in Kenya has resulted in an award-winning video.