Heinz Center Issues First Annual Update to The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems
The first annual update of the landmark 2002 report The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems: Measuring the Lands, Waters, and Living Resources of the United States has been released by The Heinz Center. Update 2003 includes updated data for 25 indicators. This represents a quarter of the indicators presented in the Center’s 2002 report, and more than 40% of those for which data were available in 2002. Update 2003 also includes first-time data for one indicator (Recreation in Forests) for which no data were available in 2002.
Washington, DC (PRWEB) January 16, 2004 -- The first annual update of the
landmark 2002 report The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems: Measuring the Lands,
Waters, and Living Resources of the United States has been released by The Heinz
Center.
Annual updates provide access to data on ecosystem conditions
that become available in the 5 years between editions of the full State of the
Nation’s Ecosystems report. The first State of the Nation’s Ecosystems report
was published by Cambridge University Press in 2002; the second full edition is
scheduled for publication in 2007. Both the 2002 report and the Web-only Update
2003 are available at www.heinzctr.org/ecosystems/report/html.
“Tracking
changes in the condition and use of our nation’s precious ecosystems is as
important as annual medical checkups,” said Thomas E. Lovejoy, President of The
Heinz Center, “And this first annual update is a crucial step toward making The
State of the Nation's Ecosystems into the periodic source of high-quality,
nonpartisan information on ecosystems that it was designed to be.”
Update
2003 includes updated data for 25 indicators. This represents a quarter of the
indicators presented in the Center’s 2002 report, and more than 40% of those for
which data were available in 2002. These data provide insights into changes in
such key ecosystem characteristics as the area of the nation’s forests and
farmlands, contamination in coastal waters, carbon storage in forests, and key
ecosystem “goods and services,” such as fish landings, timber harvest, and crop
yields. In several cases, Update 2003 also revises data from the 2002 report,
based on changes made by the responsible agencies. Overall, however, the new
data contained in Annual Update 2003 demonstrate continuation of existing
trends; no major deviations were reported.
Update 2003 also includes
first-time data for one indicator (Recreation in Forests) for which no data were
available in 2002. “We are extremely gratified to be able to report this
progress in improving and extending our characterization of the State of the
Nation’s Ecosystems,” said William C. Clark, project head and professor at
Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
The Heinz Center and
its collaborators are continuing to refine the indicators in the 2002 report as
they prepare for the 2007 edition. This work also includes estimation of the
cost of filling data gaps identified in 2002, gathering views from a wide range
of experts and interested parties on which data gaps should be filled first, and
exploring how such a report should be produced over the long term, including its
relationship to other environmental monitoring and reporting activities.
About the State of the Nation’s Ecosystems Project
The State of the
Nation’s Ecosystems is a periodic report on the condition and use of the
nation’s ecosystems. The report is the product of intensive collaboration
between representatives of business, environmental organizations, academia, and
federal, state, and local government, and the goal is to provide periodic,
high-quality, nonpartisan information to decision makers and opinion leaders.
The first report in the series was published in 2002, and future
editions will be produced every 5 years, with the next edition due in 2007. Web
updates are released annually.
The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems is
available in full text on the Web at no charge. Please inquire about individual
review copies. The report is available through the publisher, Cambridge
University Press, at www.cup.org.
Additional information on Update 2003 or
on the overall State of the Nation’s Ecosystems project may be obtained from
Robin O’Malley, Program Director, at (202) 737-6307, e-mail protected from spam
bots; or Kent Cavender-Bares, Fellow, at (612) 624-6182, e-mail protected from
spam bots.
Web Links
The Heinz Center: www.heinzctr.org
State of
the Nation’s Ecosystems Project home page: www.heinzctr.org/ecosystems
State of the Nation’s
Ecosystems report: www.heinzctr.org/ecosystems/report.html
Cambridge
University Press: www.cup.org
Annual Update 2003: www.heinzctr.org/ecosystems/intro/updates.shtml
The
Heinz Center, established in 1995 in memory of Senator John Heinz, is a
nonprofit, nonpartisan institution dedicated to improving the scientific and
economic basis for environmental policy and to developing innovative solutions
to environmental problems.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/1/prweb98853.htm