EcoHealth News

Highlights of Activities of Members of the EHC Team for 2005

Glenn Albrecht was the J.W. McConnell Visiting Professor in Ecosystem Health at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) from September 15 to December 12 2005. In August 2005 he collaborated with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Goa, India on the social impacts of mining in an active iron ore mining region. He also gave a lecture to TERI on his research on the ecosystem health impacts of coal mining in the Hunter Valley of N.S.W. He visited an outstation, Korlohbidahdah, Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia (12-17 July) to examine the impact of Buffalo in tropical savannah and wetland ecosystems.

Karen Farbridge has been undertaking research on community energy planning and providing courses on sustainable cities, environmental policy and democracy at the University of Guelph.  She has recently been appointed to the boards of rare (formerly Cruikston Charitable Research Reserve) and the Canadian Association of Community Service-Learning as well as to the Steering Committee of the Smart Growth Canada Network.  She recently presented at an Environmental Summit in Chatham-Kent, Ontario.

John Howard is now chair of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and continues to lead the educational component of the Ecosystem Health Program in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario. Due to the established success of the Ecosystem Health undergraduate program, this program is being expanded to be a major part of the undergraduate curriculum.  Dr. Howard wrote a lead article for the international journal “Alternatives” outlining a new health system based on ecosystem health, as well as presenting this work at the A.D. Latornell 2005 Conservation Symposium.

Luisa Maffi is contributing to the forthcoming GEO 4, the United Nations Environment Programme’s flagship report on the state of the environment, as co-lead author of a section on Biodiversity and Culture. She is also collaborating with the World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Convention on Biodiversity on the development of indicators of the state of indigenous and traditional knowledge relevant to the conservation of biodiversity. She was a featured speaker at the 2005 Genova Festival of Science. Luisa was the EHC lead on the Healthy Meso-American Reef Initiative with the World Bank.

Bruce Mitchell was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and as a Fellow of the International Water Resources Association.  He has also been appointed as an Honorary Professor at Dalian University of Technology, China. During July 2005 he taught a water management course at the Dalian University of Technology.

Asit Mazumder provides national and international research leadership relating to drinking water quality as National Science and Engineering Senior Research Chair at the University of Victoria. This program is in partnership with water utilities, academic institutions, provincial and federal departments and environmental technology-based industries. The research focus is on the integration of water and watershed sciences, microbial ecology, epidemiology, disinfection, and public health in order to provide for sustaining healthy drinking water for communities. Dr. Muzumder has participated in several international panels in 2005 on issues of Biodiversity and Human Health.

David Rapport toured Inner Mongolia at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in June of 2005 - to assess the health of the grassland ecosystems. He was a keynote speaker at a Canadian International Development Agency sponsored workshop on Livelihoods and Ecosystem Health, held at the University of Northern British Columbia in May of 2005.  He was a featured speaker at the 2005 Genova Festival of Science in November 2005. David was honorary Chair of the UNEP DEWA - North American Advisory Committee Meeting in Ottawa, Canada, November 2005. He has been appointed as an honorary professor of the Institute of applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang for the period 2006-2010. Dr. Rapport has been appointed Co-Professor in the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang for the period 2006-2010.

Ola Ullsten was the keynote speaker at seminars on global perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibilities in Delhi, Palampur, Bangalore and Bombay in India, June 12-17, 2005;  He participated in  the GEO 4 first production and authors meeting in Nairobi June 19-23, 2005; He was a keynote speaker at the 17 th Conference of The International Society for Environmental Epidemiology ( ISEE) in Johannesburg, September 13-17, 2005. Dr. Ullsten was the lead author on 2005 paper detailing the development of the Forest Capital Index (Oikos, Ecological Bulletins 51:471-485).