Panel to discuss public engagement in environmental policymaking

The Science, Technology and Society Initiative at the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) will host a panel discussion titled “Governing Biodiversity: Citizen Voices on the Global Stage” on Friday, Feb. 8 at 1:30 p.m. in 302-304 Gordon Hall.

 

Panelists will use the recent World Wide Views on Biodiversity project as an example of how the general public can be effectively engaged in environmental policy discussions. As part of the World Wide Views project, CPPA lecturer Gretchen Gano and two CPPA students worked last summer and fall to recruit 100 participants from across Massachusetts for a day-long discussion about environmental regulations and policies.

 

The Massachusetts event, held at the Museum of Science in Boston, was one of 34 that took place in 25 countries around the globe. Results from all of the sessions were then compiled into a report, which was released in October at the meeting in Hyderabad, India, of the U.N. Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity. CPPA was able to participate in the project with a university Public Service Endowment grant to the Science, Technology and Society Initiative.

 

This panel discussion will include Gano; David Sittenfeld, forum program manager at the Museum of Science; Richard Worthington, professor of politics and chair of the program in public policy analysis at Pomona College; and Darlene Cavalier, contributing editor for Discover Magazine and founder of the citizen science site SciStarter. Professor Jane Fountain, Political Science and Public Policy, will moderate.