La biodiversité, « objet » environnemental récent, et les ONG, acteurs désormais indispensables de la régulation environnementale, entretiennent des rapports étroits. La notion de biodiversité a largement pris forme et sens grâce aux ONG, dans les forums internationaux comme sur le terrain. Parallèlement, la consécration politique de la biodiversité et les modes de gestion qui l'accompagnent ont légitimé les interventions des ONG. Tantôt comme contre-pouvoir face aux États, tantôt comme parties prenantes du nouvel ordre écologique et économique mondial, parfois au sein d'alliances avec des firmes, elles sont devenues un pivot des politiques de protection de l'environnement. Ce sont ces relations intimes entre ONG et biodiversité que le présent ouvrage se propose d'explorer. Comment les ONG sont-elles devenues des porte-parole de la biodiversité, avec quel mandat de négociation, avec quelle influence réelle ? Comment les représentations et pratiques que recouvrent aujourd'hui biodiversité et ONG se sont-elles imposées ? Ces notions viennent-elles vraiment qualifier des objets nouveaux ? La notion de biodiversité revêt-elle une portée opérationnelle tant pour les sciences de la vie que pour les décideurs ? Les ONG ont-elles des spécificités qui exigent des outils analytiques particuliers ? Les auteurs, sociologues, économistes et politistes, s'interrogent sur la validité scientifique des notions d'ONG et de biodiversité et nous convient à une réflexion critique sur les modes de gouvernement qui prétendent encadrer les relations entre les sociétés et la nature.

The erosion of biodiversity is currently highly publicized. Militant movements accuse humans of destroying nature and being responsible for a sixth mass extinction. However, this anxiety-provoking message is sometimes based on misconceptions, false or partisan ideas, and media relays that favor and amplify alarmist information. If the situation of certain populations is worrying, it is not a general phenomenon because others are expanding. Rather than holding a globalizing discourse, it is necessary to recontextualize and relativize the debate to better define the necessary actions. Biodiversity Erosion analyzes numerous scientific publications, as well as alarming discussions, emphasizing the multiple biases present in the way information is presented. This book questions the relevance of the notion of species and the desire to compile an inventory of all living things. It argues for a less Manichean approach to our relationship with nature.

Twenty years after the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) entered into force, the founding of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in 2012 was the outcome of a long process of setting biodiversity issues at the top of the global environmental agenda. With contributions from more than a dozen well-renowned researchers in political science, law and sociology, this book analyzes IPBES functioning and challenges in terms of the knowledge selection process and actors involved. The book reveals that, through its conceptual framework, IPBES promotes a pluralistic view of nature that calls for a broadening of the disciplinary frontiers. It combines natural science and social science research and also includes indigenous and local knowledge. IPBES is considered to represent the institutionalization of a permanent knowledge assessment on biodiversity and is often referred to as an IPCC success story, constituting a new stage in global environmental governance. In analyzing the knowledge selection process for IPBES decision making, the book better situates IPBES within the biodiversity and global governance domain. It ultimately argues that the establishment of IPBES provides a new opportunity to coordinate the different international conventions (CBD, RAMSAR, CITES, etc.) and initiatives (international assessment of marine biology, scientific programs, funding, etc.).

Annotation Towards the Learning Grid Advances in Human Learning Services Volume 127 Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications Edited by: P. Ritrovato, C. Allison, S.A. Cerri, T. Dimitrakos, M. Gaeta and S. Salerno November 2005, approx. 248 pp., hardcover There is a paradigm shift in informatics in general and in technologies enhancing human learning in particular. The debate between the evolutionaries those that wish to optimize and refine current approaches and the revolutionaries those that support a fundamental change of approach is quite actual. Within the Internet communities, the debate is hidden behind the words semantic WEB versus semantic Grid ; within educational technologists between content/resource centered and conversation centered e-learning, or either between teaching and pedagogy on the one side, and learning and communities of practice on the other. In general, in informatics, the shift from a product-page oriented to a service-conversation oriented view may possibly impact most if not all the foreseen applications, in e-learning, but also in e-science, e-democracy, e-commerce, e-health, etc. Part A of the book is dedicated to Position papers: visions about what to do and why to do it in the next years. The remaining parts (B to D) offer partial answers to how to do it. Part B concerns what we called: Content-centered services, i.e.: a vision of learning systems that privileges knowledge and its structures, standards and their interoperability, storage and retrieval services. The subsequent part C has been called: Holistic services to refer to more mature and integrated solutions that address not only content but more generally the creation and management of human Virtual Communities connected on the Grid in order to offer and consume different services facilitating and enhancing human learning. Finally part D is concerned with new directions in learning services.