This grant provides support for four training institutes in interdisciplinary global environmental change sciences and for fostering collaboration between scientists and decision-makers in the Americas. Training activities address regionally important global change themes with policy and societal relevance, develop networks of professionals and institutions in the Americas, and integrate with the IAI Collaborative Research Networks (CRN-II) and the Small Grant Program/Human Dimensions (SGP/HD). The institutes have the following themes and locations: - Training Institute on Managing Semi-arid River Basins: Multiple Use of Water Resources of the So Francisco River Basin (joint with Federal University of Pernambuco and Canoa de Tolda (an NGO), in Propri and on the Sao Fransisco River, Brazil); - Training Institute on Information Management: free and open access to, and use of data and information (at the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC, Panama City, Panama); - Training Institute on Risk -Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change in Latin America: Trends and Challenges (joint with the World Conservation Union- IUCN, San Jose, Costa Rica); - Training Institute on Cities Responses to Climate Change (tentatively scheduled at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean- ECLAC, Santiago, Chile). Each Training Institute will involve 20-25 natural and social scientists, students, policy makers, environmental practitioners, and other stakeholders from the Americas, balanced by expertise, gender, type of participant, and geographic area. Institutes will be 1-2 weeks long and will include lectures, discussions, case studies, working groups, field trip, hands-on, laboratory and practical exercises, proposal development, and the production of reports, public releases and publications. A website will make information on the content, planning and results of the training activities widely available. A report will be prepared for each training activity with a description of participants, lecturers; support material; and a sum of major discussions, results and recommendations.
