Message from President

A few words from the President's Desk

Friends,

To begin with, I wish to thank all of you for your continued interest in and support of INSEE. As you are aware, the INSEE elections were held in April 2010 and the new Executive Committee (EC) took over on May 21, 2010 . The EC had its first meeting on the same day under my chairperson ship. Office bearers for the period 2010-2012 were selected and an agenda of activities proposed and adopted. I am glad to report that we have in place plans for a slew of activities which we hope to implement with your active support.

As I take over as President, I am acutely aware of the challenges and opportunities that INSEE faces. Both nationally and internationally, environmental issues are far more mainstreamed than was the case 10 or 12 years ago at the time of INSEE's birth. Governments are taking environmental issues and their relation to development more seriously than what they perceived before. The academic literature has also developed along those lines and has been lately evolving in a trans-disciplinary framework. In this scenario, INSEE faces new challenges as well as the responsibility to deliver.

As a professional society, our main focus is on creating opportunities for interaction among members, leading to further research collaborations in the interest of more enlightened policy making .These opportunities shall be both in the real and virtual domain. INSEE plans many events to enable this to happen. To mention a few that are already underway, thanks to the efforts of some dynamic and forward-looking members.

•  A Google- group for INSEE members: Some of you may have already received information on this. This can, with your inputs become an active mode for interchange of ideas

•  Learning Forum on N.Georgescu-Roegen: A web-based learning forum on N. Georgescu-Roegen, widely considered as the founding father of Ecological Economics is to be initiated soon.

•  A special issue on Ecological Economics in the journal, Conservation and Society , is being negotiated. This shall provide a forum for publication for INSEE members

Meanwhile, we continue with thematic workshops and with planning for the next conference in 2011.Among workshops, I may mention:

•  A Workshop on Integrated Ecosystem Modelling was organised in collaboration with ATREE and LUPIS in Bangalore in June 2010.Five presentations by INSEE members featured in this workshop. Our website has details of the workshop.

•  An INSEE-TAER Seminar on “Climate Change and Markets”: The one-day seminar is proposed to be held in Delhi during end November or beginning December 2010.

•  The next Biennial Conference is scheduled for 2011 and, with your support, promises be as intellectually exciting as INSEE conferences have always been...

•  Meanwhile, ever since we co-hosted the ISEE 2006 conference, INSEE maintains close touch with the International Society for Ecological Economics. As all of you are aware, one of our founder members, Professor Bina Agarwal is President Elect of ISEE . INSEE members are making presentations of their work at the next ISEE conference to be held in Germany in August 2010. Dr. Nilanjan Ghosh, Secretary shall represent INSEE at this conference.

So keep in touch, look up the website, (www ecoinsee. org) and contribute to events and activities of interest to you. Looking forward to an intellectually exciting time for all of us in INSEE

Kanchan Chopra

President

July 12, 2010