Environmental research at the East-West Center focuses on critical interactions and interdependencies between the environment and society.  The Center 's fellows explore questions such as:

• How do environmental conditions and natural resources help shape development in the Asia Pacific region?
• How do human activities in the Asia Pacific region affect critical natural resources and ecosystems?
• How do changes in local, regional and global environmental conditions affect public health, community planning and economic development in the Asia Pacific region?
• How do local, national, and international communities organize the management of environment-society interactions?
• How can improved information about the links between environment, development and society be used to support the development of public policy that is responsive to changing conditions and emerging issues?

Within this intellectual framework, individual projects in environmental studies respond to current issues of regional significance (e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss, urban pollution), illuminate critical gaps in scientific understanding, and explore innovative approaches to establishing more effective partnerships within the Asia Pacific community that will sustain both people and the environment. Like the East-West Center as a whole, studies of environment and development embrace a three-pronged approach involving:

• Research to develop and share new insights to support decision making;
• Dialogue focused on shared learning and joint problem-solving; and
• Education and training to enhance the cadre of scientists and decision makers informed about critical issues in the region.

Current projects in environmental studies are encompassed by the theme:  Change, Vulnerability and Governance. For the past several decades many parts of the Asia Pacific region have undergone rapid social, economic, and environmental transformations. Industrialization, urbanization, and high rates of population and economic growth, together with ongoing loss of biodiversity and modifications to coastal areas and tropical rainforests, make the Asia region a ‘hot spot’ from both global change and sustainable development perspectives. Both perspectives are inherently linked and their analyses need to be addressed as a set of integrated scientific and socioeconomic issues.

Projects within the Change, Vulnerability and Governance theme strive to understand the links between science and policy at all levels. We seek to develop regional communities of scholars, resource managers, and community activists with a shared understanding of these problems and the ability to translate scientific results into information relevant to regional, national, and sub-national policymaking processes. We explore appropriate adaptation options through workshops, small group meetings, and other dialogue activities that engage scientists and decision makers in a continuing process of shared learning and joint problem solving.

Work in this thematic area seeks to describe and assess (both quantitatively and qualitatively) environmental change and vulnerability in the Asia Pacific region and to facilitate appropriate policy responses. Research focuses on several critical aspects of the human-environment nexus in the Asia Pacific Region:

• Air Quality
• Water Quality and Quantity
• Environmental Risk Management
• Natural Disasters
• Environmental Economics and Policy
• Land-use and Land-cover Change
• Spatial Information Services
• Pacific Islands Regional Assessment of the Consequences of Climate Variability and Change
• Pacific Islands Regional Integrated Science and Assessment