Integrated biodiversity and ecosystem research and policy  Increasingly, the pressures of global environmental change demand integrated research and policy responses. The African continent is highly vulnerable to the compound impacts of this change, due to its aridity over large areas, the demands placed on its ecosystems for rapid and equitable development, and disparities in its institutional and professional capacity. If countries are to adapt to and mitigate the effects of global environmental change, African policymakers, conservation planners and ecosystem managers need scientifically sound, readily accessible tools in the public domain. In 2004-2005 the GCRG initiated the development of two large-scale, integrated programmes to help meet these needs. The first, GCBESA ("Global Change, Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Society in Africa - policy, planning and management implications of vulnerability") is a broad, umbrella framework programme aiming to develop a coherent picture for the African continent of the vulnerability in the face of global change. This developing programme has a variety of African and European institutional partners in South Africa , Tanzania , Senegal , Nigeria , United Kingdom , France and Sweden . It is seed-funded by the South African National Research Foundation and South African National Biodiversity Institute , GCRG's home institute. The second, BISCC ("Biodiversity, Invasive Species and Climate Change - Predicting Compound Impacts in Vulnerable Areas of Africa and the Mediterranean "), is a developing interdisciplinary research programme focusing on the largely unknown interactions between invasive species and climate change. It will emphasize the delivery of accessible planning and mapping tools, and building of professional capacity in user institutions to develop and interpret these tools in order to support better national development and conservation planning. BISCC is seed-funded by the Global Invasive Species Programme and South African National Biodiversity Institute. For more information, contact Phoebe Barnard.
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