As part of its continuing outreach to state policymakers, the Nicholas Institute helped coordinate and lead an invitation-only workshop on ecosystems services and valuation for senior-level state leaders on Dec. 17 and 18. State leaders from around the nation took part in the workshop, which was held at Duke, facilitated by the Duke Environmental Leadership Program, and funded by Island Press. Among other crucial topics, participants learned about the use of "natural capital" tools for budget and policy operations, and about tangible, implementable programs that can be used to incorporate ecosystem valuation into states' day-to-day operations and decision making. The workshop was organized by Lydia Olander, senior associate director at the Nicholas Institute, and Bill Holman, director of state policy.

As the historic southeastern drought of 2007 stretches into 2008, the Nicholas Institute continues to play a leadership role in helping communities, governments and industries across North Carolina identify economically and environmentally sustainable water management policies, especially those relating to the critical issues of water allocation and conservation. Last month, the Institute partnered with the City of Durham, the Durham Chamber of Commerce and Duke University administration to host a forum on water efficiency for the area's largest water users. Bill Holman, director of state policy for the Institute, has recently presented policy options based on the Institute report, "The Future of Water in North Carolina," at six public meetings statewide, including as a featured speaker in a Town Hall Meeting on the drought that drew more than 400 concerned citizens and local leaders to Duke's campus in January. In February, he has been invited to speak at a Joint Regional Forum of elected and appointed leaders of regional councils of governments. The Institute's water report is online here.

Could lessons learned from Mother Nature help airport security screening checkpoints better protect us from terror threats? A new book co-edited by the Nicholas Institute's Rafe Sagarin, associate director for oceans and coastal policy, argues that they can - if governments are willing to think outside the box and pay heed to some of nature's most successful evolutionary strategies for species adaptation and survival. "Biological organisms have figured out millions of ways, over three and a half billion years of evolution, to keep themselves safe from a vast array of threats," says  Sagarin. "In our book, we look at these strategies and ask how we could apply them to our own safety." The book, published by the University of California Press, is the result of more than two years of investigation and debate by Sagarin and a multidisciplinary working group of scientists and security experts. To learn more, go here. 

Brian C. Murray, director for economic analysis, was an invited presenter at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007. His presentation, "Seeing REDD: Addressing Additionality, Leakage and Permanence with a National Approach," addressed strategies for reducing emissions from deforestation and ecosystem degradation (REDD). Murray is an expert on the integration of economic and biophysical models to assess greenhouse gas mitigation strategies in agriculture, land use change and forestry. He has authored widely cited studies on climate change mitigation, including reports to the U.S. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for which he shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded jointly to the IPCC and all its current and former authors.

Peter McCornick, director for Asia at the International Water Management Institute, will join the Nicholas Institute this summer as director of the Institute's water program. McCornick has more than 25 years of experience in the integrated planning, development and management of water resources. His specific areas of expertise include water resources; irrigated agriculture; water quality; water reuse; environment; rural and urban water supply; institutional development; policy implementation; and project implementation. He has worked on water resources challenges in many of the world's major basins including the Nile, Niger, Jordan/Yarmuk, Meghna/Bramaputra, Colorado, Snake/Columbia, Okavango, and the Ogallala aquifer.