In June of 1994, the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Memorial University of Newfoundland won a national competition to conduct a three-year sustainability study. The project entitled "Sustainability in a Changing Cold Ocean Coastal Environment," is funded by Environment Canada through the Green Plan and is administered at arms length by the three academic funding councils - the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC). The total award is $1.4 million.

The study is focusing on two areas in Newfoundland - Bonavista (a major headland) and the Isthmus of the Avalon Peninsula. Both of these areas have depended at one time or another on the fishery, but both have undergone significantly different experiences in recent decades. As far as possible, the same or highly similar research, is being carried out in each location, bearing in mind that local differences have to be taken into account. The principal objective of the study, which is historically based, is to identify the central components required to achieve sustainability for cold-ocean coastal communities. To assess the implication for sustainability, the project is seeking to identify (i) the elements which have constituted sustainability throughout the past; (ii) where, when and how those elements have been disturbed; and (iii) what we can learn about the elements that might be recast in the 21st century terms and technologies in such a way as to permit us to provide a context in which decisions about future policy, with respect to regional sustainability, might be made.

Rosemary Ommer - Program Manager
Janet Oliver - Administrative Officer
Cathy King - Secretary

Eco-Research Program
202 Elizabeth Ave.
St. John's, NF
AlC 5S7

Telephone: (709) 737-7551
E-Mail : eco@plato.ucs.mun.ca

You are the visitor since September 14^th,1997.

This page last modified on September 23^rd,1997 by Corey Parsons