The 1999 Congress will be introduced each day by plenary lectures that will address specific ecosystem health problems and potential methods for their mitigation. Case studies and topical technical sessions will follow during late morning and early afternoon. The range of topics planned for presentation is great, but not all inclusive of the diversity of global ecosystems. Through six plenary and forty technical sessions, including over 200 speakers, many of the important global issues will be identified and addressed. Obviously, we cannot address each of the numerous options for ecosystem management of ecosystem health. Even points of view vary depending on the entity responsible for management and the goals for which an ecosystem is intended. The options are sometimes in great conflict and are sometimes reconcilable.

This year the International Congress would like to extract and coalesce the new concepts and lessons from the presentations to provide guidance for future policymaking, management practices, and directions for needed research. This activity is viewed as a major product of the Congress and will be achieved through a series of open discussions or fora on topics of great importance. To that end the topics listed above have been nominated and they will be will be moderated by an acknowledged world authority on that topic who will be assisted by a rapporteur.

Each forum session will be summarized according to points of major agreement and divergence, and recommended actions for research, policy, and management strategies. The summary of each forum will be presented by the moderators to the assembled Congress delegates on the final day of the Congress. These statements will, in large measure, represent progress, or lack of it, in sustaining the quality of natural resources and human health since the Rio de Janeiro conference on the environment held in 1993. The summaries for all fora sessions will be edited into concise statements, and published in the Congress proceedings volumes. Each summary will be authored by the forum leader and rapporteur. This summary will be reprinted for separate wide distribution to policymakers, agencies, foundations, corporations, researchers, and educators.

Precongress:

A leader and rapporteur will be invited for each Forum Issues topic. The forum leaders, with assistance from Congress organizers, will formulate several key questions related to each topic, viz. what are the issues, needs in research, education, outreach, policy, finance, and other issues. These will be included in an abstract and published in the Congress program. The forum leader may wish to prepare a discussion paper and/or invite panelists to present short statements to the discussion group.

During the Congress:

Each forum will have about two hours available for the discussion during Monday and Tuesday afternoons. The Forum leader will present opening remarks or call on panelists to give short statements regarding the importance of the selected topic and issues related to it. Open discussions will follow with guidance from the leader. The rapporteur will record the important points. During the last 15 minutes of the discussion, the rapporteur and leader will summarize and judge whether consensus is reached on the key points. After the session the leader and rapporteur will draft a statement and present it to the assembled delegates at the final session on Wednesday afternoon.

Forum leaders and rapporteurs will attend as many relevant presentations as possible during the congress sessions. Key issues raised during those sessionsday may be considered for modifying the preselected questions and/or topics submitted earlier. Major issues which arise during the technical sessions that were not slated for a Forum Session may lead to a new Forum being developed. In addition, delegates may nominate topics for an Issues Forum and these requests will be accommodated depending on availability of space in the Convention Center.

Postcongress:

The Forum leader and Rapporteur will finalize their report and submit it to the Congress Secretariat, where an editorial committee will assemble all of the forum reports and submit them for review by all forum leaders and others. Finally, the reports will be edited for consistency in style and prepared for publication in the congress proceedings and reprinted as a separate document for wide circulation.

Discussion Forum Abstracts

Discussion Forum F-13: Environmental Pollutants: Must We Live with Them?

Topic Abstract: Management of Large-scale Chemical Introduction into the Environment and Ecosystem Health: MTBE—A Case Study

The session is designed to be an open panel discussion with audience participation. Panelists comprised of selected speakers and discussants from government and industry will address future practices regarding management of chemical introduction into widely used products such as gasoline. The discussion follows an earlier technical session on the same afternoon on the same topic that will provide a basis of discussion for those not familiar with MTBE issues. The widespread presence of MTBE in shallow surface waters in the United States is well documented now and several communities have had their water supply disrupted by its presence. Several states in the United States are moving to have MTBE removed from gasoline to protect water supplies. This session uses the experience gained from MTBE, to discuss possible improvements to the environmental review process, and issues regarding health and environmental trade-offs, particularly MTBE's current status and value to reducing air pollution in the United States and other countries. The discussion will provide useful experience to other states and countries where MTBE is still in use and alternatives to its use are being examined.

Return to top of page