Areas of expertise & Fields of activity:
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Sustainable Development:
Agriculture
Biodiversity
Climate change
Education
Energy
Forests
Freshwater
Health
Indicators
International cooperation for an enabling environment
Land management
Poverty
Protecting and managing the natural resources
Science
Sustainable Tourism
Sustainable development in a globalizing world
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| Geographic scope: |
International
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| Country of activity: |
Brazil
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| Millennium Development Goals: |
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop global partnership for development
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| Mission statement: |
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| Year established: |
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| Year of registration: |
1995 |
| Organizational structure: |
Research carried out by the CDS seeks: 1) to provide technological tools for improved
environmental planning and management; 2) to integrate professionals from different academic backgrounds; 3) to generate information that contributes to the assessment, quantification, monitoring and prevention of damage to the environment; 4) to respond to social demands regarding environmental and scientific-technological management and policy.
The interdisciplinary study of sustainable development requires new approaches and
methodological tools. Research on the construction of alternative methodologies for
sustainable development reflects the desire of the CDS to create mechanisms for wide and diversified discussion about the possibilities and problems of sustainable development. The CDS seeks to build instruments that, at the same time, contribute to the better understanding of the problems of sustainable development and help shape strategies for its operationalization through public policy
An updated list with brief descriptions of each current research project is available at the
CDS Web page, through the link “Projetos de Pesquisa”.
Each research project pertains to an institutionally defined “research line”, sometimes to
two such lines. These seven lines are listed and briefly described below.
1 – Public Policy, Governance and Socioenvironmental Conflicts
Comprises the study of the set of activities in which the state is engaged in its quest to execute functions that express the public interest, with the analysis the several processes involved in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of sustainable development policies
2 – Energy, Waste and Climate Change
This line hosts projects that seek to generate knowledge about the interaction between energy, society, the production of waste and the environment and about its consequences for sustainable development, in search of alternatives for designing, using and evaluating energy systems.
3 – Environmental Education
Includes projects that discuss the epistemological foundations of education in the process of environmental management. This includes the discussion of appropriate philosophical and conceptual frameworks so that the educational dimension can be inserted in environmental management processes.
4 – Science, Technology and Innovation
These projects investigate matters that relate scientific and technological development to
sustainable development, together with topics that have high priority in Brazil’s system of science, technology and innovation.
5 – Territorial Management, Land Use and Protected Areas
This line is concerned with the generation of knowledge about spatial changes of social, economic, ecosystemic, cultural, political and normative natures that occur in territories affected by developmental processes, looking into their determinations and implications.
6 – Living Conditions and the Environment
Examines how different human-induced transformations of the biodiversity or the sociodiversity of human dwellings cause impacts on the means and conditions for health, sanitation and quality of life of human populations. Emphasis in placed on the Brazilian biomes Cerrado and Amazonia.
7 – Environmental Economy and Businesses
These projects are concerned with the relations between the operation of productive systems and environmental systems, in theoretical-conceptual, methodological and empirical terms, as well as with principles and instruments linked to economic-environmental policies and management. |
| Number and type of members: |
By early 2009, the PPG-CDS faculty had about 50 members with different standings,
including 12 full-time and 10 part-time UnB professors. Other categories include associate
researchers, visiting professors, post-doctoral fellows and lecturers). All have doctoral degrees.
Most are qualified to advise doctoral students and all can advise masters´ students. The “Docentes”
link of our Web page provides the names, titles, CV information and e-mails of all PPG-CDS faculty.
The CDS is frequently summoned to participate in the evaluation of Brazilian policy
initiatives, plans and projects, or to conduct research that helps in the design of public policies and
community initiatives. For example, in 2005-2006 the CDS had a leading role in a network of
research institutions engaged in a long-term prospective project, concerning the options and
directions of Brazilian development for the following 20 years.
More information about the CDS the PPG-CDS can be obtained through the link
“Downloads / Avaliação do CDS”, available in our Web page. It provides access to the full text of an
external independent evaluation of the CDS, conducted by a panel of four academicians (one
Brazilian, one German, one Chilean and one Canadian), concluded in mid-2006. Also, detailed
information about the official yearly evaluations of the PPG-CDS, made by CAPES, is available at
www.capes.gov.br |
| Funding structure: |
Fees for education and training services
Donations and grants from domestic sources
Foreign and international grants
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