World Wide Views on Biodiversity
FAQ
What is the World Wide Views project?
WWViews is a global citizen participation project designed to provide policymakers with information about citizens’ views on global issues such as global climate change, global biodiversity and so on.
What makes this program innovative?
One of our challenges, especially at the global level, is to close a widening gap between policymakers and citizens and thereby increasing the citizen’s sense of ownership to decisions made on behalf of them. This creates a need for new initiatives to bridge this widening gap.
WWViews method offers participating citizens extensive information on a complex subject as well as time for face-to-face deliberation before the questions are answered. Therefore the WWViews method ensures more qualified and well-considered answers from the participants. And is different from traditional opinion polls. It is innovative.
What can we learn from this program in relation to maintaining a sustainable future for the environment?
WWViews serves as an exceptional example of how to include everyday citizens in the process of global policymaking. Along with giving them a bigger sense of ownership, for policymakers WWViews offers a better insight of the issues of the citizens they represent.
For example, on Saturday September 15th 2012, thousands of people around the world will take part in a global event: “World Wide Views on Biodiversity”. The project will engage ordinary citizens in as many countries as possible in the process of policymaking and awareness raising to sustain a living and healthy planet. At least a hundred citizens in each participating country will attend day-long meetings to learn about biodiversity issues, make up their minds about them, and express their views. In the case of the U.S. there will be at least 5 sites.
The results of the citizens’ deliberations will be communicated at local, national and as well as global level. At the local level we will use Science Museum, at the national level we will use policy think thank, and at the global level we will use the 11th Meeting of the COP of the UN Convention on Biodiversity that will be held in Delhi, India in the second half of October 2012.
How can this program be useful to ASU and/or the community at large?
A number of graduate and undergraduate students will have substantial roles in the project as paid staff, and will be included in deliberation and travel to the project workshop. University faculty and graduate students will be trained as facilitators, adding to the capacity for future deliberations. Where appropriate, these facilitators and students, who participated in the WWViews projects, will be invited to make presentations at various fora, including classes on sustainability, environmental sciences, biodiversity, citizen engagement, policy and so on. We will also recruit same set of students and faculty in subsequent engagement with similar issues.
How can concepts from the World Wide Views program help build more efficient communities that can better adapt to a changing planet?
At least a hundred citizens from Phoenix metro will attend a day-long meetings whereby they will learn about local and global biodiversity issues, through deliberation they will form their opinion, and finally they express their views through individual voting on questions that will be asked throughout the day. Public awareness and support is a prerequisite for a successful implementation of any local and global initiative. Citizen engagement through WWViews project will smooth this process. We hope to replicate this model to some local issues as well in the future.
