The Log | School News

Update from the Nicholas Institute

Nicholas Institute Staff Teaching Three Courses for Duke University Graduate and Undergraduate Students this Semester

Raphael Sagarin, associate director for ocean and coastal policy, is teaching “Marine Ecosystem Based Management: Hype or Hope?,” a three-unit graduate-level course.
Two recent major U.S. commissions have recommended that ecosystembased management (EBM) should be applied to all aspects of ocean governance, Sagarin says, yet progress in implementing it has been slow and uneven. Through exploration of research in economics, law and physical and life sciences, the course attempts to help students identify ways EBM can be applied successfully.
Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute, and Sheril Kirshenbaum, associate in research for ocean and coastal policy, are assisting by acting as mock Senators and Senate staff members to whom students must try to “sell” EBM-based legislation. Twenty-four Master of Environmental Management (MEM) students are enrolled.

Brian C. Murray, the Institute’s director for economic analysis, and Lydia Olander, senior associate director for ecosystem services, are teaching “Putting Ecosystem Market Services into Practice,” a graduate-level, one-unit reading group.
Ecosystem services is a relatively new concept in some environmental fields, but a number of markets have been in operation for decades, including the acid rain trading program, wetlands mitigation markets and nutrient trading programs, say Olander and Murray, who both have published and presented widely on the topic.
Their course focuses on helping students gain a deeper understanding of how ecosystem service markets work, and how they could affect existing conservation and management efforts. Fifteen MEM students are enrolled.

Bill Holman, director of state policy at the institute, is teaching “Environmental Policymaking in North Carolina,” a three-unit course for graduate and undergraduate students offered through the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.
Holman, who has been a leader in North Carolina environmental policy for nearly 30 years, takes students through the policymaking process and identifies special areas of current or likely future concern, such as water management, energy and climate change and sustainable development. Ten students are enrolled in the course.
“Extending our expertise to Duke students is a key mission of the Nicholas Institute,” says Director Tim Profeta. “Educating the next generation of environmental leaders is one of many ways we help bridge the gap between science and policy.”

Nicholas Institute Responds to Drought with Statewide Initiative

In response to the historic drought of 2007–08, the Nicholas Institute of Environmental Policy Solutions has launched a statewide initiative to help communities, governments and industries identify and implement sustainable water management policies.
The initiative started last year in March—weeks before the start of an ominously drier-than-normal spring— with a conference that brought together state and local officials, water managers, industry and environmental leaders and national experts to discuss what Bill Holman, the Institute’s director of state policy, described as “a looming crisis.”

Rapid population growth in North Carolina, coupled with aging infrastructure and piecemeal policies governing water management, had pushed the state’s water supply to the brink during the drought of 2002, Holman told the gathered crowd.
“Projections of climate change and continued urbanization threaten to exacerbate the problem in future droughts,” he said. “Identifying low-cost targets for greater efficiency is critical.”

In a post-conference report, Holman and research associates Eben Polk and Leslie Kleczek presented strategies for addressing the problem, including improving the way water-use data is collected and reported, and developing statewide policies on water allocation and efficiency.

This February, after months of factfinding that included public forums statewide and meeting with major stakeholders such as electric and water utilities, agricultural interests, food processors and conservation groups, the institute issued a policy brief for legislators detailing actions that state could take to increase water-use efficiency.
Holman also has agreed to serve as co-principal investigator of a study authorized by the North Carolina General Assembly on water allocation policy.

In addition to addressing statewide concerns, the Institute also has focused on local water issues.
In December 2007, it partnered with the City of Durham and the Durham Chamber of Commerce to host a forum on water efficiency for the area’s largest water users. In January, Holman was a featured speaker at a Nicholas School Town Hall Meeting on the drought that drew more than 400 concerned citizens and local leaders to Duke’s campus. (See story) In February, he spoke at a joint regional forum of elected and appointed leaders of regional councils of governments.

“This is very much a shared priority, pulling in expertise and support from across the Institute, the Nicholas School and the Duke community,” Holman said. “Global climate change and continued urbanization will have major impacts on water quality and quantity in North Carolina far into the foreseeable future. The need for economically and environmentally sustainable water policies will continue long after this drought ends.”