Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health

NESH

About us

 NESH Pioneers

James Kay

James Kay (1954 - 2004), a professor at the University of Waterloo and a world leader in research into the thermodynamics of ecosystems, was among the scholars exploring links between theory and practice. James was our colleague, mentor and friend. His website (archived) provides one of the best-known resources on complex systems theory and thermodynamics available on the internet.

A profile of James' life and work with NESH was published in EcoHealth in 2004, Waltner-Toews et al., 2004. Championing Ecosystem Sustainability and Health: Profile and Tribute to the Life and Work of James Kay (1954 - 2004). EcoHealth 1, 334-339.

Thomas Gitau

Thomas Gitau (1967 - 2005), 38, of Nairobi Kenya, residing in State College, PA, USA, passed away on March 8th 2005 at his home after a long battle with Leukemia bravely borne.

A veterinarian by profession, Thomas taught in the Department of Public Health at the University of Nairobi since 1994. He was first diagnosed with Leukemia in April 1999; however, this did not dampen his positive and outgoing spirit. He received his PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics in 2004. Thomas was also a consultant for the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi since 2002.

Thomas is survived by his wife Margaret and their son, Robert, of State College. His family and friends experienced him as a very loving and kind man, always willing to help. Thomas died a faith filled man, at peace with his Lord.

He passed away before he was able to publish peer-reviewed material from his doctoral thesis. His thesis, however, provides a wealth of information on the ecosystem approach to health in the Kenyan context. NESH hopes interested practitioners and scholars will help to disseminate his work in our field.

His complete doctoral thesis is: Gitau, Thomas. An Integrated Assessment of Health and Sustainability of a Tropical Highland Agroecosystem. PhD Thesis, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Public Health Pharmacology and Toxicology. University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya. 

History

In the mid 1990s, James Kay, former Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo, David Waltner-Toews, Professor, Population Medicine, OVC, University of Guelph and David Cressman, an agronomist and president of the consulting firm Ecologistics, sat down to design a response to the problem of organizational mismatch between the challenges posed by sustainability and the kinds of intellectual and practical work needed to address them. Discussions were held with International Development Research Centre (IDRC) about linking the projects in a newly emerging Ecosystem Approaches to Health program, as well as with other researchers and practitioners. A new network of knowledge and practice was envisioned that would bring together cutting-edge theoretical research into complex eco-social systems, with the most immediate and urgent management and development issues in health, agriculture and environment.

The founders decided that it had to be a network, where knowledge was shared across physical, intellectual and organizational boundaries, rather than an institute, with its implications of a center from which knowledge would flow. In particular, the network was seen as a way to link and promote a community of research and practice in ecosystem approaches to sustainable development. In this way, it was imagined that the people involved in projects in Kenya, Nepal, Peru, Canada and elsewhere could share their knowledge, pose questions, disseminate results and develop new projects.

To this end, with the organizational help of Michelle Boyle, currently at the University of British Columbia, the non-profit organization, the Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health was established. (Find out more about Who We Are). Our members are from all over the world.

NESH exists "to foster a global vision of sustainable, equitable and enjoyable development while maintaining the health and integrity of ecosystems at the local level." NESH does this by promoting collaborations, providing educational opportunities, providing peer review, and disseminating the relevant findings of network members both electronically and through traditional publications, meetings and short courses.

Building on his ground-breaking work on thermodynamics, complexity and ecology, James Kay saw NESH as an unprecedented opportunity to stimulate the development of complex systems theory and, more urgently, its applications to the challenges of fostering local and global sustainable development.

Within the past few years, NESH has developed partnerships and collaborations with several other networks and organizations, including the International Support Group, EcoHealth Network, Conservation International, the Ecosystems, Climate Change and Health Omnibus Project, and more recently the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities. We have mounted short courses in different countries, and a new book, based on our work, has been published by Cambridge University Press with the NESH imprint (Waltner-Toews, 2004a).