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International Scholars Will Gather to Discuss Great Rivers

January, 2006 -- The third in a series of international conferences focusing on the world's great rivers is coming to LaCrosse, Wisconsin June 25-28. At the International Conference on Rivers and Civilizations, hosted and presented by the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, scholars from throughout the world will explore great rivers, their basins and the people who live in them.

Headlining the conference will be Pulitzer Prize-winner Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Mike Andrews, chief operations officer of The Nature Conservancy—a major sponsor of the conference, will be one of the conference's speakers, and the Conservancy's Great Rivers Center for Conservation and Learning will host a special session on the benefits people receive from the ecological services that rivers provide. Internationally renowned scholars speaking at the conference include Mark Cioc, David Dudgeon, Karlyn Eckman, Fekri Hassan, Robert Howarth, Meredith McKittrick, Donna Mergler, Christer Nilsson and Donald Worster.

The conference includes keynote, plenary and topical sessions; educational exhibits; art exhibits; and performances. Sessions topics include:

  • historical use and development of rivers;
  • rivers in literature and the arts;
  • socioeconomic impact and sustainability;
  • ecological restoration and management;
  • rivers in mythologies, religion and spirituality;
  • human influences on riverine ecosystems;
  • ecology of river basins;
  • contemporary water resource use; and
  • restoration of historical riverfronts.

To register, or get more information, visit rivers2006.org. 

 

  

The Mississippi River

The Mississippi River © The Nature Conservancy / Andrew Simpson

 

Quick Links

Explore the ways that the Conservancy's and its partners are working to protect the Mississippi River.

The conference will include presentatiosn from the Conservancy's Great Rivers Center for Conservation and Learning.

 

River otter

River otter, © The NatureConservancy / Andrew Simpson

 

Fast Fact

The two previous conferences were held at Dubna University, along the Volga River in Russia, and Assiut University, along the Nile River in Egypt .