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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

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Peter Stoett
PhD

Dean

Professor

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities

Global environmentalist and human rights advocate leads groundbreaking interdisciplinary research and programs at Ontario Tech University



  • Certificate - Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership Harvard University, USA 2015
  • PhD - International Relations; Comparative Politics of Developing Countries Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario 1994
  • MA - International Development; Canadian Government and Politics University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario 1990
  • BA (Honours) - Political Studies (Major), History (Minor) University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario 1988

Traditional Indigenous Knowledge, Earth Law, and Environmental Justice: Integrating Knowledge and Reconceptualising Law and Governance

Montréal, Québec May 24, 2017

57th Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Taskforce on Conceptual Foundations, Earth Systems Governance Representations of and Rights for the Environment Workgroup

Montréal, Québec April 13, 2017

Future Earth and UNESCO Partners

Responses to Transnational Environmental Crime

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia September 12, 2017

Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania

Governing the Plastic Plague

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia March 29, 2017

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania

People and Plastic: The Oceans Plastic Crisis, Global Governance, and Development Norms

Fordham University, New York City, New York June 18, 2016

2016 Annual Meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System

Marine Obligations Ergo Omnes: Reducing the Plastic Heritage of Humankind

The Hague Institute for Global Justice, The Hague, Netherlands April 1, 2016

Global Governance Reform Initiative: Oceans Governance Conference

Greening the Grey Zone: Global Wildlife Crime Enforcement and Sustainable Development

The Institute for Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands June 13, 2015

2015 Annual Meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System

Codifying Ecocide or Promoting Environmental Justice: Towards a More Effective Contribution from Global Governance

University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario June 2, 2015

2015 Annual Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association

A Mid-Range Theoretical Framework: The Internet in International Relations

Montréal, Québec July 20, 2014

International Political Science Association World Congress

Bioinvasion Policy Integration in North America and Europe

Madrid, Spain July 4, 2012

International Political Science Association World Congress

Towards Continental Environmental Policy? North American Transnational Networks and Governance

Published in SUNY series in Environmental Governance: Local-Regional-Global Interactions August 1, 2017
Peter Stoett & Owen Temby

What are the most important transnational governance arrangements for environmental policy in North America? Has their proliferation facilitated a transition towards integrated continental environmental policy, and if so, to what degree is this integration irreversible? These governance arrangements are diverse and evolving, consisting of binational and trinational organizations created decades ago by treaties and groups of stakeholders—with varying degrees of formalization—who work together to address issues that no single country can alone. Together they provide leadership in numerous areas of environmental concern, including invasive species, energy efficiency, water, and terrestrial and aquatic wildlife. This book explores these arrangements, examining features such as stakeholder inclusion, organizational activities and functions, and issue comprehensiveness.

View more - Towards Continental Environmental Policy? North American Transnational Networks and Governance

Antarctica and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity

Published in PLoS Biology March 28, 2017
Steven L. Chown , Cassandra M. Brooks, Aleks Terauds, Céline Le Bohec, Céline van Klaveren-Impagliazzo, Jason D. Whittington, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Bernard W. T. Coetzee, Ben Collen, Peter Convey, Kevin J. Gaston, Neil Gilbert, Mike Gill, Robert Höft, Sam Johnston, Mahlon C. Kennicutt II, Hannah J. Kriesell, Yvon Le Maho, Heather J. Lynch, Maria Palomares, Roser Puig-Marcó, Peter Stoett, Melodie A. McGeoch

The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, adopted under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity, provides the basis for taking effective action to curb biodiversity loss across the planet by 2020—an urgent imperative. Yet, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, which encompass 10% of the planet’s surface, are excluded from assessments of progress against the Strategic Plan. The situation is a lost opportunity for biodiversity conservation globally. We provide such an assessment. Our evidence suggests, surprisingly, that for a region so remote and apparently pristine as the Antarctic, the biodiversity outlook is similar to that for the rest of the planet. Promisingly, however, much scope for remedial action exists.

View more - Antarctica and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity

Global Environmental Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: Macrolevel Drivers and Policy Responses

Published in Examining the Role of Environmental Change on Emerging Infectious Diseases and Pandemics January 1, 2017
Catherine Machalaba, Cristina Romanelli & Peter Stoett

The prediction of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and the avoidance of their tremendous social and economic costs is contingent on the identification of their most likely drivers. It is argued that the drivers of global environmental change (and climate change as both a driver and an impact) are often the drivers of EIDs; and that the two overlap to such a strong degree that targeting these drivers is sound epidemiological policy. Several drivers overlap with the leading causes of biodiversity loss, providing opportunities for health and biodiversity sectors to generate synergies at local and global levels. This chapter provides a primer on EID ecology, reviews underlying drivers and mechanisms that facilitate pathogen spillover and spread, provides suggested policy and practice-based actions toward the prevention of EIDs in the context of environmental change, and identifies knowledge gaps for the purpose of further research.

View more - Global Environmental Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: Macrolevel Drivers and Policy Responses

Avoiding Catastrophes: Seeking Synergies Among the Public Health, Environmental Protection, and Human Security Sectors

Published in The Lancet Global Health October 1, 2016
Peter Stoett, Peter Daszak, Cristina Romanelli, Catherine Machalaba, Ronald Behringer, Frank Chalk, Stephen Cornish, Simon Dalby, Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Zaryab Iqbal, Tom Koch, Florian Krampe, Marieme Lo, Keith Martin, Kyle Matthews, Jason W Nickerson, James Orbinski, Andrew Price-Smith, Anne-Hélène Prieur-Richard, Adnan Raja, David M Secko, Adan Suazo & Ashok Swain

Global health catastrophes have complex origins, often rooted in social disruption, poverty, conflict, and environmental collapse. Avoiding them will require a new integrative analysis of the links between disease, armed conflict, and environmental degradation within a socioecological vulnerability and human security context. Exploring these connections was the aim of Avoiding Catastrophe: Linking Armed Conflict, Harm to Ecosystems, and Public Health, an expert workshop held in May 4–6, 2016, at Concordia University in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

View more - Avoiding Catastrophes: Seeking Synergies Among the Public Health, Environmental Protection, and Human Security Sectors

Citizen Participation in the UN Sustainable Development Goals Consultation Process: Toward Global Democratic Governance

Published in Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations October 1, 2016
Peter Stoett

In September 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda, a transformative plan of action for people, planet, and prosperity containing seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. To inform and animate the negotiations, the UN launched an ambitious series of consultations, involving inter alia governments, civil society, business, knowledge-based institutions, and citizens. This article contributes to the debate on democracy and global governance, drawing on democratic theory and the lessons of the elite donor-driven process that led to the Millennium Development Goals. It argues that, in the age of globalization, citizen participation is vital for the effectiveness and legitimacy of global governance. It then assesses the nature and extent of such participation in three UN 2030 Agenda consultation channels: the High-Level Panel, the national consultations, and the MY World citizen survey. The latter, in particular, exceeded the expectations of stakeholder democracy and ventured into a more direct participatory realm.

Climate Change and Health: Transcending Silos to Find Solutions

Published in Annals of Global Health May 1, 2015
Catherine Machalaba, Cristina Romanelli, Peter Stoett, Sarah E.Baum, Timothy A.Bouley, PeterDaszak & William B.Karesh

Climate change has myriad implications for the health of humans, our ecosystems, and the ecological processes that sustain them. Projections of rising greenhouse gas emissions suggest increasing direct and indirect burden of infectious and noninfectious disease, effects on food and water security, and other societal disruptions. As the effects of climate change cannot be isolated from social and ecological determinants of disease that will mitigate or exacerbate forecasted health outcomes, multidisciplinary collaboration is critically needed.

View more - Climate Change and Health: Transcending Silos to Find Solutions

Spreading the Guilt: Ethics, Security, and Canadian Climate Change Adaption Policies

Published in Unsettled Balance Ethics, Security, and Canada’s International Relations, UBC Press April 15, 2015
Peter Stoett

Since 9/11, the wars on terror, economic crises, climate change, and humanitarian emergencies have led decision makers to institute new measures to maintain security. Foreign policy analysts tend to view these decisions as being divorced from ethics, but Unsettled Balance shows that arguments about rights, obligations, norms, and values have played a profound role in Canadian foreign policy and international relations.

View more - Spreading the Guilt: Ethics, Security, and Canadian Climate Change Adaption Policies

Bilateral and Trilateral Natural Resource and Biodiversity Governance in North America: Organizations, Networks, and Inclusion

Published in Review of Policy Research January 8, 2015
Peter Stoett & Owen Temby

This special issue represents an assessment of international organizations and transboundary networks governing natural resource and biodiversity issues in and among Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The management of natural resources and protection of biodiversity is a highly technocratic process requiring collaboration and information sharing among a diversity of actors to facilitate the development and coordination of policy addressing complex and multisectoral issues. Numerous bilateral and trilateral organizations exist to ostensibly facilitate transboundary governance, yet the scholarly knowledge of their respective roles has many gaps. In this introductory article, we propose a typology of international environmental organizations based on two dimensions: (1) whether their activities center primarily on capacity building or regulation, and (2) the extent to which they exemplify the “bureaucratic” or “post-bureaucratic” model of governance. Using this typology we provide an overview of the special issue's contributions in terms of their assessment of North American bilateral and trilateral environmental organizations and transboundary networks.

View more - Bilateral and Trilateral Natural Resource and Biodiversity Governance in North America: Organizations, Networks, and Inclusion

Surviving Ideological Fixation: Ecology, Justice, and Canadian Foreign Policy Under Harper

Published in Canadian Foreign Policy May 1, 2014
Peter Stoett

The first decade and a half of the 21st century has not been kind to Canada's reputation in the realm of international relations. This is the result of policy decisions that have alienated the country, as exemplified by the country's policy-making in two domains in which Canada had previously earned respect as a global leader hitting above its weight: international environmental protection and international justice. In this commentary, we argue that Canada's foreign policy in these two areas derive from a common reactive and dogmatic policy-making which is, despite its name, actually aimed at appeasing domestic audiences.

View more - Surviving Ideological Fixation: Ecology, Justice, and Canadian Foreign Policy Under Harper

The Politics of Extinction

Published in Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Extinction, New York, Cengage Learning January 1, 2013
Bernhard Grzimek, Norman MacLeod, J David Archibald & Phillip S Levin

Based on the acclaimed print series, Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., this new supplement covers extinct life. Written for students and general researchers, this supplement explores all aspects of extinctions and extinct life. Approximately 80 articles outline major extinctions and related scientific areas. Entries are written by nationally renowned subject specialists and peer-reviewed by the editor-in-chief and an editorial board of academic experts specializing in zoology, paleontology, and environmental science.

View more - The Politics of Extinction

Global Contributor for GEO-6

Government of Canada January 1, 2015

Nominated by the Government of Canada to contribute to the United Nations Environment Programme's flagship publication Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-6), Dr. Stoett is a Global Contributor in Governance, Outlooks and Policy sections as well as Regional Contributor/Lead Author in the Regional Assessment for North America. He is also the Co-ordinating Lead Author on the Biodiversity section for the Global Report due in 2018.

Taskforce Leader

Conceptual Foundations, Earth System Governance Platform February 1, 2016

Dr. Stoett serves as a Co-convener of the Earth Systems Governance Representations of and Rights for the Environment Workgroup.

Alumni Council Member

Fullbright and U.S. State Department International Visitor's Program January 1, 2013

Appointed to the Alumni Council of the Fulbright and U.S. State Department International Visitor’s Program of United States Consulate in Montréal.

Distance Mentor

University of Sussex, Brighton January 1, 2012

Funded by the university's Institute of Development Studies, Dr. Stoett provides mentorship for Support to Improve Climate Research and Information Systems in South Asia.

Working Group Member

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) January 1, 2012

Dr. Stoett has been appointed to the Working Group on Invasive Alien Species Indicators, Biodiversity Indicators Partnership with the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Sustainable Cities Advisory Committee Member

McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy January 1, 2009

Dr. Stoett was appointed to the Sustainable Cities Advisory Committee of McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University, Montréal.

Editorial Board Member

Islamabad Law Review

Dr. Stoett is an Editorial Board Member for Review of Policy Research: the Politics and Policy of Science and Technology; International Wildlife Law and Policy; Islamabad Law Review (International Islamic University, Pakistan).

Botanic Gardens as Actors in Global Environmental Governance

SSHRC Insight Grant January 1, 2016

This four-year research project focuses on the role of botanic gardens in communities around the world. The research will explore how botanic gardens are interacting with each other, assess their scientific potential and output, as well as whether they can be used as agents of change.

Canadian Association of the Club of Rome

Pugwash Canada Group

Commission on Education and Communication, International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Alumni Council of the Fulbright and U.S. State Department International Visitor’s Program, United States Consulate in Montréal

Sustainable Cities Advisory Committee, McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University

Scientific Council, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention Centre, Faculty of Law, University in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina