1. Society’s activities, services and tools

1.1 Conferences

ESEH will organise the Sixth European conference in Environmental History to be held in Turku in July 2011. The Board will prepare the Ordinary General Meeting and the Council of Regional representatives which will be held at this occasion. It will also send a call for the organisation of the 2013 and 2015 conferences and make a decision on future venues.

1.2 Prizes

The board will continue to sponsor the ESEH article Prize. The Board will help to find a name for  the new Book Prize sponsored by the Rachel Carson Center, it will announce the prize and it will be involved in the selection of the prize winner.

1.3 Website

The Board and the Website Committee will improve the general architecture of the ESEH website . This new website will provide more service features for ESEH members and will be more interactive. We hope to launch it in the spring of 2010.

1.4 Bibliography

ESEH bibliography in environmental history has been dormant for around five years. The Board and the Bibliography committee will explore the continuation of the project as well as alternatives to a traditional bibliography.  

1.5 Book series

The publication committee will launch a book series titled International Environmental History, in cooperation with the Rachel Carson Center and Berghahn Books New York/ Oxford.

1.6 Summer School

The Board and the Summer School Committee will make sure that the decision to create a Summer School, featured in the new constitution adopted in Copenhagen, will be implemented. Versailles (2010) and Budapest (2011) are going to be the sites in the next two years. The 2012 Summer School will be co-sponsored by the Rachel Carson Center and should be held in Southern Europe.

2. ESEH coverage, communication and partnerships

2.1 Regional Representatives

The ESEH needs to develop and improve its visibility. In order to reach this goal, the Board will foster the appointment of new Regional Representatives in areas that are still not represented in the Council of Regional Representatives.

2.2 Communication and Fundraising

The Board the Communication Committee will strive to find new partners and acquire new funding for its various projects. Finding institutional members is seen as one of the solutions to this challenge.

2.3 Relationships with Journals

New valuable online or paper journals interested in environmental history have appeared on the “scholarly market”. The Executive will support a friendly collaboration with them and inform ESEH members of their content on the appropriate webpage. At the same time, it will maintain and tighten its historical bonds with Environment and History, the British journal which publishes its “Notepad” and offers ESEH members a free access online to its current year issues. For the sake of clarity, and following a requirement from this journal, ESEH will set up a written agreement with this journal, defining the nature of their links. This agreement will include the nomination of an ESEH representative in the journal editorial committee.

2.4. Service to the teaching community

In order to improve the quality of teaching, and in order to further the exchange between lecturers in environmental history across Europe, the ESEH will develop a plan for the exchange of syllabi among ESEH members.  

2.5 ESEH expertise

In order to make the expertise of ESEH members available to decision-makers and a broader public, the Board will continue to promote ESEH as an expert group within international institutions and political bodies such as the EU Ministerial Conference, the European Landscape Convention, and any other agency that would be deemed appropriate.