Echoing the call for better interchange between scientists and policy makers made in the draft agenda for the upcoming Rio+20 conference, a UN report published last week stresses that a strong scientific basis is critical in political decisions, particularly in relation sustainable development.

The report, entitled ‘Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing’, reiterates the importance of science throughout its 56 recommendations and identifies a ‘pressing need’ for better integration between science and policy at all levels. Some recommendations for steps to be taken towards achieving this are made, including the creation of a UN-level science advisory board.

A focus on ongoing scientific research in order to properly define terms such as ‘environmental thresholds’ and ‘tipping points’ is recognised as necessary to allow concrete and effective policy to be made. The panel also recommends that a ‘global sustainable development outlook report’ should be produced, drawing together disparate knowledge on a range of issues including climate change, energy, agriculture, health and development. It is envisaged that this would prompt officials from a diverse range of international organisations to work together, as well as with scientific advisors and governments, to decide a holistic approach to pursuing sustainable development.

The Stakeholder Forum, a civil society pressure group actively engaged in the run-up to Rio+20, has welcomed the report and suggested the although it is ‘meant to be used beyond Rio+20, it should be read as a blueprint of what could be achieved in Rio and as a wake-up call for action’.

SAC & SEPA BIENNIAL CONFERENCE (in association with Forest Research, the James Hutton Institute and Scottish Natural Heritage)
3-4 April 2012, Edinburgh
Integrated management of our agricultural and forestry landscapes is essential to the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. However, current understanding of the linkages between different ecosystems and the services they provide is incomplete. The management implemented therefore needs to be flexible to adapt to these uncertainties. The need for implementation at the landscape scale also means integrating management practices across different land-managers.

This conference will seek to present not only the best possible scientific understanding of the complexities associated with the delivery of multiple ecosystem services but also provide a forum to raise and discuss what still needs to be done to have an ecosystem approach recognised and supported by land managers, researchers and policy makers. The conference will be relevant to members of all three of these target audiences.

A range of platform presentations will be made under the four conference themes:
1. How are the linkages between ecosystems and the services they provide currently understood, viewed and valued?

2. What does the delivery of multiple ecosystem services mean at a practical level in terms of management and scale of implementation?

3. How does the governance of landscape-scale management affect the delivery of multiple ecosystem services?

4. How does our thinking, management practices and policies need to adapt?

The keynotes for each of the four themes will be given by Jonathan Pryce from the Scottish Government (Theme 1), Brian Chambers from ADAS (Theme 2), Heidi Wittmer from Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Theme 3) and Tom Crompton from WWF (Theme 4).

Venue, Costs and Accommodation

The Conference will take place in the John McIntyre Conference Centre of the University of Edinburgh on 3-4 April 2012. Details of Costs and Accommodation can be found at www.sac.ac.uk/sacsepaconf.

A conference at the University of Leicester in April next year will set out to explore this question, examining the importance of birds in the functioning of ecosystems.

It will also explore the cultural services that birds provide and consider how Government and non-Governmental organisations are engaging with this new approach in policy. Debating the philosophical and practical problems surrounding the ecosystem services approach will be a key feature of the conference, as well as finding new opportunities for bird conservation. It will cover the following topics:
• The provisioning, regulating and supporting ecosystem services provided by birds, avian functional ecology and relationships between bird diversity and ecosystem functioning;
• The cultural significance of birds and how this is valued;
• How Governments, policymakers and conservation organisations around the world are responding to and implementing the ecosystem services approach;
• Management strategies, tradeoffs and the consequences for traditional species based and practical
management.

The conference scope will be international, with a focus on how to integrate ecosystem service science with practical bird conservation into policy. It is aimed at academics, research and conservationorganisations as well as statutory government agencies and those engaged in policy, advocacy and conservation management.

Further information and details on how to register.

Registration is now open for this two day conference in April 2012, organised by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The programme and a word version of the booking form is attached. Further details are available on the conference website (http://www.sac.ac.uk/sacsepaconf) including a brief overview of each of the four Keynote Speakers.

The Cambridge Conservation Forum’s (CCF) Annual Symposium will take place on January 5th 2012 in Cambridge.
Tickets are on sale now.

There will be a broad range of speakers at this event, covering international items -‘Rio+ 20 – why is it important for biodiversity conservation’ to on the ground and local projects for example, ‘Nature Improvement Areas’ and ‘The work of Tiger Protection and Conservation Unit in Sumatra’.

Find out more at www.cambridgeconservationforum.org.uk.

A day-long opportunity, on 16th November 2011, to take part in activities coordinated by researchers in the Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme: contribute to the planning of the rural/urban fringe, tell us what the uplands mean to you, measure environmental inequalities in the countryside, test your knowledge of risks in the food chain and more…

This conference will provide an opportunity to:

– Debate major questions about the future of the UK countryside
– Learn about innovation in science, methodology and practice from the Relu programme
– Participate in real-life science

Info at http://www.relu.ac.uk/conference/index.htm

Today is the first day of a plenary meeting to discuss and decide upon the formation of the Integovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), convened by the UN Environment Programme. Representatives from the United Nations, and observers from NGOs and other bodies, have assembled in Nairobi, Kenya, to consider how IPBES will operate and, amongst other decisions, determine where the IPBES secretariat will be located.

On the eve of the meeting, Prof. Bob Watson, Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser, gave an interview to the Independent newspaper, in which he outlined his hopes for IPBES. Prof. Watson suggested that the only way in which IPBES can function effectively will be if developing nations have ownership over any in-country ecosystem assessments which are conducted, and if these are conducted by scientists from that nation – similar to the UK National Ecosystem Assessment. “If they think that this is just the white world, the developed world, telling them what to do, that’ll be the end of it.”

The BES, together with the UK Biodiversity Research Advisory Group (UK BRAG) organised a session at the BES Annual Meeting in Sheffield last month which introduced the IPBES to the assembled ecologists. Dr Andrew Stott, Defra’s representative to IPBES from the civil service, outlined the role of IPBES, as agreed at a meeting in Busan, South Korea, in 2010. A copy of Dr Stott’s presentation is available from the BES website.

As outlined by Dr Stott, IPBES will:

- Generate new knowledge: identifying information needed for policy; catalysing research and surveying
- Conduct regular and timely assessments: at global, regional and sub-regional scales; and on thematic and ‘new topics identified by science’.
- Provide support for policy formulation, through promoting access to policy-relevant tools and methods;
- Have a capacity building function: identifying needs; supporting the highest priority needs; catalysing funding.

IPBES is intended as an ‘IPCC for biodiversity’; a credible, scientifically independent body which is policy relevant but not policy prescriptive (similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

At the plenary meeting over the next few days decisions will be made about how the IPBES is structured; whether, for example, a scientific advisory group is formed which can advise the Plenary – the IPBES decision-making body- on scientific and technical aspects of the work programme and which can approve specific scientific procedures related to how ecosystem assessments are conducted. A further meeting in Nairobi, in March/ April 2012, will see delegates decide on further aspects of how the IPBES will work, including its work programme.

As IPBES develops, there are likely to be opportunities for ecologists and others to get involved with the conduct of assessments and with capacity building, although questions remain about how to incentivise scientists to take part in these activities (for example, through university reward structures such as the Research Excellence Framework). Ecologists and others in the UK who would like to find out more about IPBES and who would like to remain fully engaged with the development of the Platform, can join the UK Stakeholder Group, maintained by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

Booking is now open for the IEEM Annual Conference, which will take place from 2 – 3 November 2011, in Liverpool. The theme of the meeting is ‘rebuilding biodiversity’ and sessions will cover the strategic and practical approaches to conserving and rebuilding biodiversity in the UK.

The conference will paint the ‘European picture’; examine current biodiversity conservation tools available (including biodiversity offsetting); consider the evidence base for priority actions (biodiversity auditing as well as recent climate change research); and feature practical case studies (small and large scale) in the terrestrial and aquatic sectors.

This conference will appeal to all ecologists and environmental managers working in either the public or private sector.

To view the full conference programme, get further details and to book your place, please visit the conference website.

26-29 March 2012

Abstract submission is now open for this major international science conference focusing on solutions to the global sustainability challenge.

This is an open call for participants and for abstracts for presentations and posters to be submitted against the session topics described on the conference website under the following outline:

-Day 1: State of the planet: the latest knowledge about the pressures on the planet

-Day 2: Options and opportunities: exchanging knowledge about ways of reducing the pressures on the planet, promoting transformative changes for a sustainable future and adapting to changes in the global system

-Day 3: Challenges to progress: clarifying what is preventing or slowing humanity from implementing potential solutions

-Day 4: Ways ahead: a vision for 2050 and beyond, and exploring new partnerships and pathways towards global sustainability

Each day will include relevant aspects of the conference themes:

- A. Meeting global needs: food, energy, water and other ecosystem services
- B. Transforming our way of living: development pathways under global environmental change
- C. Governing across scales: innovative stewardship of the Earth system

The closing date for abstract submission is 19 August 2011.
Please note, additional sessions will be advertised over the next few weeks.

Developing World Involvement

A mentoring scheme is available for those who would like guidance in preparing abstracts and developing presentations for the conference. The conference organisers are also aiming to offer financial assistance to participants from the developing world.

Why you should attend

The conference will provide a comprehensive update of the pressure planet Earth is now under. The conference will discuss solutions at all scales to move societies on to a sustainable pathway and will provide scientific leadership towards the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development – Rio+20.

The programme is designed to attract senior policymakers, industry leaders, NGOs, young scientists, the media, health specialists, and academics from many disciplines.

For further information on submitting an abstract, conference themes and sessions, mentoring and funding visit: www.planetunderpressure2012.net.

[From the NERC Knowledge Exchange List Server]

Last night the BES Policy Manager attended a lecture at the Geological Society, delivered by Nobel Laureate Prof. Paul Crutzen. Professor Krutzen’s lecture marked the end of a day-long conference on ‘The Anthropocene: A New Epoch of Geological Time?’ Prof. Krutzen explored the concept of the anthropocene – a term which he originated to describe the current period of history in which mankind is the predominant influence on the climate system – through a wide-ranging talk which also touched on his research interests and a potential solution to global warming through geoengineering.

Introducing Prof. Crutzen, Dr Bryan Lovell, President of the Geological Society, praised both his scientific genuis and his contribution to public affairs. Prof. Krutzen won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1995 for his work on the hole in the ozone layer. By characterising the period of time since the 18th Century as the ‘anthropocene’ he has highlighted man’s impact on the environment and climate to policy-makers.

In recent years Prof. Crutzen has advocated releasing particles of sulphur into the atmosphere, which could reflect sunlight and thereby cool the earth, if global warming results in temperatures increasing by more than 2 degrees centigrade over time. There are real issues with this approach which would need to be resolved before it could be considered however, including unforeseen effects. One point made by a questioner from the audience was also very pertinent; it is not clear how governments, which have found it incredibly hard to tackle a problem which is well understood – the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – will be able to agree about enacting a solution that they understand even less well. The release of sulphur particles to promote global cooling would also do nothing to tackle ocean acidification, caused by increasing levels of carbon dioxide dissolving in sea water.

As Professor Crutzen’s talk made clear, mankind’s activities are impacting on both the biotic and abiotic components of the natural world; from species, to the availability of nutrients such as phosphorus, necessary for the growth of vegetation, to the rate of erosion of sedimentary rocks. The premise of the anthropocene is that man has created a new geological period, in which we are affecting the environment around us, have the power to do so deliberately, and therefore necessarily the power to address and reduce our impacts.

Further details of the event at the Geological Society can be found here.