The Surui Case: Indigenous Peoples and Carbon

The Surui Tribe, Forest Trends, the State of Acre, and other partners invite you to a unique opportunity to discuss the complex array of ingredients for successful indigenous-led REDD+ projects.

The Paiter Surui tribe, under the leadership of Chief Almir Surui, with technical support from Forest Trends and other partners, has been working for over 5 years to protect their territory in the Amazon Basin from illegal logging and mining threats. This initiative has recently become the first-ever indigenous-led REDD project to be validated by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Project Design Gold Standard (CCB Standard). The validation is pathbreaking news for the project, ‘REDD for Conservation of Amazon Rainforest in the Surui Indigenous Territory, Brazil’ and the progress of REDD worldwide.

We hope you can join us in celebrating this important development at 3pm on May 15 at The Moore Foundation, Palo Alto, CA! Please click the link below to RSVP.

Register Here!

Tuesday May 15, 2012 from 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM PDT

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

1661 Page Mill Road

Palo Alto, CA 94304

Event agenda and speaker profiles will be circulated shortly. For more information, please contact Tommie Herbert, [email protected] +1.202.446.1985 or Christine Lanser, [email protected]+1.202.446.1980.

Confirmed speakers:

Chief Almir Surui, leader of the Paiter Surui People;

Monica de Los Rios, Institute of Climate Change , Government of Acre;

Ludovino Lopes, Legal Advisor, Surui project and Co-Author, SISA framework; and

Rodrigo Sales, Lead author of the legal analysis on the Surui’s carbon ownership rights.

Partners:

Forest Trends

Metareilí¡ Association of the Surui People

Idesam

Ludovino Lopes Lawyers

& Associates

Rodrigo Sales & Associates

Google

FUNBIO

Ecodecisií³n

Kanindé

Acre State Government

IPAM

ECAM

Sponsors:

USAID

Translinks

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

The Packard Foundation

The Skoll Foundation

GEF

Norad

Overbrook Foundation

Citi

The Surui Case: Indigenous Peoples and Carbon

The Surui Tribe, Forest Trends, the State of Acre, and other partners invite you to a unique opportunity to discuss the complex array of ingredients for successful indigenous-led REDD+ projects.

We hope you can join us in celebrating this important development at 4pm on May 14 at the Aspen Institute, Washington, DC! Please click the link below to RSVP.

Monday May 14, 2012 from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT

Aspen Institute

1 Dupont Cir NW # 700

Washington, DC 20036

Confirmed speakers:

Chief Almir Surui, leader of the Paiter Surui People;

Monica de Los Rios, Institute of Climate Change , Government of Acre;

Ludovino Lopes, Legal Advisor, Surui project and Co-Author, SISA framework; and

Rodrigo Sales, Lead author of the legal analysis on the Surui’s carbon ownership rights.

IWA World Conference on Water, Climate, and Energy

Water and energy are critical for our current society and will be of increasing importance in the future. Climate change is forcing us to reassess our energy usage and will have real and substantial impacts on the water cycle. Solving the interlinked challenges of water, climate and energy in a sustainable manner is one of the fundamental goals of this generation. Following on from conferences on Climate Change Adaptation and Water and Energy, the International Water Association is proud to announce the inaugural World Congress on Water, Climate and Energy in 2012.

The Congress will explore the topics of resilient and sustainable cities with a focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation. The challenges of climate change adaptation and incorporating uncertainty into the city vision and infrastructure will be discussed together with the impacts and responses of climate change on water resources. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, operating in a carbon constrained world and a focus on renewable energy including practical applications and integration in to the energy mix will be covered.

Solutions to these challenges, including the role of technologies and smart networks will also be a central theme. Recognising that technology is only part of the solution the conference will also address the economic, political and regulatory aspects of water, climate and energy.

The congress will attract up to 2,000 international participants for this global event and will feature a large industry presence and trade exhibition.

More information here.

Water Rights and Trading Regional Summits 2012

Water rights trading and water resource development are emerging markets that are creating abundant business opportunities. However, these new markets are not always easily understood. WestWater Research and American Water Intelligence are coming together to provide information and direction to water trading and development opportunities through a series of thought-provoking, regional conferences.

These events will be the premier forum for leaders from Wall Street to the water sector to provide valuable insight on:

Investing and financing water development projects in the US
Are water rights a good investment?
Pricing, trading and other market fundamentals
Legal and regulatory risk management in water deals
Native American water rights in an era of water marketing
Environmental water markets and mitigating water development
Making business sense of the water development sector

Water is a critical component of our economic future, and the western US has many issues relating to water supply, development and management projects, environmental regulations, and expanding populations. All of these issues also offer political and financial challenges, as well as investment opportunities.

More information here.

Planet Under Pressure

Key Aims

The key aims of the conference include:

2500 participants combining global-change science and policy, business and development communities
Scientific leadership towards the 2012 UN Rio +20 conference
Building trans-disciplinary research communities
Identifying opportunities for enhanced partnerships between global change science and policy, industry and the public
A new vision for international research

Building on a comprehensive update of knowledge of the Earth system and the pressure it is under, the Planet Under Pressure conference will present and debate new insights into potential opportunities and constraints for innovative development pathways based on novel partnerships.

See more details here

Planet Under Pressure

Key Aims

The key aims of the conference include:

2500 participants combining global-change science and policy, business and development communities
Scientific leadership towards the 2012 UN Rio +20 conference
Building trans-disciplinary research communities
Identifying opportunities for enhanced partnerships between global change science and policy, industry and the public
A new vision for international research

See more details here

IPMPCC Cairns 2012 – Climate Change Mitigation Background

Noting that Indigenous peoples and marginalized populations will be prominent in several of the chapters of the AR5, IPPC Working Group II and UNU in July 2010 agreed to co-organize a workshop to redress the shortfall of available information on Indigenous and marginalized peoples and their climate change adaptation. This first workshop focused on adaptation and vulnerabilities, and was held in collaboration with Working Group II co-chairs (Vicente Barros and Chris Field), lead authors and the technical support unit of WGII, in Mexico City from 19-21 July 2011.

This second workshop addresses issues relevant to Working Group III, and will bring together lead authors for the AR5, Indigenous peoples and representatives of local communities, and developing country scientists. The workshop will allow for more in-depth focus on the topics and regions for which WGIII is seeking input. An international panel of experts including climate scientists and Indigenousexperts will oversee the workshop.

Click here for more information

Beyond Carbon: Ensuring Justice and Equity in REDD+ Across Levels of Governance

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has rapidly become a key pillar of international cooperation on climate change. Since its inception in 2005, REDD+ has grown in scope from being a cheap mitigation option and opportunity to address the 15-20% of global GHG emissions attributed to deforestation into a wider set of activities that reach beyond the carbon dimension of REDD+. They promote forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests and forest conservation as well as deliver co-benefits such as biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. A host of state and non-state actors at all levels of governance have entered this emerging policy field.
This conference takes stock of these developments to date. It addresses them from both natural and social science perspectives and discusses the role of justice and equity in current debates on REDD+. Its particular aim is to discuss the limits and opportunities in deriving co-benefits from REDD+ activities.

Call for Papers

Abstracts are invited for the following four themes:
Ecological dimensions of justice and equity in REDD+
Socio-political dimensions of justice and equity in REDD+
Role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in REDD+
How can REDD+ deliver more than carbon benefits?

Please submit an abstract of up to 400 words for oral presentations, specifying one of the themes above, at http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/redd/index.php. The deadline is noon GMT, 4 January 2012. Decisions will be sent by 9 January 2012. Full papers should be uploaded by 19 March 2012. Revised papers submitted to [email protected] by 15 April 2012 will be considered for submission to a special issue in a high-impact academic journal.

For questions please email Maria Mansfield ([email protected]).

Provisional Agenda

DAY 1

8:00-9:00 Registration and coffee/light breakfast
9:00-9:15 Introduction to the Conference
9:15-10:15 Plenary Session: Framing the Problem of Deforestation
Keynote: From Natural Science to Social Policy
Keynote: What is REDD+ and who is framing the discourse?
10:15-10:30 Q&A
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:00 Panel discussion: Justice and Equity in REDD+
12:00-12:30 Q&A
12:30-2:00 Lunch
2:00-3:30 Parallel sessions: Ecological dimensions of justice and equity in REDD+
(Speakers selected from call for papers)
3:30-4:00 Coffee break
4:00-5:30 Parallel sessions: Socio-political dimensions of justice and equity in REDD+
(Speakers selected from call for papers)
7:00 Conference Dinner (Exeter College)

DAY 2

8:45-9:15 Coffee/light breakfast
9:15-10:15 Plenary Session: Novel Approaches
Keynote: Role of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in REDD+
Keynote: How can REDD+ deliver more than carbon benefits?
10:15-10:30 Q&A
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Parallel sessions: Role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in REDD+
(Speakers selected from call for papers)
12:30-2:00 Lunch
2:00-3:30 Parallel sessions: How can REDD+ deliver more than carbon benefits?
(Speakers selected from call for papers)
3:30-4:00 Coffee break
4:00-5:30 Closing Plenary: Taking stock and next steps
Report from each plenary and conference highlight sound bytes

Forest Day 5

Forest Day, now moving into its fifth year, has become one of the most intensive and influential annual global events on forests. At its heart, it is a platform for anyone with an interest in forests and climate change to meet once a year to ensure that forests remain high on the agenda of global and national climate strategies, and that those strategies are informed by the most up-to-date knowledge and experience. Forest Day presents an opportunity for stakeholders from different backgrounds and regions to network, share their experiences and debate the pressing issues facing forests around the world.

“For some countries, Forest Day provides a rare chance to interact internationally, exchange knowledge and lessons learned on forests and climate change,” said Felician Kilahama, director of the forest division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania.

Each Forest Day, which takes place annually on the sidelines of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, is designed to inform and engage world leaders, researchers, donors, policymakers, climate change negotiators, media, nongovernmental and intergovernmental organisations, indigenous peoples’ groups and other forest-dependent people.

Webinar – Social and Biodiversity Impact Assessment (SBIA) Manual for REDD+

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/143604849.

The following panelists will explain the elements of the manual and how it can be used to assist REDD+ projects to undertake credible and cost-effective impact analysis, particularly projects using the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards:

Joanna Durbin – CCBA
Michael Richards – Forest Trends
Steve Panfil – Conservation International Jeffrey Hayward – Rainforest Alliance Jane Dunlop – Fauna & Flora International

The Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, used to assess multiple benefits of the majority of forest carbon projects, provide robust standards; however, until now there has been limited guidance on how to undertake credible and cost-effective impact assessment. Forest Trends, the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and Rainforest Alliance have developed a user-friendly manual that enables land-based carbon project proponents to undertake cost-effective social and biodiversity impact assessment (SBIA). The SBIA Manual is oriented to the CCB Standards, but the approach described is applicable to other multiple benefit carbon standards, as well as to other types of payments for ecosystem services (PES) projects.

The Manual promotes a participatory approach that integrates project design and impact assessment through the development of a project theory of change. The benefits of this approach go far beyond the generation of credible monitoring plans and include: strategic project design necessary for achieving social and biodiversity objectives; effective participation of project stakeholders; promotion of adaptive project management; ease of understanding and of explanation of the results to a range of stakeholders.

Find out more by joining the webinar. To download the SBIA Manual please visit www.climate-standards.org or http://www.forest-trends

A Panel Discussion and Public Debate in London

For some the issue is how to reform the CDM by scaling up, reducing costs and improving governance. For others the CDM is flawed by design.

This public event will explore these debates, which go to the heart of a 3 year project on The Governance of Clean Development: CDM and Beyond led by Professor Peter Newell, which explores the politics and governance of clean development in the energy sector through the CDM and through other initiatives of a growing range of public and private actors.

The event brings together leading actors and specialists in the field to debate these issues based on some of the findings of the research.

Moderator

Simon Maxwell, Overseas Development Institute

Discussion Panel – Confirmed Speakers

Professor Michael Grubb, University of Cambridge

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth

Dr Emily Boyd, University of Reading

The event will begin with an introduction by Professor Peter Newell, University of Sussex.

Carbon Markets for the Poor:A Contradiction in Terms?

Moderator
Simon Maxwell, Overseas Development Institute
Discussion Panel – Confirmed Speakers
Professor Michael Grubb, University of Cambridge
Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth
Dr Emily Boyd, University of Reading

The event will begin with an introduction by Professor Peter Newell, University of Sussex.

The event will be of interest to policy practitioners, climate change professionals and those involved in carbon markets as
well as NGOs and academics. Drinks and a buffet will be provided.

To register to attend this free event or for more information, please contact Peter Quinn at [email protected] or tel: +44 (0)1603 592329.

Event proceedings will be made available shortly after the event at www.clean-development.com.

Ecosystem Services

Simply put, ecosystem services are the benefits that human beings receive from the ecosystems (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Some of these benefits are easily quantified and can be assessed in economic terms (e.g., timber, food), whereas other services are more difficult to define and quantify (e.g. soil formation, toxin filtering, nutrient cycling or recreational benefits). Around the world, scientists, philanthropists, governments and communities are grappling with how we can support human well-being while considering the needs of our planet. Too often progress is hampered by false dichotomies such as development versus conservation.

A recent report by the Bridgespan Group determined that while the still fledgling field of ecosystem services faces challenges, the momentum around the field continues to build and has tremendous potential to achieve substantial benefits to conservation and human well-being. Those working in the area come from disciplines as diverse as ecology, remote sensing, agricultural engineering, civil engineering, water resources, international development, economics, public policy, computational modeling, demography and public health. Jeffery Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute believes that “almost all environmental challenges, from greenhouse gas emissions to the depletion of groundwater resources, demand technological transformation” (p. 29, Nature, 2010).

Areas the conference might explore include

Linking Human and Environmental Needs

· How can the diversity, productivity and services of intact ecosystems be conserved, and degraded ecosystems be
restored, in ways compatible with efforts to improve the human condition?

· How do we develop a common understanding of the science needed to inform policy decision-making?

· How can we better structure and measure local and regional projects to build upon a collective body of scientific evidence that can be shared across disciplines?

· What approaches will best allow conservation projects to take advantage of the growing understanding of the link between landscape change and human health?

· How can we cohesively include conservation and human development and incorporate material and intangible benefits of ecosystems in economic development initiatives?

Measurement

· How do we create metrics that adequately capture the complexities of biological and socioeconomic change and examine the causal relationships responsible for the outcomes observed?

· What valuation, sensing, measuring, analyzing, modeling, and integrating tools are required to track the processes and impacts of conservation and development efforts across multiple ecosystems simultaneously?

· How do we better quantify ecosystem services to reduce the transactional costs of policies based on ecosystem services?

· How do we improve understanding of the feedback effects resulting from economic, health, social, and environmental change?

Agriculture and Aquaculture

· How do we measure and manage the environmental impact of food production?

· What research and other actions are necessary to make evidence-based decisions about diversified (multi-functional) farming systems?

· How do we most efficiently apply biotechnology and engineering approaches to address limited water supply?

· What tools are needed to create functional agriculture and aquaculture systems to reduce environmental stress, enhance human well being and enhance stability in the developing world?

Healthy Women, Healthy Planet

Featuring:
The Honorable Joy Phumaphi Former Minister of Health, Botswana Former Vice President of Human Development, The World Bank The Honorable

and
Mary Robinson President, Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice Former President, Ireland

WHEN/WHERE: Sunday, December 4 Noon – 2:00 pm Tropicana Hotel, 85 OR Tambo Parade Durban, South Africa

Women are instrumental in determining a family’s ability to survive the impacts of climate change. Access to reproductive health and family planning is an important part of strengthening women’s capacity as leaders in addressing climate change, yet in too many places around the world that access is limited. We look forward to your participation in a dynamic discussion of challenges and solutions with leading members of the Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health.

Please RSVP to [email protected] with name and affiliation. Organized by the Aspen Institute, Population Action International, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Environmental Change and Security Program

Call for papers: Enhancing forest related governance for development: Recent country experiences and what they teach us

In order to contribute to documenting and analysing the experiences and lessons generated through these initiatives, the European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN), together with Tropenbos International and GIZ, will publish a special issue of ETFRN News on ”Enhancing forest related governance for development: Recent country experiences and what they teach us”. The publication will focus on the incentives, drivers and enabling factors for states and the private sector to improve forest governance and on the approaches and processes taken to improve forest governance. The Newsletter is scheduled for publication in May 2012.

This publication may be an excellent opportunity to showcase your work and to contribute to the discussion on how to improve forest governance. We are therefore kindly inviting colleagues and organizations involved in the theme to contribute a short article (maximum 3,000 words) on their work and experiences.

If you are interested to contribute, please contact before 12 November Guido Broekhoven ([email protected]) with the topic and a short outline (app. 200 words) of your article. Based on the number and nature of the proposed articles, an editorial committee will select the ones that are most suitable for publication in this issue of ETFRN News. We will provide a short instruction and general guidance on the process to authors once you have been selected to write a full article.

See more information here

WRI-UNEP Launch: Building the Climate Change Regime

Entitled Building the Climate Change Regime: Survey and Analysis of Approaches, the paper shows that a menu of options is available for scaling up action on the part of national governments and designing a climate regime capable of delivering adequate mitigation action. The World Resources Institute (WRI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) cordially invite you to launch events in Dublin and Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. launch: World Resources Institute, 10 G St. NE, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20002

Monday October 24, 2011

1:00 pm —3:00 pm ET

PANELISTS:

· Amy Fraenkel, Regional Director, UNEP Regional Office for North America

· Noel Casserly, Climate Change Policy, Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, Government of Ireland

· Jennifer Morgan, Director, Climate and Energy Program, World Resources Institute

· Remi Moncel, Associate, Climate and Energy Program, World Resources Institute

· Other commentators invited

RSVP to: Kevin McCall at [email protected] by noon on Friday, October 21 2011.

Details to join the event remotely will be provided next week

Building the Climate Change Regime: Survey and Analysis of Approaches

Dublin launch: Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, Custom House, Dublin 1

Monday October 24, 2011

2:30 pm—4:00 pm GMT

PANELISTS:

· John McCarthy, Assistant Secretary General, Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government

· Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson, Office of the Executive Director, UNEP Nairobi

· Remi Moncel, Associate,Climate & Energy Programme, WRI

· Prof. John Sweeney, National University of Ireland, Maynooth

· Feargal Duff, Irish Doctors for the Environment & FEASTA

RSVP to: [email protected] by noon on Friday, October 21 2011

Eleventh RRI Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change:

The meeting will examine the current state of public and private financial mechanisms for REDD+ and adaptation and contribute to developing an updated vision for the optimal design and deployment of finance to reduce forest loss and degradation – while respecting the rights and development needs of local people. This meeting will take stock of lessons learned to date regarding the possibilities of a global forest carbon market, scope for individual projects, and the experiences with national and regional public funds. The debate will aim to better understand the potentials and limits of each approach and the conditions in which one approach is more appropriate than another. The meeting will contribute to more informed and decisive negotiations on finance during the UNFCCC COP17 in Durban.

Click here for more information

Asista al Encuentro de Negocios Forestales 2011

Participar en el Encuentro de Negocios la permitira:

Potenciar el proceso de venta
Comprar y/o vender direcatemente
Amplia la base de clientes y/o proveedores
Introducir nuevos productos
Posicionar la imagen de su empresa
Tomar ventaja ante su comptencia

Tenth RRI Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change :

The meeting will identify common approaches to dealing with the interconnected global challenges of responding to the food crisis, forest loss and degradation, the need to drive additional investment into agriculture, and adaptation to climate change. The meeting will bring more focused attention to the interconnection between forests, agriculture, the rights of producers and affected populations, and the growing global demand for agricultural land and products.

By bringing together the communities of practice that deal with different but interrelated issues, the Dialogue will consider issues such as agriculture as a driver in forest loss and degradation, the role forests play in providing food for the rural poor, as well as the implications of the global effort to meet the challenge of feeding nine billion people by 2050 without destroying the natural resources on which rural and forest dwellers rely for their livelihoods and food security.

We anticipate that the meeting will set out an agenda to influence policy dialogues in a variety of fora, including the Committee on Food Security in October, the UNFCCC COP 17 in December, the International Ecoagriculture Conference in 2012, the follow-up conference to the Hague Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change which will take place in Vietnam in 2012, and other forest, food and agriculture related initiatives.

Click here for more information

Forest Carbon Seminar:

Terra Global Capital is dedicated to community involvement in REDD project implementation. This presentation will discuss the importance of community participation in REDD measurements and monitoring. It will outline the benefits and challenges, and our experiences in community-based data collection and working with our local partners.

Forest-dependent communities are identified as some of the poorest in the world. The developing REDD market can create new opportunities for rural communities, but only if communities truly understand, monitor and manage their assets. This requires building technical capacity within the local implementing organizations and communities including expertise in GPS use, remote sensing interpretation, biomass sampling and species identification. By effectively involving local partners and communities, REDD projects can be created cost-effectively and empower community members to provide long-term alternative livelihoods.

Please join Terra Global Capital on Wednesday, August 17th at 1:00pm as our lead field forester, Erica Meta Smith, directs this session on Participatory Field Data Collection for REDD: Lessons from the Field.

University of California Building

1608 Rhode Island Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036

Refreshments will be served following the presentation.

Please RSVP to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> by Monday August 15th to reserve a seat.

Does REDD+ make international forestry more just?

You are invited to attend an evening public debate on the potential for REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) to make international forestry more just. This is the first event in a series of UEA London Debates on Environmental Justice and International Development organised by the Global Environmental Justice Group at the University of East Anglia.

REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) has the potential to make international forestry more just. Countries in the Global North are set to pay countries in the Global South for the conservation of forests, something that they have never done before. Yet REDD+ may also perpetuate or deepen forest people?Ts historical dispossession from their forests. As timber logging in the past, carbon forestry may work to the sole advantage of powerful state and industrial interests.

This public debate will bring the idea of global environmental justice to bear upon current debates about REDD+. It will bring together a variety of stakeholders in REDD+ to assess the justice implications of emergent REDD+ initiatives. The emphasis will be on highlighting how REDD+ has the potential to make international forestry more just in certain ways, but also poses serious dangers to make it more unjust in other ways.

Moderator: John Vidal, The Guardian

Panel: Kristy Graham, Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
Saskia Ozinga, FERN
Dr Charles Palmer, London School of Economics
Dr Yvan Biott, DFID (tbc)

The debate will open with an introduction by Dr Thomas Sikor, University of East Anglia (UEA).

Time/date: 6.00 ?” 8.00pm, Wednesday 20 July 2011 (refreshments will be provided)
Location: UEA London Study Centre, Middlesex Street, London E1 7EZ ?” view map
Booking: This event is free – please register by contacting [email protected]

Ecosystem services in urban areas seminar 2011

The environmental impacts of cities have led to a number of policy decisions, such as the inclusion of urban areas in the IPCC considerations of climate impacts or the recognition of the role of cities in national biodiversity protection strategies by the CBD COP 9 in 2008. The establishment of the European Green Capital award in 2006 provides an example of promoting good practice in the area of urban ecosystem services management.

Attempts have been made to highlight the value of urban ecosystem services, especially with reference to urban greenery, water and allotment gardens. Different perspectives on the value of urban ecosystem services have been revealed, including economic (benefits and savings), socio-ecological (resilience), psychological (well-being), cultural (e.g. inspiration), and philosophical or ethical. On the one hand, such a multitude of perspectives appeals to different groups of addressees. On the other hand, ultimately, it weakens the message delivered to decision makers who often only follow the narrowly understood economic reasoning. The objective of this seminar is to bring together the various perspectives on the value of urban ecosystem services and discuss the potential of merging and synthesizing these perspectives. Ultimately, this should lay foundations for a more sustainable management of ecosystem services in urban areas.

Objectives

To exchange information and ideas, based on the presentation of the cutting-edge research on the different perspectives on the value of ecosystem services in urban areas.
To discuss the potential joint research project with case studies in various European and non-European countries.
To prepare a special issue of an international journal, based on seminar contributions. Landscape and Urban Planning will be the first one approached with a proposal.
To support the Challenges of Sustainable Development international summer academy, the participants of which will be invited to take part in the seminar.

Conference topics

Value of ecosystem services in urban areas.
Social networks and ecosystem services in urban areas.
Institutional frameworks for the management of ecosystem services in urban areas.
Ecosystem services in urban areas as a source of inspiration.
Interdisciplinary approaches to studying ecosystem services in urban areas.

Benefits of attending

Getting an overview of the current research in the value of urban ecosystem services.
Publication in a special issue of an international journal.
Opportunity to initiate and take part in an international research project on the subject.

Participation fee

The seminar will be funded with grants managed by the Sendzimir Foundation. However, a fee of 50€ will be collected to cover some expenses for which grant money is not available. A limited number of fee waivers and accommodation subsidies will be available for participants in financial hardship. Fee deadline: 15 June 2011.

Fee includes: lunches, coffee and tea during brakes, extra activities (trip).

Fee does not include: accommodation, breakfasts. A list of suggested hotels will be provided at a later notice.

Email submission

Email (Jakub Kronenberg): [email protected]

Please submit your abstract with Ecosystem Services in Cities in the subject line. Include your name and contact details.

Deadlines

31 March 2011 abstract submissions (300 words)

15 June 2011 full paper submissions

Journal submission

Participants of the seminar will be invited to submit an expanded version of their paper for publication in a special issue of an international journal. Details of the journal will be provided at a later notice.

European Conference on Biodiversity and Climate Change – Science, Practice & Policy

Biodiversity loss and climate change are among the most pressing challenges
of our times, and are strongly interconnected. Not only will climate change
directly affect biodiversity but mitigation and adaptation measures taken by
society could also have significant effects, both positive and negative, on
biodiversity.

Conservation strategies will need to be adapted to cope with a changing
climate; there is a need to explore how this should be done, and share
experiences of putting adaptation principles into practice. There is also
growing awareness that addressing biodiversity loss and climate change in an
integrated manner can have a range of multiple benefits for society, including
synergies with sustainable development goals. However, considerable
uncertainties remain surrounding the two-way interactions of biodiversity and
climate change and good practice examples of ecosystem-based approaches
to mitigation and adaptation are still rare.

Against this background, the conference sets out to meet a growing demand
for sharing knowledge and experiences in the field of biodiversity and climate
change in Europe. Taking a transdisciplinary perspective, the aim of the
conference is to bring scientists, conservation practitioners and policymakers
together in order to improve both the integration of research outputs into
practical conservation projects, and the identification of further research
needs.

The Forest Carbon Partnership Facilty

See here for more details

UN-REDD ProgrammeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Sixth Policy Board meeting

See details and access working documents here

Resilience 2011

The aim of “Resilience, Innovation and Sustainability: Navigating the Complexities of Global Change” is to advance understanding of the relationships among resilience, vulnerability, innovation and sustainability. It will do so by bringing together scientists to share their work on the dynamics of interconnected social-ecological systems. Conference attendees will include people from the government, business, NGOs and academic sectors concerned with resource governance, and economic and social development . A key outcome of conference discussions will be the development and refinement of new ideas for meeting the challenge of global change.

The Context

Human societies are an integral part of the biosphere and, as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment suggests, are dependent on the capacity of the living environment to provide essential ecosystem services to sustain social development. At the same time, human activity has expanded to such a degree as to now constitute a global, interdependent society that shapes the biosphere at multiple temporal and spatial scales as reflected by climate change, vulnerability in global economic and financial systems and resource degradation across the globe. How can prosperous societal development paths be stimulated in light of these challenges?

Sustainability is a guiding principle in the search for such development paths. Resilience and innovation are important tools to successfully navigate them. Research on resilience – the capacity to deal with change and continue to develop – has evolved as we progressively understand the complexity of interconnected social and ecological systems. Increasingly, we realize that social and ecological systems exhibit strong non-linearities and are prone to dramatic changes. Innovation is a key element in our capacity to cope with these changes.

Interest in resilience, innovation and sustainability is growing rapidly in science and policy circles. New knowledge in these domains has major local-to-global implications for a range of issues including social and economic development and security. Research on actors, networks, multilevel institutions and organizations with the ability to respond to ecosystem feedbacks, sustain and enhance flows of ecosystem services is expanding. Knowledge integration that crosses boundaries between the natural and social sciences, between sciences and humanities and between culture groups will contribute significantly to improving policy to cope with global change. Resilience 2011 seeks to promote such knowledge integration and builds on the highly successful Resilience 2008 conference held in Stockholm last year, organized by the Stockholm Resilience Center. The School of Sustainability, the Global Institute of Sustainability and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at ASU have agreed to host Resilience 2011 on the ASU campus. We ask you to hold the date for this major international conference, at which we expect colleagues from a wide range of disciplines and all parts of the world.

Online Q&A: how can business address the biodiversity challenge?

For some time, biodiversity has been talked about as the next big sustainability issue. Dubbed the “new carbon”, and given it’s own international year of recognition by the UN in 2010 (now extended to a decade), its clear that this is one challenge that’s here to stay.

So if this is the case, how should business set out to address its impact on biodiversity? The TEEB report (The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity) says that the first step for business is to identify impacts and dependencies and then to begin to measure and report impacts, dependencies and responses. However, each of these steps presents it’s own significant challenges, meaning that knowing where to start can be extremely difficult.

To try to address some of the questions around how corporate sustainability professionals should approach biodiversity as a key business issue, we’re running an online Q&A discussion with a panel of experts.

The discussion will take place on Thursday 3rd March from 12 until 3pm and will cover areas such as:

• Is it possible (and useful) for a business to measure its biodiversity footprint?
• Should we even be talking about biodiversity as a distinct business issue (or should it in fact be something that is integrated into sustainability thinking across an organisation’s operations)?
• How can cross-sector collaboration help in addressing the biodiversity challenge?
• What does corporate best practice in terms of biodiversity look like at the moment? Who is leading and how can other organisations learn from them?
• How can investment in biodiversity and ecosystem services be encouraged?
• How can risk due to biodiversity loss be quantified and communicated?

You can either post your questions now or join us next week to follow the whole discussion. The Q&A will take place in the comments section on this page. If you can’t join us on Thursday, sign up to receive our newsletter and we’ll send you a link to a summary of the Q&A.

The National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration

The first NCER, held in Orlando, FL (2004) with over 900 restoration practitioners participating, lead to successful conferences in Kansas City, MO (2007) and Los Angeles, CA (2009). NCER brings together nearly 1,000 scientists, engineers, policy makers, planners, and partners from across the country actively involved in ecosystem restoration.

Initiated by the University of Florida, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, NCER typically entails five days of presentations in six program tracks, multiple workshops, poster sessions, field trips and coffee-house discussions dedicated to both small and large scale ecosystem restoration programs including but not limited to the Missouri and Mississippi River Basins, the Louisiana Coastal Area, Columbia River, the Everglades, the San Francisco Bay/Delta, the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes and Puget Sound, just to name a few.

5th National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration

The 5th National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration will focuse on the most pressing issue facing our coasts: Preparing for Climate Change: Science, Practice, and Policy.” It will explore the state of the art in science, policy, technology, and education through 80 concurrent programs, 160 poster presentations, 400 presenters, and panel discussions and plenary sessions.