Market place

During the Business track, attendees and external parties were offered the opportunity to exhibit their project, business, product or organisation at the Ecosystem Services market place. The market place was a great way to show your work to the wider ESP10 delegates, over 700 delegates from science, policy and practice working in the field of Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital joined.

The market place stands were presented during the entire day on Thursday 24 October. From 15:00-16:30 a longer break was scheduled to provide delegates the opportunity to engage with the market place exhibitors.

Exhibitors:

Below on overview is to be found of the market place stands that were presented at the market place on Thursday.

1. Mendel University

Faculty of regional development and international studies.

2. Ecosystems and People – an interdisciplinary, inclusive journal

Ecosystems and People is an interdisciplinary scientific journal that addresses how biodiversity and ecosystems underpin human quality of life, and how societal activities and preferences drive changes in ecosystems. Formerly known as IJBESM, the journal’s name, scope and Editorial Board was recently changed. Active ESP members Alexander van Oudenhoven and Berta Martín-López are the Co-Editors in Chief, and they are supported by an active Editorial Board that is balanced in career stage, scientific disciplines and gender. Many EB members are active ESP members too. Ecosystems and People is fully open access. At this stand, you can engage with Alexander and Berta as well as other EB members. You are more than welcome to pitch ideas for papers, to request information about the journal and its procedures. The stand will also feature a short presentation, leaflets and useful, sustainable gadgets.

More information on the journal can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tbsm22/current

3. Research project FIDELIO: Forecasting Social impacts of biodiversity conservation policies in Europe

FIDELIO is a project funded by the European Research Council which aims to explore social impacts of protected areas across Europe. The project will collect data from approximately 20 European Protected Areas. If you have suggestions for specific sites where you think it would be interesting to explore social impacts of a designated protected do come and meet us at the marketplace on Thursday 24th October, 3-4.30. Dr Nikoleta Jones (PI of the project) and Dr James McGinlay (Post-doctoral research fellow) will be there to discuss with scientists and practitioners opportunities for collaboration within and beyond the project. More information on the project is available here: www.anglia.ac.uk/fidelio.

4. How VLM implements the use of ESS in her projects?

Information (brochures) of recent projects in which ESS has been used in an integrated way.

5. Using natural capital to inform sustainability development for small islands; applications across the Caribbean and South Atlantic UK Overseas Territories (SAERI)

The UK Overseas Territories span the globe from the South Atlantic to the Caribbean. They are all highly dependent on the natural environment for their economic and social well-being and, whilst some islands have relatively larger populations (up to 60,000) and thriving economies, a few still rely on UK Government aid for their survival. The UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) embarked on the ‘Natural Capital in the Caribbean and South Atlantic Overseas Territories’ programme, funded by the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), in late 2016. Completed in March 2019, its aim was to provide an assessment of natural capital in a number of the UK’s Caribbean and South Atlantic Overseas Territories, to build capacity to monitor environmental change, and integrate environmental evidence into economic policy making and infrastructure planning. Islands across the two regions differ in governance, ecology, climate, population, wealth, education and connectivity which necessitated different approaches on each island. Innovative use of data and adaptive methodologies were often necessary, but a common guiding principle was the use of a bottom-up approach to ensure full engagement from relevant Governments. Outputs range from environmental vulnerability modelling to Bayesian networks, cultural ecosystem services assessments to fisheries monitoring plans. The programme crosses ESP regional chapters and working groups but provides a unique set of case studies from which to learn.

6. Using natural capital to inform sustainability development for small islands; applications across the Caribbean and South Atlantic UK Overseas Territories (JNCC)

Showcasing JNCC's innovative solutions to realise the value of the UK's Overseas Territories natural environment.

7. MULTIDIMENSION

S.C. MULTIDIMENSION S.R.L. is an environmental research and development company (SME) focusing on the transfer of expertise from national experts, leading personalities of the scientific community in the field of ecology and environmental protection and users of the knowledge involved in the advanced management of socio-ecological systems.

The experience accumulated by our team members, both in environmental consulting in order to sustain and advice company managers to develop sustainable and environmental friendly activities, environmental reports, the relationship with environmental authorities, as well as in projects aimed at developing knowledge in the field of system ecology and environmental protection, positions us in your strategic ally, with ability to design and/or implement the solutions best adapted to the needs of your organization.

Also, the MULTIDIMENSION team, is currently involved in activities direct related with provisioning, maintenance and cultural ecosystems services assessment:

We have elaborated 4 management plans for National and Natural Park in Romania, More than 15 management plans for Natura 2000 sites,
We have elaborated 7 air quality plans at county level and for Timisoara municipalities
We have participated with specific research services for Interreg Program CAMARO-D, research project in partnership with University of Bucharest BIOMOVEFIX,

We have a good connection with Romanian Space Agency in use earth observation (EO) for ecosystems services assessment.

8. Toolkit for Ecosystem Services Site-Based Assessment (TESSA)

BirdLife International developed the Toolkit of Ecosystem Services Site-based Assessment (TESSA) in 2014 (first version; 2017: latest version 2.0.) in collaboration with academics, conservation practitioners and other experts from six organisations (University of Cambridge, University of Southampton, University of Anglia Ruskin, RSPB, UNEP-WCMC and the Tropical Biology Association). TESSA is a practical guidance framework with the steps to assess ecosystem services of a site of interest. This guidance includes identification of important ecosystem services at the site using low-costs but scientifically robust methodologies. The ultimate goal using TESSA is to assess changes in ecosystem services and beneficiaries related to management or land use planning and to provide decision-makers with the net consequences of such changes to the ecosystem, and the loss and gain of the benefits for human well-being. Assessments using TESSA consequently influence policies in management and land use planning.

9. AgoraNatura – an online-marketplace for biodiversity and ecosystem services

AgoraNatura is a fundraising platform for biodiversity and ecosystem services in Germany. AgoraNatura aims to present target-oriented conservation investment opportunities to companies and private individuals as well as to facilitate an easier nature conservation engagement. AgoraNatura projects will be certified based on the newly developed Naturplus-Standard, which will validate projected effects regarding biodiversity and ecosystem services, such as clean water, climate protection and genetic diversity. AgoraNatura will bundle certified conservation projects of various environmental organisations in different regions – at the beginning with a focus on projects in agricultural landscapes, peatlands and meadow orchards and in the future also other ecosystems, such as forests and urban areas.

10. Collaborating to build models together: ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services) + Integrated Modelling Platform (IM)

The ARIES & IM Stand would serve as to illustrate how ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services) has implemented an Integrated Modelling approach through semantic modelling.

The stand will allow you to check our team´s work, show how its web interface k.explorer works and allow you to have one-to-one time with our main software and model developers so as to ask general or more technical questions.

Should you like to test our k.explorer? Come and join us at our stand! We will be looking forward meeting you and exchanging ideas!