Ecosystem Services Partnership Conference 2014: Local action for the common good

The seventh annual Conference of the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) will explore the use of the ecosystem services concept at a local level. Organized by CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), Universidad Nacional and IUCN-CEM Meso-America (International Union for Conservation of Nature Commission on Ecosystem Management Meso-America) in collaboration with local organization Fundacion Neotropica, the conference will focus on Latin America, with a special emphasis on Costa Rica. Several EU-funded projects in the region, including CiVi.Net, COBRA, EcoADAPT and COMETLA, will present their results applying an Ecosystem Services framework through Community Based Ecosystem Management.

The program consists of a mix of plenary sessions, workshops (organized by the ESP working groups), open topic sessions (proposed and organized by all participants) and special sessions devoted to specific topics proposed by the collaborating organizations and sponsors. The results of the workshops and sessions are planned to be published in special issues of journals associated with ESP. Several field trips will provide the opportunity to observe and discuss the application of ecosystem services in practice. There will be designated times for poster sessions, displays, demonstrations, a marketplace and other events.

The ESP is a worldwide network to enhance the science and practical application of ecosystem services assessment. ESP members, practitioners, educators, policy-makers, researchers and others are invited to contribute to the conference.

EcoAgriculture Partners’ Louise Willemen and Bioversity International’s Fabrice de Clerck host a session:

Ecosystem services in healthy rural landscapes: examples and calls from local studies and international initiatives

Details

Agricultural landscapes provide ecosystem services (ES) that contribute to development and livelihood of people in many ways. Their ES flows play a crucial role in agricultural production systems (such as pollination, water, soil, climate), can generate income to land managers through targeted payment schemes (such as carbon capture, aesthetics), and provide a multitude of ES that contribute directly to human well-being. Agricultural practices play a central role in ES dynamics in rural landscapes. Globally, agricultural systems face the dual challenge of increasing food production to meet a growing global population, and to reduce the negative impact of agricultural production practices on the environment. The latter goal highlights the tremendous impact that agriculture has had as a driver of ecosystem degradation. The ecosystem service paradigm however, presents an opportunity to reverse this pattern by recognizing the key contribution of healthy ecosystem to agricultural production. There is a growing interest to move agriculture of the 21st century beyond a singular emphasis on yield to healthy rural landscapes that provide multiple ecosystem services to society (e.g. CGIAR Research Programs, TEEB for Agriculture and Food, the SDGs etc.).

Rural landscapes are shaped by humans and nature, their multifunctional and dynamic character requires research and management approaches that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. In this session we aim to highlight the linkages between research methods and actors of sometimes fragmented research communities and so provide an overview and guidance on collaborative processes needed in rural development challenges, aiming at minimizing trade-offs between land uses and exploring opportunities for synergies. We will feature research tools that have been used to guide decision-making, and highlight cases where communities are actively engaged in integrated landscape management for ecosystem services in rural landscapes. We will invite participants to contribute to a growing community of practice for sharing evidence, experience, and methods for putting ecosystems for work for a food secure and sustainable future.

During the proposed half-day session i) invited speakers will address different perspectives of ES research in rural landscapes, resulting in an overview of the current state of theory and practice, ii) we will present and discuss the development of the TEEB for Agriculture and Food and how this relates to existing initiatives including the of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative, and the CGIAR Partnership on Water Land and Ecosystems. And iii) we will invite participants to present case studies from landscapes with different agricultural production systems in different geographic regions to highlight current operationalization and research challenges (including governance frameworks, trade-off modelling, health assessments).