Side events on Tuesday 2 May

ALTER-Net Summer school alumni meeting and early career meeting

What has Peyresq done for you? An interactive assessment of alumni perspectives on the ALTER-Net Summer School

After 11 years, the ALTER-Net Summer School is now a well-established event for early career researchers who seek to challenge their knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services. The annual event takes place in Peyresq, a small Alpine village in the French Alps, which offers the perfect scenery for interdisciplinary discussions among students, lecturers, and conveners. The summer school creates a “network for life” for its alumni, whose subsequent paths and career trajectories often interlink. Yet, after the Summer School, a major event is missing where the alumni get together and share past experiences and discuss the impact of the school in their work. Therefore, we want to bring together Peyresq alumni, and interested early-career researchers, to explore the Peyresq spirit and discuss the contribution of the Summer School to their life and careers.

This will be an interactive and informal session to (re)connect Peyresq alumni. Using a diverse set of methods such as mind-mapping, round-table discussions, and short surveys, we will learn about the alumni’s geographical and academic diversity, personal experiences, opinions, knowledge about Peyresq, and ideas for future schools. There will be ample room for discussion, sharing of memories and collective reflections on potential future developments of the Summer School.

The outcomes of the session will be compiled in a short brief to the Peyresq alumni, conference participants, and the ALTER-Net council. The brief will inform about the added value the Summer School offers to participants on all levels i.e., students, lecturers, and conveners. It will provide relevant arguments and novel ideas to organize many more ALTER-Net Summer Schools.

Collaborative research opportunities for H2020 and other future funding

In this side event, the organizers want to search for opportunities for joint collaboration in upcoming calls.

There will be a presentation by Tiago Freitas of the European Commission (DG RT&D) and by the vice-chair of Biodiversa, Hilde Eggermont.

Participants of this side event are asked to prepare up to two slides about your institute’s interests related to the future calls and funding opportunities (bring your own USB stick). Please inform the session leaders about your willingness to give a presentation beforehand.  If possible, pre-scan H2020 drafts, especially those related to Societal Challenges, but also others.

Afterwards there will be time for free discussion.

Expected outcomes:

• A better vision for forth-coming calls, especially those of in which ALTER-Net partners could collaborate
• A list of interested people/calls to take forward joint proposals.

Developing the European advice mechanism on biodiversity and ecosystem services – learning from EKLIPSE and other processes (insight and training session)

In order to address synergies, conflicts and trade-offs in nature and society, a dialogue-oriented interface between scientists, societal and policy actors becomes more and more important. The EKLIPSE project started in 2016 in developing such a mechanism at the European level, offering tailored and credible knowledge synthesis processes for a broad range of potential questions, as well as foresight activities to identify emerging issues and research needs. The session will briefly introduce the EKLIPSE approach, how networks and institutions like ALTER-Net and individual experts can get involved and what experiences EKLIPSE gained from its first activities. After that, we will offer a number of exchange rounds on specific topics that EKLIPSE currently addresses and we will  invite participants to present their cases and experiences of working at the interfaces. The topics presented in the context of EKLIPSE will be related to finished and ongoing knowledge synthesis processes (tentative):

• Evaluation framework on nature-based solutions for climate resilience in cities (finished)
• Components of nature and types of natural space that have a positive influence on mental and physical health
• Improving the outcomes for biodiversity of environmental regulations for small and medium businesses in the food and drink industry sector (going beyond compliance)
• The Common agricultural policy and how it delivers on its environmental objectives
• Research needs in relation to electromagnetic radiation impacts on wildlife

Thus, the session is designed as a mutual learning exercise for all participants on knowledge synthesis and identification of emerging issues and research needs at the interface, with special emphasis on which capacities and capabilities should be improved to act more effectively at the science-policy-society interface. Ideally, participants will have different backgrounds, not only from science, but also from policy, practice and other societal arenas. The output might be some inputs into the ongoing EKLIPSE synthesis processes, but also joint ideas for further training activities with network partners in EKLIPSE on science-policy-society interfacing.

Long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) platforms as vehicles for scientific inquiries into synergies, conflicts and trade-offs in the relationship between nature and society

LTSER platforms, and in particular their networks of integrative researchers, libraries, information and data repositories, are well positioned as boundary organizations/brokers/mediators/stewards to support the collective ownership and management of place-based knowledge across a wide range of disciplines relevant to management of nature and society. The creation of LTSER platforms is a growing trend across Europe with over half of the 70 LTSER Platforms established in the last decade. They aim to enable both creation of reliable and methodically-consistent long-term data and empower a wide range of stakeholders to conduct transdisciplinary science.

LTSER platforms can be considered as ‘knowledge-action systems’ i.e. units of policy-relevant knowledge production, or implementation testing grounds. Typically LTSER platforms combine long term monitoring with more short term knowledge creation in the form of 3-5 year projects. The LTSER platforms can also build latency in the form of relationships, skills, creative ideas and citizen science.

In this session we will engage in collective learning about the potential of LTSER platforms individually and a research infrastructure, defining the management challenges for which they can contribute, exploring methods for successfully addressing those challenges in multi-stakeholder platforms and thereby developing a framework for LTSER cross-platform studies. The session will include 3-4 talks and be followed by a ‘world café’ or group discussion on the aforementioned topics. The session will present evidence on the importance of LTSER platforms for knowledge creation relevant to synergies, conflicts and trade-offs in nature -society interactions, and engage the group in the collection of additional examples. The session aims to strengthen the community of practice for researchers working in LTSER and other socio-ecological venues and explore the potential for a joint publication including presenters and other participants.

Parallel sessions on Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 May

Wednesday Session 1: A new valuation school: inclusion of plural values of nature in sustainable resource use decisions

We are increasingly confronted with severe impacts of environmental degradation all over the world. Environmental problems and conflicts originate from trade-offs between values which are the basis of our decisions.  At the same time, single-value demonstration approaches have proven ineffective to offer relief. The urgency and importance to integrate nature's diverse values in decisions and actions stand out more than ever.  Integrated valuation scientists and practitioners share the ambition to explore how combined ecological, socio-cultural and economic valuation tools can support real-life resource and land use decision-making. This session will take the central challenges in the integrated valuation field and seek for concrete steps ahead to tackle them.

During the session, a diverse selection of case studies will highlight these challenges, and participants will work together towards a concise but powerful paper on steps forward in the field of integrated valuation.

Wednesday Session 2: Governance and learning for socio-ecological practices and policy making

Over the past decade, planning practices to tackle environmental challenges have gradually moved towards multi-level, collaborative, or polycentric governance to include a diversity of actors and governance levels. Difficult implementation of sustainability policies and the rise of the network society signal the need for finding additional synergies between governmental and non-governmental actors, such as the private sector and grassroots communities to tackle environmental challenges. In many cases, the values and priorities of these different actors differ. Furthermore, there are efforts from actors, institutions and policy processes aiming at benefits. To address such challenges, new governance approaches are needed to foster co-ordination and collaboration across groups interested in the benefits and/or co-benefits of urban and non-urban green space. To foster transitions toward sustainability, there also needs to be a commitment to identifying new forms of learning activities and processes to raise individual and community awareness about the values of nature and the opportunities arising from new governance regimes.

Because of the number of papers submitted, this session will cover two days. On both days, we will present empirical results, case studies and perspectives from on-going work for including a diversity of actors, learning and governance approaches in the conservation of biodiversity and green space, and the synergies and trade-offs resulting from such diversity. Attention will be devoted to participatory processes, self-governance and novel learning strategies for encouraging changes in knowledge, attitudes or behaviour. This session will be targeted towards researchers and policy-makers interested in multi-level governance and learning to support collaboration and coordination in green infrastructure. The findings will assist them in engaging with a range of actors and to more effectively manage the interface between benefits and co-benefits, as well as the diverse forms of governance and learning approaches.

Wednesday Session 3: Environment and health in urban environments

Major global challenges such as urbanisation, climate change or demographic change pose a range of challenges for urban residents. Extreme weather events such as heat waves cause premature death and illnesses. Ongoing urbanization results in loss of open space, increased traffic, noise and pollution severely affecting the health, particularly of children and elderly people. By providing ecosystem services, urban green and blue spaces have the potential to mitigate these problems and to contribute to health improvements. Urban parks and gardens provide opportunities for recreation and physical activity. Although the broad environmental and health benefits of green spaces have been referred to, not only in scientific articles but also in urban policy documents, they are often inconclusive, generalized, poorly? quantified, and differentiated by local natural, socio-cultural and demographic conditions.

This session will provide talks about existing evidence on how urban green space may help mitigate effects from urbanisation and climate change. The session will also include a joint discussion on accessibility of health benefits for the key vulnerable groups of children and the elderly. The session will further provide many important contributions, specifically taking into account environmental justice aspects of health benefits from urban green spaces. The output of the session will be a draft communication paper on what are the priority gaps in research and knowledge, and how to address them by various kinds of data, model, methods and strategies, including participatory and inclusive approaches. The paper will be proposed as a publication in Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, Ecology and Society, or similar.

Wednesday Session 4: Biodiversity research for adaptive management; how to satisfy multiple demands

If it is intended to encompass multifunctional land use and the delivery of a multitude of ecosystem services with the preservation of natural capital, biodiversity research should recognize this context of multiple societal demands and analyse the conditions that allow connected development. In this session, biodiversity/ecological research papers will be presented that yield results which are (ideally) of direct importance for biodiversity-inclusive multifunctional land use or the optimization of ecosystem services.

Combining different ecosystem services or establishing multifunctionality, is often a matter of finding and maintaining balances. Appropriate management, designed to be adaptable to changing conditions, is crucial in this respect. In order to attain this, a thorough understanding is needed of how (habitat) use options or objectives, human interference, altered environmental conditions, etc., influence ecosystem functioning and biodiversity dynamics. This may yield models of specific ecosystems and land use patterns, and define habitat use thresholds or degrees of disturbance that together facilitate or sustain a rich biodiversity within the context of multiple and ever changing societal demands.

Issues dealt with in this session include

• Analyses of biodiversity and of the functioning of ecosystems in multifunctional landscapes
• Functional biodiversity in agricultural landscapes
• Managing ecosystems for multifunctionality
• The functioning of ecosystems under multiple environmental stressors
• Ecological research for adaptive management
• Biodiversity dynamics and land use change

Wednesday Session 5: Multiple dimensions of sustainability (ecological, economic, social)

Session abstract to follow

Thursday Session 1: Nature-related trade-offs and conflicts between stakeholders

Nature provides a lot of benefits to society, and ecosystem services (ES) science has made great contributions to reveal this.   However, despite the popularity and desirability of so-called ‘win-win solutions’, these seem to be rare in actual ecosystem management.  In practice, this relates to situations where, for example, co-use seems to be impossible, e.g. when two or more desired ES either cannot be delivered at the desired magnitude or where they strongly inhibit each other, or when the burdens and benefits of ES are unequally distributed among different stakeholders.  As ES trade-offs inevitably result in ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, they can become a source for friction between stakeholders, and if not dealt with appropriately, they can even lead to conflicts.   In this session we welcome abstracts that help to improve the understanding of nature-related trade-offs and conflicts between stakeholders at a local level.

When preparing your presentation, please keep in mind the following questions being at the focus of our session, and please try to establish a link in your presentation to at least one of these topics (but preferably more):

• What are the stakes in trade-off/conflict in your study? (or, what is gained, and what is lost)?
• What are the root causes of the trade-offs/conflicts in your specific case? How did it evolve?  What are the impacts (considering the ecological, socio-cultural and economic context)?
• What is the role of stakeholders? How are they affected by a trade-off /conflict, and how are they responding to it?

Which strategies are envisaged to resolve trade-offs/conflicts? Who has the mandate to resolve such issues, and which approaches proved to be successful? What is the responsibility of the scientist in such issues?

Thursday Session 2: Valuing and accounting of natural capital: assessing its role in the nature-society interface

Natural Capital can be defined as the world’s stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) it is characterized as “an economic metaphor for the limited stocks of physical and biological resources found on earth”. In present, natural capital is under growing cumulative pressure from intensive agriculture, fisheries, forestry and urban sprawl.

Natural Capital Accounting received a big boost with the establishment of the Natural Capital Coalition (formed TEEB) and the launch of the Natural Capital Protocol.

In June 2012 a 'national capital declaration' (NCD) was launched at the Rio+20 summit held in Brazil, with the key message to 'integrate natural capital considerations into loans, equity, fixed income and insurance products, as well as in accounting, disclosure and reporting frameworks’.

Natural Capital Accounting is also on the rise for the financial sector, as is written in the ebook Finance For One Planet. At this moment, a financial guide is being developed by the Natural Capital Financing Alliance. This accounting is relevant not only for policy makers but also for companies and financials.

Knowing the economic value of nature’s benefits can make the contribution of nature to livelihoods and economies more visible.

In this session, we will present results of research and case studies including both analytic and synthetic approaches to the challenge, as well as a critical insight into the natural capital issue. In an interactive session, we will draw the links between natural capital and its multiple economic, social and cultural benefits.

Thursday Session 3: Nature-society interactions in cities: a specific challenge in the ‘Urban age’

Cities have become the most important habitat of human civilization; today, about 54% of all people worldwide live in cities. We are, subsequently, facing the ‘Urban Age’: Cities, and the specific conditions they provide for the life and wellbeing of their inhabitants, have become of increasing importance for more and more people in most countries, both in the global north and south.

Nature and society interact in cities in many ways. On the one hand, urban nature and ecosystems provide fundamental foundations, prerequisites and services for human health, wellbeing and quality of life in cities. On the other hand, nature in cities faces various challenges: e.g. green or open areas are is in competition with many other uses of urban land (buildings, infrastructure, traffic etc.), ecosystem services are limited or their provision is even hindered/made impossible by densification, sealing etc.

In recent decades, the importance of urban nature and ecosystems has received more attention. Cities established sustainability goals, policies, strategies and urban societies as a whole pay more attention to the advantages and benefits that urban nature provides for wellbeing. At the same time, urban nature has been employed increasingly for selective upgrading and, in some circumstances, forms part of policies and strategies leading to segregation and displacement (e.g. new green upmarket housing, urban waterfronts etc.). With regard to research, urban nature in cities has become subject to a growing body of interdisciplinary research where social and environmental sciences are working together both conceptually and empirically. Especially existing or evolving synergies, but also trade-offs and conflicts between societal development in cities and natural and ecological conditions receive increasing attention by the academic and transdisciplinary debate.

Set against this background, the session will discuss the specific role(s) and importance of urban nature and its interaction with society in cities, with a particular focus on synergies, trade-offs and conflicts. It will provide insight into recent (interdisciplinary) research and be a forum for a general conceptual exchange on nature-society interaction in cities.

Thursday Session 4: ES bundles and multi-functional landscapes – operationalizing synergies and trade-offs

In recent years, there has been increasing effort to find integrated solutions to deal with environmental challenges. There is growing recognition that Nature-based solutions can help provide viable solutions to tackle these challenges through enhancing the supply of ecosystem services. In this context, various research approaches are being pursued focusing on ecosystem service bundles and multifunctional landscapes, and the inherently linked topics of synergies and trade-offs.

This session seeks to explore the different dimensions, as well as potential assessment methods and implementation tools, related to synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services, between environmental, social and economic objectives or between drivers of land use change.

During the session (3.5h) the presentations (15+5min) are followed by a wrap-up discussing the guiding questions:

How can the concept of multifunctional landscapes and ecosystem service bundles be defined? Multifunctional landscapes might deliver ecosystem service bundles. However, the differences between these closely intertwined concepts should be clarified. To understand the underlying mechanisms of ecosystem service interactions, the conceptual considerations regarding ecosystem service supply/demand, potential and flow in relation to trade-offs are of interest.

How can synergies and trade-offs be assessed and integrated into tools? And to what extent are the applications transferable and comparable, considering scale, context and concept?

Here, social-ecological approaches allow for an inter- and transdisciplinary perspective to identify those social, economic and environmental factors that are relevant for a successful implementation of sustainable landscape policy and management.

What are key enabling factors, including administrative, political, legal, fiscal, and economic, for local implementation of Nature-based solutions?

Thursday Session 5: Collaborative processes in the field of biodiversity research

Safeguarding biodiversity and sustaining natural resources require a paradigm shift in conceptualization, thinking and research. The features of the new science should be responsive to social and environmental problems, be transformational and transdisciplinary and provide meaningful engagement. New approaches, concepts, innovative techniques and methods have appeared (e.g. science and technology studies, citizen science, participatory action research or DIY Biology) to observe, share and discover knowledge. Still, many challenges have to be addressed: data provision (i.e. adapting data scale and format to the main users), data standards and privacy, building capacity to get engaged, strengthening learning and transformative potential, bridging different types of knowledge, understanding people´s perceptions (i.e. on land planning, climate change or nature-based solutions) and their demands, the necessity of an inclusive view (i.e. citizen science for all and with all), opening-up the citizen science initiatives etc. The impact of citizen science data at organizational and institutional levels and enabling appropriate communication channels are other hot issues in this field.

Thursday Session 6: Governance and learning for socio-ecological practices and policy making

Over the past decade, planning practices to tackle environmental challenges have gradually moved towards multi-level, collaborative, or polycentric governance to include a diversity of actors and governance levels. Difficult implementation of sustainability policies and the rise of the network society signal the need for finding additional synergies between governmental and non-governmental actors, such as the private sector and grassroots communities to tackle environmental challenges. In many cases, the values and priorities of these different actors differ. Furthermore, there are efforts from actors, institutions and policy processes aiming at benefits. To address such challenges, new governance approaches are needed to foster co-ordination and collaboration across groups interested in the benefits and/or co-benefits of urban and non-urban green space. To foster transitions toward sustainability, there also needs to be a commitment to identifying new forms of learning activities and processes to raise individual and community awareness about the values of nature and the opportunities arising from new governance regimes.

Because of the number of papers submitted, this session will cover two days. On both days, we will present empirical results, case studies and perspectives from on-going work for including a diversity of actors, learning and governance approaches in the conservation of biodiversity and green space, and the synergies and trade-offs resulting from such diversity. Attention will be devoted to participatory processes, self-governance and novel learning strategies for encouraging changes in knowledge, attitudes or behaviour. This session will be targeted towards researchers and policy-makers interested in multi-level governance and learning to support collaboration and coordination in green infrastructure. The findings will assist them in engaging with a range of actors and to more effectively manage the interface between benefits and co-benefits, as well as the diverse forms of governance and learning approaches.