Noticias de la ESP (ESP Update No.2013/13 December 18, 2013 )

1.  7^th ESP Conference in Costa Rica: 8 – 12 September 2014

The website will be online soon, providing further information on the tentative program and the registration procedure. For more information please see: www.espconference.org. 

Deadlines

- March 1^st 2014: Submission of session ideas (workshops, special sessions and open topics)

- May 1^st 2014: Submission of abstracts for oral presentations and posters

- July 1^st 2014: End of early bird registration

Make sure to reserve the dates of the conference and start making plans for workshops, sessions and other activities!

Flyer / first announcement

Attached you will find a first announcement flyer with further details on the conference: please distribute it widely within your networks!

2. Elections of the Steering Committee

All paying ESP-members should have received an invitation to vote for the nominated candidates for the Steering Committee. Deadline is January 15. Please contact the election committee (elections@es-partnership.org) in case you did not receive the invitation. For more information please see the SC 2013 Elections website.

3. News from Working Groups, Regional Chapters, and National Networks

Thematic Working Group 6B on Ecosystem Services and Public Health organized its first workshop at the 2013 ESP conference in Bali (workshop 6). As a follow-up to the workshop, the members of the Thematic Working Group on Public Health have developed a short survey in order to find out what the views of a wide range of actors (scientists, policy representatives and others) are on Ecosystem Services and Public Health. Click here for more information.

Thematic Working Group 12 on Governance and institutional aspects will organize a workshop and a special issue focussing on the changes, challenges and opportunities the concept of Ecosystem Services has brought about in environmental governance. The workshop takes place at 10 & 11 March 2014 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Click here for more information.

4. Membership

As 2013 is coming to a close, many of you will receive an invitation to renew your full membership. In our old administration system, memberships ran according to the calendar year. As of 2014 memberships can start on the 1st of any month for a 12-month period. Therefore, if you are a full member you will be reminded to renew your membership automatically. We encourage everyone interested in ESP to register to become full member. We very much hope you will continue to support us!

One exciting new benefit is an (almost) free subscription to the Elsevier Journal ‘Ecosystem,

Services’: as of 2014 ESP paying members can sign up for 30€/year (more news how that works will follow soon).

5. Other news and ESP-related events

-          The second plenary of IPBES was held from 9-12 December in Turkey. Click here for a summary of the main results.

-          Tom Klein from ETH-Zurich is conducting an online-survey about demands and needs for decision-support and communication of ecosystem services information. Click here for more information; click here to go to the survey directly.

-          Pricing nature 'may help save it': Putting an economic value on nature could be the best way to protect it, say business leaders and environmentalists meeting at an Edinburgh forum. Read more at BBC News Science & Environment. It’s worthwhile checking some other hyperlinks on that website as well.

-          Keep on checking the growing list of News-items and Upcoming events on the ESP-website for new and previous messages, and interesting links.

Wishing you relaxing Christmas holidays and a happy New Year!

Dolf, Sander, Sara & Linda, and the entire ESP Executive Committee

PS. The ESP Support Team will be on holidays from December 21^st to January 6^th. After the break we will reply to your questions as soon as possible