Ecosystem services have generated considerable interest, literature and research activity in ecological circles over the past 11 years, both internationally and in Australia. Some ecologists and NRM professionals have embraced ecosystem services to emphasise the importance of ecosystem function and the management of biodiversity in socio-economic terms, or as justification for retaining and enhancing biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes. Others have criticised the concept as a means of achieving nature conservation gains. This symposium provides a timely venue for evaluating the utility of the ecosystem services framework, and for reviews of the research conducted over the past 11 years, of the arguments for and against conservation on utilitarian grounds, and of the progress in translating biophysical function into socio-economic significance across a wide variety of scales. Participants are also being encouraged to address the next generation of research challenges in order to further scrutinise and exploit the ecosystem services framework.

A conference programme will be annaunced in the near future

For more information contact programme coordinator Dolf de Groot at: dolf.degroot@wur.nl