News from SCB Europe Section Board December 2016

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News Highlights

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2018 European Congress of Conservation Biology in Jyväskylä, Finland!

Next Policy Committee meeting - February 11-12, 2017 in Eberswald, Germany!

Student Blogging Contests at SCCS Cambridge, ICCB Cartagena and SCCS Tihany 2017!

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We have had an exciting year within the Society for Conservation Biology Europe Section (SCB-ES)! Thanks to all who have contributed to SCB-ES in 2016! We would like to extend a special thank you to all the students and early career researchers who applied and contributed to our initiatives this year! 2016 has been an extremely active year and we hope to continue this into 2017 and beyond!

Ending on a high point we would like to take this opportunity to announce that the next European Congress for Conservation Biology is planned for 2018 in Jyväskylä, Finland! The board is busy working with the local organizing committee, and conference dates and venue will be announced in early 2017! We look forward to seeing you all in Jyväskylä!

Starting this December, we will be sharing bi-monthly updates from the SCB-ES board here on the blog, and plan to continue these updates into the future. We hope this initiative will help with keeping members better up-to-speed with what the board is up to and what current initiatives are in the works or available to our members. This month we are sharing updates from SCB-ES President, Piero Visconti as well as the Policy, Communications, and Membership committees.

Thank you again to all our members for a wonderful year! We look forward to 2017 and onward to 2018 for ECCB 2018 in Jyväskylä, Finland!

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Message from the outgoing SCB-ES President

As they say, all good things come to an end, and so it is also for my time as president of the SCB Europe Section. I have been in the SCB-ES board for 5 years, first as governor and later as president. It is now time for me to leave the helm in the capable hands of President-Elect, Bengt-Gunnar Jonsson who will step into the presidency from January 1^st, and lead SCB-ES for the next four years. It is sad to leave the SCB-ES board as it has been an important part of my life for many years, but it is important that the section has an active leader that can dedicate 20-30% of their time that is required to keep-up good work. At the same time, it is important to have a rotating board, to bring fresh energy and new ideas. When leaving a leadership role, it is custom to look back at what was achieved and reflect on what was done and what awaits. I won’t be an exception, as this gives me the opportunity to thank those that made these achievements possible.

In 2014 and 2015 we joined forces with other professional societies, conservation organizations and research institutions to ensure that scientific evidence was taken into account during the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the fitness check of the EU Habitat and Birds directives and the management of Bialowieza National Park. We contributed to a positive outcome to protect the directives but more needs to be done to ensure the next CAP is biodiversity friendly and that natural ecological processes are safeguarded in the broader Bialowieza ecosystem.

The leadership and organization of the joint European and International Congresses of Conservation Biology (ICCB-ECCB) in Montpellier in 2015 was certainly the main achievement of the SCB-ES board since its birth in 2002. This was the largest conference ever organized by SCB, dwarfing all the others with its 2063 attendees, 782 poster presentations and 943 oral presentations organized in 74 contributed sessions and 73 symposia sessions. ICCB-ECCB was not only a success in attendance numbers but also in scientific and social content. The degree of satisfactions of the attendees was overwhelming, with people talking about the closing party and the plenary talks for months after the congress.

I would like to highlight a few of the achievements that were made in the design of ICCB-ECCB. First, special attention was put into ensuring that the proposals and abstract review process to ensure it was rigorous and fair. Second, we introduced normalization of abstract scores and a third reviewer for abstracts with controversial scores. Third, we maximized the number of talks at ICCB-ECCB by having 10 parallel sessions. Indeed, as head of the scientific committee, I was responsible for deciding how many abstracts were rejected from ICCB-ECCB, and I did my best to minimize rejections. It was extremely rewarding to offer more than 2000 scientists and practitioners an opportunity to disseminate their knowledge and experiences, and to learn and form collaborations with one another. The SCB-ES board strives to make conferences affordable for everyone, but thanks to generous grants from the Swedish government, we could subsidize tens of early career attendees with a fair and transparent process that prioritized those most in need of support and those for whom attending the conference would make the most difference. I am most proud of the networking opportunity that ICCB-ECCB created; perspective students meeting their future supervisors, job-seekers finding jobs, research ideas being generated and professional collaborations being formed. This is the main legacy that my presidency and the current board has left. 

In 2016, we continued our support for Early Career professionals by contributing financial resources to two Student Conferences for Conservation Science, one in Tihany and one in Cambridge. We subsidize attendance costs, provided training through workshops, and offered students insights into the many opportunities that early career conservation professionals can obtain through SCB and other professional societies. We also, for the first time, awarded the Early Career European Conservation Award. This went to Attila Nemeth to recognize his contribution to knowledge and conservation of blind mole rats in Europe. This will hopefully start a tradition of early career awards given by the section. In 2016, we also started a training grant to support early career conservationists’ attendance at training events. We also funded the Greek Summer School of Conservation Biology to provide training to a dozen students from all of Europe.  

The last two years have also seen a step change in the social media activity of the Section thanks to the opening of a Twitter account and the strong activity of the Communication Committee on this blog and on our Facebook page. We also opened 12 opportunities for students to share about their research or recent conference experiences through guest posts here on the SCB-ES blog.

The merit for all goes mostly to others, the section board and all its committees with whom I was fortunate enough to work with, I’d like to thank all board and committee members for their important contributions to the section. These are exciting times for SCB Europe, up to six new members could join the board next year and I expect the new board to be the youngest and most diverse SCB Europe has ever had. I wish the new board all the best for the future, and continued growth for SCB-ES to increase its support for conservation professionals.

See you all in Jyväskylä, Finland for ECCB 2018!

Post written by Piero Visconti, SCB-ES president 2015-2016

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Updates from Policy Committee 

Sub-regional and local policy statements: A recent topic of interest to our members deals with sub-regional and local policy statements. Based on a request from the Society for Conservation Biology’s Europe Section (SCB-ES) Board of Directors, the European Policy Committee has prepared a set of eligibility criteria for policy statements with sub-regional or local geographical scope. Statements by the SCB-ES generally address conservation issues on the European or EU level. While relatively few chapters continue to feed into SCB-ES, the section is responsible for handling sub-regional or local policy issues. However, we cannot currently attend to all those conservation issues of smaller scope. Accordingly we drafted text to clarify our current position and capabilities with regards to sub-regional or local policy statements: “for an activity of sub-regional or local scope to be eligible for an SCB-ES statement should highlight issues relating to outstanding biodiversity, address conservation issues of wider relevance, and have the potential to serve as a ground-truthing exercise, influence decision-making and provide local capacity and increase credibility, visibility and outreach of SCB’s work”. The SCB-ES Board of Directors recently approved this statement and criteria about sub-regional and local policy statements, and if any SCB-ES members have questions about this process, you can contact Stefan Kreft, Chair of the Policy Committee at stefan(dot)kreft(at)hnee(dot)de.

Lower Odra Valley National Park, Germany,

situated close to Eberswalde and bordering Poland (background). 

(Photo by: Stefan Kreft)

What’s coming up? The next few months will be busy for the Policy Committee. We are currently preparing for our next PC meeting on February 11-12, 2017. We will gather in Eberswalde (Germany) for a workshop about biodiversity and conservation in Europe. This workshop will allow us to systematically derive a strategic framework for SCB-ES Policy Committee work in the coming years. Furthermore, our Roadless Initiative is running on high momentum, in expectation of an upcoming important publication we have been working on fopr years. On December 16th, the Roadless Initiative will publish a press release. There will also be an entirely new website and coverage on SCB's homepage, so check it on December 16th! We are very excited about the Roadless Initiative reaching this important milestone, and look forwarding to sharing all news with members in 2017! 

Post written by Stefan Kreft, SCB-ES Policy Committee Chair

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Updates from Communications and Membership Committee


Student guest blogging on SCB-ES Blog: The SCB-ES communications and membership committee has had a busy year, including rewarding 12 students the opportunity to share a guest blog post on the SCB-ES blog! The most recent guest blog post was about marine protected areas and local ecological knowledge, a post by Adam Rees. There are two more planned posts from students who attended SCCS Tihany, and those will be live in mid-December. We look forward to sharing these last few posts and to the opportunity to continue supporting student blogging on the SCB-ES blog. We will be continuing the student blogging contests into 2017, and will host contests at the Student Conference on Conservation Science in Cambridge and Tihany, and at the International Congress for Conservation Biology! Students attending any of these three conferences, and who are SCB-ES members, will be eligible to apply for our blogging contests! The SCB-ES student blogging contest aims to offer students a platform to share about their research or recent experiences at conferences or workshops with a broad audience, and to extend them the opportunity and experience to work with SCB science communication professionals to refine their writing skills. We look forward to sharing more student's stories in 2017!


What's coming up? In 2016 we gained a new committee member, Isabel Vique. Isabel has already contributed to our on going improvements in social media and communications, but in 2017 she and board member Petra Mihalic will be taking on a new activity for women in science! In 2017, Isabel and Petra are leading the organization of a series of talks by women in science in Europe to complement the Ted Women 2017 event in San Francisco! We are very excited about the development of this initiative, which will take place in late fall 2017! We will work closely with our members to identify speakers, and invite members to share their ideas about additional events they would like to see and might be willing to support in their region! More information on the Women in Science speaker series will be released in early 2017; keep an eye on our blog and social media outlets for details! 

Post written by Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley, SCB-ES Communications and Membership Committee Chair

Conservation science as an antidote to EU conservation politics (mis-) guided by interests

Bonn, Nairobi, New York, Washington, Gland, Paris - the geography of decision-making in international conservation policy is complex, and one of the most influential hubs is Brussels. It is the birthplace of the EU Birds and the Habitats Directives that underlie Natura 2000, the world’s most ambitious site-based conservation project. Their implementation, however, has been accompanied by a background noise of political struggles. And this ado is currently growing. With his rise to power in 2014, the new Commission President Juncker programmed a “Fitness Check” for the two EU conservation directives. Among conservation advocates, this assessment is feared to serve as an excuse for softening the directives and reversing important achievements made under considerable efforts. The Policy Committee (PC) of the Society for Conservation Biology’s Europe Section thinks scientific information is badly needed in the ongoing battle of interests and opinions. Thus, we decided this year’s PC meeting should make the Society visible on the spot as a unique stakeholder that can feed tested “top runner” scientific evidence into this and other important debates.

On 26 and 27 May, facilitated by Belgian PC member Willem Laermans’ brilliant logistical coordination, we met with delegates of the European Parliament, Commission representatives as well as Brussels-based conservation advocates from the NGO sphere. As we had hoped, Micheal O’Briain, Deputy Head of the Nature Unit at Directorate-General Environment, was willing to give us a comprehensive overview of the “Fitness Check” and its uses and misuses. We agreed the Society’s Europe Section should participate in the ongoing public consultation, possibly including an in-depth comment on the different Fitness Check questions under scrutiny. The value of such a contribution was confirmed by a delegation of BirdLife International, led by its Head of EU Policy, Ariel Brunner. With BirdLife, we also discussed cornerstones of a possible strategic collaboration between our institutions. We are glad Trees Robijns, Birdlife’s Senior EU Agriculture and Bioenergy Policy Officer, will be able to attend the upcoming ICCB-ECCB 2015 in August this year.

Agriculture was also in the focus of our meeting with the German Members of Parliament Maria Heubuch (Greens), Susanne Melior and Maria Noichl (both Socialists & Democrats). Our exchange addressed the failed “greening” reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The exchange proved so fruitful that this can certainly be considered the start of a continued dialogue in the future. We are also deeply grateful to Maria Heubuch for hosting us and helping us to make our Brussels trip a success.

Another meeting brought us together with Karin Zaunberger and Nicholas Hanley (both DG Environment) as well as Arnold Jacques de Dixmude (DG International Cooperation and Development). They are involved in efforts directed at a better conservation and sustainable development in the EU’s Overseas Territories and Outermost Regions, a conglomerate of small to large territories that cover the same area as the “core” EU, but which are spread across the globe. We explored options how the Society and its worldwide expert network may add value to these European activities. Mrs Zaunberger confirmed she will take part in a round-table discussion on EU Overseas Territories at the ICCB-ECCB 2015.

The Roadless Areas Initiative, initiated by our Policy Committee in 2007, was another important item of our agenda in Brussels. While the Roadless Areas Initiative has flourished into an activity across SCB sections since then, we think it is also time to reach out beyond the scientific community to policy-makers. Our Brussels visit thus marked the onset of a dialogue with DG Mobility and Transport. With Judit Bertrand, who is involved in coordination of the Trans-European Transport Networks TEN-T, we had a promising brainstorming exercise how transport planning in the EU may start to take into account the remaining roadless areas.

We are looking forward to our next meeting at the ICCB-ECCB 2015 in two months in Montpellier. Symposia organised by the Policy Committee of SCB’s Europe Section will follow up on Natura 2000, the Common Agriculture Policy, roadless areas and more. Be there and check them out!

Stefan Kreft

(Chair of the Policy Committee of the Society for Conservation Biology - Europe Section)

The Policy Committee at the main entrance to the European Parliament in Brussels, 26 May 2015. From right to left: Willem Laermans, Martin Dieterich, Zdenka Křenova, Per Sjögren-Gulve, Guy Pe’er, Stefan Kreft
Photo:Guy Pe’er

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT BACKS THE PROTECTION OF ROADFREE AREAS

Posted by Nuria Selva, SCB Policy Committee

Press release - October 24, 2013


Strasbourg -The European Parliament has backed two proposals by MEP Kriton Arsenis to take action against the construction of new roads in intact forests.


With the October 23rd adoption of the Motion for a Resolution [1] on the climate change conference in Warsaw, Poland (COP 19), the European Parliament has agreed to raise the issue of roadbuilding in intact forests at the UN Climate Change Conference to be held next month in Warsaw (Poland); it calls on parties to use the existence of roads in forest areas as an early negative performance indicator of REDD+ projects, and to prioritise the allocation of REDD+ funds towards road free forests.


At the same time, the European Parliament has decided to allocate 1.2 Million Euros for further research on the benefits of protecting road free intact forests. The pilot project [2] which was approved on October 23rd will be implemented within 2014 and will finance the production of up-to-date global maps of roadfree areas on the basis of the best spatial data available, and the creation of a prediction model of deforestation and forest degradation based on the existence of roads in a forest. The research program is expected to lead to a set of innovative recommendations for better forest governance.

Commenting on the outcome of the vote, MEP Kriton Arsenis [3] said:


"It takes just one road to destroy a forest. More than 95% of deforestation, fires and atmospheric carbon emissions in the Brazilian Amazon occur within 50 kilometres of a road [4]. I am proud to see the European Parliament being the first political institution to address this issue. This decision marks an important step towards the recognition of the impacts of roadbuilding on the Earth's last intact forest areas and the necessity to keep these areas free of roads ".


He added: "In times when funding for environmental protection is scarce, keeping intact forests free of roads is a remarkably cost efficient way of protecting biodiversity, and fighting climate change and an antidote to slow political decision making".



Notes:

[1] Motion for a Resolution on the climate change conference in Warsaw, Poland (COP 19): Amendments 1 and 2

[2] Compromise package for Pilot Projects and Preparatory Actions 2014: Amendments 404, 544 " Making efficient use of EU climate finance - using roads as an early performance indicator"


[3] Kriton Arsenis is Member of the European Parliament since 2009. He has promoted the protection of road free forests at international conferences since 2012, including co-organising events at the Rio+20 Summit and at the 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad, along with partners such as Google, UNEP, IUCN, the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), European Environmental Agency (EEA), and the Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education, Tebtebba. http://kritonarsenis.gr/

[4] William F. Laurance and Andrew Balmford. A global map for road building. 308 | NATURE | VOL 495 | 21 MARCH 2013

Contact:
Nathalie Parès, political advisor, +32 (0)4 93 50 43 30, nathalie.pares@europarl.europa.eu

Protecting Roadless Areas: Meeting the Nagoya targets in a cost efficient and effective way

PRESS RELEASE

Hyderabad, India, 18 October 2012

A cost efficient and effective solution in meeting the Aichi biodiversity protection targets is gaining momentum in the international debate. In times when funding for biodiversity conservation is scarce, the cost minimizing solution of protecting our world's remaining roadless areas arises as a way out from biodiversity protection deadlocks. 

Areas which have remained roadless, despite not being officially protected, have achieved a high level of protection because of the reduced human pressure exerted on their resources. Avoiding the construction of roads in these areas is the most cost efficient and effective way for protecting biodiversity. Keeping areas roadless does not mean keeping them inaccessible and disconnected. Roadless areas may be accessed and connected through railways, river ways and airways, i.e. by transport means which exert far less human pressure on natural resources. 


 The issue was brought up in the COP 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), where an official side event was organised by the European Parliament's Rapporteur on Forests, MEP Kriton Arsenis, UNEP, IUCN, Conservation International (CI), the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), and the Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education, Tebtebba, and which was supported by Google, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Global Canopy Programme (GCP).

During the side event, Google and the European Environment Agency presented the latest results of their ongoing project to prepare interactive maps of the world's remaining roadless areas. The objective of these maps is threefold: to generate incentives for the protection of such areas, to avoid the financing of destructive roads in threatened pockets of thriving life, and to provide international policy makers with a useful instrument for effective regulation towards biodiversity conservation.

The Google Earth maps of roadless areas can be found at:

http://earthengine.google.org/#intro/Roadless10km

http://earthengine.google.org/#intro/Roadless1km

EEA's Eye on Earth maps can be found at: 

http://eyeonearth.org/templates/EoEBasic/?webmap=c35a744a6f7348d38133e937f4c9aaad 

More material on the presentations and speeches can be found at: http://kritonarsenis.gr/actions/view/Roadlessness--way-to-protect-biodiverity

The side event was entitled "Roadless areas: The most cost efficient and effective way to protect biodiversity" and the panel comprised of Mr. Trevor Sandwith (Director of Global Protected Areas Programme, IUCN), Mr. Russ Mittermeier (President of Conservation International, CI) and Mr. Thierry Lucas (Research Project Manager and Policy Advisor, UNEP). 

In addition, Mrs. Jacqueline McGlade (Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, EEA) and Ms. Rebecca Moore (Engineering Manager for Google Earth Outreach and Google Earth Engine) participated through a televised message. 

Following the event, MEP Kriton Arsenis made the following statement: “Only few millions of Euros/dollars are available for biodiversity protection. At the same time, numerous trillions are generated from and directed to activities with a negative impact on biodiversity. It is clear that we have to use these limited financial resources efficiently. My support for the roadless areas concept comes from the very fact that from an economic point of view it just makes sense to protect areas where biodiversity has remained intact and where there is no need to direct extra financial resources. All we have to do is merely avoid destructive investments on road construction.”

Mr. Mittermeier from Conservation International, announced that "the Roadless Wilderness Initiative, led by Kriton Arsenis, is one of the most important conservation efforts in the world.  If we are really serious about conserving biodiversity and maintaining at least a small portion of our natural world in its original condition, with fully intact faunal and floral assemblages, it will likely be in areas without roads.  This initiative ties in very well with what we have been trying to achieve with our High Biodiversity Wilderness Areas in high priority tropical forest regions such as the Guiana Shield region of northern South America, but it also is applicable in the other biomes as well, especially in the far northern systems like the tundra and the boreal forests, in the desert regions of the world, and elsewhere.  CI is pleased to be a partner in this endeavor."

On behalf of IUCN Mr. Sandwith proclaimed that “roadless areas coincide with some of the world’s most important areas for conserving biodiversity and the associated cultures and lifestyles of indigenous peoples. Maintaining connectivity within systems of protected areas is essential for coping with climate change, and roadless areas will contribute significantly to allowing species to move in response to climate. Roadless areas can contribute to this as they can prevent the direct effects of roads on fragmentation. Key to this is the recognition of the fact that indigenous communities - through their conservation efforts - are ensuring the effective protection of many of these areas”.

Mr. Lucas praised this initiative, and UNEP, with its cooperation with the European Environment Agency on Eye on Earth, looks forward to it coming to fruition. In this regard, the development of SDGs offer an opportunity, as roadless areas permit us to look into how the natural capital they provide for current and next generations can be valued and reflected in future SDGs.

Mrs. McGlade on behalf of EEA stated that “during the last century the world has faced more ecosystem destruction than at any other time in human history.  In Europe, there has been more habitat fragmentation than on any other continent – yet there are still pockets of truly wild habitats, far away from roads, which can provide a refuge for some of our most threatened species.  Mapping the course of fragmentation and the connectivity between natural areas by seeing where roads are being constructed and used will help us protect species, habitats, genetic resources and life on planet Earth in the coming centuries.”

Ms. Rebecca Moore on behalf of Google stated that "Google Maps and Google Earth are used by more than a billion people each month to help them see and understand the world we live in. Just as it's important to map the roads and highways that can take people to their destinations, it's also crucial to accurately represent the roadless areas of our planet in order to protect biodiversity and enable conservation. We hope that these initial Global Roadless Area Maps we've created can help everyone easily comprehend how few large roadless areas still remain on earth, and convey the importance of this policy initiative.”

 Mr. Mitchell from the Global Canopy Programme stated that "roadless areas are one of the simplest means of identifying areas where the footprint of human impacts remains light. Such an indicator is needed because it can offer decision makers a clear delineation of pristine parts of our planet which can offer, especially in major tropical forested regions, ecosystem services worth US$ trillions annually. Roads are often the vanguard of change in these areas, leading to destruction of natural capital on which future development and prosperity elsewhere, such as agriculture and hydropower depends. Roads across rainforests are a double-edged sword. For poor communities, they can offer real benefits by connecting their goods to market, but unwelcome guests often come the other way in the form of alien species of plants and diseases which invade and upset a former natural balance and worse, hordes of migrants, often with little knowledge of how to live in the forests, except by cutting them down, destroying the lives of the communities the roads are intended to improve."

Mrs. Nuria Selva, on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), expressed the following view: "Keeping areas road-free is key to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services provided to societies; they are protected de facto. Roadless areas are especially relevant to conserve sensitive and endangered species, as well as species requiring large tracts of habitat, such as bears or elephants. They are well-known aquatic strongholds for salmonids and other fish species and a significant refuge for native wildlife and plants. Roadless areas serve also as a barrier against pests, diseases and invasive species. They are more resistant to catastrophic events, like floods or fires, and can support species and ecosystems to adapt to new conditions due to climate change. Experience shows that whenever new roads provide access to formerly remote or roadless areas, the pressure on the ecosystem is increasing rapidly. Even when accompanying conservation measures are taken, the negative impacts of roads cannot be effectively mitigated. Roads have what we call “contagion effect”, which is especially virulent in developing countries. Roads are followed by human developments and pioneering colonies, produce changes in land-use and the local socioeconomic models, and have continuously accelerated deforestation and other forms of biodiversity degradation."

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For more info please contact:

Office of MEP Kriton Arsenis

E-mail: kriton.arsenis@europarl.europa.eu,

Tel: + 32 (0)2 28 47873

Roadless areas - side event today at CBD COP 11 Meeting

UPDATE: PRESS RELEASE 

The Eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11; 8 - 19 October 2012 - Hyderabad, India) is currently ongoing. The concept of 'Roadlessness' which is one of the focal issues of the SCB Europe Section, will be also presented as a side event hosted by MEP Kriton Arsenis. 

"ROADLESSNESS - THE MOST COST EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE WAY TO PROTECT BIODIVERSITY:

Roadlessness of wilderness areas and natural ecosystems is the absense of roads, which are linked to deforestation, natural systems degradation, natural resources exploitation and biodiversity loss. Preserving an area roadless is one of the best ways to safeguard ecosystems services and biodiversity."