Prof Dr. Steve Albon FRSE
Steve has been Co-Chair of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, and works as a senior scientist at the James Hutton Institute.
"The UK National Ecosystem Assessment responding to the challenges across spatial and temporal scales"
The UK National Ecosystem Assessment was the first analysis of the benefits that the UK's natural environment provides to society and economic prosperity. With a significant proportion of ecosystem services declining and with a challenging future ahead, it is clear that we need to find new, more resilient ways of managing our ecosystems. An important prerequisite for this is a better grasp of the values of the full range of ecosystem services. Integration of the spatial dimension of ecosystem services in local decision making would increase the potential for the true value of these services to be realised.
Simon Milne, MBE
Simon is the Chief Executive of the Scottish Wildlife Trust.
"From science and policy to real life implementation: exemplars and lessons learnt"
Science can help identify pressures and policy may aim to mitigate impacts, but the actual implementation of successful landscape scale conservation remains a complex struggle. The Scottish Wildlife Trust has 30,000 members throughout the country, and aims to protect Scotland's wildlife for the benefit of present and future generations. SWT is working towards a vision of achieving a network of healthy, resilient ecosystems supporting expanding communities of native species across large areas of Scotland's land, water and seas. Simon Milne will discuss the challenges of working towards this goal, provide exemplars of recent SWT success, and summarise the lessons learnt.
Stewart Stevenson MSP
Stewart is the Minister for Environment and Climate Change in the Scottish Government
We are honoured that the Stewart Stevenson is planning to address the conference, to highlight the commitment of the Scottish Governments to ensure plans and decisions about Scottish land use deliver improved and enduring benefits, enhancing the wellbeing of the nation
Prof. Dr. Des Thompson
Des is the Principal Advisor on Biodiversity for Scottish Natural Heritage.
"Competing claims: science, policy and land management challenges in Scotland"
Our land and is a finite resource, and is set to come under increasing pressure as the century unfolds. Balancing these competing claims on the land, whilst ensuring improved and enduring benefits for society will be a major challenge. Scottish Natural Heritage is funded by the Scottish Government to promote its sustainable use, now and for future generations. Des Thompson will provide an overview of some of the major challenges for Scottish land use, with examples of research, policy and on the ground activities to support land management and ensure enduring benefits to society and the environment.