The Scottish Wildlife Trust, in conjunction with the Scottish Government, is holding a two day international conference in February 2013 on Ecological Networks.
Investing in ecological infrastructure is a practical, positive, long term solution to enhance natural capital stocks and the ecosystem services which flow from them. Ecological networks connect habitat patches, facilitating genetic exchange and species movement which in turn decreases the likelihood of species’ decline and improves ecosystem health and resilience in the face of climate change.
Scotland, like other European countries, failed to meet its 2010 biodiversity targets and if we are to achieve the EU 2020 Biodiversity target of halting the loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystem services, a critical area of activity will be to reconnect, restore and enrich fragmented and often species-poor landscapes.
The economic benefits of healthy, biodiverse ecosystems and the services they provide such as clean water, flood amelioration, carbon storage and recreational facilities, are well documented. Climate change will place increasing stresses on our ecosystems and we need to act now to improve the resilience of our landscapes, river catchments and urban environments. A conclusion of the TEEB report was that up-front investments are almost always cheaper than trying to restore damaged ecosystems.
This major conference will explore the policy drivers for ecological networks, investigate the science behind networks and ecosystem restoration, consider the goods and services that flow from healthy ecosystems, and give examples of green infrastructure initiatives using examples from Europe and closer to home.