The cen­tral theme is ‘Ecosys­tem Ser­vices for Nature, Peo­ple and Pros­per­ity’. The con­fer­ence will pay spe­cial atten­tion to the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor dia­logue on how the ecosys­tem ser­vices con­cept can be used to sup­port con­ser­va­tion, improve liveli­hoods and engage the busi­ness community.

ESP espe­cially encour­ages del­e­gates from busi­nesses to attend the ESP con­fer­ence in order to dis­cuss chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties in using the con­cept of ecosys­tem ser­vices to achieve con­ser­va­tion and sus­tain­able use of our ‘nat­ural cap­i­tal’ within a market-context. The con­fer­ence will pro­vide an excel­lent plat­form to engage with experts who can gen­er­ate solu­tions to these chal­lenges and start mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in practice.

The con­fer­ence will be held in South Africa and is hosted at a very spe­cial loca­tion: Spier Wine farm and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre in Stel­len­bosch. See loca­tion sec­tion for more information.

NOTE: Early Bird dead­line extended

The dead­line for Early Bird reg­is­tra­tion has been extended untill 4 Sep­tem­ber. Early Bird reg­is­tra­tion will close at 17:00 CET the 4th.

More infor­ma­tion on the ESP conference

The work­shops are clus­tered accord­ing to the ESP Work­ing Groups: Biome (B), The­matic (T) and Sec­toral (S) Work­ing Groups. Also, Spe­cial sessions/Ateliers (O) will be held.

B. Biome Work­ing Group Workshops

T. The­matic Work­ing Group Workshops

S. Sec­toral Work­ing Group Workshops

O. Spe­cial Sessions/Ateliers

ACTS will be host­ing the spe­cial ses­sion: “S5 — Ecosys­tem ser­vices in busi­ness” in part­ner­ship with the South African Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Affairs, Nat­ural Cap­i­tal Coali­tion, WBCSD, Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tional, Hempo­rium, and the EWT – National Busi­ness & Bio­di­ver­sity Net­work of South Africa.

Through this ses­sion, the ESP Sec­toral Work­ing Group “Ecosys­tem ser­vices in busi­ness” aims to:

A. Dis­cuss the state of the art of global research and prac­tice on the Busi­ness – Nat­ural Cap­i­tal Nexus, mainly (but not exclu­sively) through the lens of Nat­ural Cap­i­tal Account­ing (NCA) for business,

B. Show­case case stud­ies in key busi­ness appli­ca­tions / contexts,

C. Iden­tify research gaps / needs, and

D. Make tan­gi­ble links with the broader dis­course on greener, more inclu­sive development.

For more prac­ti­cal infor­ma­tion on the con­fer­ence (reg­is­tra­tion, accom­mo­da­tion, abstract sub­mis­sion, etc.) : http://espconference.org/espconference2015#.VVdA5fmqqko

We look for­ward to your participation!