The Ecosystem Services Partnership aims to facilitate discussion and cooperation amongst those working in the field of ecosystem services, and its members especially. In order to do so, ESP has organised international conferences annually since 2008. As of 2015 ESP shifted to a bi-annual cycle for the World Conferences, with Regional conferences in the in between year.
In order to enable as many ecosystem services professionals around the globe to join and share knowledge, we shift the location of our international conferences to a different continent each year. In this way, we strengthen ties between professionals from all over the world, so best practices in the field of ecosystem services can be shared and ideally implemented elsewhere.
Are you interested in hosting an ESP world or regional conference? See the call for expression of interest here.
Upcoming conferences
In the period 2020/2021/2022 we are organising a series of regional conferences. The regional conferences for Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe already took place. Here are the regional conferences still to come:
- 3rd ESP Asia Conference, 14-17 December 2021, Nagasaki, Japan (online only)
- 3rd ESP Africa Conference, 8-10 June 2022, Musanze, Rwanda (hybrid)
- 2nd ESP MENA Conference, 2022, Agadir, Morocco
- 4th ESP Europe Conference, 10-14 October 2022, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
- ACES-ESP Conference, postponed to 12-16 December 2022, USA
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, several of the dates have been changed. For most up-to-date information, please visit each conference website.
Suggestions for other regional conferences are welcome, especially from regions not mentioned above. If you are interested in organising an ESP regional conference in 2020/2021, you can express interest by filling out this form and sending it to [email protected].
3rd ESP Asia Conference
15-17 December 2021, Nagasaki, Japan (ONLINE)
Our third conference for Asia will take place in December, under the theme Eco-health and ecosystem services in Asia: Bottom-up aspects for planetary health.
Keep an eye on the event website for the latest updates!
3rd ESP Africa Conference
8-10 June 2022, Musanze, Rwanda
After Kenya and Togo, the ESP Africa conference moves to Rwanda for its third edition, Ecosystem services for the future: Delivering value for Nature, Livelihoods and Economic Investment.
The conference will take place at the Classic resort lodge in Musanze, Rwanda. Find out more on the official website.
2nd ESP MENA Conference
2022, Agadir, Morocco
Our second conference for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region with theme Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services into regional and national policies in the Middle East and Northern Africa will take place in Agadir, Morocco.
Find out more on the official event website.
4th ESP Europe Conference
10-14 October 2022, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Date and time are set for our next European conference. Keep an eye on the event website for updates.
ACES Virtual Roundtable
7-9 December 2021, online
ACES-ESP Conference
Posponed: 12-16 December 2022, Bonita Springs, Florida, USA
The ACES conference focuses on linking state-of-the-art science, practice, and decision making by bringing together the ecosystem services community and decision makers from around the United States and the globe. The conference which was to take place in December 2020 is now postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An ACES webinar took place on 13-16 December 2020 as a preview for the upcoming conference. A Virtual Roundtable is planned for 7-9 December 2021.
Read more about the upcoing virtual roundtable and the conference on the official website.
ESP 10th World Conference
ESP hosted the 10th ESP World Conference in Hannover, Germany from 21-25 October 2019. The theme of the anniversary conference was 10 years advancing ecosystem services science, policy and practice for a sustainable future. We welcomed over 750 delegates from more than 65 countries worldwide, making this the biggest ESP conference to date. You can read more about ESP10 here. The proceedings are available online.
Previous Conferences
The first ever ESP conference was held in 2008, and since then many global and regional conferences have been organised by the partnership across. Find out more about the previous ESP conferences on this page.
You can find all conference pictures on ESP’s official Flickr page.