2011 AARES Conference
Melbourne, 8-11 February 2011
The Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES) would like to extend a warm invitation to attend and submit contributed papers and/or mini-symposia for our 55th Annual AARES National Conference.
The 2011 conference will be held at the Crown Conference Centre in Melbourne from Tuesday 8 February to Friday February 11, 2011.
The Conference will be the first held in Victoria since 2004, and will represent an outstanding opportunity for academics, policy makers and others in the agricultural, resource and environmental sectors to network, share ideas and research and keep up to date with the latest developments.
A Call for Papers will be made in September 2010.
We look forward to seeing you in Melbourne in February 2011!
Europe-Africa Frontier Research Conference on "Dynamic Interlinkages between Social and Ecosystem Changes: Towards a Europe Africa Partnership"
Hulshort, The Netherlands, 8-12 November 2010
Co-Chairs: Prof. Marja J. Spierenburg, VU University Amsterdam, NL & Prof. Rashid M. Hassan, Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa, ZA
Human wellbeing and the Earth system on which it depends are in transition involving complex dynamic interactions and feedbacks. Global changes include profound alterations of ecosystems and the services they provide to humanity. Drivers of environmental change are likely to intensify as human population grows and consumption expands. Some of the changes to the Earth system have improved access for millions of people to food, water, and other services satisfying basic human needs. On the other hand, unintended consequences from these changes threaten food security, energy security, human health, livelihoods and other aspects of our wellbeing. Deeper understanding and awareness of these changes and the underlying social-ecological systems’ interactions enhances our capacity for remedial and corrective action and offers hope of effective response. The challenge of sustainable development is to grasp this opportunity and transform social-ecological systems to provide food, water, energy, health and human security in a manner that is economically, ecologically and socially viable for people in all parts of the world in the current timeframe, and for many generations in the future.
Recognition of the urgent need for actions to sustain achieved gains in human wellbeing without compromising capacity of ecosystems to provide for future generations is very high in the current agenda of global policy fora and agencies (e.g. CBD, World Food Summit, Diversitas Congress, IUCN, UNESCO and others) and other regional and national actors and stakeholders in sustainable development. We seem to be at a crucial juncture where science, technology, policy and other communities can begin to work together to achieve more favorable planetary conditions. A great diversity of institutional arrangements, policies and practices have been proposed to achieve these goals. Yet many challenges remain on how to choose among the many options. Success and failure appear to be context-specific and no particular policy or practice is likely to solve all problems, in all places and times. At present, there are critical gaps in our knowledge of the social, biological, biogeochemical and physical foundations needed to make decisions for a sustainable future.
Inspired by ICSU's new Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society, the goal of the ESF Research Conference is to exchange experiences that will help us begin to understand transformations toward or away from sustainable development, including measures for eradication of poverty and halting environmental degradation.
The conference focus will be on comparing findings of research that studies social-ecological systems’ interactions associated with specific landscapes, seascapes or coastal regions. There is remarkable geographic variability in policies, practices and outcomes for management of natural capital, flows of ecosystem services, and human outcomes. Invited speakers and presenters will be drawn from a range of disciplines, research approaches and findings based on diverse sources of information including narrative, qualitative and quantitative data and historical records in addition to more traditional technical monitoring tools and remote sensing.