EcoSummit 2020
Building a sustainable and desirable future:
Adapting to a changing land and sea-scape
21 - 25 June 2020 | Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
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The 6th International EcoSummit Congress - EcoSummit 2020 – Building a sustainable and desirable future: Adapting to a changing land and sea-scape , will take place at The Gold Coast Convention Centre, Gold Coast, Australia, from 21st – 25th June 2020.
This conference series was founded in 1996 in Copenhagen, as a forum for scientists, practioners, and policy-makers working across disciplines to solve the integrated environmental, social, and economic problems facing the world today. Since 1996, EcoSummits have occurred around the world (Canada, China, USA and Europe), with EcoSummit 2016 hosting 1400 participants from 87 countries in Montpellier, France.
EcoSummit 2020 will have a focus on coastal and marine ecosystems including adjacent terrestrial ecosystems and all habitats that are integrated within those ecosystems, including river networks, wetlands and catchments. We expect all aspects of environmental modelling, engineering, science, and policy to be covered under the focus of climate adaptation and the need for developing socio-economic and environmental resilience and sustainable prosperity around the world. Further focus will be placed on fragile systems that are more likely to suffer the consequences of climate change and anthropogenic pressure such as islands, coastal communities and arid landscapes.
In the current context of an increasing world population, in particular in coastal regions, it is evident that building sustainable cities and using resources sustainably is inevitable. It is envisaged that the Summit will produce a declaration encompassing its vision and policy recommendations.
The topics covered in EcoSummit 2020 will include, but are not limited to:
- Coastal development and engineering
- Beaches
- Coral reef stressors
- Coastal conservation
- Fisheries and aquacultures
- Oceanography
- Coastal marine habitats
- Marine ecology
- Rivers, catchments and wetlands
- Sea level rise and ocean warming
- Pacific Island Resilience
- Ecosystem services
- Environmental policies and frameworks
- Citizen Science and local actors (NGOs)
- Ecotourism
- Aboriginal rights and land use
- Ecosystem creation and restoration
- Ecological economics
- Biological invasions
- Anthropogenic pressure
- Sustainability and resilience
- Integrating socio-economics and ecology
- Climate adaptation and mitigation
- Fragile ecosystems and hotspot management
- Ecosystem health
- Ecological indicators
- Ecological modelling
- Ecotoxicology
- Biodiversity and biological conservation
- Disturbance ecology
- Ecological complexity
- Scaling from genomes to ecosystems
- Innovative technology for ecological sustainability
- Deep-sea as new frontier
Honorary Guest Speaker
- Sylvia Earle, President and Chairman, Mission Blue / The Sylvia Earle Alliance
Plenary Speakers
- Robert Costanza, Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University, Australia
- Brian Fath, Towson University, USA
- Bojie Fu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
- Alan Hastings, University of California, Davis, USA
- Emma Johnston, UNSW Sydney, Australia
- Jacqueline McGlade, University College London, UK
- Pavan Sukhdev, WWF International & GIST Advisory, India
- Jigmi Y. Thinley, Prime Minister of Bhutan (2008-2013) / World Leadership Alliance - Club de Madrid / Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council
Plenary Panelists
- Kate Auty, ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and Environment, Australia
- Lorenzo Fioramonti, Former Minister of Education, Italy
- Emily Howells, University of Wollongong, Australia
- Jacqueline McGlade, Prof. UCL, former head of European Environment Agency, former chief scientist, UNEP
- Morgan Pratchett, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Australia
- Jigmi Y. Thinley, Former Prime Minister of Bhutan
- John Veron, "Godfather of Coral", Corals of the World
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More plenary speakers and panelists to be announced soon. Sign up for updates.
EcoSummit 2020 Co-Chairs
- Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Griffith University, Australia
- Robert Costanza, Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University, Australia
- B. Larry Li, University of California, Riverside, USA
EcoSummit 2020 Scientific Committee
- Paul Burton, Griffith University, Australia
- Robert Costanza, Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University, Australia
- Brian Fath, Towson University, USA
- Christine Fürst, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany; President, International Association for Landscape Ecology
- B. Larry Li, University of California at Riverside, USA
- Brendan Mackey, Griffith University, Australia
- João Carlos Marques, University of Coimbra, Portugal
- Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Griffith University, Australia
- William Mitsch, Florida Gulf Coast University, USA
- Zhuyun Ouyang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; President, Chinese Society of Ecology
- Sergei Petrovskii, University of Leicester, UK
- Alexia Stokes, INRA, France
- Hao Wang, Chinese Academy of Engineering, China; President, Chinese Society for Sustainability
Local Organising Committee
- Jasper de Bie, Griffith University, Australia
- Daniele Cagnazzi, Southern Cross University, Australia
- Matthew Dunbabin, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
- Ida Kubiszewski, Australian National University, Australia
- Serena Lee, Griffith University, Australia
- Daryl McPhee, Bond University, Australia
- Johanna Nalau, Griffith University, Australia
- Anya Phelan, University of Queensland, Australia
- Russell Richards, University of Queensland, Australia
- Robert Rollin, Southern Cross University, Australia
- Oz Sahin, Griffith University, Australia
- Kylie Scales, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
- Nathan Waltham, James Cook University, Australia
