Workshop for Economists and Ecologists: Forging interdisciplinary links to inform public policy
A case study in sustainable agriculture
Charles Darwin House, London, 8th May 2012
NCI organised a workshop to encourage greater interdisciplinary working and knowledge exchange between economists and ecologists, with the goal of informing public policy. The chosen case study theme was sustainable agriculture.
The event involved a total of around 50 ecologists and economists, all of whom recognised experts in their particular fields of research, policy advice or the practical application of knowledge.
The workshop was chaired by Peter Costigan (Defra), keynote speakers were Professor Ian Bateman (CSERGE, University of East Anglia) and Professor William Sutherland (Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge). Professor Tim Benton (University of Leeds), Dr Salvatore Di Falco (London School of Economics), Professor Charles Godfray (University of Oxford) and Dr Paul Morling (Royal Society for Protection of Birds) were panellists in debate around the most pressing issues for agriculture in the UK. A full report on the workshop, and supplimentary documents are available below
Download Ecologists and Economists Workshop Report (948 kB pdf)
Download Briefing Note (881 kB pdf)
Download Workshop Programme (917 kB pdf)
Please contact secretariat@naturalcapitalinitiative.org.uk if you have any questions.
This workshop follows-on from a key message of the Valuing our Life Support Systems Symposium, that economic and environmental considerations should not be separated.
Follow-on event: Delivering Sustainable Agriculture in the UK- Promoting Dialogue Between Ecologists and Economists
HANLEY_BES- Sustainable development
British Ecological Society Annual Meeting, University of Birmingham, 19th December 2012
The Natural Capital Initiative partnered with the Agricultural Economics Society to deliver this follow-up session at the British Ecological Society’s Annual Meeting.
The aim of the session was to encourage dialogue between disciplines on economically and functionally effective approaches to incentivising the uptake of sustainable agriculture across the UK.
Environmental economists were invited to set out their approaches for valuing and incentivising the management of biodiversity and ecosystem services for farmland. The aim of the session was to inform ecologists of some of the approaches and thinking adopted by economists in handling problems of sustainability.
Ecologists were also invited to highlight the essential features of environmentally resilient agro-ecosytems.
Presentations from the event and a short report will be available shortly.
- Delivering sustainability: Nick Hanley (University of Stirling)
- Reconciling farming and nature conservation: questions, answers and next steps: Andrew Balmford (University of Cambridge)
- Incentivising biodiversity conservation on farmland: Frank Watzold (Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus)
- Co-viability of farmland biodiversity and agriculture: Lauriane Mouysset (University of Cambridge)
- Designing incentive schemes at the landscape scale: Alessandro Gimona (James Hutton Institute)
- Can ecosystem services help build resilience into agriculture: Line Gordon (Stockholm Resilience Centre)
- On the value of agricultural biodiversity: Salvatore Di Falco (University of Geneva)
- Human behaviour, ecosystem services and the resilience of agri-ecosystems: E.J. Milner-Gulland (Imperial College)
- Development for ecosystem services: Andrew P. Whitmore (Rothamsted Research)
- Sustainable agricultural intensification – is it possible to have it all?: Dominic Moran (Scottish Agricultural College)