Welcome

Welcome to the European Ecosystem Services 2016 conference! With the theme 'Helping nature to help us' the conference focussed on the important role that healthy ecosystems play in supporting human well-being and the protection of nature.

This conference was the biggest European event in 2016 that linked science, policy and practice on ecosystem services and natural capital.

The conference had the following results:

over 600 participants during the course of the week;
10 keynote presentations from policy, practice and science;
a networking day with 40 stands from the (business) community where businesses, practitioners, policymakers and researchers met and showcased their work;
62 interactive sessions which demonstrated working examples of ecosystem services and natural capital;
around 500 oral presentations;
around 60 poster presentations;
8 field excursions to see ecosystem services in action;
writing and presentation of the Antwerp Declaration; and
a great vibe, with singing scientists for the climate. Watch the summary here and photos!
click here to see the survey results answered by 10% of the conference participants.

We invite you to check the webpages for conference proceedings and learn from experiences from business, land management, policy and local practice!

Conference outcomes

Antwerp declaration

The European Ecosystem Services Conference is proud to have launched The Antwerp declaration, thanks to the great input of the conference participants.The Antwerp declaration calls for action to realise the transformative potential of the ecosystem services framework. Read and sign the declaration here.

Conference proceedings

Conference participants are provided with the full participant list, and links to the digital presentations in PDF soon. Click here for the conference photos.

CO2 compensation

We are proud to announce that we raised €400 for the CO2 offset programme, The Grote Netewoud and we would like to thank all conference participants who contributed to this program. They were the green stars of this conference!

Book of abstracts

We finalised the book of abstracts of each session. Each book of abstracts also contains the session program.