ACES 2016 Recap
ACES 2016 brought together more than 450 leaders from government, academia, NGO’s, Native American Tribes, and the private sector from more than 21 nations around the world to share experiences, methods, and tools relating to ecosystem services and their incorporation into public and private decisions. Held in December 2016 in Jacksonville, FL, the fifth biennial ACES conference focused on implementation advances and challenges.
Physical and social scientists, natural and cultural resource managers, policy makers, and experts from a variety of backgrounds summarized their work in over 200 oral and poster presentations addressing a broad range of topics including human well-being, monetary and non-monetary valuation, urban ecosystem services, the impacts of climate change on terrestrial and coastal ecosystems services, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and a special track highlighting conservation finance (ACES 2016 speaker presentations can be viewed here and poster presentations can be viewed here). The wide range of topics covered came with a challenge to attendees to ‘step out of their silo’ and participate in sessions they might not normally select. Many participants made an effort to do so and were rewarded with new perspectives and valuable new contacts to help advance ecosystem services understanding and implementation.
