ACES 2014 Recap

In December of 2014, ACES convened its fourth conference on ecosystem services, focusing on linking science, practice, and decision-making. In partnership with Ecosystem Markets and the Ecosystem Services Partnership, the ACES 2014 conference attracted more than 600 participants to Washington, DC, from many government, private, NGO, and academic organizations and more than 30 countries and Native American communities.

The conference was kicked off by U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell and USGS Acting Director Suzette Kimball, and led immediately into the rollout of the President’s Climate Data Initiative by Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell—that was just the first day!

As with previous ACES conferences, there were several science topic tracks that went throughout the agenda, which can be viewed in detail here. ACES 2014 provided the perfect backdrop for exploring the role ecosystem services could play with government and public policy, situated as it was in the shadow of the Nation’s Capital.

Engagement outside the traditional science community was also stressed at ACES 2014. Indigenous knowledge and Traditional Ecological Knowledge were key themes discussed throughout the conference, as was citizen science and crowd-sourcing tools. Then, conference attendees were challenged to step back and examine how they approached ecosystem services altogether. Global perspectives were brought to bear, and speakers challenged the community to seek more international collaboration, particularly with native and indigenous peoples around the world.

ACES 2014 closed with a synthesis on Friday morning that recapped all of the themes discussed the previous days, as well as looked ahead to future goals for the ecosystem services community.

New Guidebook Released at ACES 2014!

A new online guidebook on ecosystem services and natural resource management was unveiled at the ACES Conference in December 2014 by the National Ecosystem Services Partnership (NESP). The guidebook describes how an ecosystem services approach to planning and management can be useful for federal resource managers and provides an ecosystem services assessment framework designed to promote consistent and credible application.

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