Photos: Top 3 - Allan Watt; Bottom - Erika Van den Bergh
		When: 15-18 April 2013 Where: Augustinian Monastery, Academiestraat 1, Ghent, Belgium All enquiries: Maurice Hoffmann INBO, Belgium Email: [email protected] Download flyer... [PDF]

Recommendations from the conference Speakers' presentations & posters Programme The conference recommendations were a key basis for discussions at the EPBRS meeting, 15-17 May, Dublin. Find out more... We welcome discussion of relevant issues in our LinkedIn group... #ALTERNetConf

The primary focus of the conference was the objectives and targets of the EU's 2020 Biodiversity Strategy, which should be realized by the end of this decade. Being a science-policy interface network, ALTER-Net wants to help the EU in realizing these targets by providing scientific knowledge, e.g. by pointing out possible weaknesses, opportunities and necessities, and by helping to find solutions and evidence-based actions.

The starting point for the conference was statements and accompanying questions for every target. These were prepared jointly by ALTER-Net and EU representatives. In this way, active participation of scientists and EU policymakers was ensured. These statements can be found here.

The programme of the 4-day conference featured half-day sessions on each EU target and included a mix of oral presentations and workshops. The workshops aimed to result in workable suggestions to EU policymakers.

During the conference it was possible for individuals to present relevant work through poster presentations.

Several side events took place, e.g. a Summer School Alumni event, a full-day workshop on 'Ecosystem services at the interface between supply and demand', a workshop on ALTER-Net multi-site experiments and a meeting to exchange ideas for new ALTER-Net initiatives.

Additionally, other European initiatives on Biodiversity knowledge gathering were given the floor, e.g. LTER-Europe, ENV Europe and BiodiversityKnowledge (KNEU).