Through it's partner the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), ALTER-Net is a member of Ecsite, the European network of science centres and museums. Ecsite publishes a quarterly newsletter and the latest issue focusses on biodiversity. ALTER-Net is playing an active role in the Ecsite Nature Group, a thematic group with more than 70 Ecsite members focussing on biodiversity and the natural world. Through this partnership, three ALTER-Net members have contributed articles to the latest newsletter. Leon Braat from Alterra has written about biodiversity and ecosystem services, and Helen Roy and Barnaby Smith from CEH have contributed a piece on engaging people in monitoring biodiversity.
"To produce food, timber and fuel, pristine ecosystems are often converted to single purpose land uses with great loss of biodiversity and risk of total degradation. From an economic view-point, it is these ecosystem services that are of value and not biodiversity itself per se."
Leon Braat
Leon's article is based on a recent publication, 'the costs of policy inaction: the case of not achieving the 2010 biodiversity target1. Leon explains what is meant by the term 'ecosystem services' and goes on to describe how the degradation of such services is an important issue for everyone in society, even those not directly involved in activites which either degrade or enhance these services. Although the concept of ecosystem services, and the related notion of sustainable use of natural resources, have been with us for some time, increasing emphasis by policymakers and researchers is now placed on valuing ecosystems for the services they provide. Because the ecosystem services approach seeks to define the link between the natural world and human well-being in clear terms, it lends itself to public engagement and is a theme which many science centres and communicators are sure to develop further in their communication activities. ALTER-Net can contribute its expertise to this.
"More than 60 000 ladybird records have been received across Britain ... it would be impossible to gather a dataset of this magnitude without the engagement of people."
Helen Roy and Barnaby Smith
In their article, Helen and Barnaby article describe the UK's Ladybird Survey, which has successfully encouraged many UK citizens to report their sightings of ladybird species. This example of 'citizen science' in action has helped researchers to track the spread of the invasive harlequin ladybird. The authors point out that the Ladybird Survey is one of many initiatives aimed at involving the public in generating scientifically-valuable datasets. In fact they point out that without such public input, some datasets could not be created at all. Many ALTER-Net partners undertake long-term monitoring and research programmes, e.g. through the coordination of national LTER networks, and so the development of effective citizen monitoring schemes is an area in which ALTER-Net and Ecsite could collaborate.
Further information
1Braat L.C. and ten Brink P. (eds.) (2008). The Cost of Policy Inaction: the case of not achieving the 2010 Biodiversity Target. Alterra report 178, ISSN 1566-7197, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Learn more about TEEB - The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
ALTER-Net's Nature and Biodiversity News & Views has a feature on the invasive harlequin ladybird.
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