GreenGrassGroom

17th BIOECON Conference

It was a great conference because everyone left wanting more

Groom18thConference

Dr Ben Groom (LSE) and Dr Andreas Kontoleon (Cambridge Land Economy) co-hosted the 17th annual BIOECON conference on the economics of biodiversity conservation (13th – 15th September 2015). The conference was held at the majestic buildings of King's College Cambridge and was attended by over 120 delegates from academia and the policy world.

The conference provided the opportunity to exchange information on the latest developments on the economics of biodiversity and conservation. The conference theme was “Experimental and Behavioural Economics and the Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”. This theme was reflected in a self-contained workshop of 5 sessions on this topic funded by the Royal Economic Society. The theme was also reflected in a keynote speech by Pr. Daan van Soest from Tilburg University who spoke on “The (ir)relevance of other regarding preferences in environment and resource problems”. The second keynote speaker was Pr. Jeff Vincent from Duke University, who spoke on BIOECON’s more usual themes in discussing “why economists shouldn’t care about deforestation". The conference contained many parallel presentations on topics such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), Natural Resource Modelling (NRM) and economic valuation of the environment. A special policy session was also held on "Human Health and Biodiversity", as was a special parallel session on “The Economics of Infectious Diseases”, both sponsored by the United Nations Environment Project (UNEP). Lastly, a plenary session was held in memory of Pr. David Pearce, one of the fathers of environmental economics in the UK, who passed away unexpectedly 10 years ago.

BIOECON was generously funded by UNEP, The Graduate Institute in Geneva, The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (LSE), IUCN, the Royal Economic Society and Saturna Capital.

Details of the 2015 conference can be found at:www.bioecon-network.org/

For further details on the BioEcon network contact Dr Ben Groom (b.groom@lse.ac.uk)

BIOECON CONFERENCE FEEDBACK from participants

[2015]:

“BIOECON has become an unmissable event”(Pr. David Maddison, University of Birmingham)

“Kings College and BIOECON is like a spiritual retreat”

"I enjoyed meeting people from diverse backgrounds who were only too happy to accommodate me when knowledge was lacking on my part. All in all, it was a very enjoyable event and one I hope to take in again if possible"(Peter Nielsen, Saturna Capital, BIOECON Sponsor)

[2014]:

“The conference and the workshop that preceded it were extremely useful for me - a great way to get back in touch with the world of economics, which I’ve been out of for some time. So many thanks! ”

“BIOECON was the most relevant conference I’ve ever been to"

“it was a great conference because everyone left wanting more”.

“On behalf of IIED, would like to thank you for your excellent contributions to make the session a success……. we would also like to thank the organisers for the extraordinary hospitality and making all the necessary arrangements. Congratulations on a VERY successful event!!” Participants from IIED on their Monday session on Choice Experiments on PES.

“The event helped me in making important contacts, developing new ideas for future studies and to love more the economics about natural resources and environment. I´m more determined to put more effort in my future research”.

“The program was well structured with great hospitality; I've been raving about it to my colleagues! Hope to attend again in the future.”