SAC Research

The 2012 SAC-SEPA conference (organised in association with Forest Research, the James Hutton institute and Scottish Natural Heritage) took place in Edinburgh on 3rd and 4th April 2012.

Integrated management of our agricultural and forestry landscapes is essential to the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. However, current understanding of the linkages between different ecosystems and the services they provide is incomplete. The management implemented therefore needs to be flexible to adapt to these uncertainties. The need for implementation at the landscape scale also means integrating management practices across different land-managers.

This conference sought to present not only the best possible scientific understanding of the complexities associated with the delivery of multiple ecosystem services but also to provide a forum to raise and discuss what still needs to be done to have an ecosystem approach recognised and supported by land managers, researchers and policy makers

Stewart Stevenson, Scottish Government Minister for Environment & Climate Change, provided the Opening Address. This was followed by a total of twenty-three platform presentations over the two days, arranged under four main themes:

• Theme 1: How are the linkages between ecosystems and the services they provide currently understood, viewed and valued?
• Theme 2: What does the delivery of multiple ecosystem services mean at a practical level in terms of management and scale of implementation?
• Theme 3: How does the governance of landscape-scale management affect the delivery of multiple ecosystem services?
• Theme 4: How does our thinking, management practices and policies need to adapt?

The poster presentations from the conference will also be made available here soon. The title of each session of the conference was set in the form of a question - a brief overview of key points arising at the conference in relation to those questions is also in preparation and will also be made available here once complete.

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