The BOU’s 150th Anniversary Conference
2008 BOU Annual Conference

Bird conservation in response to global change: from ornithology to policy

8-10 April 2008. University of Leicester, UK

Supported by
British Trust for Ornithology, Natural England , RSPB

Conference details

The British Ornithologists' Union's 150 th Anniversary Conference will be a survey of case studies of the effectiveness of turning ornithological research into environmental policy, from a local to global scale, as a means of identifying current gaps between research effort and policy implementation. The co nference will aim particularly to carry out a gap analysis of bird co nservation within the UK , to identify where effective research is failing to turn onto effective policy, and where policy is prevented by ineffective research.

During the last 150 years - the period of the BOU – man has co me to affect all e co system functions and this has heralded the beginning of an unprecedented rapid reduction in the biodiversity of the planet. In response to this, co nservation has be co me established as a key discipline, and ornithology has been a major source of the science underpinning co nservation. This co nference aims to examine how fundamental ornithological research feeds through into environmental policy to address environmental degradation and the loss of biodiversity{Said Below}.We aim to highlight best practice and gaps in the process of research leading to policy implementation and so give a prospectus to facilitate this process for the future.

The co nference is aimed at co nservationists and environmental managers, whether as research scientists who aim to provide applied re co mmendations, or as implementers of these re co mmendations, from the local to the global level. Target participants are, for example, non-government research and co nservation organisations such as the BTO and RSPB, statutory government agencies with responsibility for the environment and development, environmental policy makers, independent environmental co nsultants and university researchers.

Conference format

The format of the co nference will be that of a traditional academic co nference. Short papers will be given by co nference attendees to fit into five themed sessions (see below) that highlight where co nservation practitioners are attempting to manage the environment in response to global change. Please note that, although there are no sessions explicitly entitled with respect to climate change, each of the five session topics below must inevitably co nsider the co nsequences of climate change. Papers are en co uraged that deal with the effective linkage of research to policy implementation as a response to global change, rather than simply documenting the effects of global change.

Each session will close with a 25 minute talk where an invited pair of authors, an experienced researcher and policy director in the subject area of the theme, presents an overview of the successes and failures in moving research into effective policy to deal with the impacts of global change.

The co nference sessions are:

• The reserve approach – led by Mike Alexander (CCW) & David Stroud (JNCC)
• Habitat creation and restoration – led by Phil Atkinson (BTO) & David Collins (Defra)
• Biodiversity on agricultural and forestry land – led by Juliet Vickery (BTO) & Phil Grice (NE)
• Biodiversity in urban and exurban areas – led by Dan Chamberlain (BTO) & David Knight (NE)
• Reintroductions and re-establishment - led by Ian Newton (CEH & University of Oxford) & Ian McLean (JNCC)

Conference opening and summary presentations will be presented by Mark Avery (RSPB) and Bill Sutherland ( University of Cambridge ).

Call for papers

If you would like to have your paper considered for an oral presentation within one of the above five themes, please email a 250 word abstract for consideration to Dr Will Cresswell at will.cresswell @ st-andrews.ac.uk (remove spaces). Deadline for submissions – 31 August 2007.

Poster presentations

If you would like to co ntribute a poster to this meeting please co ntact the BOU Conference Office in the first instance at posters @ bou.org.uk (remove spaces).

Published proceedings

It is hoped that the proceedings of this co nference can be published as a full print and online supplement of Ibis and further details will be announced at a later date.

The BOU is extremely grateful to Dr Will Cresswell for his hard work as lead organiser for this important anniversary meeting.

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