Valuing Nature Keynote Lecture Series: The good, the bad & the unexpected

Valuing Nature: The good, the bad & the unexpected of interdisciplinary endeavour

UNFORTUNATELY, DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, THE LECTURE SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE IN EXETER ON 2 OCTOBER 2019 HAS HAD TO BE CANCELLED. However, we hope to reschedule so please register your interest by 'purchasing a free ticket' on this site if you are happy for us to send you further details.

Information about the talk: This Valuing Nature Keynote Lecture will be given by Dr Nicola Beaumont from Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The 45 minute lecture will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session chaired by Professor Michael Winter with Brett Day (University of Exeter), Katrina Davis (University of Exeter) and Ece Ozdemiroglu (eftec).

Abstract: Valuing Nature requires research that brings together a variety of disciplines, as recognised by the Valuing Nature Programme. However, the benefits, downfalls and challenges of interdisciplinary working are not always clear and often understated.

The VNP funded CoastWEB project brought together 8 different disciplines, coupled with a varied stakeholder network, to research the values and wellbeing benefits of saltmarshes, with an aim of providing tangible and useful outcomes. This interdisciplinary approach proved interesting, frustrating, challenging and rewarding. In this seminar the CoastWEB experience is shared including the unique research findings, the interdisciplinary processes used, lessons learned, and recommendations for the future.

Biography: Professor Nicola Beaumont has more than 20 years’ experience working at the interface between natural sciences and socio-economics, including extensive project and people management experience. Nicola specialises in the quantification and valuation of marine and coastal ecosystem services, and translating complex natural science into terms which are meaningful in a social and economic context.

She has experience across a variety of scales from local county councils to European and Global levels, and to a variety of marine management issues, including: renewable energy, ocean acidification, and marine planning and policy.

Panel:

The 45 minute lecture will be followed by responses from the following Panelists:

Michael Winter (Chair) - Professor of Land Economy and Society, Centre for Rural Policy Research (University of Exeter). Michael is a rural policy specialist and a rural social scientist in the department of Politics, University of Exeter. He has particular interests in applying inter-disciplinary approaches to policy-relevant research and in direct engagement in the policy process. He is Director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research and the Food Security & Land Research Alliance (encompassing the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter, Rothamsted Research and Duchy College). He is a member of the Valuing Nature Programme Coordination Team

Brett Day is an environmental economist working in the field of ecosystem services, the particular focus of his research being the development of methods and knowledge for the support of environmental decision-making. He received a PhD in Economics from University College London in 2004, took up a faculty position in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia in 2005, and in 2015 joined the Department of Politics in Exeter University. Brett has published widely in the academic literature including outlets such as Science, the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. He also maintains close links with government and business, applying the methods of environmental economics to problems of environmental management in both public and private sectors.

Dr Katrina Davis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Land, Environment, Economics & Policy Institute at the University of Exeter. She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, University of Western Australia, and a Visiting Scholar with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science at the University of Oxford. Her research investigates optimal natural-resource decisions to maximise ecosystem service flows. Currently, her research focuses on how non-market values can be incorporated into bioeconomic production models, integrated land-sea management, and managing conflict between fisheries and marine mammals.

Ece Ozdemiroglu, founder and Managing Director of eftec (Economics of the Environment Consultancy). eftec has run since 1992 and is the UK’s leading consultancy in environmental economics, with several hundred projects in economic valuation, appraisal, working with natural capital, policy design and training for public, private and NGO sector clients in the UK and the rest of the world. Ece is the economics lead of the Valuing Nature Programme Coordination Team