Trees, farms and ecosystem services conference

Event Date : May 24, 2012

Venue: Henfaes Research Centre, Bangor University

This year the Farm Woodland Forum’s Annual Meeting is being held in Bangor, North Wales on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th May.

The theme for the meeting is “Trees, farms and ecosystem services”

24th May: Presentations, lectures and networking at Henfaes Research Centre, Bangor University LL33 0LB

25th May: site visit to Esgair Forest courtesy of Peter Bottoms http://esgair.wordpress.com/

The ecosystem service approach offers the potential to enhance decision-making related to land management. Wales sees itself as a pioneer in this field and policy developments (specifically the Natural Environment Framework) as well as grant schemes and other initiatives reflect this. The establishment of a Single Environment Body potentially presents new opportunities for enhancing the delivery of ecosystem services. Yet pressing questions remain:

• What ecosystem services do current farm woodland activities deliver?
• How can they be measured?
• How can existing farm woodland activities be best incorporated into the ecosystem service framework?
• What tools exist?
• What scale can/should ecosystem services be assessed?
• Does the approach allow more transparent and holistic decision making that takes all affected parties into account?

This event will provide an opportunity for farmers and farm woodland owners, policymakers, land managers, researchers and other interested parties to find out more about how the ecosystem service approach has been adopted, the lessons learned to date and the potential for further implementation. We also hope to provide an update on the newly founded European Agroforestry Federation (EURAFF).

More information, a draft programme and booking form will be available shortly on the Farm Woodland Forum website.

Please note all email correspondence regarding the meeting should be directed to James Walmsley at: j.walmsley@ bangor.ac.uk.

ORC, through its Eco-agroforestry research, is an active participant in the Farm Woodland Forum and this event.