EcoSummit 2023
Building a sustainable and desirable future:
Adapting to a changing land and sea-scape

13-17 June 2023 | Gold Coast, Australia

The 6th International EcoSummit Congress - EcoSummit 2023 - Building a sustainable and desirable future: Adapting to a changing land and sea-scape, will take place at The Gold Coast Convention Centre, Gold Coast, Australia, from 13-17 June 2023.

Abstract submission will remain open for posters.

Submit your abstract here.

Spotlighted research from EcoSummit 2020-2022
When the planned 2020 EcoSummit conference was postponed in 2020, and then further postponed in 2021, we wanted to give delegates an opportunity to showcase their work in a virtual Special Issue. The articles in the virtual Special Issue are hosted on the participating journals Total Environment Research Themes, Trees, Forests and People, Nature-Based Solutions, Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, and Environmental Challenges. They span a diverse range of topics and are all published Open Access to ensure a broad readership.

New opportunities to publish your 2023 EcoSummit papers in selected special issues will be made available on the EcoSummit website.

Aerial view of the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre

Before travelling to the conference, please familiarise yourself with the Covid-19 requirements for Australia, which Elsevier will be following. The current country guidelines can be found here and Queensland-specific guidelines are available here.

We still request that anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19, or is under any self-quarantine orders does not attend the conference.

This conference series was founded in 1996 in Copenhagen, as a forum for scientists, practioners, and policy-makers working across disciplines to solve the integrated environmental, social, and economic problems facing the world today. Since 1996, EcoSummits have occurred around the world (Canada, China, USA and Europe), with EcoSummit 2016 hosting 1400 participants from 87 countries in Montpellier, France.

EcoSummit 2023 will have a focus on coastal and marine ecosystems including adjacent terrestrial ecosystems and all habitats that are integrated within those ecosystems, including river networks, wetlands and catchments. We expect all aspects of environmental modelling, engineering, science, and policy to be covered under the focus of climate adaptation and the need for developing socio-economic and environmental resilience and sustainable prosperity around the world.  Further focus will be placed on fragile systems that are more likely to suffer the consequences of climate change and anthropogenic pressure such as islands, coastal communities and arid landscapes.

In the current context of an increasing world population, in particular in coastal regions, it is evident that building sustainable cities and using resources sustainably is inevitable. It is envisaged that the Summit will produce a declaration encompassing its vision and policy recommendations.

Topics covered will include, but are not limited to:

Coastal Systems      

• Coastal conservation
• Coastal development and engineering
• Coastal marine habitats
• Rivers, catchments and wetlands

Ecology and Biodiversity 

• Biodiversity and biological conservation
• Biological invasions
• Disturbance ecology
• Ecological complexity
• Ecological indicators
• Ecological modeling
• Ecosystem creation and restoration
• Ecosystem health
• Ecotoxicology
• Scaling from genomes to ecosystems

Marine Ecosystems/ Acquatic Environments 

• Coral reef stressors
• Deep-sea as new frontier 
• Fisheries and aquacultures
• Marine ecology
• Oceanography
• Sea level rise and ocean warming

Policies and Governance/Science and Policy  

• Climate adaptation and mitigation
• Climate change and carbon neutrality
• Eco-health and public health (diseases)
• Environmental policies and frameworks
• Fragile ecosystems and hotspot management
• Pacific Island Resilience
• Sustainability and resilience

Socio-economics    

• Aboriginal rights and land use
• Anthropogenic pressure
• Citizen Science and local actors (NGOs)
• Ecological economics
• Ecosystem services
• Ecotourism
• Innovative technology for ecological sustainability 
• Integrating socio-economics and ecology

We acknowledge the Gold Coast's Kombumerri people of the Wider Bundjalung Language Group, encompassing Ngarahngwal & Yugambeh language groups.