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.
Read the EcoSummit 2023 Conference Declaration: Building a Sustainable Wellbeing Future
Aerial view of the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre
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.
Plenary speakers
- Robert Costanza, University College London, UK
- Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Club of Rome, Belgium
- Brian Fath, Towson University, USA
- Bojie Fu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
- Alan Hastings, University of California, Davis, USA
- Emma Johnston, The University of Sydney, Australia
- Brendan Mackey, Griffith University, Australia
- Michelle Maloney, Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Australia
- Jacqueline McGlade, University College London, UK
- Mariana Mayer Pinto, University of New South Wales, Australia
- Jigmi Y. Thinley, Prime Minister of Bhutan (2008-2013) / World Leadership Alliance - Club de Madrid / Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council
Panelists:
- Andrew Brooks, Griffith University, Australia
- Robert Costanza, University College London, UK
- Emily Howells, Southern Cross University, Australia
- Kate Jones, Executive Director for the Tech Council of Australia / Independent Director on the Paralympics Australia Board / Strategic Advisor at Soda
- Junguo Liu, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power | Southern University of Science and Technology, China
- Xuehua Liu, Tsinghua University, China
- Yihe Lyu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
- Jacqueline McGlade, University College London, UK
- Morgan Pratchett, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Australia
- Jigmi Y. Thinley, Former Prime Minister of Bhutan (2008-2013) / World Leadership Alliance - Club de Madrid / Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council
- John Veron, "Godfather of Coral", Corals of the World
Chairs
- Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Griffith University, Australia
- Robert Costanza, Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London, UK
- B. Larry Li, University of California, Riverside, USA
Scientific Committee
- Paul Burton, Griffith University, Australia
- Robert Costanza, Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London, UK
- Brian Fath, Towson University, USA
- Christine Fürst, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany; Past President, International Association for Landscape Ecology
- B. Larry Li, University of California at Riverside, USA
- Brendan Mackey, Griffith University, Australia
- João Carlos Marques, University of Coimbra, Portugal
- Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Griffith University, Australia
- William Mitsch, Florida Gulf Coast University, USA
- Zhuyun Ouyang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; President, Chinese Society of Ecology
- Sergei Petrovskii, University of Leicester, UK
- Alexia Stokes, INRA, France
- Hao Wang, Chinese Academy of Engineering, China; President, Chinese Society for Sustainability