Pre-conference trainings​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The trainings will take place on Sunday 17 November, the day before the official opening of the conference. The trainings will be held at the same venue as the rest of the event - the Wageningen International Congress Center (WICC). The half-day training (number 2) will begin at 14:00.

*Previously announced trainings number 3, 4 and 5. were withdrawn by the organisers. The team behind training 5 will organise a parallel session during the conference week - session O6. Communicating nature’s benefits in protected areas – from theory to practice. The team behind training 4 will have a booth during the week - you can find them at the SELINA booth if you have questions about science communication.

Training topics include:

1. Measuring Ecosystem Services for accounting purposes: from the macro-economic national perspective to the territorial site-level, to the business environmental reporting. Putting a Comparative Grid into practice

Organised by: European Commission Joint Research Centre

Sunday 17 November 2024, 9:30 - 16:30

Duration: Full day

Maximum participants: 50

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) involves three basic spatially explicit accounting modules: extent and condition asset accounts and Ecosystem Services flow accounts. The two main features to be reconciled in NCA are (i) the accounting rules and mechanisms and (ii) the ecological characteristics of ecosystems and their services. The former cannot proceed independently of the latter and vice versa.

Depending on the rigour and degree of complexity with which they are processed, NCA results have the potential to be used for a variety of purposes by different groups of users:

• from a geographical perspective, it is possible to make assessments from the national to the local level;

• from an economic perspective, it is possible to structure the accounts so that they can be processed from macroeconomic to microeconomic levels.

The aim of this interactive training is to present and compile an Ecosystem Service measurement – Comparative Grid to show how to assess, value and account for ecosystem services according to their uses and users.

The training is structured as follows:

9:30 - 12:30 Morning session. onsists of a theoretical module which introduces

• accounting rules and mechanisms;

• the ecological characteristics of ecosystem services;

• how both are structured in the Comparative Grid.

The afternoon session (3 hours) will consist of a practical exercise where participants will put the Comparative Grid into practice and find out what kind of NCA results are suitable for what kind of uses.

2. ARIES for SEEA and the ARIES ecosystem of applications

This crash course will provide an overview of the different ARIES applications

Organised by: BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change/ ARIES team

Sunday 17 November 2024, 14:00-16:30

Duration: 2.5 hrs

Maximum participants: 30

ARIES is an open-source, AI-powered modeling platform designed to provide timely and relevant information for addressing major environmental sustainability challenges. It allows researchers worldwide to contribute data and models to a curated, human-driven semantic web. ARIES utilizes a semantic-driven approach, employing consistently labeled, machine-actionable data and models that can be automatically assembled from web services. The platform leverages the open-source k.LAB (Knowledge Laboratory) software stack, which enables: 1. Data and model developers to share and maintain their products as open web services. 2. The use of consistent semantic annotation practices for building modular models with proper documentation and reuse conditions. 3. A distributed peer-to-peer network that hosts interoperable data and model resources, accessible through web browsers and dedicated user interfaces (e.g., ARIES apps). One of the most widely used applications is the ARIES for SEEA Explorer, which enables users globally to generate rapid, standardized, scalable, and customizable ecosystem accounts for their area of interest, aligned with the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting framework. This crash course will provide an overview of the different ARIES applications and how to effectively use them.

Register for a training

Registration is required for joining any of the trainings. Registration is available through the conference registration form (those who already registered for the main event are able to add a training to their registration by entering their registration form, using the link included in the registration confirmation email).

Training participation fees

Full day training, including participation, coffee, lunch:

50 EUR (full fee)

30 EUR (students/low-income participants)

Short training, including participation + coffee

25 EUR (full fee)

15 EUR (students/low-income participants)