Keynote speakers

Throughout the week, five keynote speakers addressed the conference theme from their experiences and reflected on how ecosystem services and natural capital can contribute to creating a sustainable future. Below you'll find an overview of our keynote speakers.

Click the presentation titles below to view presentations in PDF. All the plenary recordings can be found here.

Tuesday 

• Rudolf de Groot - Foundation for Sustainable Development/ Ecosystem Services Partnership 

Making nature truly count: economic valuation of ecosystem services is essential to build a sustainable future

• Erik Gomez-Baggethun - Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)/ European Society Ecological Economics (ESEE)

To ecologize economics or to economize ecology: Challenges in nature valuation

Wednesday 

• Barbara Galletti Vernazzani - Centro de Conservacion Cetacea/ Pacific Whale Foundation

Cetacean Ecosystem Services - Science, Practice, and Policy

• Daniela Ilona Manuschevich Vizcarra - Ministerio de Medio Ambiente/ Jefa División Recursos Naturales y Biodiversidad

What type of knowledge do we need to generate to see the transformations required? Academic reflections of the doing in the state

Thursday

• Robert Costanza - University College London

Misconceptions about valuation of ecosystem services

Biographies

Barbara Galletti Vernazzani -  is the President of the Chilean NGO Centro de Conservacion Cetacea and Research Associate of Pacific Whale Foundation. She is a hydraulic civil and industrial engineer and holds certifications in Ecological Economics and Socially Responsible Finance. Her experience includes more than 20 years of research of blue whales and southern right whales, focusing on population assessments and mitigating anthropogenic threats, as well as policy development at a national and international level. She serves as Technical advisor of Chile’s delegation to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and inter alia, is chair of the IWC Conservation Committee working group on Cetaceans and Ecosystem Functioning.

Daniela Ilona Manuschevich Vizcarra - is head of the Natural Resources and Biodiversity at the Ministry of the Environment, Chile. In addition, she is an assistant professor at the Geography Department at Universidad de Chile. Her background is in biology and ecosystem ecology conservation. Then, she received her PhD from the State University of New York at the College of Environmental. She is a Fulbright alumnus. Her most important publications are; From the Holocene to the Anthropocene: A historical framework for land cover change in Southwestern South America in the past 15,000 years and Simulating land use changes under alternative policy scenarios for conservation of native forests in south-central Chile both published in Land Use Policy, as well as several publications in ecological economics, policy, scenarios, and spatial modeling.

Currently, at the Ministry of the Environment,  she is ushering the implementation of the Service of Biodiversity and Protected Areas, the National Biodiversity Strategy, and the Natural Capital Project.

 Erik Gomez-Baggethun - is a Professor of Environmental Governance working at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and the University of Oxford. He is President-elect of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and a lead author of the report ‘The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity’ (TEEB) and of the ‘Assessment Report on Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature’ of the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). He has published >150 papers, book chapters, and policy reports covering multiple topics in ecological economics and the sustainability sciences. He features since 2018 among the top 1% most cited researchers worldwide in Economics and finance and a bibliographic analysis lists him among the top three most highly cited scientists in the field of ecosystem services. His main curiosities revolve around the intersections between sustainability and justice, including justice between generations and across different life forms.

Robert Costanza (PhD, FASSA, FRSA) is a professor of Ecological Economics at the Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London and an

Ambassador of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll). He is co-founder and past-president of the International Society for Ecological Economics, and founding editor of Ecological Economics.  He is the current editor in chief of The Anthropocene Review.  Professor Costanza’s transdisciplinary research integrates the study of humans and the rest of nature to address research, policy and management issues at multiple time and space scales, from small watersheds to the global system. His areas of expertise include: ecological economics, ecosystem services, landscape ecology, integrated ecological and socioeconomic modelling, energy and material flow analysis, environmental policy, social traps and addictions, incentive structures and institutions.  He is the author or co-author of over 600 scientific papers and 30 books, including his latest book: Addicted to Growth: Societal Therapy for a Sustainable Wellbeing Future. His work has been cited more than 150,000 times in Google Scholar with an h-index of 141. More than 360 interviews and reports on his work have appeared in various popular media and he has written over 75 articles for the popular press.

Rudolf de Groot -  is an ecologist by training and has worked for more than 35 years on the development and application of the ecosystem services concept as a tool to analyze the (economic) benefits of nature conservation, sustainable ecosystem management, and landscape restoration. In July 2021 he retired as Associate Professor in Integrated Ecosystem Assessment & Management with the Environmental Systems Analysis Group of Wageningen University, the Netherlands.

De Groot was involved as Coordinating Lead author in the UN-supported Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2001-2005) and in the global study on The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity (TEEB 2008-2010), leading the Conceptual Framework chapter and the development of a database on monetary values of Ecosystem Services: ESVD. He is co-founder (2012) and Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier Journal Ecosystem Services: Science, Policy & Practice. He published numerous papers and since 2018 is listed among the top 1% most cited researchers worldwide on cross-disciplinary topics.

Next to his scientific work, he is passionate about the practical application of the ecosystem services concept. He is co-founder and Chair of the Foundation for Sustainable Development, which aims to support the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems by building knowledge and stimulating awareness of the many ways in which people depend on and benefit from nature. He is among others Special Advisor on Ecosystem Services and Nature Based Solutions of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM), Member of the Value Commission, member of the Economics of Land Degradation Working Group and Chair of the Ecosystem Services Partnership, a worldwide network to enhance the science and practical application of ecosystem services assessment.