A two-day conference was held in Nicosia on 4 & 5 December with the title “Mapping & Evaluation of Ecosystem Services in Cyprus”. The conference was co-organized by the Department of the Environment and the Department of Forests with the project iLIFE-TROODOS, under the aegis of the Honorable Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment, Kostas Kadis.
The conference was attended by people from departments and organisations of the public and private sector, environmental organizations, universities and development companies. The conference included guest presentations from foreign experts on ecosystem services, as well as thematic units for the mapping and evaluation of ecosystem services in two major areas of the island: Larnaca Salt Lakes and Troodos National Forest Park. ESP is pleased to announce that members of our community were actively involved in the event.
Dr. Panayiotis Dimopoulos and Dr. Evangelia Drakou (lead team member), both members of the Hellenic Ecosystem Services Partnership (HESP), as well as Dr. Ioannis Vogiatzakis, lead team member of the ESP National Network of Cyprus, were among the guest presenters at the conference. Dr. Dimopoulos gave a talk on ‘The conceptual framework for the implementation of ecosystem services and the identification of the”inactive” National Natural Capital’ and presented a ‘Case study presentation: Larnaca Salt lakes’. Moreover, Dr. Drakou did a presentation on the ‘Design of Ecosystem Services maps for more effective use in decision making’ while she also coordinated the ‘Thematic session 2: Participatory mapping and evaluation of ecosystem services: the case of salt lakes in Larnaca’ together with Dr. Vogiatzakis. Finally, Carlos Sebastián Villasante Larramendi from Thematic Working Group 7: Economic & Monetary Valuation (lead team chair) gave a presentation with the title: ‘Advances towards the multidimensional valuation of marine ecosystem services’