Between 10 and 14 September 2024, young conservationists, students and early career researchers gathered together at Balatonvilágos, Hungary, for the 9th Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS Europe). The Safeguard-supported event was organised by the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research and the Regional Centre for Information and Scientific Development (RCISD).
The first day of the conference was dedicated to the Safeguard project and included:
- A plenary by partner Yann Clough (Lund University) on pollinator-mediated effects of landscape-scale land use on plant communities;
- A workshop ‘Perspectives on biodiversity conservation priorities with a focus on pollinators’, led by Safeguard partner Costanza Geppert (University of Padua), during which participants discussed their experience as early career conservation biologists on conservation priorities;
- A workshop ‘Translating scientific evidence into policy and practice’, led by partner Deepa Senepathi (University of Reading), focused on creating impactful outreach materials, tailored to the needs of stakeholders.
The next two days were also enriched with two plenaries by Safeguard partners Costanza Geppert (‘Wild pollinator conservation in cities – strategies to success’) and Deepa Senepathi (‘Can biodiversity conservation and food security needs be balanced in the face of changing environment?’).
During the conference, participants could learn more about Safeguard at Pensoft Publishers’ exhibition table, presenting project materials, such as Safeguard’s policy brief, one-pager, stakeholder summaries and stickers, along with materials for the Safeguard Knowledge Exchange Hub (Safe-Hub).
On the final day of the conference, jury members Yann Clough, Costanza Geppert, Deepa Senepathi, Tamara Mitrofanenko (Carpathian Convention), and Senan Gardiner (Leuphana University) selected and awarded the winners of this year’s edition of SCCS 2024:
- Best talk – Ahlam Sentil: The critical role of maintaining the native wild vegetation for pollinator conservation despite the use of habitat plants;
- Best poster – Ágnes Tóth: The vertical distribution of the soil seed bank in wet meadows and implications for restoration.
In addition to their certificates, the winners received free publication opportunities in the Nature Conservation journal from Pensoft Publishers and book prizes from Zsolt Molnár (HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research).
Learn more about the conference here.
Photos: 9th Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS Europe 2024)