EcoSummit 2007 and beyond

EcoSummit 2007, which took place in Beijing, China in May, hosted over 1400 participants from more than 70 countries. The event was organized by the Ecological Society of China and Elsevier, and was co-sponsored by 29 major national, regional, and international ecological organizations and societies, including many Chinese scientific organizations. EcoSummit was initiated in the mid-1990s by the chief editors of Elsevier's three primary ecology journals, to foster dialogue and interaction among ecologists. The first EcoSummit was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1996, and the second in Halifax, Canada in 2000. However, those initial meetings attracted very limited attention from the ecological community. In organizing the third EcoSummit, we recognized that times had changed. Ecological science must not focus only on the development of theories and the understanding of ecological mechanisms, but also on the application of ecological principles to protect and restore ecosystems. We can no longer strive simply to generate academic papers, but must also promote public awareness and present ecological principles and knowledge to policy makers, planners, and managers, in plain language that can be understood by all. We felt strongly that there was a need for the ecological community to have a new kind of EcoSummit, a platform from which to fully engage not only ecologists, but a much broader audience, representative of the entirety of human society. The Beijing EcoSummit, the first to be held in a developing country, successfully attracted broad representation from various sectors and highlighted the determination of the ecological community to achieve the United Nations' millennium development goals. China, with the world's fastest growing economy and concomitant impacts on the regional and global environment, seemed a logical choice for this event, particularly in view of its ongoing preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. At the end of this year's EcoSummit, participants adopted the Beijing Ecological Declaration, entitled A world role for ecology: the key to life. The Declaration begins, “Ecology is at the heart of many of our everyday concerns. It is the key to solving many problems of human interactions with natural systems. Ecology can help us design, plan, manage, and protect our environment to ensure that we can all enjoy healthier lives and pass on a good environment for our grandchildren to appreciate. Ecology must be a factor in policy decision making. Without understanding ecology, we risk building up problems for the future, from increasing the rate of land degradation and the loss of plant and animal life, to worsening the present global climate change.” Our hope is that future EcoSummit meetings will encourage even greater integration of natural and social sciences with the policy and decision-making community. The aim is to develop a better understanding of the complex nature of ecological systems and to provide opportunities for dialogue among researchers, planners, decision makers, and practitioners in ecology and related disciplines, with emphasis on the interdisciplinary, interorganizational, and inter-regional issues related to global sustainability. EcoSummits are not meant to compete with society conferences, but rather to be complementary and mutually beneficial. In this new era, ecological science should not be insular. Instead, it must influence, and be influenced by society and the economy, and it must partner with other disciplines. In order to solve today's environmental problems, ecology must employ tools from outside the field – new technologies, for example – to understand complex ecological relationships. Only by achieving this will it be possible to bring socioeconomic needs and environmental preservation into harmony. Ecological science must play a vital role in promoting sustainability on this crowded, rapidly changing, and fragile planet. The Beijing Ecological Declaration ended with a strong appeal to the world. The scientists at this year's EcoSummit called for humanity to prevent further ecological deterioration of the Earth. This will require developing and enforcing environmental laws and regulations, and upholding and applying international conventions. It also demands the utmost collaboration between civil society, governments, and scientists in applying ecological principles to everyday life. Our future is in our own hands. Ecology is one of the tools we must use to make this a better world. The next EcoSummit will be held in Africa in 2011, and will be announced in 2008. For further information, visit www.ecosummit2007.elsevier.com.

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