On the Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 October BESS (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability), it’s four research consortia (CBESS, DURESS, WESSEX, F3UES) and numerous research grants descended on National Railway Museum in York.
Discussions and presentations revolved around BESS science informing policy, specifically:
- EU 2020 Biodiversity Targets
- Biodiversity offsetting
- Payment for ecosystem services
- Food security and resilience
- Cultural services
To get an idea of the discussion and ‘follow the story‘. The BESS Directorate will be looking at all the presentations and discussions from the October meeting to synthesize where the programmes research is contributing to the science and policy debates and pulling together into a meeting report. Once published it will be available on the BESS website.
The meeting dinner was held in the very special Engine Room of the National Railway Museum. To finish things off a BESS themed limerick showdown was instigated. CBESS’ contributions:
NERC said a great stack of data is nice! In fact, we’d like it all twice! We gave it all that we had. But the post-doc went mad… So we made up the rest with dice.
BESS Connect is a mighty chore. It certainly wants to make me roar. But once the stories trickle in. I soon feel the need for a wee gin. But four times a year is enough I implore!
A limerick, they say, has to rhyme. And normally that would be fine! But, we can only use ‘smelly’ for Dave Raffaelli. In limerick terms that’s a crime!
Meriem Kayoueche-Reeve, University of St Andrews