Call for Symposium and Course Proposals
Landscape Ecology for Sustainable Environment and Culture
8th IALE World Congress, August 18-23, 2011, Beijing, China

You are kindly invited to submit a proposal for a symposium or a training course to the 2011 IALE World Congress. All presenters are invited by the symposium organizer basically. But the conference organizer has the opportunity to fill in contributed oral presentations into related symposiums at “empty” time slots. The standard time slots are “15 minutes of presentation + 5 minutes discussion”.
Intensive training courses are usually held before or after the congress with a maximum of 3 days.

The format of proposals:

• Title
• Principal Organizer (Name, affiliation)
• Co-organizers (Names, affiliations)
• Description and justification of the symposium or training course: Background information, goals, objectives, importance, and interest to the congress participants, better within 200-300 words.
• Speakers (Names, affiliations, and tentative titles)
  1.
  2.
  3.
• Full information of the proposal contact person (Name, institution or affiliation, address, phone, fax, e-mail)

The deadline for symposium and training course proposal submission is Sept.1, 2010. Please send your proposal to iale2011@sina.com. The congress organizers will evaluate the symposium proposals and participants will be required to submit abstracts afterwords.

More information about IALE 2011 World Congress: www.iale2011.org



The first Latin American Landscape Ecology Conference (October 4 - 7, 2009)

For more information : www.eventus.com.br/ialebr2009

In October 2009 the first Latin American Landscape Ecology Conference will be held at the city of Campos do Jordao, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. This event results from the effort of several researchers who, since 2003 World IALE Conference in Darwin (Australia), have worked for the establishment of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE) in Latin America.
Facing all the peculiarities of Latin America countries and the complexity involved in establishing a single Latin America IALE chapter, up to date, only Argentina and Brazil have formally launched the first IALE chapters within the region (respectively ASADEP-IALE and IALE-BR). In this sense, the 2009 Latin America IALE Conference is a call for regional exchange among all Latin American countries hoping that more countries will follow this initiative.

Introduction
Latin America presents new challenges to Landscape Ecology due to the large heterogeneity of environmental conditions, from deserts to tropical forests, from the Andes to the coastal plains, from Equatorial to Polar Regions. In addition, there is a wide diversity of socio-economic and cultural conditions, merging several indigenous native cultures with European, African and Asian influences. Within this context, understanding human imprints of the living space through time, and its relationships between spatial patterns and ecological processes - the main research topics in Landscape Ecology - can reveal new paths to the conceptual development of Landscape Ecology. The Landscape Ecological perspective may also help to define sustainable strategies for biological conservation and socio-economic sustainability in the scenario of climate global changes, which particularly affect the region.

Objectives

• To encourage research development and consolidation on Landscape Ecology in Latin America by approaching and integrating researchers;
• To facilitate the creation of new IALE chapters in Latin America, establishing tools to integrate their actions;
• To search for adequate solutions to Latin American territories, in order to ensure biological conservation and environmental sustainability
• To establish and strengthen interactions among Landscape Ecology researchers, educators, students and practitioners.
• To promote technical and scientific exchange between Northern and Southern researchers and educators.

Expected Results
The main expected result is the setting up of a network of experts in the subject with a particular interest on related applications and problems within the Latin American context.

Preliminary Program
The core theme of the 2009 Latin American IALE Conference is: “Landscape Ecology in Latin America: Challenges and Perspectives”. Exchanges on a variety of subjects are expected, including:

1. Spatial and temporal patterns of ecological diversity
2. Native forest fragmentation and Biodiversity loss: Impacts on ecological processes
3. Landscape valuation and strategies for the conservation and management of species
4. Connectivity in terrestrial and aquatic environments
5. Perspectives of grasslands and savannas Landscapes studies in Latin American
6. Integrated (socio-economic and ecological) strategies for the restoration of fragmented landscapes
7. Climatic changes and their effects on landscape function and structure
8. Cultural landscapes in Latin America 
9. Integrated monitoring and planning based on Landscape Ecology principles
10.  Ecological and socio-economic aspects for the sustainability of Latin American landscapes
11. Theories and methods for the analysis of spatio-temporal changes in land use/landcover driven by human pressures
12. Development of methods and techniques in Landscape Ecology with particular focus on tropical environments
 
13.  Valuation of ecosystem services at the landscape level
14. Debate on Research priorities for Landscape Ecology in Latin America
15. Teaching strategies and building capacity for Landscape Ecology in Latin America