European Landscape Ecology Congress IALE 2022

2022-08-03

We are pleased to announce that IALE 2022 European Landscape Ecology Congress took place on July 11-15, 2022. Congress was organised by Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences (IGiPZ PAN) and Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw (WGiSR UW) in partnership with European and Polish Associations for Landscape Ecology (IALE-Europe and PAEK).

The European Landscape Ecology Congress is a cyclical scientific event, held every four years since 1998. Since 2009, the entity responsible for the continuation of the cycle is the European Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-Europe), a scientific organization established to represent and coordinate the activities of landscape ecologists in Europe. In 2019, Poland was selected for the organization of the next Congress, in particular the proposal of IGiPZ PAN and the University of Warsaw. At that time, Andrzej Affek from IGiPZ PAN, who has been also the treasurer and Executive Committee member of IALE-Europe, was appointed chairman of the Organizing Committee. A Congress of such a high rank was the first ever held in this part of Europe.

IALE 2022 aimed to highlight landscape ecology as the transdisciplinary platform linking past, present and future. This approach is especially needed now when the world is facing global challenges such as climate crisis, biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, mass migration and urbanization. A holistic, landscape approach to the complex cultural-environmental systems – which is the essence of landscape ecology – provides the perfect framework for combining transdisciplinary tools and perspectives to better understand the diverse phenomena and processes around us and to predict and properly manage them. That is why we want to learn from past experience and knowledge to take responsibility for shaping sustainable landscapes and societies of the future. Thus, our main cCngress theme is Making the future, learning the past.

The main theme was discussed through the four interconnected thematic groups covering the whole range of issues relevant for landscape ecology: Past, Learning, Future, and Making. 28 symposia were organised in 10 thematic groups: 1. Learning from people 2. Learning from nature 3. Learning from data 4. Learning from past landscapes 5. Planning future landscapes 6. Policy making for European landscapes 7. Agricultural and productive landscapes 8. Urban and peri-urban landscapes 9. Regions in the spotlight 10. Education in landscape ecology.

Congress was attended by 400 participants from almost 50 countries from Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Africa. 320 papers were delivered and over 50 posters presented, authored by more than 1000 people in total.

Due to the high importance of the event, IALE 2022 received the honorary patronage of the Minister of Climate and Environment, and was cofinansed by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Poland.

We invite you to read the Book of Abstracts and view the four video excursions recorded especially for the Congress!