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15 Jun 2007
Unit:
Alterra
 From 8 until 12 July, the seventh World Congress of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE) will be held in The Netherlands, in Wageningen, with the theme "Scientific Principles in Practice". The congress will present advances made over the past 25 years in understanding the functioning and management of landscapes under pressure from urbanisation. Fifteen excursions will also demonstrate how these scientific principles are applied in practice in The Netherlands. Representatives of the press, who would like to assess how scientists and landscape experts experience and evaluate the Dutch solutions, are welcome. At the congress over 700 scientists, landscape designers and landscape managers will exchange their experience and knowledge of globalisation, landscape fragmentation, ecology in an urbanising world, and related problems. In addition, Dutch scientists and practitioners will show how this knowledge has been applied in practice. For many participants this will be an introduction to the reality of cooperation in daily life, of making compromises, while keeping true to the principle of developing a better living environment. At the congress there will be lectures and poster presentations with eleven themes, which are:
Theme 1: Landscape, land use, and policy
Theme 2: Ecology of the urban environment, and transport systems
Theme 3: Ecological networks and landscape fragmentation
Theme 4: Ecohydrology, water and rivers
Theme 5: Monitoring and landscape classification
Theme 6: Cultural landscapes and their management
Theme 7: Landscape changes
Theme 8: Global change and its impact on landscapes
Theme 9: Ecological principles for landscape planning and design
Theme 10: Forests, vegetation, and landscape
Theme 11: Landscapes for Life (30 EU projects)In conjunction with these parallel themes there are lectures by leading scientists and practitioners. Many of the results of scientific research are being applied in The Netherlands. To highlight and discuss this, as an integrated part of the congress, excursions have been organised on Wednesday 11 July and Friday 13 July. The whole congress will go into the field in groups of fifty to talk with those who achieve the practical reality of what scientists deduce and design. The following excursions are available:
- Biesbosch, (Room for the River project, forward planning for water storage and river enlargement)
- Nature and van Gogh (Nature Park, and museum, the change of an estate into a nature reserve and recreational amenity)
- Delta works and Tiengemeten (discussion of the management of the Delta Works, its water and islands, and a visit to an island that has been returned to nature)
- Boundless Parks (planning and management of nature to enable it to withstand urbanisation and land use changes)
- Oostvaardersplassen (the youngest Dutch nature reserve, with natural grazing, and related problems and management challenges)
- Road ecology (an excursion to various locations where safe passages for fauna have been established, even for amphibians)
- New and old landscapes in the National Ecological Network (Eschmarke (Enschede), de Doorbraak (Almelo-Enter) and estate Ampsen)
- Dunes of the North Holland Water Company (the use of dunes for water purification, in combination with the development of nature and outdoor recreation)
- Millingerwaard (restoration of nature and water storage in the apex of the Rhine delta)
- Wieden and Weerribben (a unique introduction to the lowland peat areas and their management)
- Bicycle tour of Wageningen (in The Netherlands a tour bike is essential: a project to link the forest with the river Rhine will be visited, and also the historic use of the brook valleys will be explored)
- Veluwe (wild life management in the Zuidelijke Veluwezoom National Park)
- Urban ecology workshop (at Alterra) on Wednesday and excursion (led by the urban ecologists of Amsterdam) on 13 July
- The Holland Water Defence Line (a UNESCO World Cultural heritage site: flooding used as a defence)
- Drentse Aa and Hunzedal (a traditional lowland stream landscape, and the restoration of a canalised lowland stream )
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