ESP EUROPE 2018

The Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) aims to enhance communication, coordination and cooperation, and to build a strong network of individuals and organizations. ESP enhances and encourages a diversity of approaches, while reducing unnecessary duplication of effort in the conceptualization and application of ecosystem services. By raising the profile of ecosystem services and promoting better practice, the ES-Partnership will also increase opportunities for financial support and help focus the funding of individual organizations for more efficient utilization of existing funds.

ESP was launched in 2008 by the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics (University of Vermont, USA) and is now being coordinated by the Foundation for Sustainable Development (Wageningen, The Netherlands). ESP is a membership based organisation, both institutional and individual members can subscribe. The Partnership has a specified governance structure and Executive committee.

In 2006 ESP started to organise yearly conferences about ecosystem services. Since 2016 ESP shifted to bi-annual World Conferences with Regional Conferences in the intermediate years. The previous ESP9 World Conference was in Shenzhen, China in 2017.