Biosymposium 2015 - The Functions and Values of Biodiversity
Oxford, United Kingdom

“The more biodiversity the better” has long been a central tenet of environmental policy. Recently this has been challenged.

By drawing together an interdisciplinary group of leading biodiversity scientists, conservationists, economists and philosophers, the aim of the meeting is to address the following questions: What is the evidence that biodiversity has “value”?

In other words: how convinced are we by evidence that biodiversity is important for ecosystem function, climate, food security, health, poverty alleviation and innovation? Does biodiversity provide ecosystem disservices as well as services? How good are our methods for quantifying value?

How can research into ecosystem services better shape environmental policy? How far can and how far should economic approaches be used to solve the biodiversity crisis? Is there another way to assure widespread support for safeguarding nature?