Professor Steve Albon of the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute has accepted the position of Co-chair (with Professor Robert Watson)  of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA).

This exciting project first announced by Hilary Benn last summer has been expanded from England to include Scotland and Wales.

Over the next two years it will:

(i) provide a synthesis of the state of the natural environment and provision of ecosystem services, exploring future scenarios and possible policy responses

(ii) create a compelling and coherent narrative on both the state and value of natural environment and ecosystem services, to help raise awareness of their importance to human well-being and future economic prosperity

(iii) involve an inclusive process of interaction with stakeholders and communities of interest to  interact and share learning, and in particular to foster better inter-disciplinary cooperation between natural and social scientists.