1. List of the Executive Committee of IALE-Europe 2022-2025
President:
Name: Veerle Van Eetvelde
Affiliation: Ghent University, Department of Geography (Belgium)
Secretary General:
Name: Simona Gradinaru
Affiliation: University of Bucharest, Centre for Environmental Research and Impact Studies (Romania)
Treasurer:
Name: José Rafael Muñoz-Rojas Morenés
Affiliation: Universidade de Évora, Department of Geosciences and MED-Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (Portugal)
4th member: (membership administration)
Name: Federica Larcher
Affiliation: University of Torino, Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, Landscape ecology and urban horticulture research group (Italy)
5th member: (communication manager)
Name: Werner Rolf
Affiliation: Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Life Science, Chair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management (Germany)
6th member: (additional member)
Name: Morten Graversgaard
Affiliation: Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology and Department of Biology (Denmark)
7th member: (additional member)
Name: Çiğdem Coşkun Hepcan
Affiliation: Ege University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Landscape Architecture (Turkey)
General presentation
The proposed list for the IALE-Europe Executive Committee (EC) 2022-2025 will start as a newly initiated team, creating a new dynamism and building on a diversity of experiences of its members in the European and national bodies of IALE.
When composing the list, we considered the geographical distribution, experience and diversity in research and teaching expertise within the broad interdisciplinary field of landscape ecology. Four members will engage within the EC for the first time and bring new impulses and fresh ideas. Two members have been part of the EC since 2017 and one since 2009, which will ensure continuity. According to the statutes (article 15-1), members of the EC "can be elected for two consecutive periods of four years each, unless the General Assembly expressly recognises that it is impossible or inconvenient to replace the members in charge". The new team of the EC believes that it is crucial to include all proposed members of the EC to guarantee a sustainable organisation of IALE-Europe based on the experience and background knowledge of the different aspects of the organisation. To also include the younger landscape ecologists in an early-career stage, the EC will launch a call for one additional member. This will support the ambition of this EC to ensure that the governance of the association will be handed over to a new team and leadership in 2025.
Since the next term is only three years, the EC realises that fast actions must be made. We all see this as an existing new adventure and looking very much forward to getting your vote for the next EC.
Action plan 2022-2025
1. Bringing the members together
IALE-Europe is an inclusive community that gathers around fundamental and applied topics within landscape ecology. We realise that meeting each other is crucial in our community, even in challenging times. The EC want to invest in research, educational and networking activities to create new energy and synergies in physical and online events, furthering the development of a Europe-wide transdisciplinary landscape community.
2. Communication with the members
A biannual IALE-Europe Newsletter and regular newsflashes have been established in the past term, in combination with the website and active Twitter account. The new EC wants to further elaborate on these communication channels and encourage its members and the national chapters to participate in active communication.
3. Supporting the national chapters
We will continuously go into dialogue with the national chapters, encourage the exchange of ideas and activities among the chapters, support and disseminate information regarding their events, help sustain the existing chapters and assist the foundations of new chapters.
4. Relation with IALE International
The activities initiated or organised by IALE International will be supported and communicated to the European landscape ecology community. The EC will maintain good relations with the current and newly elected Executive Committee of IALE International.
5. Supporting the early-career landscape ecologists
To ensure the future of IALE-Europe, an early-career landscape ecologist will be included in the EC following an open call that will be launched in Autumn 2022.
The Young Researchers Webinar Series will be continued as events dedicated to young landscape ecologists and as an informal forum to present and discuss their work with colleagues.
6. Leading IALE 2025 European Congress
The venue and organiser of the next European Congress will be identified after an open call that will be launched in the Autumn of 2022. The EC will provide full support to co-organise a successful meeting.
7. Supporting and developing working groups
The three working groups of IALE-Europe (see: https://iale-europe.eu/working-groups) are considered as working themes to organise different activities around European stakeholders, landscape ecology education and landscape ecology practice. We will support the further development of new groups that help develop the vision of IALE-Europe.
8. Organising PhD courses
We will organise one PhD course to be launched in the following months and one accompanying the IALE 2025 European Congress.
9. Fostering and establishing relationships with other landscape-related networks and projects in Europe
The EC wants to stimulate dialogues with other European bodies, institutions and organisations with interests in and supporting landscape research. We are open to collaborations within European projects and with other landscape-related networks
2. Representative of IALE-Europe for the Council of IALE International
Name: Isabel Loupa-Ramos
Affiliation: IST/ University of Lisbon, CiTUA (Portugal)
Statement:
The European Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-Europe) groups since 2009 landscape ecologists working on the specific problems of landscapes in Europe. History, use, conservation, policy and governance arrangements have shaped distinctive European landscapes. Landscape matters! In multiple ways and to all lifeforms. Knowledge and action is required to face today’s megatrends – as climate change, ecological overshoot, demographic shifts or mega urbanization. The European community of Landscape ecologists has proven to be capable to provide scientific grounds to support decision making on landscape policies management in ways to bring about transformative change in Europe and beyond: From pattern and process to people and action. Representing IALE-Europe to the IALE council means to represent the specificity of European Landscapes in respect of the diversity of Landscape Ecology approaches of all the IALE-Europe community, to facilitate exchange with other regions and networks, to support decisions on membership renewal strategies and to promote a more active role of young researchers in IALE.