The Centre for International Environmental Studies convened the 16th annual BIOECON Conference at Kings College in Cambridge, UK on Sept. 22 and 23, together  with the Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge, as well as other members of the BIOdiversity and Economics for CONservation Network.

The conference theme for 2014 was ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability’. More than 60 academic papers were presented on the theme of natural resources and economics, with attended by some 150 delegates.  Keynote addresses were delivered by Prof. Jim Salzman (Duke University) on water pricing and by Prof. Christian Gollier (Toulouse School of Economics) on discounting and climate change.

CIES and BIOECON partners also organised a two-day Training Workshop on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme, on the subject of “Economics of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Building Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services into National Policy directly prior to the conference.  Lectures were given by senior professors in the field of resource economics from London School of Economics, ETH Zurich, Duke University to 25 government officials and policy advisors from developing countries.