ISSN 1570-6524

International Association for Landscape Ecology

NEW YEARS GREETINGS FROM THE IALE PRESIDENT FELIX KIENAST, SWITZERLAND
Dear IALE members, 2011 has been an eventful and demanding year. IALE had its very first World Congress in China, hosted by the China Regional Chapter. In the last months the new EC has been active in improving the communication among chapters and has fostered the establishment of new chapters. There is a growing landscape ecology community in Africa, the Middle East and Central America. Steps have been undertaken to establish IALE Iran and the supra-regional activity of IALE Europe seems to have gained momentum. Our colleagues from US-IALE have put together a thrilling proposal to host the 2015 world congress in Portland, Oregon and the EC has decided to hold the World Congress 2015 in North America (see Article World Congress in this Bulletin). Thanks also to the other excellent proposals from the Czech Republic and Switzerland. In the first months of my Presidency I have visited the larger chapters of our Society (Germany, China, UK) and I have seen encouraging signs of collaboration. We also see a growing interest in the activities of the IALE council, the official voice of the Chapters. As we showed in the last Bulletin, the IALE EC is proud that 90% of the funds that IALE International gets from individual members or regions are redistributed to the regions in the form of loans, travel subsistence for early career scientists or support for setting-up a region. We will continue to do so in 2012 and in the following years (see second call 2012 in this Bulletin). In 2012 will see many regional conferences and initiatives! Check out regional Webpages and the IALE International Webpage that will be re-launched with a new design and new functionalities in spring 2012. In 2012 we will continue to invest time and efforts to meet your expectations of an innovative professional society. In order to strengthen the important input of landscape ecology in the fields of Ecosystem Services, Landscape Planning or place studies, we started talks with other professional societies working in similar fields. With the Ecosystem Service Partnership we have agreed that IALE members get a discount for the Journal Solutions and we envision having joint workshops and conferences. This collaboration will strengthen IALE and its unique focus on landscapes. Again I kindly invite you to voice your needs both in terms of financial support and networking via email (felix.kienast@wsl.ch) or other forms of communication. Yours Felix Kienast President IALE International 2011-2015.

Bulletin

available as pdf-file from the website of IALE www.landscape-ecology.org

Vol. 30 no. 1, January 2012

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY WORLD CONGRESS 2015 TO BE HELD IN PORTLAND, OREGON, USA
The EC of IALE International has evaluated three proposals to host the World Congress 2015 (Switzerland; Czech Republic; Oregon, USA). All three proposals were excellent in all respect, and discriminating among the three was difficult. IALE International has accepted the US-IALE supported

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...continued from page 1 (IALE World Congress 2015 in Portland, USA) proposal from the Oregon-based consortium to host the 2015 conference. When searching for factors for differentiating among the three proposals one factor was the recent hosting (2007) of the WC-IALE on the European continent. In addition, it was noted that travel from emerging IALE Chapters in Central and South America as well as Asia might be easier to the US-IALE proposed meeting site.

Portland will offer excellent meeting facilities and the possibility to join forces with other societies working in similar fields. The meeting will take place from the 5th to 10th July 2015. The management structure conforms to and is consistent with earlier international meetings of IALE. All team members are affiliated with Portland State University (PSU), located in downtown Portland, Oregon. The meeting committee of US-IALE (chaired by Janet Franklin) supports the Congress.

Lead Organizers will be Robert Costanza, Professor of Sustainability, and Vivek Shandas, Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning. The Lead Organizing Committee will include Robert Scheller, Jennifer Allen, John Reuter, Ida Kubiszewski, and, as liaison between the local organizers and IALE International our General Secretary Thomas Edwards. Robert Scheller co-hosted the 2011 US-IALE meeting in Portland and is currently US-IALE Treasurer. Jennifer Allen and John Reuter are the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions (ISS) and Director of the PSU School of the Environment, respectively. Ida Kubiszewski is managing editor of the Solutions journal. Thomas Edwards is Secretary General of IALE International and ran the US-IALE 2009 meeting at Snowbird. by IALE Executive Committee

NEWS FROM THE IALE COUNCIL

The revitalised IALE Council held its 1st meeting as an e-mail based meeting over 2 weeks before Christmas. At the meeting Diane Persson from Australia was elected as deputy chair of the council. Diane will assist the chair, Xiuzhen, by the preparation and reporting from the meetings as well as by the implementation of the decisions taken by the council. A proposal for presentation of the IALE Council at the IALE Website giving information on the purpose and function, way of working and history, was presented

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...continued from page 2 (News from the IALE Council) and recommended for publication at the website together with full information on the representations to the council, as well as a recommendation to all established chapters of IALE to ensure a preferably yearly direct election of a representative to the council. Due to the missing functionality of the council from 2007-.2011 there has been a widespread ignorance to the necessary yearly election of representatives. Therefore a proposal for a procedure for the proper reestablishment of the council that has been recommended by the co-chair of the IALE Nomination Committee was presented. The proposal was approved and will be implemented in the coming period. Finally a procedure for the appointment of accountants for the audit of the accounts of IALE International was proposed and approved by the Council. The next meeting of the council will be held during spring 2012. Proposals for the agenda should be sent to Xiuzhen Li (lixz@iae.ac.cn) by Jesper Brandt, IALE Council

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2. Support of the establishment of new regional chapters, especially in the developing countries 3. The relation between the regional chapters and between regional chapters and upcoming superregional chapters (e.g. between IALE Europe and the regional/national chapters within Europe). Here also the relation between the IALE Council and the proposed superregional representatives appointed by the Executive Committee among the Vice Presidents were discussed. 4. To stabilize the functionality of the council, it was proposed to promote an election of a deputy chair of the council. by Jesper Brandt, IALE Council

IALE-EUROPE: THE POSITION AND PLANS OF THE EUROPEAN CHAPTER FOR 2012-2013
The European chapter of IALE (IALE-Europe), the first supra-national chapter within IALE, was founded in 2009 during the European Congress in Salzburg. The Executive Committee (EC), elected by the General Assembly, had the task to get the European chapter on track for the first two years. As agreed at that conference, elections for a new EC and representative for the Council of IALE took place in the autumn of 2011. More than 40% of the eligible members of IALE-Europe took part in the election, which is the highest number who cast ballots in any international IALE election up to now, and we would like to thank all of you who participated the elections. The new elected EC is now in charge since November 2011 until September 2013. As Chair of the new elected EC and on behalf of its members, I would like to inform you first about the goals and role of the European chapter, and second about the activities we will pursue in the coming period. The activities of IALE-Europe will be framed by the Setting the Scene document, prepared and widely discussed at Salzburg, when the chapter was established. As stated in this document and in the Status (www.iale-europe.eu), the European Association of Landscape Ecology exists to foster and develop scholarship within landscape ecology throughout

XIUZHEN LI, CHINA, ELECTED AS CHAIR OF THE IALE COUNCIL

During the IALE Congress in Beijing in August 2011 the IALE Council had its ordinary meeting. Representatives for 9 regional chapters of IALE and 5 members of the IALE Executive Committee gathered to discuss important matters for IALE, give advices to the Executive Committee and elect a new chair of the council. Two candidates were nominated, Xiuzhen Li from China and Diane Persson from Australia. With 13 votes, the statute rules on quorum was fulfilled, and with 9 votes Xiuzhen Li was elected chair of the IALE Council. After the congress, the Council was invited to the first meeting of the new installed Executive Committee, discussing different urgent matters for the future of our association. For the council the following points were of special importance: 1. The functionality of the IALE-website, where the purpose and functionality of the Council up to now has played a very withdrawn role,

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...continued from page 3 (IALE-Europe Position and Plans 2012-2013) Europe by strengthening contacts and enriching the dialogue between members of Europes landscape academic community, by representing the interests of this community within the wider European social and institutional context and by making the collective expertise of IALE-Europe available, where appropriate, in furthering the discussion of landscape ecological issues at European level. Acknowledging the specific character of European landscapes and the consequent multiple research dimensions integrating the landscape ecology community in this overarching region, IALE-Europe has been created to represent consistently the common landscape ecology approach at the European scale.

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grative perspective. And to push the recognition of the need for a much more systemic research approach. We aim do this through the permanent and open dialogue with European institutions and decision-makers. Acting jointly as representative of the European landscape ecology community we expect to gain more influence with these partners than can be obtained by single members or even by national chapters. In consequence, the main activities planned for the coming period include Actively linking with the existing initiatives and networks involved in the recognition and management of European landscapes; Support of initiatives and proposal of joint activities; and Actively contacting and promoting the recognition of the landscape ecology approach in Europe, among institutional and social stakeholders with a role in landscape education and management, at the European level. Further, recognizing the important role of creating a collaborative culture of European landscape research, education and management, we will promote the organization of seminars and workshops; organize intensive PhD courses, on particularly relevant subjects in the European context; and in partnership with ialeUK, organise the next European congress, to take place in Manchester (UK 9-12 September 2013). All these activities will be developed and coordinated by the EC and by dedicated Working Groups. More information of the Working Groups can be found on the website soon (www.iale-europe.eu). We hope by this to contribute to the strengthening of the European landscape ecology, and to support national chapters, individual members, and IALE. You are all welcome to contact us and to make suggestions. To conclude, I would like to thank the IALE-Europe Executive Committee in charge the two first years,

What do we see as our most relevant roles in this initial phase? To harbour all the individual members from regions or countries in Europe where there is no active national chapter, allowing their approaches and the landscapes they are working with, to be represented at a relevant scale. To collaborate actively with the existing and active national chapters to join efforts for the promotion of activities particularly relevant for European landscapes; To collaborate actively with the IALE-International in order to strengthen the impact of the landscape ecology research, education and practice, partially by supporting the recognition of the existing differentiation of landscapes and perspectives worldwide. To contribute actively to the knowledge in society, about the complex natural and cultural interactions of European landscapes and thus of the added value of the landscape ecology inte-

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...continued from page 4 (IALE-Europe Position and Plans 2012-2013) which established and organized the Chapter, and created the conditions for the present EC to now deal with external activities and contacts. The IALE-Europe Executive Committee is composed as follows: Teresa Pinto-Correia (President, mtpc@uevora. pt); Veerle Van Eetvelde (Secretary General, veerle.vaneetvelde@UGent.be); Emilio Padoa-Schioppa (Treasurer, emilio.padoaschioppa@unimib.it); Jrgen Breuste; Janez Pirnat; Isabel Loupa Ramos; Jonathan Porter. The Representative to the IALE Council is Hubert Wiggering. by Teresa Pinto Correia (President IALE-Europe)

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I A L E S E E K S C OL L A B O R AT I O N WITH OTHER CLOSELY RELATED SOCIETIES

IALE has a rich scientific tradition to promote its unique world-wide theme - Landscape Ecology with new and challenging spatially related concepts. This landscape perspective is strongly needed in planning, conservation and ecosystem service assessment. In order to increase our visibility in these emerging fields IALE seeks collaboration with other professional societies working in closely related fields. As a first step we agreed that IALE is a supporting society of the Ecosystem Service Partnership (www.es-partnership.org) and we agreed that IALE members get a discount for the Journal Solutions (see article by Ida Kubiszewski in this bulletin). Furthermore we envisage to have joint workshops and conferences. This collaboration will strengthen IALE and its unique focus on landscapes. Needless to say that none of the involved parties would give up its independency. Another society that is in our focus for partnering is IFLA, the International Federation of Landscape Architects and IAPS, the International Association for People-Environment Studies. In the coming months and years the IALE EC will start mutual talks with these organizations. If you know of other organizations that could play an important role as partners, please let us know. by Felix Kienast (IALE President)

LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY: LINKING ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY

Use of land and resources is central to peoples relationship with their environment. The United Kingdom Chapter of IALE (ialeUK) is organizing an international conference that will explore how landscape ecology can help guide sustainable use of land and the services it provides to society.

We aim to bring together people with relevant expertise from across science, policy and practice, to learn from each other, and identify ways in which landscape ecology can support necessary shifts in land management to deliver improved and enduring benefits to society and the environment. The conference is hosted by The University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, UK, from 4-6 September 2012, and will include 4 symposia and a field trip. Further information can be found here:
http://iale.org.uk/conference2012

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY

First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you - IALE members - for your contributions to the continued success of our journal as authors and reviewers. Your time and efforts are greatly appreciated!.

by Marc J. Metzger (IALE UK)

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...continued from page 5 (Landscape Ecology Journal - Note from the Editor-in-Chief) Also, I am pleased to call your attention to several outstanding special issues: 1. Landscape Ecology, Volume 26, No. 09 (2011): Special issue - Soundscape Ecology; Guest Editors: Bryan C. Pijanowski and A. Farina 2. Landscape Ecology, Volume 27, No. 02 (2012): Special issue - Landscape connectivity analysis for conservation: insights from combining new methods with ecological and genetic data; Guest Editors: Sandra Luque, Santiago Saura, and MariJose Fortin 3. Coming soon: Special section - Adapting complex multi-level landscape systems to climate change; Guest Editor: Eric Koomen, Eveliene Steingrover and Paul Opdam 4. Coming soon: Special issue - Key concepts and research priorities for landscape sustainability; Guest Editor: Laura R. Musacchio You may access these special issues at our journal web site: http://www.springerlink.com/content/0921-2973. Finally, timely assessments and syntheses of particular research topics in landscape ecology are crucial for the development of the field, and I welcome you to consider to submit review papers to our journal anytime. Once they are accepted, they will be highlighted under the article category of Landscape Ecology in Review. Thank you all again, and I am looking forward to your continued support for our journal! by Jianguo (Jingle) Wu (Editor-in-Chief of Landscape Ecology)

SOLUTIONS - JOURNAL OFFER FOR IALE MEMBERS

Solutions (http://www.thesolutionsjournal.org) is a bimonthly academic and popular international journal dedicated to showcasing bold and innovative ideas for solving the world's integrated economic, social, and environmental problems. While there is an abundance of isolated and technical solutions, Solutions provides a much-needed forum devoted to systemic solutions and the design of a sustainable and desirable future.

Solutions uses a much more constructive, transdisciplinary review process than typical journals. We encourage collaboration and co-authorship between original authors and reviewers. This constructive review process improves the quality of articles and enables the development of innovative, integrative, and systemic solutions. It allows for broader, more transdisciplinary perspectives on a topic, creating articles that appeal to a larger community, with a stronger chance of being implemented.

The IALE Bulletin is distributed several times a year to the members of IALE. IALE - the International Association for Landscape Ecology was founded in 1982 to promote communication between scientists, planners and interdisciplinary scientific research. IALE Executive Committee: President: Felix Kienast 2011-2015, Swiss Federal Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland, felix.kienast@wsl.ch; Secretary General: Thomas C. Edwards 2011-2015, 5230 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-5230, USA, t.edwards@ nr.usu.edu; Treasurer: Ralf-Uwe Syrbe 2011-2015, Tornaer Str. 72, 01239 Dresden, Germany, syrbe@iale.de; Past President: K. Bruce Jones 2007-2011, Desert Research Institute, 755 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, crocodylus@aol.com; Vice Presidents and their role in the Executive Committee: Bojie Fu 2009-2013 (Eastern Asia), Chinese Academy of Sciences, 52, Sanlihe Road, Beijing, 100864, P.R. China, bjfu@cashq.ac.cn; Sandra Luque 2005-2013 (IALE Educational Network), Cemagref Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Engineering Research, 2 Rue de la Papeterie, St. Martin d'Hres, BP 76 Cedex, 38402, France, Sandra.luque@cemagref.fr; Giovanni Zurlini 2011-2015 (Europe), Salento University, via Predappio-Rapolla 4, 73100 Lecce, Italy, giovanni.zurlini@unisalento.it; Jean-Paul Metzger 2011-2015 (South and Central America), Universidade de So Paulo, Rua do Mato, travessa 14, Cidade Universitria, 05508-900 So Paulo, Brazil, jpm@ib.usp.br; Bulletin Editor and Deputy Secretary General: Benjamin Burkhard 2011-2015, Christian-Albrechts-Universitt Kiel, Olshausenstr. 40, 24098 Kiel, Germany, bburkhard@ecology.uni-kiel.de; Chairman of Council: Xiuzhen Li 2011-2015, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China, lixz@iae.ac.cn; Publicity Officer: Emilio Padoa-Schioppa, University di Milano-Bicocca, p.za Della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy; emilio.padoaschioppa@unimib.it. IALE International on the Internet: IALE International: www.landscape-ecology.org

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...continued from page 6 (Solutions Journal) We are soliciting articles and ideas from the IALE members for articles describing solutions for a sustainable and desirable world. Our rule of thumb is that no more than 1/3 of your piece should be about describing the problem, leaving 2/3 to focus on the solutions. These solutions should employ whole-system

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thinking, be at the appropriate spatial and temporal scales, and address, but not be hobbled by, the institutional and cultural changes that may be required. by Ida Kubiszewski (Managing Editor Solutions)

SECOND CALL FOR FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES FROM IALE INTERNATIONAL IN 2012/13

The first round in the new money allocating procedure (Bulletin 29.3) was used by a number of individuals and regions thank you! allocated, we launch a second call to support early career travel to IALE Conferences, establishment of new regions, or loans for regional IALE conferences.

The IALE EC selected a number of proposals for We envisage the following categories, priorities, and both early career travel support and establishing approximate amounts. The latter are total amounts new regions. We will report on supported projects that must be shared among the successful candidates/ in the upcoming Bulletins and on the Web. Since proposals. the full amount available for 2012 has not yet been _____________________________________________________________________________________ Approx. total amount available Activity Priority Details for this call _____________________________________________________________________________________ Early career Priority: high Only IALE or IALE- Up to 5500 Euro travel to IALE For this call no priority for supported conferences donations; conferences low and lower-middle in- Only conference organi- amounts for come countries zers are eligible to apply loans flexible Money will then be trans ferred to organizers and re distributed to eligible candi dates. IALE International funds should be used to support international or out-of region scholars Loans for IALE Priority: medium Only IALE or IALE-suppo- conferences For this call no priority for rted conferences low and lower-middle in- Only conference organizers come countries are eligible to apply. Money must be paid back after conference if possible. Details are settled with a Memorandum of Under standing between Organi zers and IALE International Establishing Priority: medium a region For this call no priority for low and lower-middle in come countries

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...continued from page 7 (2nd Call for IALE Funding Opportunities) If you plan to submit a proposal, please send a 1/2 to 1 page describing the activity, the aim, potential co-sponsors, schedule, names of individuals or institutions receiving the grant and send it Before March 15th, 2012 to Secretary General: Thomas C. Edwards 5230 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-5230, USA phone: +1 435 797-2529, email: t.edwards@nr.usu.edu

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To remedy this, we (Paul Beier and Andy Gregory) plan to test the ability of long (0.5 to 100 km), wide (> 100 m) corridors to maintain gene flow and demographic stability among populations embedded in human-modified matrix. We need your help to identify suitable landscapes with corridors and isolated patches. Please visit www.docorridorswork.org for more information on our project, and to suggest landscapes for our research. We offer a small finders fee to those who suggest sites eventually used in our analysis. by Andrew Gregory (Northern Arizona University)

DESPERATELY SEEKING STABLE, 50-YEAR OLD LANDSCAPES WITH PATCHES AND LONG, WIDE CORRIDORS
Conservation corridors are a promising intervention to avoid and mitigate habitat fragmentation and to allow wildlife to shift their geo graphic ranges in response to climate change. Conservation scientists and managers have litt le evidence that corridors will work because most corridor research has been conducted at small spatial extents (< 150 m corridor length, < 50 m corridor width), in landscapes where the matrix is a natural landcover (e.g., grassland corridor and patches in a forest matrix), and using response variables (animal presence or short-term movement) that are weakly related to long-term gene flow and demographic persistence.

Bulletin Deadline
Vol. 30 no.2: April 15, 2012 PLEASE: Send your contributions to the Bulletin Editor Benjamin Burkhard bburkhard@ecology.uni-kiel.de