Tag: ecosystem services partnership

Driving a Nature-Positive Future: Pensoft’s Highlights from the 6th ESP Europe Conference in Prague, Czechia

Once again, Pensoft joined the ESP conference as an open-access scholarly publisher, publishing services provider, and a partner at Horizon Europe consortia.

Conference Organising Committee’s Davina Vačkářová thanks the ESP2026EU’s sponsors, exhibitors and partners. Photo courtesy of the ESP.

From 18 to 22 May 2026, the historic city of Prague, Czechia, hosted the 6th European Conference of the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP). Set against a backdrop of global turning points, such as biodiversity declines and climate uncertainty, the event served as an important forum for discussing how ecosystem services can cultivate a sustainable and equitable future.

This year’s ESP European conference ran under the theme “Advancing ecosystem services knowledge for achieving a nature- and people-positive Europe.” Photo courtesy of the ESP.

The conference ran under the theme, “Advancing ecosystem services knowledge for achieving a nature- and people-positive Europe.” Attendees focused on how to translate major policy frameworks, including the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the new Nature Restoration Law, into inclusive and effective action that respects both nature and healthy ecosystems. A major talking point at the event was also the new path ahead of the ESP as it officially becomes an independent international community later in 2026. An election of a new Steering and Executive Committee has already been scheduled for October 2026.

For Pensoft, the ESP 2026 European conference was not only a wonderful occasion to meet once again many long-time partners and friends, including the ESP team itself; editors and loyal authors of our journals; and members of the international project consortia, where we are involved, but also an exciting opportunity to talk with new members of the ESP community and learn about the needs, interests and passions of a new generation of researchers in a rapidly changing scientific field.

Pensoft’s stand at the ESP 2026 Europe conference in Prague, Czechia.

As an open-science publisher well embedded in environmental research through its dozens of journals covering ecology, biodiversity conservation and other related fields, Pensoft Publishers also actively participated in the week’s dialogues, contributing unique perspectives on scientific communication.

The Karolinum: the seat of Prague’s Charles University hosted the pre-conference training sessions, the Opening ceremony and the Welcome reception on Monday. Photo courtesy of the ESP.

The sixth European installment of the conference kicked off on Monday, 18 May, at the Karolinum, the historic seat of Charles University. The energy of a dynamic, highly engaging week was set perfectly by a lavish evening ceremony filled with speeches from renowned local figures, traditional music, and cultural performances. Yet, long before the opening notes played, the Karolinum was already buzzing, having hosted a full slate of pre-conference training sessions throughout the day. 

A get-together for the editors and loyal authors of the open-access peer-reviewed One Ecosystem – the Ecology and Sustainability Data Journal took place on Monday at the Karolinum (Prague, Czechia).

Just ahead of the opening ceremony, our team at Pensoft hosted a semi-formal get-together for the editors and loyal authors of the open-access peer-reviewed One Ecosystem – the Ecology and Sustainability Data Journal. This year, the scholarly outlet, launched in collaboration between Pensoft, the ESP and the ESMERALDA Horizon 2020 project, now succeeded by the Horizon Europe-funded project SELINA, celebrated its tenth anniversary.

Redefining nature-based decision-making: Pensoft joins EU project SELINA

Chaired by Editor-in-Chief Prof. Benjamin Burkhard and Pensoft’s Head of Journal Development and PR Iva Boyadzhieva, the meeting recapped the best moments from One Ecosystem’s first decade and inspired discussions and ideas for the journal’s future. They also referred to the recently published editorial titled “Ten years of innovation and the way ahead in scientific publishing in One Ecosystem”. The piece reflects on the journal’s journey since its 2016 launch and addresses modern challenges in academic publishing, such as reviewer fatigue and the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence. 

Over the last ten years, One Ecosystem has established itself as a unique journal in the field, thanks to its commitment to openly sharing the research data underpinning each publication. It also offers a versatile range of article types. These include traditional formats (e.g. Research Article, Review Article, Data Paper), innovative options (e.g. Software Description, R Package, Single-media Publication), as well as ones specifically devised for the community, such as Ecosystem Inventory, Ecosystem Service Mapping and Ecosystem Accounting Table. 

So far, the journal has published over 200 papers authored by scientists from all continents, accumulating more than 1,500,000 views, 600 citations, and 6,000 online mentions. Today, the journal’s editorial board comprises 50 experts representing diverse geographies and professional fields. One Ecosystem is indexed in over 60 relevant scholarly databases, including Scopus and Web of Science, and holds a Q1 ranking on Scopus. Authors also benefit from a swift turnaround time, with an average of just 2.5 months from submission to acceptance, and articles typically published within three months of submission.

Keynote speeches at the first conference day were delivered by Jakub Kronenberg (University of Lodz), Alessandra La Notte (Senior consultant on natural capital accounting) and Ben Delbaere (LIFE Programme).

On Tuesday, the main schedule opened with inspiring keynote speeches, with Jakub Kronenberg (University of Lodz) examining the transition towards relational values of nature, Alessandra La Notte (Senior consultant on natural capital accounting) sharing two decades of insights into natural capital accounting, and Ben Delbaere (LIFE Programme at ELMEN EEIG) demonstrating how the European LIFE Programme supports a nature- and people-positive society.

Later in the day on Tuesday, Pensoft’s Iva Boyadzhieva, Head of Journal Development and PR, gave a talk on the topic of scholarly communication as part of a  session organised and hosted by the Early Career Researchers (ECR) division of the ESP: Young Ecosystem Services Partnership (YESS) and focused on building practical skills and fostering careers for young researchers.

Pensoft’s Iva Boyadzhieva gave a talk titled “Scholarly Communication: Lessons from the publisher’s kitchen” as part of the YESS session “The Early Career Lab: Skills, Identity, and Growth for the Next Generation of Ecosystem Services Researchers”.

Boyadzhieva shared insights into how authors and publishers can work collaboratively to transform scholarly publications into scientific knowledge that is accessible to everyone, everywhere, regardless of professional background or expertise, by drawing on real-life examples and automated publication processes.

  • One Ecosystem’s Editor-in-Chief Prof. Benjamin Burkhard.
  • One Ecosystem’s Editor-in-Chief Prof. Benjamin Burkhard at the ESP session “The Changing Landscape of Academic Publishing on Ecosystem Services Research: Editors’ Perspectives.”

The One Ecosystem journal took center stage once again on Friday afternoon during a panel session titled, “The Changing Landscape of Academic Publishing on Ecosystem Services Research: Editors’ Perspectives.” The event brought together the Editors-in-Chief of the three ESP-associated journals for an engaging open discussion about the shifting dynamics of scientific literature. Sharing insights gained from One Ecosystem’s 10-year journey, Burkhard highlighted how authors of research who work closely with their publishers can support knowledge sharing and empower researchers. In the case of One Ecosystem, this collaboration translates to increased visibility, discoverability, reusability and citability of the published work, as well as rapid and hassle-free authoring and peer review experience, all thanks to the automated workflows and human-centric approaches provided through the publishing solutions of the ARPHA publishing platform.

It is worth issuing a reminder that manuscripts submitted in 2026 and accepted for publication in One Ecosystem journal are eligible for a 10% discount on the article publication charge (APC).

Despite excellent on-site organization, many sessions struggled to accommodate the massive turnout. Photo courtesy of the ESP.

Throughout the week, the daily program featured eight parallel session tracks covering a wide range of topics, many closely aligned with ESP Working Groups and National Networks. A dedicated poster session took place on Wednesday afternoon.

One of the field excursions offered ESP 2026 Europe delegates the challenge of an intense, half-day climbing experience in a nature park just outside Prague. Photo courtesy of ESP.

On Thursday, delegates had the opportunity to join one of several field excursions. These ranged from a visit to the unique rewilding reserve located in the former military area in Milovice, to a walk through the Prague Pasture: one of the city’s most remarkable natural sites, and an intense climbing experience just outside Prague.

Zdeněk Ent was awarded Best Poster for his poster, “Experiencing Ecosystem Services: Art, Sensory Engagement and Transformative Learning in Peri-Urban Landscapes”. In a yearly tradition, part of the award includes a free publication in the One Ecosystem journal.

Following an ESP tradition, the three highest-voted posters were recognised during Friday’s closing ceremony, with the first-prize winner receiving a free publication in One Ecosystem, sponsored by Pensoft. This year, the Best Poster Award went to Zdeněk Ent from Prague Institute of Planning and Development for the poster “Experiencing Ecosystem Services: Art, Sensory Engagement and Transformative Learning in Peri-Urban Landscapes”.

During the week, Pensoft’s exhibition stand welcomed dozens of inquiries regarding the publisher’s tailored journal portfolio. Visitors also expressed keen curiosity about the publishing services and self-developed platform available to journal owners, book authors, and conference organizers. Meanwhile, delegates showed notable interest in several titles, both well-established journals like Nature Conservation, NeoBiota, Metabarcoding & Metagenomics and One Ecosystem, and newly launched ones, including Individual-based Ecology and Advances in Pollinator Research.

A lot of Pensoft stand’s visitors were also pleased to see that there was a new player amongst the journals of Pensoft aimed at an emerging field in ecology. The recently rebranded Agricultural and Ecological Modelling (AEM) provides a unique scholarly outlet thanks to its modern approach to publishing by increasing transparency, giving credit to research objects across the entire modelling research lifecycle. This is achieved through publishing specialised article types, such as: Formal Model, Model Testing and Calibration, Model Implementation and Documentation, Data Papers and Software Descriptions. These new publishing formats are designed to keep pace with advances in Modelling research and to make it FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) by enabling scholarly credit for diverse research outputs, often created by different groups of authors. For the time being, AEM remains a Diamond Open Access journal, meaning that it will not charge authors for open-access publication.

AEM also has a focus on open science and reproducibility; it is currently archived in four databases (CLOCKSS, Zenodo, Portico, and Zendy) and indexed in over 40 services, including AGRICOLA, CABI, ChronosHub, CNKI, FAO AGRIS, ResearchGate, and Swisscovery, among others. You can learn more about AEM in the latest editorial.

For those who missed the opportunity to sign up for the journals’ newsletters at the stand, they can do this by filling in their email address from the homepage of the journal they are interested in, or by updating their profiles in the Pensoft system.

Undoubtedly, amongst the greatest highlights at the Pensoft’s stand was the Horizon Europe-funded GREEN TALENT project, where our Project Department leads the project’s Work Package dedicated to Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation. 

New Horizon Europe project will support the green transition by boosting skills and competences

The conference delegates were intrigued to learn about the international initiative’s aim to build biodiversity and climate capacity at national, trans-European and global levels, with a focus on Widening Countries. The partners at Green Talent: both from academic and non-academic backgrounds, are to contribute expertise, training, and secondments and connect pilot projects to broader EU and global networks. One of the ways the GREEN TALENT consortia does this is by designating four Demonstration Pilots (a.k.a. Demo Hubs) in four Widening countries: Malta, Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria, where secondees can benefit from real-world experience and foster partnerships across sectors, while working on scalable solutions to climate and biodiversity challenges, acting as collaboration hubs between academic and non-academic sectors.

Members of the Horizon Europe-funded GREEN TALENT project consortium. Photo courtesy of ESP.

Having only kicked off a year ago and set to run for four years in total, there are many new developments and results yet to be announced from GREEN TALENT, including a Capacity-Building Platform that will allow users to browse various opportunities and events meant to help them improve their skills; to get in touch and foster collaboration with other experts; and to learn about best practices from across different institutions and relevant companies. This is why we strongly recommend visiting the GREEN TALENT, signing up for the project’s newsletter and following the initiative on BlueSky and Linkedin.

GREEN TALENT’s project coordinator, Prof. Dr. Mario V. Balzan, presented at a session dedicated to sustainable and inclusive approaches to ecosystem services tailored to the needs of islands.

In addition to the various GREEN TALENT information brochures and promo materials present at the Pensoft stand, people at the conference could spot quite a few of the project’s members around the ESP venue. There were several talks by GREEN TALENT representatives, including the project’s coordinator: Prof. Dr. Mario V. Balzan (Ecostack Innovations). His talk, part of the session “Islands at the forefront of sustainable and inclusive ecosystem services approaches” examined governance and knowledge gaps in pollinator ecosystem services on small islands, where he used Malta as a case study.

The signature journal stickers by Pensoft were once again a common sight at the ESP conference in Prague. Photo courtesy of ESP.

Ultimately, the conference successfully highlighted the tools needed to drive sustainable development across Europe. Through active contributions to both the overarching policy discussions and the targeted skill-building sessions for the next generation of researchers, Pensoft continued its commitment to making environmental science open, transparent, and globally accessible.

Make sure to stay up to date with the latest from Pensoft by following our social channels on BlueSky, Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram and Weibo.

In a Land Down Under, Pensoft joined the 11th ESP World Conference

The latest outcomes at the SELINA project and modern, open-access scholarly publishing were ‘hot’ topics we discussed with delegates in Darwin.

Official group photo of the delegates at ESP11 (Darwin, Australia).
Courtesy of the Ecosystem Services Partnership.

Between 22nd and 26th June, the 11th Ecosystem Services Partnership World Conference (ESP11) brought about 250 international delegates from diverse backgrounds: professional and demographic alike, to the Darwin Convention Centre in the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia.

Amongst the central topics of the event were the integrations of local and indigenous values and knowledge into the understanding of ecosystem services and their sustainable management; the implementation of nature-based solutions into practice; and the collaboration of scientists with policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders. 

Inspired by the location – curiously, Australia is the longest continuously inhabited continent on Earth – the conference had a well-pronounced focus on indigenous peoples and culture. Aptly, the conference ran under the theme: “From global to local ecosystem services: pathways to Nature-based Solutions inspired from Down Under”.

Cultural diversity was specially celebrated at both the opening and the closing ceremonies, as well as the special conference dinner. Attendees enjoyed multiple traditional performances from the region, but also from other parts of the world. They also had the chance to hear directly from members of Darwin’s indigenous communities about their own perspectives on ecosystem services and their sustainable management.

Indigenous Australian performance at the opening ceremony at ESP11 (Darwin, Australia).

During the week, each day would open with keynote speeches by renowned scientists from around the world. The programme would then continue with   a set of six parallel sessions. The conference also included poster sessions, a conference dinner and field trips meant to provide the conference participants with a face-to-face encounter with Australian natural phenomena, including close-up encounters with the signature Northern Territory fauna, such as crocodiles, birds and sea turtles.

One of the field trips took participants to the uninhabited Bare Sand Island where they got the chance to see up close a Flatback sea turtle coming out of the water, making her nest and laying her eggs before making her way back to the waves under the cover of the night.  

At the Pensoft stand, delegates met Pensoft’s Head of Journal development and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva, who would answer their questions about the various publishing opportunities and scholarly resources by the publisher, but also about the latest activities and results of the Horizon Europe-funded project SELINA (an acronym for Science for Evidence-based and Sustainable Decisions about Natural Capital).

Pensoft’s stand at the ESP11 conference in Darwin, Australia.

Having started in 2022 and set to run until 2027, SELINA comprises 50 partner organisations coordinated by the Leibniz University Hannover and Prof. Dr. Benjamin Burkhard (Leibniz University Hannover, Germany), who is also co-Chair of the ESP and Editor-in-Chief of the One Ecosystem journal. As an experienced science communicator and open-science publisher, at SELINA, Pensoft has been assigned to lead the project’s communication and dissemination activities.

The transdisciplinary project aims to provide smart, cost-effective, and nature-based solutions to historic societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security. One of the consortium’s main objectives is to identify biodiversity, ecosystem condition, and ecosystem service factors that can be successfully integrated into decision-making processes in both the public and private sectors.

Most recently, the consortium launched SELINA’s Communities of Practice initiative to promote collaborative learning and knowledge integration across Europe. This digital platform provides a forum for scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and business representatives to exchange knowledge and further engage with its real-life application. On the Communities of Practice, visitors may explore how SELINA is driving change across Europe.

Once again, all around the venue one could easily catch a glimpse of both local and exotic biodiversity that had taken cover on the laptops of the participants. The vivid stickers have become a signature Pensoft freebies that feature scientific illustration of species discussed in publications from across the publisher’s scholarly portfolio in a nod to the authors who have chosen a journal from the Pensoft scholarly portfolio. 

Besides grabbing a sticker or two from the Pensoft stand, visitors were also intrigued to learn more about Pensoft’s flagship journals fitting the scope of the conference like Nature Conservation, NeoBiota and Biodiversity Data Journal, but also about the most recently launched titles: Individual-based Ecology and Advances in Pollinator Research.

Those who have missed the opportunity to sign up for those journals’ newsletters at the stand, can do this by filling in their email address from the homepage of the journal they fancy or by updating their profiles in the Pensoft system.

Understandably, the highlight in the Pensoft’s journal portfolio for ESP11 delegates was One Ecosystem, which was once born in a collaboration between Pensoft, the predecessor of SELINA: ESMERALDA, and the ESP community itself.

Since its launch in 2016, the open-access peer-reviewed journal has published about 200 research papers, including field-specific research outputs typically falling outside of what traditional scientific journals would see as a publication. These include Software description, Methods, Ecosystem Services Mapping, Ecosystem Accounting Table amongst others. You can find about the origins of One Ecosystem in the 2016 launching editorial. A few years ago, the journal became part of the scholarly literature databases of both Scopus and Web of Science. In fact, the latest Scopus CiteScore of One Ecosystem places the journal in Q1 in all five categories it has been assigned to.

At a special session within the ESP11 programme, Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Benjamin Burkhard welcomed various questions concerning the One Ecosystem journal.

As part of the ESP11 programme, a session dedicated on the open-science approach of One Ecosystem that relies on opening up diverse research outputs and data, in order to prompt transparency, reusability and interdisciplinary in ecological research. Together, Pensoft’s Iva Boyadzhieva, Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Benjamin Burkhard and subject editor ​Dr. Paulo Pereira talked about the journal and addressed the questions of the audience, while also providing general advice on scholarly publishing and editorial work to early career researchers at the session.

The session also presented the announcement that in 2025, ESP members are eligible for a 10% discount on the APC at One Ecosystem.

As usual, the conference closed with an engaging and heart-warming ceremony, where the organisers paid another tribute to local communities and volunteers who made the event an unforgettable experience for everyone. The ceremony finished with the awards for the three best posters presented at ESP11.

Hamid Arrum Harahap was awarded first place for his poster “Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) to Climate Change for Indigenous Women in the Mentawai Islands and Aceh Singkil, Sumatra (Indonesia)”.

Hamid Arrum Harahap (Universitas Andalas, Indonesia), Nicole Boyd (Charles Darwin University) and Gail Sucharitakul (Imperial College of London, United Kingdom) were recognised for their research posters. 

“My poster highlights the climate knowledge of Indigenous women in the Mentawai Islands and Aceh Singkil. Their voices are often underrepresented in climate discourse, despite contributing the least to climate change and being among the most affected by its impacts”

said first-place sitter Hamid Arrum Harahap about his poster, titled “Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) to Climate Change for Indigenous Women in the Mentawai Islands and Aceh Singkil, Sumatra (Indonesia)”.

“In regions where downscaling climate models is difficult, intergenerational knowledge passed through indigenous women is critical. Our study highlights that while our climate models from modern science are built on numbers and projections, Indigenous women’s climate memories are rooted in stories and emotions—together, they offer complementary insights for understanding and adapting to climate change.”

In addition to the prizes handed by the ESP, he received a waiver for a free publication at One Ecosystem from the journal’s publisher Pensoft. 

“I plan to use this opportunity to publish my research on Indigenous knowledge and ecosystem services. I am currently working on two studies: one on the relational values of ecosystem services governance with Indigenous Batak communities, and the other on ecosystem-based adaptation and the vulnerability of ecosystem services to climate change, focusing on Indigenous women in Sumatra and Far North Queensland, Australia. I believe One Ecosystem is an ideal platform for this work, as it offers an innovative and accessible forum for multidisciplinary studies like mine and focusing on sustainability of the ecosystem. 

he added.

Third-placed Gail Sucharitakul received a copy of “Mapping Ecosystem Service”: a best-seller in Pensoft’s scientific book portfolio, edited by Prof. Dr. Benjamin Burkhard and Dr. Joachim Maes (European Commission DG Environment): both well-renowned in the field and the ESP community scientists. Maes is also a Deputy Editor-in-Chief at One Ecosystem. 

Now that the ESP11 World Conference has turned into a wonderful memory, we set our sights on the 2026 European conference, which will be taking place in historic Prague, Czech Republic. See you there!

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