The 5th Ecosystem Services Partnership conference is taking place between 18 and 22 November in Wageningen, The Netherlands. The event will gather experts from around the world to discuss and advance the science and practice of ecosystem services. The conference serves as a platform for sharing innovative research, policies, and practices aimed at promoting sustainability and resilience in response to global challenges.

During the five-day event, SpongeBoost will have a presence through an exhibition booth, joined by other Horizon projects REST-COAST and SELINA. Attendees are welcome to visit the booth, pick up some of SpongeBoost’s informational materials, and talk with SpongeBoost's communication and dissemination leaders from Pensoft for more insights into the project.

SpongeBoost partners from UJEP, Jan Macháč and Jan Brabec, will actively participate in several sessions. On November 18, Jan Brabec will take part in session S1a "Leveraging ecosystem services for agroecological transitions" from 14:00 to 15:30 CET with a short presentation, called "Overcoming Barriers: Enhancing Nature-Based Flood Mitigation Strategies through Policy and Practice" at 14:20. 

On November 19 both will be co-hosting a session dedicated to serious games and their role in flood risk and forest management. The session S3a "Forests for a better world: ecosystem, human and economic perspectives" will be held on November 19 from 11:00-12:30 CET. Alongside co-hosting the session, Brabec will give a 10-minute presentation, titled "Sponge Solutions: Navigating Flood Negotiations Through Serious Gaming" at 12:17 and he will explore how serious games can act as innovative tools for stakeholder engagement, supporting the design of more effective policy instruments.

Also on November 19, Macháč will take part in session T13c "Nature-based solutions with societal nexus as a key for transformative change" to give a presentation, titled "Unlocking the Benefits of Nature-Based Solutions: Economic Assessments and Policy Innovations." It will highlight the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) in climate adaptation strategies and their economic assessment, aiming to promote NBS planning and address the unequal distribution of costs and benefits.

Research conducted under the SpongeBoost project, funded by Horizon Europe, seeks to overcome barriers to NBS adoption through economic assessments. Demonstrating the wide range of benefits provided by NBS in urban and rural areas, the project hopes to encourage wider implementation and support policies promoting environmental resilience, biodiversity, and social equity.