Alice C. Hughes was invited to attend the First World Forum on Ecosystem Governance and Future Leaders Academy by the State Forestry Authority of China.

The Future leaders Academy started on the evening of the 23rd of October, and continued until midday on the 25th. Twenty one prominent researchers between 25 and 35 from Eleven countries were invited to attend the Academy, which focused on identifying challenges to the successful management and Governance of ecosystems, and how we might better approach such challenges.

On the afternoon of the 25th an opening ceremony was held in the great Hall of the people, featuring a number of Internationally recognised speakers including the President of the IUCN (Zhang Xinsheng) and the Director General of the IUCN (Inger Andersen), in addition to other prominent IUCN members.

Two days of discussions around the sustainable development goals, and climate change and ecosystems followed, followed by the development of. a Beijing Declaration on Ecosystem Governance, and a Future leaders declaration (led by Alice C. Hughes), a draft of which is available here.

During the closing ceremony Alice gave a closing speech, highlighting the challenges to successful and sustainable Ecosystem Governance and suggesting new approaches to these challenges. As a new member of the Ecosystem resilience group Alice is looking forward to the challenges and opportunities of working more with the IUCN into the future.