ICCB 2013 Program - Society for Conservation Biology

Welcome from Scientific Program Chair
The 2013 ICCB Scientific Program
As this program goes off to press, despite governmental budget cuts for conservation in the US, Europe and other
parts of the world, and a harsh economy, it’s increasingly looking like the 2013 ICCB will be one of the largest yet.
For this meeting we had 46 proposal submissions for workshops, focus groups and short courses, of which 35 were
accepted (a 76% acceptance rate). There was a record number of symposium submissions (88) leading to great
competition for the limited number of symposium places and 39 were accepted (44%).
For the contributed part of the meeting we had 1046 abstracts submitted, of which 78% requested spoken
presentations. All proposals and abstracts went through a peer review process, being reviewed by up to four
conservation natural/social scientists. Again space in the program was limited and unfortunately we were only
able to offer speaking presentation slots to 66% of those who requested them (of which 90% were able to accept).
As we go to press 486 spoken presentations have been scheduled in the contributed part of the program, in
addition to 73 speed presentations, with an additional 237 poster presentations, for a total of 796 presentations
in the contributed part of the meeting. As we began planning the program, it looked like we would only be able
to accept less than 50% of the abstracts that were submitted to us. However, thanks to flexibility from the SCB
Governors and staff, sponsorship from exhibitors, and some creative scheduling, we were able to find enough space
to allow 76% of those who submitted abstracts to present their work. In total, with the spoken presentations in
symposia, there will be well over 1,100 delegates presenting their work at this meeting.
Because of government budget cuts in the US and lack of funding abroad, there are many delegates who have requested
us to hold places in the program for them while they search for funding. As we go to press we are still holding some spaces
in the schedule to accomodate last minute funds, grants or permissions as they become available for these presenters. There
may be a few holes in the program so please bear with us.
I’d like to thank all of those who have helped diligently with organizing and pulling together the 2013 scientific
program, especially the hundreds of hours of work put in by John Cigliano, Rebecca Fazzari, Becky Malave,
Autumn-Lynn Harrison, Nate Spillman, Lauren Krizel, Katheryn Patterson, David Morimoto, Keryn Gedan
and David Patrick, and not to forget all of the hundreds of reviewers who graded proposals and abstracts. Special
thanks also to our much beleaguered intern Christine Gleason and to SCB’s Executive Director Anne Hummer.
Chris Parsons
ICCB 2013 Program Chair
Marine Section President (2009-2013) and SCB Governor
Associate Professor
Department of Environmental Science & Policy,
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
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