The 2023 IALE World Congress in Nairobi, Kenya took place between July 10th and 14th and lived up to its theme of having a transboundary and diverse approach to landscape ecology. It was the first time the conference was held in the Global South, so themes of interdisciplinarity, impact for real-world solutions and equity—in terms of gender, geographic region, academic position— were repeatedly touched upon by plenary speakers and in sessions and informal conversations. Attendees came from a variety of regions around the world. Most numerous were the contributions from African research and studies coming from Asia, particularly from China and India. Representing UK institutions, there were ten speakers giving either in-person or virtual talks from the Zoological Society of London, UK CEH and the universities of Essex, Newcastle, Leeds, Stirling, Sheffield, Kent, Bournemouth, Reading and Aberdeen. Additionally, Maggie Roe and Charlotte Veal from the University of Newcastle led an in-conference workshop on academic writing.
There was a rich variety of topics that were covered during the conference, including impacts of armed conflict, disease ecology, climate change, habitat fragmentation, remote sensing technologies, new methods in monitoring and data analyses, bottom-up approaches in conservation, scientific publication and policy advocacy. The smooth transition between conference activities was impacted by setbacks in organization and technical difficulties as well as the social unrest that shook Nairobi as demonstrators took to the streets to protest against several financial reforms and were met by police forces. Particularly on Wednesday, July 12th, several in-person attendees could not reach the conference venue due to roadblocks and safety concerns.
In addition to the challenges of social conflict that arose, the location of the conference also allowed attendees to learn from different approaches to nature conservation both in urban areas of Nairobi and protected natural areas in national reserves and parks. In the city, people visited destinations such as Nairobi National Park and Karura forest. Further away, others ventured towards Masai Mara Nature Reserve and Amboseli National Park. These excursions took place as the conference came to a close on Friday, setting the scene for all attending practitioners and researchers to continue reflecting on the complexity of current challenges and much-needed solutions into the future of global landscapes.