On 25 and 26 June 2013, Timo Kaphengst, McKenna Davis and Susanne Altvater spoke on various aspects regarding climate change adaptation and nature conservation in Europe. Timo Kaphengst, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, held a presentation on the ecosystem-based approach (EbA) to adaptation. McKenna Davis and Susanne Altvater, both Fellows, held presentations during a parallel session on coastal and marine ecosystems. Their topics were green infrastructure as a tool for reducing Europe's vulnerability to climate change and the development of a strategy and action plan to support the adaptive capacity of the Baltic Sea region, respectively. The presentations are available for download.

Timo Kaphengst, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, held a presentation on the ecosystem-based approach (EbA) to adaptation on the first day of the conference. He elucidated the EbA concept, its implementation to date and potential for further utilization in support of current European policies.

McKenna Davis and Susanne Altvater, Fellows, held presentations on the second day of the conference as part of a parallel session on coastal and marine ecosystems. Respectively, the topics covered were green infrastructure as a tool for reducing Europe's vulnerability to climate change and the development of a strategy and action plan to support the adaptive capacity of the Baltic Sea region dealing with cooperation, knowledge transfer, mainstreaming and funding of adaptation. These currently for the EU Commission finished BaltAdapt documents are meant to be the basis for a macro-regional strategy.

Given the newly released European Strategies for Green Infrastructure and Adaptation, the latter of which explicitly acknowledges EbA as being a typically cost-effective tool offering multiple benefits, Ecologic's presentations served to increase the awareness of these strategies amongst practitioners and therewith support their wider implementation. Additionally, Ecologic Institute is currently conducting a project on Ecosystem-based Approaches to Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the BfN.

The event was organized by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the European Network of Heads of Nature Conservation Agencies (ENCA) as a follow-up to the previous BfN/ENCA conference on biodiversity and climate change, held in Bonn in 2011. This conference explored how adaptation can be put into practice in conservation, focusing in particular on ecological, policy and economic perspectives.