The Call for Abstracts has been closed and decision letters emailed. Please contact 2011@conbio.org if you have questions.

SCB is no longer receiving abstracts for oral, poster, and speed presentations for the 25th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2011), Engaging Society in Conservation/Te Whenua, Te Moana, Te Papa Atawhai Whakamaua ki Tina, which will be held 5 December to 9 December 2011 in Auckland, New Zealand. Abstracts must be submitted electronically by 30 April 2011. The call for proposals for symposia, workshops, discussions groups, and short courses was issued previously; the deadline was 17 January 2011.

SCB expects to make decisions on the abstract selections by 30 June 2011. Notifications will be sent by email only. Please make sure that the ONE email address you are providing is your primary email address and is entered correctly. We encourage you to carefully think about the presentation format that best meets your goals (oral, poster or speed presentation). Individuals may not submit more than one abstract and, as a general rule, no individual may give more than one presentation in the following categories: symposium, contributed paper (regular or speed), contributed poster.

The scientific programme will include plenary sessions, invited symposia, workshops, short courses, poster sessions, and concurrent sessions of oral presentations and speed presentations. Due to the high level of attendance expected at the meeting and, consequently, limited time and space for oral presentations, poster presentations are strongly encouraged.

Please read to the end of this page for the link to begin the submission process.

MEETING THEME
Engaging Society in Conservation/Te Whenua, Te Moana, Te Papa Atawhai Whakamaua ki Tina

Biodiversity around the world continues to decline at an ever-increasing pace, yet much of society carries on business as usual. How can conservation biologists engage with society to achieve positive outcomes for conservation without compromising our scientific rigour or integrity?  Join us in Auckland as we explore the science of conservation, and how we can engage all aspects of society in conservation.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION
All presentations at the Congress are subject to review before acceptance. Reviewers have access to the entire abstract except the names of the presenters. To increase the probability that your abstract will be accepted, and in your preferred format, please consider the following criteria carefully:
1. scientific merit
2. application to conservation science, management, policy and education
3. clarity of presentation (e.g. abstract begins with a clear statement of an issue and ends with a substantive conclusion)

AUTHOR REGISTRATION
In order to be included in the programme of the 2011 ICCB all presenters of accepted presentations must be registered and paid in full by the early deadline of 2 September 2011.  Authors failing to comply with this rule will not be included in the Congress programme.

ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Oral presentations will be grouped by topic and limited to fifteen (15) minutes: twelve (12) minutes for presentation and three (3) minutes for questions. Please choose from the list of general topic areas below; this will assist us in selecting an appropriate session for your presentation.  If your abstract is accepted but cannot be accommodated as an oral presentation, you may be offered the opportunity to present a poster.  All oral presentation rooms will be equipped with a computer and a data projector. Detailed information and instructions on presentations at the meeting will be available to presenters several months before the meeting.

SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATIONS
All individual symposium speakers need to submit an abstract following the instructions of the oral presentation format. A tracking number will be provided to all symposium organisers. If you do not have this number, please contact the organiser of your symposium. Do not submit an abstract for an invited symposium presentation without this number. It is the responsibility of the symposium organiser to make sure that all speakers register within the deadline and according to the instructions provided.

POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Poster presenters will receive general instructions on poster format in the email notification of acceptance. Advice on designing conservation science posters is available at http://www.conbio.org/studentaffairs/posters.

Each presenter will be provided with a surface to mount their poster. In order to accommodate two posters on each side of the poster board, each poster is limited to a rectangle 0.6 m (~2ft) wide by 1.2 m (~4ft) tall (portrait orientation). Poster materials must be legible from a distance of 2 meters. Lettering in text and figures should be at least 5 mm, and headings should be at least 10 mm. The title of the paper, the authors and their affiliations should appear near the top of the poster in letters approximately 25 mm high. Posters will be displayed throughout the Congress in the exhibit halls of the SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre. Two dedicated poster sessions will be held during the Congress to allow in-depth discussion between authors and attendees. Presenting authors are requested to attend these sessions to take advantage of opportunities to discuss their work with Congress participants. Please note that your poster should be printed in portrait orientation in order to fit appropriately on the poster board. Posters can be set up from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm on 5 December in the exhibit halls. Posters are grouped by topic area.

SPEED PRESENTATIONS
If your paper topic would be of interest to a wide range of people and you would like your presentation to lead to an extended conversation with colleagues who are specifically interested in your work, you may wish to submit an abstract for a speed presentation. In the first hour of a speed presentation session, 15 speakers will be given four (4) minutes each to present their key ideas and results. In the second hour, presenters will station themselves at separate tables where they can interact with people who are interested in learning more about their work.

The 4-minute time limit will be strictly observed. You will be given warnings when you have 30 seconds and 10 seconds left. Some presenters ask a question as a starter for the discussion hour to their audience i.e. "my question to you is … ". If you like this idea, please do ask a question, however it is not a requirement of the format of the speed presentation.

To participate in the speed presentations, simply submit an abstract according to the standard guidelines and indicate that you would like your abstract to be considered for a speed presentation. If your abstract is accepted for a speed presentation, you will be notified by the Scientific Programme Committee and asked to prepare a four-minute presentation instead of a traditional (15-minute) presentation. If your abstract is not accepted for a speed presentation, it still will be considered for a traditional oral presentation or poster.

STUDENT AWARD CANDIDATES
The SCB Oral Presentation Student Award is managed by the SCB Education and Student Affairs Committee. For all questions about the SCB Student Award, please contact: studentawards@conbio.org

Student award candidates (restricted to 15-minute oral presentations, no posters, no speed presentations) must submit two (2) abstracts, one of which is an extended abstract. BOTH abstracts should be submitted online by 30 April 2011 and formatted according to the instructions provided. Both abstracts should be of the same study and share the same title and authors.

The extended abstract should have a minimum of 500 words and a maximum of 800 words. Word limits apply only for the abstract body and do not include: title, figures and all other requested information on authors. The extended abstract must include a maximum of three (3) figures or tables total (i.e. not 3 figures and 3 tables).

Abstracts that are not submitted according to these guidelines (and below) will not be accepted. In recent years, the rejection rate has been approximately 85%. Many abstracts have been rejected simply because these instructions were not followed.
Your extended abstract submission should include:
1. Presentation title (regular abstract)
2. Abstract body (between 500-800 words, extended abstract)
3. Authors of abstract (regular abstract authors)
4. Maximum of three (3) figures or tables
5. Roles of each author if you have two or more authors on the abstract you are submitting
6. The student must be the primary author and must submit the abstract under that name (in other words, please make certain that the name of the student applying for the award and the name of the primary author are identical).
7. Degree pursued and date that degree was awarded for those who already have received a Ph.D.  Current students and students who were awarded a degree on 15 November 2010 or later are eligible to apply (if you were awarded a degree before 15 November 2010 you no longer qualify as a student by the Students Award Committee).

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF FINALISTS

Review of abstracts for selection of finalists:
The regular abstract will go through the overall meeting review process.  Abstracts will be selected according to the same criteria as non-SCB Student Award candidates. The extended abstract will go through a review process reserved to SCB Oral Presentation Award Candidates with selected reviewers.

The criteria of selection of this panel are:
1. relevance to conservation
2. scientific merit
3. presentation

The Student Awards Subcommittee selects 12 finalists to present their oral papers at the ICCB. These presentations are judged on the three (3) criteria listed above. Each judge attends all the presentations. Monetary awards are provided to all finalists.

To be accepted as a student finalist and present as a Student Award Finalist at the 2011 ICCB both abstracts need to be accepted.

Criteria of selection of award winners during the special student session:
1. How scientifically rigorous is the research?
2. How novel is the research?
3. How creative is the approach?
4. Does the study have explicit relevancy to conservation?
5. How clearly presented is the study in the text of the abstract?
6. Are the figures appropriate and informative?

MENTORING PROGRAMME
To encourage participation of members whose first language is not English, SCB’s Student Affairs Committee offers a mentoring service for students who wish to submit abstracts for oral or poster presentations.

If you wish to take advantage of this mentoring programme, simply submit an abstract according to the standard guidelines; indicate that you are a student, that English is not your first language, and that you would like your abstract to be mentored. Instructions will be sent to your email address after you submit your abstract online. A mentor will contact you and provide guidance on grammar and clarity of writing. The mentor will also ensure that the abstract meets the technical criteria for submission. Note that it is NOT the role of the mentor to provide scientific guidance or to write the abstract. The mentoring programme will be closed two weeks before the deadline to allow the mentors time to suggest edits and for the submitter to be able to edit the abstract.

Please remember that although mentors can help with the wording of abstracts, presenters must have sufficient verbal English to be able to convey their research findings to the audience at the meeting itself.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING ABSTRACTS
Abstracts should be submitted for oral, speed and poster presentations and for papers of accepted symposia. Abstracts for symposium presentations are by invitation only. Please follow the instructions carefully, including all requested information and formatting. After you submit your abstract, you will receive a confirmation email. If you do not receive an email, your abstract has not been received. It is your responsibility to verify that ALL information submitted is complete and correct. If you notice errors or omissions, please contact the Steering Committee at 2011@conbio.org. No changes will be made after the abstract submission deadline and the abstract will be printed in the Congress programme as submitted. Early notification of acceptance will give you ample time to take advantage of the early registration rate. Early registration (paid in full) is mandatory to be included in the Congress programme. Please include the following information in your submission:

1. Your preferred presentation format (traditional oral, speed, or poster presentation).
2. Whether your presentation has been invited for a symposium. If no, check "Unassigned." If yes, check "Assigned" and enter the session tracking number provided to you by the symposium organiser. If you do not have this number, please contact the organiser of your symposium. Please help the meeting organisers by submitting your abstract for an invited symposium presentation with this number.
3. Abstract title: List the title in upper and lower case. Titles are limited to 150 characters.
4. Abstract: Abstracts may not exceed 1,500 characters (approximately 200 words), including spaces. Begin with a clear statement of the topic or objectives, give brief methods and major results, and end with a substantial conclusion. Do not use vague statements such as "results will be discussed." It is the responsibility of the author to verify the information submitted and to correct any errors or omissions before the submission deadline.
5. Student presentation: Indicate whether the presentation will be given by a student (regardless of whether the student is a candidate for a Student Award).
6. Topic areas: Choose the topic areas pertaining to your abstract. Topics are listed below.
7. Mentoring programme: Indicate whether you would like to request assistance from the mentoring programme for students.
8. Presentation format: If you wish your abstract to be considered for another presentation format if your preferred format cannot be accommodated, please indicate your second and third choices.
9. Comments, if relevant, e.g., “please schedule after related presentation by Jones and Smith”
10. Student Award candidate: Check "yes" if relevant
12. Travel Reimbursement applications: Check “yes” if relevant
13. Click on Continue
14. NEXT STEPS for extended abstract and travel application

How to make on-line edits to your abstract
You can only edit your abstract before the deadline of the call. Submit early and edit your submission before the call ends.

To make your abstract edits, please go to http://birenheide.com/scb/correctabstract.php. Enter your unique abstract ID (e.g. O.12-345678) to view your entry.  If you need to perform a correction, click on “Correct Abstract” and follow the instructions.  If the submission deadline has passed, you cannot edit your abstract because the review process has started.

TOPIC AREAS

Disciplines:
Biogeography
Communications, outreach and education
Community-driven conservation
Conservation genetics & medicine
Disturbance ecology
Restoration ecology
Environmental or ecological economics
Environmental geography & history
Environmental politics and policy
Environmental sociology & conservation psychology
Indigenous knowledge and conservation
Landscape ecology
Population dynamics
Social Science

Ecosystems:
Freshwater & Wetland
Marine
Grassland & Savanna
Forest
Polar & Alpine
Rangeland
Agricultural
Urban

Issues:
Alien and invasive species
Climate change
Conservation in hotspots
Institutional and organisational issues
Applied ethics and values
Integrative/interdisciplinary approaches to conservation

Methods:
Adaptive management and monitoring
Protected area planning and design
Conservation GIS
Conservation on private lands
Ecological restoration and recovery of endangered species
Ecosystem/conservation area management
Land use planning for conservation
Conservation modelling & population viability
Risk assessment and uncertainty
Scientists and managers: bridging the gap
Spatial ecology and conservation

Miscellaneous:
Miscellaneous topics

ABSTRACT EXAMPLE

Abstract title
Local perspectives on the impact of ivory hunting on biodiversity

Abstract:
Traditionally hunting for ivory was undertaken at a low scale due to the lack of demand among local cultures of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. During the 1700s the arrival of modern fire-arm technology and access to markets elsewhere in Africa and in Europe led to a large increase in demand and hence hunting for ivory. A consequence of this was that hunters also harvested antelope species for meat while draft oxen had localized impacts on grass species composition. This combined with increased ox-wagon traffic lead to accelerated erosion. We conclude that the demand for ivory therefore impacted on other elements of biodiversity.

Student presentation: Yes/No

Mentoring program: Yes/No

Topic areas:
1. Spoof abstract
2. Synecological conservation
3. Mammal conservation

Alternate presentation format:
1- Poster
2- Speed
3- I do not wish to select another option

Comments:
Please schedule after talk by C. Mollis

Authors (enter presenting author in CAPS)
FAKU, JANE, Tandi Q. Myoli, Department of Zoology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa ), jane.faku@nmmu.ac.za

Student Award Candidate: Yes/No

Extended student award candidate abstract uploaded

>> Click here to start the abstract submission process <<