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2001 Society for Conservation Biology Annual Meeting
SCB's 2001 annual meeting will be held at the University of Hawaii in Hilo. The meeting will be hosted by the Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center (USGS-BRD), University of Hawaii, and Hawaii Secretariat for Conservation Biology.
A total of 900 representatives from 47 countries are expected to participate in the meeting. We will gather for an oceanside reception on the evening of 29 July. The meeting will begin with a formal welcome and a plenary lecture by Sir Robert May. The scientific program will include a total of 703 oral and poster presentations, seven symposia, and 16 workshops and discussion sessions. Among the many contributed paper session topics will be nature conservation in Cuba, aboriginal peoples and environmental ethics, units of conservation, wildlife and disease, marine conservation, economic and social context of biodiversity conservation, conservation issues in fragmented habitats, alien and invasive species, conservation genetics, and science and policy in conservation.
Registration and Travel
Information on registration is available on the meeting website (http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~scb); a hard copy of the registration form appeared in the February 2001 SCB newsletter. Conference registration is limited to 900 participants--register as soon as possible. Although the deadline for registration is 25 May (author deadline 27 April), it is entirely possible that the registration limit will be reached before the deadlines.
Please make your travel, lodging, and car rental reservations as soon as possible. Hilo is a small town, very popular during the summer months, and hosting another conference concurrently with ours. Detailed travel information is available on the website and in the November 2000 SCB newsletter.
Contributed Papers and Posters
The scientific program at SCB 2001 will include more presentations than any previous SCB meeting. The response to our call for abstracts was overwhelming, with 794 abstracts received. While we were very excited to have such strong interest in the meeting, the number of abstracts was greater than we could accommodate. The problem was particularly acute for spoken presentations. Despite our explicit request for poster submissions in the call for abstracts, 474 abstracts for spoken papers were submitted for only 306 spaces. As a result, we found it necessary to initiate a formal review process, to ask 167 of our colleagues to present posters instead of papers, and to regretfully decline 50 abstracts.
Review process
To deal with the problem of selecting abstracts, we initiated a peer-review process. The review panel was made up of 20 researchers, agency personnel, managers, and educators representing a broad spectrum of disciplines within conservation biology. Each abstract was assigned to appropriate reviewers and received two to four independent reviews. As listed in the call for abstracts, review criteria were that the abstract (1) must have been submitted by the deadline, (2) have a clear connection with conservation biology, and (3) if a research paper, include specific information about the results and conclusions of the research. Abstracts that stated "results will be discussed" were not accepted. Additional criteria, developed with the help of organizers of past meetings, representatives from the Board of Governors, the local organizing committee, and the review panel included (4) if a policy/opinion paper, the thesis must be clearly articulated and major supporting arguments included, (5) quality--especially whether the abstract was clearly written, and whether it presented new and important ideas, and (6) topic and geographic area--we favored abstracts in unusual or underrepresented subject areas or geographic areas. Further details on the ranking process can be found on the web page under "Review process."
Given the acute space constraints due to the unprecedented response to our call for abstracts (a 23% jump in submissions over recent years), we felt this was the fairest and most equitable way to select the abstracts to be presented. It was impossible not to turn away many fine abstracts, and we apologize to all those who were unhappy with the results of the review process.
Results
The scientific program has been posted on the meeting website. Of the 794 abstracts submitted before the deadline, the program will include 77 invited talks in seven symposia, 306 contributed oral presentations in 46 sessions, and 320 poster presentations in two sessions. To our regret, it was necessary to decline 50 abstracts. The remainder were withdrawn by the authors.
We are looking forward to an exciting and stimulating meeting, and an opportunity to interact with colleagues from around the world. E komo mai--come and enjoy!
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