The event runs from July 12 to 16, including a mix of symposiums, group meetings, keynote speakers and workshops. ENDURE is organising one of the latter, under the theme of ‘The contribution of landscape ecology to the development of integrated pest management (IPM): How does the spatial distribution of crops and non-crop habitats over a landscape influence pest and weed abundance and their biocontrol by natural enemies?’

The workshop is being coordinated by ENDURE members Claire Lavigne, from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), and Camilla Moonen, from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Pisa (SSSUP), Italy. They highlight the fact that ENDURE is seeking to promote the design and implementation of innovative environmentally friendly crop protection strategies, in part based on better knowledge of pest and weed population biology in relation to the surrounding landscape.

In the introduction to the workshop they note: “With this workshop we would like to build a bridge between landscape ecology and IPM in order to develop more efficient tools for the development of landscape scenarios that support IPM strategies.”

The workshop will feature work conducted by ENDURE’s exploitation of landscape and community ecology team (Research Activity 2.3). In addition to the input of members from INRA and SSSUP, there will be contributions from ENDURE researchers at Szent István University, Hungary, and Rothamsted Research, UK.

For more details of the event, visit the website: www.iale2009.eu.